Was told he could not fly over Willy???? Yet he arrived at the boundary. Just doesn't make sense. He DID arrive at the boundary unannounced without a clearance hence the delay. If he was told not to plan through Willy then why did he arrive at the boundary, when, as YOU say, he believed it was not possible to fly that way. Clearly he thought he could.
Trevor, these are unanswerable however one scenario is that he remained clear of cloud down the coast as is a requirement for night VFR.
Also as any experienced instructor will tell you, some folk are plain intimidated by controlled airspace and lack the confidence to insist on a clearance or hold pending. Whether or not the pilot of MDX was in this camp, I have no idea.
Wally - to some its an interesting discussion. If it peeves you go read something else
I read your inputs on most threads Wally and often like your style, but here I have to agree with Trevor!