Had a brilliant day today. We spent the morning out on the water on a boat trip organised by our resort. They run one every Thursday morning and best of all, it’s free to guests!!! We signed up on Monday and went down to the dock around 0930 this morning for the trip scheduled to depart at 10. The boat was a very large patio boat with massive engines on the back. I suppose there were about 40 of us aboard, plenty of space and as Bob and I were first down there (LOLOL) we had front seats facing the forward rail.
By the way look at the surf board leaning against the Snug Harbor restaurant in the middle picture. There’s a mark at the top which marks the sea level in the storm surge in Hurricane Ian which ravaged this part of the west coast in 2024. So basically, the sea came through at roof height for these buildings. The damage was huge and Fort Myers Beach is still rebuilding. It’s a massive risk for homes and businesses located on the coast here particularly on the offshore island beaches. They are so flat, basically sea level, and that makes them very vulnerable not just to hurricane winds but to the deadly tidal surge that accompanies them.
Weather was perfect again – some breeze and we headed out into the San Carlos Channel that runs north towards Sanibel and Captiva Islands.
We made a pretty fast pace, past lots of little islets, some little more than dots . One had a colony of pelicans on it, plus frigate birds and cormorants. We see a lot of brown pelicans around Snug Harbor and our resort but this colony had a lot of white pelicans too. The white ones were much bigger and had enormous wingspans of up to 9 feet!
We approached the bridges that link Sanibel Island to the mainland. There are in fact three bridges spanning across open water and 2 small islets to reach Sanibel. I first went there back in the late 70s when the island was undeveloped except for a very few mom and pop style low key hotels. I remember walking along the beautiful beaches, filling bags with shells – there were so so many. I remember saying it was more Caribbean than the Caribbean. Have been back several times since then with the island becoming more developed every time. At least all the development is totally low rise. The shells are still there I believe.
Anyway, we went further north up towards Captiva and then turned back and hugged the Sanibel coast looking for dolphins. We’d already seen a couple of pods and I had had my usual camera fail. I must have taken thousands of photos over the years of a splash, a bit of tail disappearing into the sea, a strange hump!!!! Anyway, we pulled into one of the small mooring inlets dotting the edge of the bay side of Sanibel and there were 2 dolphins playing and we stopped to take photos. I managed to get one! Hooray!
On we went towards the third and final bridge that links back to the mainland, near the lighthouse. There were more dolphins and more pelicans. Finally it was time to return and we got back to the dock at about 1145. A thoroughly nice morning out. It was such a pleasure to be on the water.
Look how low to the sea these islets are. And the 2 lower Sanibel bridges are low too unlike that first one. I guess we have rainy weather in the UK but we don’t have this level of risk from wind and sea.
We went back to the apartment and grabbed a bit of lunch and then I went down to the pool and set up camp and Bob drove to the nearby Publix and got a few things we were lacking. He came down to the pool about 2pm and we spent the rest of the afternoon till 5 down there. We got talking to lots of people, had a giggle about Me-Gain and The Hostage, The Orange Man etc. One chap who has been in the States since the early 70s but is actually a Brit was very interesting and Bob spent ages talking to him. He had worked for GM and they had fan blades and metal in common.
Came back to some divine g&ts and some tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole. Watched the boats going up the channel towards the bay. We are always amused by the so-called tiki boats. These are small round patio boats with a thatched “south seas” roof. Most of the deck is taken up by a bar and the captain/bar tender stands behind it and steers from there. You can rent these boats for your group of 4-6 people and you bring on your own booze, music and food and then get driven out to the sunset whilst having your own little party. Everyone appears to be having a great time I must say. It really only works in the calmest of waters and the balmiest of weather. Lets face it: it’s not going to catch on in the icy chop of the Channel or the North Sea, but here it is perfect.. your own floating bar, skimming out to sea with a bit of Jimmy Buffett Wasting Away and a rum punch…..
