Pond Bay, SE Alaska

The Douglass and Douglass Pilot says Pond Bay is little used as an anchorage because of the difficulties in entering it.

In our opinion these difficulties are a little overstated. Careful navigation is required but the entrance through Cat Passage is reasonably straightforward and in a fresh W or SW wind is a lot safer to enter than the much more popular Foggy Bay on the opposite side of the Revillagigedo Channel where the swell rolls right into the entrance.

The following approach through Cat passage worked for us. Head for Grave Point on the NE corner of Duke Island on a course of approximately 235 leaving the reefs off Danger Passage to starboard and Whale Rock to port. Continue on this heading until reaching the 10 m contour line before turning to starboard and following the 10 m contour line into the bay until the 2 shoal patches with 1.8m and 1.5m are safely cleared.

Keep following the north shore of Duke Island about 400m off and staying outside the 10 m contour line until the 2.4m shoal and isolated rock shown on the chart are on your starboard beam. In reality the isolated rock is a drying reef with 3 or 4 pinnacles on it and is visible from half tide and below. Likewise the reef to the SE of the 2.4 m shoal is visible from half tide and steering a course between the 2 is straightforward.

At thIs point you have 2 choices. You can either head into inner Pond Bay or alternatively if the wind is from a westerly sector, anchor just off the NE corner of Dog Island in 6-8m of water. Excellent holding in sand.

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