Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island

99 Reviews
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42° 17' 39.15'', -70° 56' 26.49''
6178281644
VHF Ch. 69
$12/night
www.bostonharborislands.org
Quincy Harbor
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island
Boston Harbor Islands: Peddocks Island

Awards


Boaters Choice 2019Boaters Choice 2020Boaters Choice 2021Boaters Choice 2022Boaters Choice 2023

About


One of the largest islands in Boston Harbor, Peddocks Island offers miles of trails, unique geologic features, and the remains of historic Fort Andrews. The island is dotted with colorful cottages that serve as private residences during the summer months. We ask that all visitors be mindful of the residents and their privacy.

The park is open from dawn until dusk. Reservations are available for both daytime and overnight use. Please note that pets are not permitted in the park. To find more information about park regulations and activities, please visit bostonharborislands.org.

Berth Capacity


Moorings:66

Approach


The mooring field is located on the north side of the island in Perry's Cove. All mooring reservations are assigned to a number located on the mooring ball. Access to the island is limited to personal dinghy during park hours. An area on the beach will be posted for dinghy storage when coming ashore. All floats are for DCR and official use only. Rafting of vessels is prohibited on DCR Dockwa moorings, single boats only! Day reservations must leave the mooring at sundown and overnight stays must vacate the mooring by 11 am the next day. The area of the island close to the mooring field is home to active cottages that serve as private residences during the summer months. Please be mindful of the residents and their privacy if possible. The mooring field can get turbulent at times when the wind is out of the Northeast or it is a busy day with boat traffic. The greatest fetch is from northwest to northeast. This mooring field Funded by USFW sportfish restoration Boating Infrastructure Grants.
Minimum Approach Depth:7.0 Feet
Minimum Channel Depth:7.0 Feet
Mean Low Water Dock Depth:7.0 Feet

Services & Amenities

Last Updated: Jan 22, 2024

Moorings:Yes
Transient Storage:Yes
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Verified

Always a pleasure to stay a night or two at a Peddocks! This time of year offers lots of peace and quiet, apart from day trippers and Logan traffic. The logic of numbering the mooring balls isn’t easily apparent from the water and the paint has faded leaving some nearly unreadable. Still one of our favorite islands to kayak and hike around.

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Scott stopped by to see how we were doing and helped us with a dead battery issue. He was very friendly and its comforting to know you guys are out there for us boaters. Pat on Captains Inn

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Great day sailing yesterday and had a nice picnic on mooring ball 27 at Peddocks.

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Great weather and perfect mooring spot for the day!

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Wonderful spot.Beautiful day

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Loud location,no discipline nor respect for others with loud music throughout the anchorage. Under no circumstance plan on an over night atay here.

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Very convenient, beautiful location!

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Love Peddocks Island and Perry Cove Beach

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Fun & relaxing. One of the boats in our party, however, found someone on their mooring and had a very challenging time getting relocated.

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Out at mooring. Great.

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Had a great overnight. Beautiful sunset over Boston. Nice walk on the „beach“. Great response from mooring assignment team.

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It was great. I really enjoyed our time at the mooring.

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Another great day at Peddocks. Beautiful day and very easy to use the Dockwa app!!

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Perfect. We always enjoy it there. Too bad it is not policed better. Too many people just show and don't pay

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Excellent. We appreciate the quick reply and mooring assignment. Thank you.

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Summer week-days, great. I was the only customer on a recent Friday. Summer week ends, don't even think about it!!!!

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Service and Mooring was great.... However, loud music and jet Skies made it not so fun... The jet skies were extremely dangerous and reckless... Finally the State Police showed up.... Really need more patrols in there to keep it a nice place boating. Don't ruin it!!!!! As Also- add some floating markers "No Wake". Boats continue to come in way too fast, swimmers in the water etc.

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DCR Ranger was very nice and was kind enough to escort us to our ball.

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Beautiful day. Moorings were well monitored! Thank you

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Perfect location to spend a sunny summer day and Dockwa made it so easy to reserve a mooring.

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Great setting minutes from Boston

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Great weather, great day on the water with family. Called Dockwa and picked up a mooring for the day which was the best money spent while boating. Loved it, will definitely go back.

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Wonderful day. Only observation, reservation system would be much better if able to pick a mooring. It seems random. Best of able to see available and select, next best would be to request. Otherwise works well.

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Wonderful stay. Quiet, calm. So nice!!!!!

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Great time. Easy to find our mooring.

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It was very nice. A pretty spot. The locals had to be asked to move from some of our moorings because they came out there to party. Very loud and inappropriate. The area needs more police and DNR presence. There was overloaded boats, reckless speeding of jet skis, lewd behavior, very loud music, etc. It went on for hours. Thankfully they left at sunset.

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Had a great time! Thanks

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Always a great day in the harbor

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Peddocks island is a fantastic spot for a weekend getaway!

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Great site plenty of space to maneuver

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A great option in Boston Harbor!

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Great spot, family has a great time!

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Excellent day ton of activity many jet skis out in area.

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Mooring was secure. We didn't stay long due to weather conditions

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Pretty rolly yesterday, and kind of a zoo.

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Nice spot. Love being able to grab a mooring ball.

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Love the Boston harbor island moorings. Great place to relax and swim. Thank you.

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I canceled both July 3 and July 4 because of weather. John Hill

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Quiet mooring in a beautiful location. Easy dinghy to shore for beach walking. Skipped the interior trails because flies. Friendly staff cruises by to greet us.

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Mooring was fine! Plenty of swing room and nicely spaced

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Park Rangers and staff were very helpful!!!

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Nice quiet spot for the night, I hear it can get busy on the weekend

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Reservation was confirmed quickly. No rafting allowed while on the moorings, FYI. Dont worry though, you can just drop anchor right next to a mooring without regard for who else is nearby or any sort of boating etiquette and just raft with your friends like that. The fleet was filled with obnoxious powerboats blasting music and pretty much ruining what was nice afternoon for anyone within earshot, which was probably at least a 1/4 mile radius. The mooring gear was in good shape and pendants are pretty heavy duty compared to previous years, though they are much shorter in length this season and barely reach the boat cleat of my 40' sailboat.

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Can't beat the views. Solid moorings, well-placed. Great work by DCR in managing the squatters who may not know about the reservation system.

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Love the new moorings Need a few by great Brewster and calf. And make sure to check the moorings in place. We heard that a couple of the older moorings let go. Thanks ! Mike

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Fairly exposed to the NW and the pennant was infested with sea life. But this time of year we had it all to ourselves.

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We were at mooring number 9. We were way too far out of the cove. Boats were flying by like we weren’t even there. Why is it not possible during reservation to get a map with the available moorings so we can pick one. There were plenty of moorings available closer to the beach !!! Would have been less choppy and not having the feeling of being in the middle of the ocean

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too far out, when there were plenty of open mooring in protected areas.

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We had a great time. Still can't understand why I have to kick people off the mooring when I arrive. Just pay the $12 you cheap jerks....

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Great day great spot

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The day was perfect….found mooring with another boat on it. Nancy from Boston Harbor Inland’s was soooo incredibly amazing. Quickly responded and found another location. She was helpful, responsive and organized. So refreshing to find such service!!!

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Our reserved mooring was taken by another boat when we arrived. I wasn’t in the mood of starting a fight. I called the number and assigned another mooring to us. The call center people were very nice. Also I don’t understand why they don’t have someone to come and check and make sure no one is hijacking any moorings.

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Easy to book, easy to cancel, no hassles, great way to enjoy a sunny day

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There was a small issue with the mooring that was quickly handled by your representative Jack? Excellent!

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The mooring field was very spacious so the boats were not too close to each other. The water was beautiful. It was a great way to spend a day on the water.

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We picked up a mooring for the day on Dockwa because our overnight got us in sooner than expected, and we couldn't check in to the marina we'd reserved in Boston. Perfect decision. The mooring field is just out of the way enough that you're not bothered by channel traffic, so we had a chance to nap, take a dip and get ready for Boston. If you go ashore, bring shoes--it's a stony beach. And yes, like many mooring fields the numbering doesn't make complete sense, but we figured it out! Looking forward to coming back for an overniht.

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Great location; nice staff.

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The Boston Harbor Islands folks were promptly responsive. However, the mooring map on the website is of poor clarity and it’s difficult to read some of the mooring numbers. It took a while of motoring around to find #37. Thanks for being here for us with solid moorings and strong pennants.

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DCR was easy and helpful.

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Spectacular. Thank you

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Great place. Great spot.

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Amazing summer day on moring #24 !!!

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Beautiful evening! DockWa app worked easily to pay for ball reservation. Pennant on Ball we picked up was in good shape, but it appeared more than half of the balls did not have pennants.

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It’s a great place to stay.

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Fall boating around the Boston Harbor Islands is the best

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Great spot and DCR was around to make sure all was excellent.

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It took a while to figure out where the mooring ball was. A map to the mooring field would have been helpful. Otherwise, the moorings were in good shape. Island is fun to explore.

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Excellent location and outstanding mooring ball conditions (extra bonus for having two pennants, both of which were in outstanding condition). The only reason for a 4-star review is we couldn't find our assigning mooring ball. The map on the Dockwa is horribly incorrect. Update the mooring field map and this is an easy 5-star location.

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Mooring was great was there for Sat and Sun nite, Sat nite around 10:00 pm a boat started blaring music until the early hours of the morning was very annoying. Sun was a very peaceful evening.

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Beautiful place but too many jet skiers weaving in and around boats turning up the water. We were afraid to use swim platform as we thought we were going to be hit by jet ski. Needs to be policed more and no wake signs added.

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great communication

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No one monitoring island. My mooring ball was taking and there was no harbor master by boat or vhf 69. There was also several boats raft up next to each taking the best spots and using jet skis at high speed throughout the fleet while my kids were swimming. Also loud terrible foul language music just blaring. I stayed about an hour and just left. I had a wonderful experience at gallops island a few weeks ago where it was monitored

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As always, friendly Efficient service. Can’t say enough good things about Kevin and Dockwa

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The island looks much nicer on fotos. No access to shore, exept pulling dinghy up on the stony beach. But with the rainy wheather it was OK

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It was awesome. Thank you for your updates as well. They were very helpful!

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Peddocks is a lovely place to spend the evening. We were fortunate to be treated to an outstanding sunset and then a calm evening. The exuberant young people on a nearby mooring provided all the music we could ask for. They picked a lovely evening as well and we admired their spirit but were happy they headed off soon after sunset.

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Great communication and mooring field map, had a great afternoon watching the world go by!

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Nancy and her team were great! Very helpful getting us situated on our mooring ball. Looking forward to the next trip to Peddocks.

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It was fab. Question- A number of boaters have no clue about the law and courtesy and a decent number of them speed thru the mooring area. DCR doesn't say anything to them. Should I call the state or environmental police?

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The Peddocks was a great spot to moor. I had a hard time finding number 14 assigned to me (likely another boat moored by accident) but there were plenty other spots to moor to. The next day, your island harbor guy came to check our reservation and was very friendly and said it was ok to stay where we were. He did explain that some of the mooring balls haven’t been installed yet but soon more would be added. Great spot and great service form your island “police” guy. Thanks!!

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Appreciate your getting us the 4 moorings for our sailing club (Landfall Sailing Club) close together!!

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Peddock’s Island is a great, Easily accessible accessible destination, with beaches, an historic military relic, great views of Boston skyline. It’s understandable nearing the end of the season that moorings would be thinned out. For our sailing club meet-up, our boats were quite far apart - not hailing distance. Next time I’ll request a mooring more shoreward in the mooring field as evening boat traffic delivered a fair amount of wake.

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Great spot! Mooring balls weren’t numbered but we grabbed the one that looked like our one on the map. Worked out just fine!

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Best day trip spot - sheltered enough with amazing views of Boston!

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Always a great day at Peddocks... the staff are always very accommodating!

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Excellent cove with good access and easy to get to one of Bostons historic sites, Fort Andrew's. Self guided exploration is great.

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Mooring was great. It was good to see someone was monitoring the moorings for right placement. Only downside was a group that showed up around 3 am and were talking, laughing and playing music really loud for at least an hour. Others in the cove I’m sure were woken by them as well.

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Peddocks is out go to daytime mooring on a hot summer day. This was our first overnight, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed two nights in a row to really chill out. Great views of the sunset over Boston. Mornings are peaceful, afternoons and evenings are lively in good weather, and things quiet down after sunset. Not at all crowded for overnight on a weekday, though around 5pm all moorings matters have been occupied by day boaters. Mooring field is fairly distance from big boat traffic as well as open water, so fairly calm.

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easy to book; mooring ball #50 had a sturdy line but no pennant

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Pleasant stay. Mooring and pennant in good condition. Kevin helped me with credit card issue. Much improved from other past year management.

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Beautiful island but, It took us three try’s to get a mooring that had a safe line on it. Then 10 boats rafted with extremely loud music! No consideration for others! Also it is very bouncy due to the wakes from passing boats. I wish Boston police would monitor and control the yahoo’s who make it less relaxing for others!

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Had the mooring field to ourselves.

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the moorings were almost too far off shore to swim, and there are no dinghys or docks. other than that, awesome.

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The mooring balls are located quite far from the dock. Likely fine if you have your own dingy with motor. We relied on the island’s first dingy and chose to anchor instead of using the mooring.

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Mooring field quieted down when the sun sank. Wind and current made for a somewhat bumpy night but overall great. Pendent was clean and beefy.

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Wonderful...so glad the moorings went through

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Always loved Peddocks and now with the new moorings it’s even better

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Bit rough over there . People with boats coming in and leaving are driving to fast causing all the boats to bounce bad. Don’t know if I’ll go back 2 time it’s happened .

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One of the maps on Dockwa indicated moorings on south side near ferry dock, Wrong! Picked one of those moorings on south that would hold A barge And a tug. No one answered radio so called number. Nice gentleman directed us to north side where numerous recreational boat sized moorings - to 40’ were available in 25’ - 30’ of water. Lots and lots of wakes, lots of jets overhead. During night wind died and mooring ball came knock, knock, knocking against the hull, straightened that out and nice rest the remainder of the night. Was asked to remove dog when visiting fort, National Park rules. Suggested they post that on website. Interesting Island to visit & great they allow camping and have water available. Cost is minimal for an urban mooring, not crowded, nice place to explore... I would recommend for day trip but it was a bit loud -jets- for my nights rest.

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