Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Cape Porpoise, ME

The anchorage basin is usually occupied by local fishing and pleasure craft. The holding ground is good, and a hole can usually be found to drop anchor in.
The Cape Porpoise wharf, is on the east side of the harbor is about 0.6 mile above the entrance. The wharf, 200 feet long with 6½ to 8 feet alongside, is used by commercial fishermen to offload their catches and by transients for temporary berthage. Gasoline, diesel fuel, water, and limited marine supplies are available. Limited dingy tie-up.
Cape Pier Chowder House located next to the town pier offers dining inside or outside on the deck is located directly over the water. Pier 77 Restaurant and the Ramp Bar & Grill art adjacent. Bradbury Brothers Market, in the village approximately a half a mile from the pier has general groceries, liquor and an excellent meat section.
Stage Island Harbor, just to the east of Cape Porpoise Harbor is a popular picnic destination for local craft. The entrance is about 75 yards wide between the reefs making northward from Cape Island and southward from Little Stage Island; it does require local knowledge. There are no facilities.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
The principal mark for approaching Cape Porpoise Harbor is Goat Island Light (43°21’28″N., 70°25’30″W.), 38 feet above the water, shown from a brick concial tower on the south end of Goat Island on the east side of the entrance; a sound signal is at the light. A bell buoy about 0.4 mile southeastward of the light marks the approach. A water tank and a church spire are at the head of the harbor.
Cape Porpoise Harbor is entered by a dredged channel that leads from the entrance to a combined channel and anchorage to the town wharf, and thence through Porpoise Cove to the head of the harbor. In 1992, the controlling depths were 14 feet in the entrance channel, thence 7 to 10 feet in the combined channel and anchorage to the town wharf, and thence 5 feet to the head of the harbor. The channel is marked by buoys and daybeacons.
Dangers
The Old Prince, a ledge that has a rock awash and extends from 400 to 500 yards southeastward of Goat Island Light, is marked by a buoy about 150 yards southward of it. Local craft sometimes cut between Old Prince and Goat Island in entering; this passage is not advisable for strangers.
Ledges extending up to 0.3 mile south of grassy Folly Island on the west side of the entrance, are unmarked, but a buoy about 400 yards southeastward of the island marks the west side of the approach to the bar channel. A daybeacon marks the ledges extending northeastward from the island. This daybeacon is 180 feet from the westerly edge of the entrance to the dredged bar channel and should be given a berth of at least 250 feet in entering.
Another daybeacon is on the ledge, bare at low water about 370 feet southwestward of Goat Island Light. The daybeacon is about 30 feet from the easterly edge of the bar channel, and should be given a berth of about 150 feet when entering.
The principal hazards in approaching and entering are the numerous lobster pot buoys, which are in the channel and outlying waters in the summer. Care should be taken to avoid these, especially at night or during periods of low visibility.