A1Sailor
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Both are safe, all weather entrances, the west perhaps slightly easier, especially at night and if approaching from the west but remember that the Grey Funnel Line and ferries use this entrance.
Entering Plymouth in a storm is a wonderful experience - as you pass the breakwater and tuck in behind it the world seems to go to sleep.
Was there an article in Yachtng Monthly a couple of years back about a yacht entering the eastern entrance in the dark that misjudged the pilotage and ended up aground on the seaward side of the breakwater? I think the skipper and crew were rescued by the lifeboat. This is a separate incident from the one mentioned elsewhere in the thread where sadly the skipper was drowned.
Perhaps it was in an RNLI publication...