Ask anyone who has lived on this stretch of coast for more than a summer how to get to Peanut Island, and they will point you across the water to Riviera Beach Marina. That is the dock most people know, the one with the crowds and the ticket booth and the line that sometimes wraps around the parking lot. What fewer residents mention, because it rarely occurs to them to need it, is that Palm Beach Shores has its own boat to the island. Sailfish Marina, at 98 Lake Drive, runs a water taxi to Peanut Island that most locals have walked past a hundred times without booking.
The two docks are not interchangeable versions of the same trip. They run on opposite logic, and picking the wrong one for the kind of day you're planning, not the distance you're willing to drive, is the actual mistake people make.
The Math Nobody Explains at the Ticket Window
The Riviera Beach Marina shuttle, run by Peanut Island Shuttle Boat out of the Marina Village at 200 E 13th Street, is built for volume. Boats run every 20 to 30 minutes on weekends and holidays, tickets are sold first come first served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or until the island reaches capacity, and the last boat off the island leaves at 5 p.m. What the operator does not currently offer is online reservations, citing limited parking at the marina itself.
Sailfish Marina's taxi runs the opposite play. Departures are limited to three trips a day, out at 9:30, 11:30, and 1:30, with returns at 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, and 5 p.m. But you can book a seat in advance through the marina's own ticketing page, which means you know before you leave your driveway that you have a spot.
| Riviera Beach Marina Shuttle | Sailfish Marina Water Taxi | |
|---|---|---|
| Departures | Every 20-30 min, 10am-3pm | 9:30, 11:30, 1:30 only |
| Reservations | Not available | Bookable online |
| Last return | 5pm | 5pm |
| Round-trip fare | Roughly $25 per adult, $12 per child | Roughly $17-28 per adult depending on season |
Fares shift by vendor and season, so treat those figures as a starting point rather than a quote, and check current pricing before you plan around them.
If your day has flexibility built in and you don't mind a first-come line, the Riviera Beach side gives you more chances to catch a boat. If you have a hard reservation for dinner that night or you're bringing guests who need certainty, the dock in your own neighborhood is the one that actually delivers it.
What "Capacity" Actually Means When You're Standing in Line
The Riviera Beach shuttle's no-reservation policy is not a minor inconvenience. Riders have described arriving mid-afternoon on a weekday and being told the island had reached capacity, with no ticket sales and no warning posted before they paid for parking. That is the tradeoff for a system built around walk-up volume rather than booked seats. Nobody is turned away from a system that isn't tracking who's coming.
This is the part locals learn the hard way once, usually on a holiday weekend, and then never forget. If you're bringing out-of-town family who flew in for one specific afternoon, the reservation-based option removes that risk entirely, even if it means working around only three departure windows instead of a dozen.
The Building You Can See But Can't Enter This Year
Part of what draws people to Peanut Island beyond the sand is its history, and the biggest piece of that history is currently off limits. The John F. Kennedy Bunker, the Cold War fallout shelter built during Kennedy's presidency, and the adjacent U.S. Coast Guard station are both closed. The marina village's own posted notice is direct about it: the Kennedy Bunker and the Coast Guard base are "closed until further notice," while all other amenities on the island remain open.
If a visit to the bunker was the reason you were planning to bring guests, save that trip for later and build the day around the beach, the snorkeling lagoon, and the walking trail instead. Nothing about the closure affects ferry access or the rest of the island's 80 acres, which stay fully open for swimming, picnicking, and the 1.25-mile paved path that circles the shoreline.
The Other Rule That Changes Your Whole Day: The Tide, Not the Ferry
Whichever dock you leave from, the thing that actually determines whether your afternoon is good or forgettable has nothing to do with the boat schedule. It's the tide. The snorkeling lagoon on the island's eastern side is fed by ocean water flushed through with each tide cycle, and visibility follows that rhythm closely. The hours leading up to high tide, and the couple of hours right after, tend to produce clear water and good sightlines. Once the tide turns and starts pulling back out, conditions can degrade quickly into murky water that makes snorkeling pointless.
Locals who go regularly check the tide chart for Port of Palm Beach before they check the ferry schedule, not after. Pairing your dock choice with a tide-favorable window is what separates a great afternoon from a wasted ticket.
If You'd Rather Paddle Than Wait in Line
There is a third way onto the island that skips ferries entirely. Peanut Island sits close enough to the Riviera Beach Marina that kayaking or paddleboarding across is a realistic option, particularly if you already own the gear or want to rent it locally from outfitters like Nautical Ventures or Blue Water Boat Rental, both based at the marina.
The paddle itself takes roughly 10 to 20 minutes each way in calm conditions, longer if you're launching from farther out. One workaround shared by regulars who know the marina lot fills up on weekends: drop your gear and a passenger at Phil Foster Park, then park the car at the Riviera Beach public beach on Singer Island and walk back. It adds a few minutes but avoids circling for a spot that may not exist by mid-morning.
Paddling also sidesteps the entire dock debate. No reservation system, no capacity cutoff, just a launch point and a tide table.
Picking Your Dock, in Practice
For a spontaneous weekday trip with flexible timing, the Riviera Beach Marina shuttle's frequency works in your favor, as long as you're comfortable with the first-come-first-served risk.
For a planned outing with guests, a specific window, or zero tolerance for being turned away, book ahead through Sailfish Marina and build your day around one of its three departure times.
For anyone who already owns a kayak or paddleboard and doesn't mind a short workout before the beach, launching from the Riviera Beach Marina removes the ferry question entirely.
For all three, check the tide chart before you check anything else. It matters more to how your afternoon actually goes than which dock you picked.
Why This Is Worth Knowing If You Live Here
Living in Palm Beach Shores means Peanut Island is a fifteen-minute plan, not a vacation, and the small logistics that visitors treat as trivia are the same details that make or break a Tuesday afternoon for the people who live two minutes from the water. Knowing which dock rewards patience and which rewards planning is the kind of thing you only pick up by doing it wrong once.
It's the same instinct that matters when you're weighing a condo purchase in this pocket of the coast. The building with the better rental policy, the association with fewer surprises at reserve-funding time, the unit that actually gets the afternoon light, these are details that don't show up on a listing sheet either. If you're thinking about buying, selling, or renting somewhere along this stretch of water and want someone who already knows which dock to use, Let's Connect.
