Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Swans Island, Burnt Coat Harbor, ME

The anchorage, eastward of the light, is about 500 yards wide, with depths of 21 to 34 feet, soft bottom. A good anchorage for small craft is in the channel northward of the light in depths of 13 to 24 feet. A stone wharf and power plant are on the north side of Long Cove, on the east side of the harbor near the entrance.
Swans Island is a village on the west shore of Burnt Coat Harbor. The largest of several wharves has two floats with 5 to 6 feet alongside. The other wharves have less depth. Transient berths are available. Gasoline, diesel fuel, water, ice, provisions, and marine supplies are available. There is a small machine shop that can do minor engine and underwater repairs.
Minturn is a small village on the east shore of the harbor. The largest of several fish wharves has 5 feet alongside. Gasoline, diesel fuel, and some provisions and supplies are available at the wharf.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
The main entrance to Burnt Coat Harbor is from the southwestward between the daybeacon on the rock off the northwest side of Harbor Island and Burnt Coat Harbor Light. Strangers should have no trouble entering in the daytime with strict attention to the charts and by following the aids.
From the entrance, steer for a position midway between the light and the daybeacon, passing south of the buoy off Gooseberry Island Ledge and favoring the daybeacon slightly. Anchorage may be selected eastward or northeastward from the light, or in midchannel north of it.
The passage between Baker Islands and Swans Island is buoyed and is available for small craft entering Burnt Coat Harbor from the eastward. It is used by local craft, but is narrow and difficult, and strangers are advised to use it only after obtaining local knowledge, and on a rising tide.
Off the entrance and approach to Burnt Coat Harbor are several islands and reefs. Harbor Island, in the middle of the entrance, is wooded except for its southwest and southeast sides. There is a house on the northeastern slope. Potato Island is the small islet about 700 yards north of Harbor Island.
Baker Islands, 0.3 mile southeast, and Scrag Island, 0.2 mile south, respectively, of Harbor Island, are wooded. Green Island, 0.3 mile southwest of Scrag Island, and Gooseberry Island, 0.6 mile west of Harbor Island, are bare and grassy. Gooseberry Island Ledge, 0.2 mile southeastward of Gooseberry Island and on the northwestern side of the approach to the harbor, is awash at low water; a buoy is off the ledge. High Sheriff, a bare rock, and Sheriff Ledge, awash at low water, are westward of Gooseberry Island. A buoy, 0.4 mile southwestward of High Sheriff, marks a 24-foot spot. A rocky shoal, covered 18 feet, 0.5 mile southwest of Gooseberry Island, is unmarked.