WESTERN PASSAGE runs west of Deer Island between Friar Roads to the south and the St. Croix River and Passamaquoddy Bay to the north. This is the usual route between Eastport and St. Andrews. Currents are strong in the passage, averaging 3 knots for both flood and ebb. A rate of 7 knots has been measured off Deer Island Point, diminishing northward. Strong eddies and countercurrents form near the shores. Also, be alert for the ferry-scows (East Coast Ferries) which make frequent crossings between Eastport and the eastern tip of Deer Island.
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Old Sow. The flood that streams down through Head Harbour Passage and passes either side of Indian Island turns sharply north into Western Passage, producing “Old Sow,” the western hemisphere's largest whirlpool, between Deer Island Point and Dog Island. Old Sow gets her name from her offspring, the little piglet whirlpools that spin away from their mother.
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Time your passage to avoid Old Sow at its most turbulent, about three hours before high, when it is a dangerous place for small craft. It may even be difficult for substantial vessels, causing them to lose control, yaw back and forth, lose headway, or even spin around. While this is not the Edgar Allan Poe kind of maelstrom that sucks you down into the depths, it can be awesome enough to produce white knuckles and high anxiety. At other times the passage may be quite benign.

If you happen to go through (not by) the whirlpool, you can join Robert Godfrey's Old Sow Survivors Association. He writes us: Old Sow is the second largest in the world, largest in the Western Hemisphere. I measured the gyre via extrapolation from an aerial photograph that I took in 1995 (published in "Yankee Magazine"). It was over 250' in diameter. In seeing photographs of other whirlpools, such as Corryvrecken in Scotland, and the larger of the two in Norway, I don't regard Old Sow as the largest, even though I haven't seen any information regarding the size of the others.

Click here for Old Sow stories or for more facts and legends.
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The beacon on Deer Island Point is a small white tower. The beacon on Cherry Island is also a small, round white tower, but with a red top. At a distance, both look like they belong in a child’s train set.
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The large Passamaquoddy Indian Reservation is on the west side of the passage opposite Clam Cove, on the promontory of Pleasant Point, surrounded on three sides by the ocean. Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation is one of two Passamaquoddy reservations in Maine. The other one is at Indian Township, just to the north of Princeton. Both reservations have a Joint Tribal Council, which shares responsibility for the Tribe's holdings throughout eastern Maine, acquired as a result of the historic Indian Land Claims Settlement of 1981. A monument in the cemetery, dedicated by the D.A.R. in 1916, honors 200 members of the tribe who assisted the early colonists during the American Revolution.

Many thanks to Robert Godfrey, who helped clarify and correct our entires for Eastport, Lubec, Western Passage and Old Sow, and Grand Manan. Please visit his Quoddy Loop website for more information on the Passamaquoddy Bay area.

Deer Island, Deer Island Point Campground

Deer Island Map

Dive trips, and beautiful underwater phtoography, with Jonathan Bird