Fort Myers/Sanibel Area

Mauler34Rod

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Aug 26, 2020
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Chicago Lake Michigan
Boat Info
2001 380 Sundancer, Raymarine Electronics
2022 Highfield CL310 Dinghy with 20 HP Suzuki
Engines
454 MPII Mercruiser w/ V Drives
Hello all, spending some time with the family this week down in Ft. Myers. We are renting a 23’ Hurricane to spend the day on. Using Boat House in Cape Coral so have boat from 9-4pm. Any recommendations on where to cruise to? Anywhere you can beach or anchor to swim or hang on the beach for awhile? We have a 16 month old along with us so any ideas are appreciated. Tim
 
Hello all, spending some time with the family this week down in Ft. Myers. We are renting a 23’ Hurricane to spend the day on. Using Boat House in Cape Coral so have boat from 9-4pm. Any recommendations on where to cruise to? Anywhere you can beach or anchor to swim or hang on the beach for awhile? We have a 16 month old along with us so any ideas are appreciated. Tim
I did that exact thing a few years ago. Locals can help you with too many specifics, but I can tell you what we did.

The little chart plotters on those rentals are crap so I brought my iPAD with Navionics and a good suction RAM mount. It was hard to see the screen, but it was OK.

We went up to Sanibel . The winds were pretty high so it was slow going. But we got there. Those Hurricane deck boats are not sundancers LOL! We originally were going up to Captiva but my kidneys (and my wife's bad back) couldn't take any more pounding so we stopped at Sanibel north end on the inside. It was too rough to go out into theGulf side. We went into Castaways Marina to dock. DO NOT GO TO CASTAWAYS MARINA. Read that again. DO NOT. Its not a marina. It is a shitty dock in a cove that is mostly 6 inches deep. Sanibel was nice enough and we walked around and had a couple good meals and some beach time before heading back.

The no wake zone (the miserable mile) is part of the route out of where you rent. Don't speed. The police are there and watching.

Coming from the Great Lakes I was really surprised how shallow the water is virtually everywhere. There are no shortcuts you should take. Stay in the marked channels everywhere you go. Up here there is deep water outside of marked channels. Down in that Cape Coral area, its not the case.
 
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Here is a picture of the "marina" LOL. There was another dock just like it that I am standing on taking the picture. Second picture is an internet one from the air of the same place.
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Thanks for the tip, I brought my Navionics and a hand held VHF radio, but hoping not to have to use the later.
 
Thanks for the tip, I brought my Navionics and a hand held VHF radio, but hoping not to have to use the later.
OH yeah. I did the same. I brought my VHF. It got quite a bit of attention in the security screening of my carry on luggage. I thought it might be worse if it was in the checked luggage.
 
Not sure of your limitations as far as distance but you can never go wrong with Sanibel and Captiva inside or outside the water isn’t perfect right now but it’s getting better I know the temps this weekend were 74 degrees
If you decide to go up river towards the lake downtown Fort Myers can be a great place restaurants nightlife etc. usually you can sneak into the Yacht Basin just let them know
 
If you were to head towards north towards Captiva, be careful. The channel is well marked (inside ICW) however for most of the way it is narrow. Boats of all sizes tend to run on plane. Even on an otherwise calm day high likelihood you will experience some rough, 3ft wakes.

Following the river towards Fort Meyers would be fine. Go up towards the power plant to the Manatee statue.

Other option is cross over towards Pink Shell, go up the channel over there.
 
From Boat House to Fort Myers Beach about an hour drive. Public dock on northeast corner. You have to go channel on back side of beach. Five minute walk to beach. Plenty of restaurants if you continue on down east side. Doc Fords, Nervous Nellies, Dixie Fish Co., Matanzas, etc.
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions and tips. We took a ride today up the inside of Sanibel & Captiva and stopped just north of North Captiva. Threw out the hook and hung out on the beach for a few hours. We had a wonderful day and yes many big boats running on plane and I can’t say I blame them. The Hurricane rental was a nice boat, but sure was missing our Ray in the chop. Here a pic of my 15 month old grandson. He loves to steer the boat.
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Glad you had a good cruise. I love that part of FL.

We are headed into that area next week.
 
Cool little restaurant the kids would like called The Bubble Room on Captiva. I believe there is a transient dock on the east side.
 
Cool little restaurant the kids would like called The Bubble Room on Captiva. I believe there is a transient dock on the east side.
We were just there a couple weeks ago, Bubble Room is really cool, then just a short walk to a nice beach on the west side of island and another restaurant called the Mucky Duck. We docked the boat at
Jensen's Twin Palm Cottages & Marina Resort there are several docks that will accommodate boats up to 25’ for $35.
McCarthy docks next to Jensen’s charge $40.
 
Good intel on this thread. I just got back from the area. My brother bought a condo in Cape Coral with a deeded slip & covered boat lift. He then bought a 24' Polar walk around. We ran it over to Sanibel & anchored about 75' off shore with all the other boats. It was pretty calm. Had a great day & look forward to my next trip down there to check out some of these suggestions!
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My family will be there March 20th-27th. We'll have to check out the Mucky Duck. I'm actually headed to Naples for business tomorrow - Wednesday, but I don't plan on exploring, just staying at the resort and entertain customers.
 
Love the beach pictures.

We like the sandbars that show up in redfish inlet, those are fun to go out to on the dinghy.
 
Couple of more pics heading back in the channel. Saw some pretty cool boats down there.
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Here are a few photo's from our trip. We had some fun despite the windy conditions. It really set my mind that I want to winter in Florida and be on the water (sorry guys, I know its full. We are not very large. We'll fit)

In the last photo you can see one dolphin but there were two. The second you can barely see his gray back right below the swim ladder. He (or she) was going in and out of the prop wash for miles.

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Creekwood, you reminded me that I forgot to mention there were a couple dolphins swimming by the boats while we were on the beach. They were just meandering between the anchored boats. It was definitely a plus for selling my wife on relocating to this area. I'm with you, I want to winter in this here. There is nothing redeeming about winters in New York.
 
In the last photo you can see one dolphin but there were two. The second you can barely see his gray back right below the swim ladder. He (or she) was going in and out of the prop wash for miles.

If your ever in that position again and not in an idle speed zone you can speed up/slow down to that point where your making the biggest wake possible, if they are close enough they may ride your wake right up behind the boat. We had one run back from a Christmas eve lunch at Cabbage Key Inn that they jumped in our wake for a couple miles.
 

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