Constantine Harbor, Hinchinbrook Island.
The direct route from Cape St. Elias crosses the tanker lane south of Hinchinbrook Island, and the traffic separation corridor jogs to the north and runs more or less northwest through the middle of Hinchinbrook Entrance. In-bound tankers transit the east side of the lane and outbound use the west side. Each of the two traffic lanes is 1,500 yards wide. Vessels crossing the lanes are supposed to contact the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service on VHF Ch. 13 or 16. A close encounter with one of those ships would be an awe-inspiring experience, one to be avoided.
Furthermore, the small boat route into Prince William Sound passes along the east side of Hinchinbrook Entrance, which has powerful tides and can be a dangerous place for small boats, especially when wind from the south or southeast opposes big ebb tides. The current resulting from much of Prince William Sound squeezing between Hinchinbrook and Montague Islands produces turbulence and standing waves even during calm weather.
The Coast Pilot puts it succinctly: “With a strong S gale and ebb tide, very heavy overfalls and tide rips occur in Hinchinbrook Entrance, and are dangerous to small craft. Tremendous seas, steep and breaking, are sometimes encountered just outside the entrance. During heavy weather, tide rips and confused seas are in the vicinity of Wessels Reef. Many halibut schooners have foundered between Cape St. Elias and Montague Island.”
However, it is possible to carefully hug the rocky and indented shore starting at Cape Hinchinbrook to avoid some of the current. Under adverse conditions a safer alternative may be to enter via Montague Strait at Cape Erlington.
Cape Hinchinbrook light sits atop a sheer bluff of marbled and layered rock with several outlying pinnacles and calved off rocks, backed by rolling forest.
Port Etches, though open to the south and west, has some scenic and sheltered anchorages. Garden Cove in the northeast corner is considered the best, and English Bay on the south side is adequate in mild weather though is somewhat exposed to swells from the west. Both are subject to strong williwaws during periods of east wind. The main bay is very scenic, with rugged peaks reaching 1,400–2,260 feet on both sides.
A large oil spill response barge lies permanently stationed near the head of Port Etches, a floating warehouse for oil containment booms, ready for deployment in case of another Exxon Valdez disaster. One of three in Prince William Sound, it is manned 24/7 by Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. An ocean swell comes up the bay, making the anchorage unpleasant even during fair weather. Better options are Garden Cove or Constantine Harbor.
For mariners with a little time, a relatively shallow draft boat and sense of adventure, the great place to visit in Port Etches is Constantine Harbor, a large secondary bay located just northwest of and accessible via Port Etches. Protected from the ocean by a narrow isthmus at its southwest end and surrounded by steep mountains with avalanche zones to the west, low hills to the east, a couple of islands and boulder beaches all around, Constantine is flat as a lake, full of sea otters, and a great place for kayaking or paddling around in a dinghy. Entrance is via a narrow tidal channel at Phipps Point, which shallows to half a fathom at mean low tide, the bottom carpeted in eelgrass and sea lettuce, but inside the bottom drops to 4 fathoms. The best time to enter is near high slack. Two small peninsulas partially enclose a bight on the left (east) side providing adequate anchorage, and beyond that point it’s just skiff or kayak country. At the very southern tip of Constantine Harbor are some buildings owned by Chugach Alaska Corporation, which house a spirit camp for kids and elders. Currently there are half a dozen houses, a lodge building, a Russian Orthodox church, a shelter for building kayaks, a dock and a seaplane landing, as well as an old cemetery. The site is that of the former Alutiiq village of Nuchek.
Notes
Sitka blacktail deer are numerous on Hinchinbrook Island, and on many others in Prince William Sound, but they are not indigenous to the region. In 1916 the Cordova Chamber of Commerce arranged to have eight deer brought in from Sitka and released on Hinchinbrook, and between then and 1924 a total of 24 Sitka blacktails were released on Hinchinbrook and Hawkins Islands. Deer are good swimmers and over the decades they have colonized islands all over the sound, providing viewing and sport hunting opportunities for many people.
Constantine Harbor was named for the Russian fort at Nuchek, and the fort apparently was named for Grand Duke Constantine, younger brother of Czar Alexander II.
The old village site of Nuchek on Hinchinbrook Island, now a spirit camp.
Nuchek was an Alutiiq village inhabited probably for centuries. The name in Alutiiq reportedly means “last land before open water.” It was visited by European explorers—Spanish, English and Russian—during the 18th century, and Russians established a fortress and trading post there called Konstantinovskii Redoubt. The Russian post eventually transferred to what is now the Alaska Commercial Company, which maintained a trading post there for some years. The population in the 1890s was more than 100, but the declining sea otter population and devastating diseases finally brought about its abandonment around 1925. A couple of brief histories are at www.mnh.si.edu/lookingbothways/text/villages/nuchek.html and http://soundstories.alaskageographic.org/locations/32/nuchek-at-the-gateway-to-the-sound.