With a 25 footer you should be very sure to have a radar and
electronic
piloting gear. If your 25 footer is an outboard, you should make
your way
only in settled weather with good visibility.

Nonsense! (But, like much nonsense, good advice.)

Even with all the gadgets, your basic piloting skills should be good
enough to get around without them up here. If you can't get around in
the fog, you are going to spend a lot of time, sometimes a couple
weeks at a stretch, in port. Running in the fog is sure a lot more
interesting and satisfying than stewing at anchor.

The dangers in Maine tend to have deepwater around them so you can
usually detect them with plenty of water under your keel. Know
exactly how fast your boat goes at various RPM's and have your compass
exactly adjusted. Keep a constant update on your speed and course and
know how to adjust for current. There are convenient current speed
and direction indicators scattered all over this part of the world.
Some people call them lobster pots but they don't look anything like
any pot I ever saw.

If you plan your courses to whistles, bells, and the frequent bold
headlands, you can get around just fine with just a clock and a
compass. Have back up plans for where you will go if time runs out
and you haven't found a mark. You may well be safer with your eyes
ahead and paying close attention to what is around you than with hour
head down trying to remember which button to push on the GPS.

Above all, if you don't have a lot of piloting experience, start right
now doing it constantly in good weather when you can relate what you
are doing to what you can see around you. It will then be a lot
easier when all you see is gray.

Don't let lack of radar stop you. Unless you really train in how to
interpret it, it may actually distract you dangerously. GPS is so
cheap now that you should have it primarily so that you don't look
silly afterwards if you do get in trouble but people got around fine
without it for centuries. Treat it as a back up and just one more bit
of information.

It's a lot more rewarding to use basic chart skills and keep your eyes
and ears on what's around you than just follow the little arrow around
on the screen. When the beep tells you that the batteries just died,
you can carry on as if nothing had happend.

--

Roger Long