But she makes up for it with an uncanny sense of direction, she always knows where North is. Its creepy. I'm the naviguesser, but without a compass, I'm helpless.

The way I tell them apart and keep them straight is probably unique. On my night watches on the bridge, I would often go on the bridge wings to take my smoke break. Although the nav lights were shielded so as not to blind the bridge watch, I could see the colored glow reflected off the water, and quickly learned to associate starboard-green, port-red. For buoys and channel markers, the mnemonic is "red-right-returning": when entering a harbor, the red markers and buoys will be to your starboard.