[Plumper]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Plumper-

If he had tried waiting until daylight, the breakwater and buoys would have been pretty obvious... which wasn't the case at night. The chartplotter was perfectly reliable, but the electrical system failed... which is why I strongly advocate keeping up-to-date PAPER CHARTS aboard the boat.

You also might want to look at a chart of the area, since it is not as clear cut as you'd think.

http://www. charts .noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13279.shtml

That entrance looks pretty straight forward to me. One glance at any chart (even an ols wrinkled one) would make it pretty obvious that there is a huge breakwater and some nasty shoals. There is a mile of safe water in the northern opening and a couple cables at the southeastern opening. He must have been very lost or very unlucky. Was he coming from the north or the south?
Getting into Annisquam in the dark would be a serious challenge.

Edit: By the way, that is a very neat way of looking at charts.