Nome Harbour

General.    There is a small fishing industry here although the mainstay of this town appears to be tourism and mining. There is still a lot of small time fossicking for gold going on in this area. There are two supermarkets and numerous small shops and restaurants. This town still has a pioneering feel to it. There is an internet service available at the library and although the prices are starting to reflect the high cost of living in the north they are still quite reasonable. This was the most expensive place that we have ever bought fuel at.

Reported.    July 2004 by Fine Tolerance

Charts.    NOAA 16206.

Approach.    There are no off-shore dangers here other than the shallow waters. Nome has a Harbour Master who will advise you how deep the channel is. We were lucky that the mouth had just been dredged to 2.4m (8ft) and thus we could approach the entrance. If there is a swell it would be better to wait off-shore as the harbour entrance is quite narrow and would leave little room to recover from a broach situation in any yacht with a poor helm response. There are two lead lights to guide you into the entrance. Deep draft vessels anchor offshore. Nome is undertaking a major harbour upgrade, due for completion in 2006, work of which was already underway with a large outer harbour being constructed out into the sea. This should make Nome an all weather port. (except when there is ice)

Anchoring.    The Harbour master will do her best to fit you in somewhere. Be sure to call up from well outside. You do not want to be meeting a barge coming out of the channel as you are committed to going in. They do get one or two yachts visiting here every year. There was no problem with our 2.2m (7' 6") draft inside the harbour.

Points of Interest.   This is quite a historical town made famous mainly due to it's gold rush days. It still appears to be that every second shop on Front Street houses a bar. The wild west gunslinger Wyatt Earp had a hotel here during the gold rush at the turn of the 20th century, Amundsen landed at Teller (70 km by road) after his first balloon flight over the pole, the Iditarod Dog Sled Race ends here. For such a small place it has many claims to fame.

 
The entrance to Nome Harbour from the open sea showing the 90 degree turn to
 port 100 meters inside the breakwaters.

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