Small craft anchor just inside the inner end of the entrance to the Pool, which is locally known as The Gut, if there is room. No attempt should be made to anchor in The Gut as the tidal currents have considerable velocity and holding ground is poor. Local fishing and pleasure craft usually occupy most of the moorings, but permission can usually be obtained to occupy one of the unoccupied ones.
The Biddeford Pool Yacht Club wharf with 20 feet reported alongside the floats is at the inner end of The Gut on the east side, with a private wharf just to the northeast. A fish wharf close eastward of the yacht club wharf has 2 feet reported alongside.
Gasoline, diesel fuel in small quantities and water are seasonally available at the yacht club float; the yacht club maintains two marked guest moorings in the outer harbor. Provisions can be obtained at a store near the landings. Meals, lodging, and most services are obtainable in the village.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
Wood Island Harbor, south of Wood and Stage Islands, is an anchorage for small and moderate-sized vessels. Anchorage in depths of 18 to 36 feet is available south of Wood Island. Between Negro Island and Stage Island are depths of 17 feet or more in an area about 400 yards across; it is reported that larger yachts anchor in this area.
Small craft can proceed to the southwestern part of Wood Island Harbor and anchor in depths of 6 to 18 feet. In entering this part of the harbor it is well to give the eastern side a good berth. The bottom in this inner anchorage is reported to be soft mud.
The chart must be the guide at all times. Proceed no farther until each aid to navigation is properly identified and passed correctly.
Washman Rock, which uncovers 9 feet, is near the end of a reef which extends 600 yards southeastward from the eastern point of Fletcher Neck and is marked close southeastward by a buoy.
Dansbury Reef, 0.5 mile southward of Wood Island Light, is a small ledge covered 2 feet and is marked on its southeast side by a buoy. There are several shoal spots between the reef and Wood Island, and strangers should not pass between them.
Numerous rocks and ledges extend 0.6 mile southeastward of Fletcher Neck. The cupola and signal towers of a former Coast Guard station, on the east side of Fletcher Neck, are conspicuous, as are the many large homes on the neck.
The Pool is a shallow bay making southwestward from Wood Island Harbor inside Fletcher Neck, the south shore of Wood Island Harbor. The entrance is about 50 yards wide.
A dredged channel, just southeast of Stage Island, leads through Wood Island Harbor to the entrance of The Pool. In 2010, the controlling depth was 6.3 feet. A dredged anchorage basin is just inside the entrance to The Pool. In 2010, the basin shoaled to bare along the edges with greater depths in the entrance and the southwest corner. Biddeford Pool Channel Buoy 10 marks the entrance to the basin. Three stone icebreakers are along the northeastern side of the basin. Care should be taken by strangers not to anchor too close to them. They are difficult to see at night at or near high water. Neither should they attempt to go between the northeasternmost icebreaker and the fish wharf because of a partially submerged breakwater between the breaker and the wharf.
Biddeford Pool is a village on the south side of Wood Island Harbor, extending from The Pool nearly to the eastern point of Fletcher Neck.
