Yalik Glacier no longer reaches tidewater but is clearly visible from the upper portions of Nuka Passage.
The entrance to Nuka Passage, just south of Yalik Point, is where land tenure switches from Port Graham Corporation to Kachemak Bay State Park. The coast from there to the south side of Petrof Bight, and including nearly all of Nuka Island, is state park land. From Petrof to the eastern side of Rocky River, including all of Port Dick, the coast, and uplands are part of Kachemak Bay State Park and State Wilderness Park, and are roadless and protected from virtually any kind of development.
The Yalik Glacier no longer reaches tidewater but there is reportedly good anchorage next to the southwest end of the beach made up of its former moraine. From the entrance to Nuka Passage to Tonsina Bay the seascape takes on the feel and appearance of inside waters, and the surrounding mountainsides are a little more gentle than those to the east and are generously forested. Most of the land is included within the Kachemak Bay State Park, with the exception of a few inholdings. The Yalik Glacier, though far retreated from the shoreline, is clearly visible from the passage, and the Petrof Glacier lies to the west. The western shore of Nuka Island, unlike its precipitous eastern side, is low-lying and deeply indented with sheltered coves.
Home Cove is the northernmost of those anchorages. If mariners round the small island marked 130 on the chart they find a nicely sheltered 8 fathom cove with easily accessible beaches in the north end of the bight. Mike’s Bay and Berger’s Bay also have excellent sheltered anchorages, and the head of Westdahl Cove can accommodate small vessels in other than strong westerly weather.
Entrances to the other bays on the west side of Nuka Island warrant careful study of the chart and the Coast Pilot, and Miller’s book offers helpful tips as well as lots of interesting background.
The anchorage behind Petrof Bight.
Petrof Bight is a small bay on the west side of Nuka Passage, opposite Berger’s Bay, which is wrapped in a mile-long sand beach suitable for landing skiffs and kayaks if sea conditions are mild. A fair-weather anchorage can be found behind a small peninsula in the southwest corner. The northern part of the beach is the outwash plain of two swift and muddy streams, one that issues from a broad valley to the west and another that flows out of Petrof Lake, which sits in front of the retreating Petrof Glacier. The lake is floatplane-accessible and wheel planes land on the beach and shelter in cutouts of the adjacent forest. Several inholdings transferred in a state land sale have recreational cabins in the woods along the beach and between the beach and the lake. A state land sale created 55 privately owned parcels in a subdivision called Petrof View, and there is a 100 foot wide road easement through the site.
Pocket beaches along the south entrance to Tonsina Bay offer a good landing site and potential for camping.
Tonsina Bay is the jumping off point for mariners laying over before rounding Gore Point to destinations to the west, and is arguably the best anchorage in the Nuka Passage area. It can be entered via rock-lined passes from either the northeast or southeast. The northeast entrance is broader and deeper and presents little difficulty as long as wash rocks on both sides are kept in view; the southwest entrance is narrower and more lined with wave patterns coming from the open Gulf of Alaska, but is passable with caution in all but severe weather. At the southeast entrance along the mainland shore are several sandy pocket beaches, partially protected from the swell by outlying rocks, which are ideal for small boat landings and beach camping. The main interior area of Tonsina Bay is adequately sheltered for anchoring but depths are 20-25 fathoms. Best anchorages are in the northwest end of the bay, either behind a small island at the head, or behind a prominent peninsula on the north side near the entrance of a tidal lagoon. Be aware that the shore along the northwest side shallows up abruptly and the heads of the small bights go dry at low water. A pink and chum salmon stream in the very northwest corner is a place to look for black bears. A hard sand flat lines the head of the bay.
Isthmus Beach is suitable for landing in fair weather and collects mountains of driftwood and debris. A short trail through a low-lying meadow provides access to Ranger Beach on the west side of the peninsula.
To go west from Tonsina Bay it is about 2 nm southeast to Front Point and another 6 nm southwest to Gore Point. Passing Front Point it is important to watch for two big wash rocks located about a half mile due east off the point. A shoal that uncovers on minus tides extends eastward beyond the rocks. It is prudent to remain at least a third of a mile off the shore all the way to the twin bights near the cape. The ebb current here is swift, so it’s a good idea to keep plenty of sea room. A few miles farther down the peninsula is a major indentation in the coastline, known locally as Gore Bight, with two conspicuous sandy beaches divided by a steep, rocky promontory. The northern beach, known locally as Lagoon Beach, fronts a large lagoon but is exposed to seas and swells from the gulf and is rarely suitable for landing. The other beach, facing more easterly, is known as Isthmus Beach and on calm or light westerly days a skiff or kayak can land. It is piled high with jumbles of drift logs and, due to the west-flowing current and prevailing winds, is the catchment for a tremendous volume of flotsam. Near the north end of the beach at the base of a steep hillside, a trail runs through a pleasant meadow for a quarter mile or so to Ranger Beach on the other side of the Gore Peninsula. Fair-weather anchorage can be had in the bight off Isthmus Beach, but it is totally open to north, northeast, east, southeast, and south, so it is comfortable only on flat calm days or in very light westerlies.
Gore Point is the rugged, rocky peninsula that divides Nuka Passage from Port Dick and points west, and has a reputation as maker of dangerous sea conditions. The west-flowing coastal current and strong tides flowing into and out of Cook Inlet and Nuka Passage, combined with an irregular rocky bottom and winds from any direction, kick up tide rips in any weather, and dangerous waves during spring tides and stormy weather. Currents seem to be driven by Cook Inlet tides, which means that they flow west during the Cook Inlet flood, but according to tide books the westerly currents last longer than the easterly currents each day. Wave heights appear to be greatest a mile or more offshore from the point, and the shallows along the row of rocks at the tip of the point seem to slow the current and diminish wave height. A 5 fathom shoal lies about a third of a mile off the point but it is possible to slip between it and the rocks at the base of the cliff and avoid some of the turbulence, although most transiting vessels give the point a wide berth and take their lumps a couple of miles out. Approaching from the east, the rugged peninsula is scenic and Arch Rock makes a good photograph if sea conditions allow. On the west side of the point the shore is lined with rocks and backed by steep cliffs angling northwest for the first 2 miles, but sea conditions tend to be more moderate unless a brisk west or southwest wind is blowing. Mountain goats sometimes can be seen grazing on the verdant slopes on the west side below the 1393 foot Gore Peak.
Notes
The remains of the house Josephine and “Herring Pete” Sather inhabited until the 1960s still stands, though it and surrounding outbuildings are gradually falling to the ravages of weather and encroaching vegetation
The mariner brave enough to thread between the rocks into Pete’s Cove (unnamed on the chart but conspicuous south of a prominent peninsula about a mile south of the south end of Home Cove) will find a charming hidey-hole right off the beach below the collapsing house and sheds of the late fox farmer “Herring Pete” Sather and his wife Josephine. The site was abandoned in the early 1960s after Pete’s disappearance during a routine resupply voyage from Seward. A bulldozer and an interesting collection of derelict equipment adorn the beach of the peninsula, which is owned by the University of Alaska. Culturally modified trees are visible at several locations, at the south side of Pete’s Cove and at Berger Bay, and remains of Pete and Josephine’s fox-feeding sheds can still be found at several locations in the area.
A snug pocket anchorage lies just off the beach in front of the Sather homestead. Threading through the rocks to reach it requires concentration
An Anchorage-based nonprofit called Gulf of Alaska Keeper does a marine debris cleanup at Isthmus Beach nearly every year, and stashed about a hundred 1.5 cubic yard “supersacks” full of trash at the two ends of the isthmus awaiting pickup. In 2007 they removed 40 tons of plastic debris from Gore Point beaches and each year since they have collected 2–4 tons. In 2015, using funding from the government of Japan to mitigate effects of the tsunami following the 2011 earthquake, the organization chartered a tug and barge to remove the supersacks of debris. Cleanup operations likely will continue into the future.