Buck Island

The cheapest way is to have a friend with a boat. Of if you have a kayak, you can put in on the east end and paddle
over.

The next cheapest way is to find someone with a boat and a cell phone. Pay that person to ferry you over and call him/her when you want to come back. I suggest paying on the return trip.

It definitely helps to have friends with boats! I lived on STX for more than a year before making it over to Buck Island. Now that we have boats we are there several times a week and sometimes stay overnight. We usually have friends, family, customers, clients, employees, acquaintances, etc. along for our outings since we know how nice it is to have the chance to get out there and try to include as many people as possible. We see a lot of boats there with only a couple people on board and other boats who also bring along a crowd.

There are only 6 licenses available for charter companies to take paying customers to Buck Island and the government doesn't plan to add any more any time soon. That makes it harder on a lot of people who would offer a low priced water taxi type service to take people to Buck and back. The licensed charter companies would have a fit if that were openly or regularly occuring.

Does Chenay Bay still have kayaks they rent out? It would be a heck of a paddle, but probably a lot of fun....for someone younger than me.....

Yes Chenay Bay does.

Well unfortunately kayaking would not be an option as we have a 17 month old. Would anyone with a boat like to be my friend?

We sailed our boat out to Buck a few times, but after that it got a bit old. It was the same people that one saw all week, only drunker! The water is beautiful out there - like turquoise bath water.

Alexandra Where do you drop your hook when you stay over night at Buck Island? I didn't know you could overnight there. It didn't seem like a very good anchorage.

we just hang out at the west end of Buck Island where everyone anchors during the daytime. It's a great anchorage. The island blocks most of the wind so that the waves and current are minimal but you still get a breeze. The boats will swing about a bit, but I've never seen anyone slip their anchor and drift. Some idiots put out way too much anchor line for the shallow depth and wind up with other boats crossing their anchor line, though.

You can get an anchoring permit when you license your vessel, although lots of boats are there pretty frequently without actually getting the permit. It seems they only make an issue of it if someone isn't following the park rules.