Infants definitely make things much more challenging, but it can be done and we proved it!
We went to Peddocks and met friends. They rafted up together and we chose to anchor separately, close by. We hung out with them, grilled, etc. It was great seeing everyone again - Mark will be heading south to the Carolinas in a few weeks and we learned that Mike will be sailing with him, then going to school down in Florida. This will make for an entirely different scene at Constitution Marina this year, and our good friends will be missed.
We had planned on staying out two nights, but learned that Peddocks has changed greatly. Signs litter the shoreline - "No Trespassing: Police Take Notice". And take notice they did. Thankfully they didn't bother us and we were able to get Willie to shore without anyone noticing, but they were out and about with the boats, stopping people who were close to shore.
It's really upsetting to see our favorite gem of Boston closed off to the public. Earlier in the year, I had heard that they were destroying some of the buildings on the island in order to create a campground. The news was published in the Boston Globe just a few days before it happened, so there was no chance that any action could have been taken to stop such a thing from happening. Instead we tried to take the news as a good thing - more people would get to visit the island and see what a wonderful place it was. But instead, it has come to this. To go to Peddocks, you must (apparently) have to pay to take a ferry, then pay to stay in the campground. I'd like to hope that this is not true and that we will get to visit the island again with our boat without fear of getting ticketed, but the array of signs has me assuming the worst. And even if we can visit it again, how much of it will be left? How much has the campground changed the island? How much destruction has taken place? How many buildings were left standing, and how did they change those buildings in order to allow camping to take place? I can only guess that Peddocks is a very different place than it was just a year ago, and that's a hard change for me to accept.
So glad you got out there! I'm not sure if it has anything to do with this past weekend's activities, but John said the DCR officially shut down the island, removed the rangers, etc. on Labor Day. Perhaps that's what the no trespassing meant, as during the season, there shouldn't be restrictions. Don't know about the buildings, but I imagine they were the cottages vacated over the past few years. I remember sitting in Portugese Cove watching people "commute" home to the island. How times have changed.
ReplyDeleteEllen - oh I hope that we are able to visit the island again with our own boat.
ReplyDeleteThe demolitions weren't the vacated cottages, but roughly half of the brick buildings: http://articles.boston.com/2011-02-20/news/29346943_1_ghost-town-haunts-demolition-buildings
Have you guys gotten the boat out much this summer?