...why paper charts can be worth their weight in gold, particularly when fatigued... From my cruise last summer...

I sailed the 500 NM, direct from Nantucket to St Peter's, Cape Breton... Great sail covered in 4 days, but the whole length of Nova Scotia in very heavy fog, with a radar that went tits up abeam of Halifax... So, by the time I reached Cape Canso to make the turn up towards St Peter's, I was exhausted...

After going out around the Canso Ledges, it's a straight shot of about 15 miles or so across Chedabucto Bay up towards the top of Isle Madame. Navigation is pretty straightforward, the main concern is the shipping lanes leading towards the Strait of Canso... As soon as I knew I was clear of the danger of the ledges off Cape Canso, I used my iPad to shoot a waypoint up to the next turning mark off Isle Madame. Right at that point, it was time to switch from one paper chart to the next, so I jumped down below to unfold the next chart, to confirm what I'd plotted on the iPad. Normally, I'd refer to the chart first, then plot the waypoint electronically, but I knew in this instance I had a bit of wiggle room, no dangers immediately ahead, at any rate...

I'd been thru there a few years before, and I had a vague recollection of something that seemed to be 'missing' from my initial view on the iPad... Sure enought, clear as day AT THE FIRST GLANCE of the paper chart, my memory was refreshed... Sure enough, on the opposite side of the Chedabucto Traffic Separation Zones, right on my track midway up to the waypoint I'd plotted, was the indication of a lighted bell buoy, adjacent to a feature called "ORPHEUS ROCK"... On the Navionics chart in my iPad, there was nothing, just a tiny speck of light blue...

Needless to say, anything called a "Rock" in Atlantic Canada deserves your attention (grin). Turns out Orpheus Rock is a major hazard, and breaks heavily if there's a sea running. I saw this firsthand on my return 6 weeks later, when I re-crossed the bay with a heavy swell running in from a tropical storm passing well off to the east...

Anyway, the pic below will be difficult to see, but Orpheus Rock is situated right in the middle of the pic. The scale of this chart is 1:75,000. I'll follow this up with a pic showing the iPad screen at the same range...

Again, for a tired navigator who might not be thinking, or seeing as clearly as he should, seems to me this sort of discrepancy could make all the difference in the world, and I think having a paper chart gives me that extra insurance against the possibility of overlooking, or missing something critical...

Bear in mind, what you're seeing here is a portion roughly 12 x 18 inches, on a chart that measures about 28 x 44. Again, difficult to see, but trust me, "Orpheus Rock" jumps right out at you when passing your eyes along the route from Cape Canso up towards St Peter's Bay...