Welcome to Cape Porpoise, ME

Cape Porpoise Harbor, is a safe and protected harbor. It is ideal for the many fishing and pleasure craft that base there. It is midway between Portsmouth and Portland and is often a welcome haven for cruising craft caught in a blow on this stretch of coast.

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.

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.

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.

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Featured Local Businesses

Hamilton Marine - Portland

Casco Bay Boat Transport

USCG Station South Portland, ME

Maine Yacht Center

Freedom Boat Club at Yarmouth Boat Yard, Maine

Freedom Boat Club of Maine

Yarmouth Boat Yard

Maritime Boats

Boating in Cape Porpoise, ME Map View

Navigation
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.

Boating Resources for Cape Porpoise, ME

In The Zone: The Sabre 51 Salon Express

By US Harbors When Sabre Yachts completed construction of hull number 200 of its 48 Salon Express model, more than half the crew who built it had also worked on hull number one. The average tenure on that line was 12 years, and they produced a yacht that proved to… Learn More

Coastal News Updates See All

During the 2025 Deep-sea Habitats of the Cook Islands expedition on Exploration Vessel Nautilus the team surveyed various seascapes to better understand seabed environments, and natural and mineral resources in the region. In this image, polymetallic nodules rest on sediment accumulated in a depression between rounded pillows and extended lobate lava flows, which are evidence of ancient volcanoes. (Image credit: Courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust)

NOAA Scientists and Partners to Map Deep Waters, Seabed in the Cook Islands

6/6/2026

By noaa.gov, noaa.gov. This summer, NOAA Ocean Exploration will conduct an expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to map, explore and characterize deep waters off the coast of the Cook Islands. The effort is in partnership with the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), mapping technologies and onsite… SEE MORE

What Is a Safe Speed for Your Boat? It Depends on More Than You Think

6/4/2026

Boating

By John Tiger, boatingmag.com. With summer boating season in full swing, one of the most basic — and most overlooked — seamanship questions deserves a revisit: how fast should you actually be going? A new safety column from Boating Magazine breaks down the variables that determine safe speed, from experience… SEE MORE

A NOAA Fisheries-led team counts and samples Pacific salmon, trout and Arctic char below the NOAA Fisheries Auke Creek Research Station fish weir in Juneau, Alaska, May 4, 2022.(Image credit: NOAA Fisheries)

Pink Salmon Invasion in Great Lakes Has Lessons for North Atlantic, Arctic Communities

6/3/2026

By fisheries.noaa.gov, fisheries.noaa.gov. New NOAA-led research on the history of the rise of pink salmon in the Great Lakes may help fishery managers and communities on the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans tackle the recent rapid growth of the species in these new areas. It could also help those in… SEE MORE

Photo Credits

Cape Porpoise Harbor, aerial view. Photo Shutterstock, Capt Tom.

Cape Porpoise, ME

Welcome to Cape Porpoise, ME

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