In our visit to the West coast of Florida, we decided we must be out on the water. We spent time in Punta Gorda and Sarasota. We went deep sea fishing and went on an “eco-tour” at Babcock Ranch.
This week we wanted to see dolphins, manatees and swim in beautiful clear water from the boat. We went to the Burnt Store Marina in Punta Gorda. It is split between Port Charlotte and Lee County. The entire Burnt Store Marina area, I don’t know what else to call it, is enormous. It is not a town; maybe it is a housing development, marina, condos, Yep, let’s just call it a housing development.
The area is large and consists of golf courses, condos, marina, stores, a few small bar/restaurants and tons of biking and hiking trails. The marina is off of Charlotte Harbor on the North Eastern side of the body of water. It seems well protected from any wind swell and waves. The houses are all nice, and the entire place is a gated community. We checked prices at this Marina, and again Florida confuses. The nicer marina’s with the gated entry, golf courses, and nice facilities tend to be a bit cheaper. The slip rent is average compared to others in the area, but the liveaboard fees are much less. In most cases, it was $100-150 for the liveaboard fee. Other marinas we looked at in the area were the same price or slightly higher, but the liveaboard fees were higher. In several cases, it was $125 for the first person and $75 per person after that. For us, that is $350 per month on top of $15 per foot for slip rent making it $1,115 per month. Burnt Store was $14.50 per foot and $125 Liveaboard fee, making it $865 per month.
From the Burnt Store Marina, we picked up a chartered boat trip with a captain for the day. It was a great way to see the area as he knew all the islands and mangroves and took us all over the place.
As we left the Marina heading SouthWest into the harbor, the water was shallow, and we had to stay in the channel. I was taking note of the depth given that we were in about a 28-foot power catamaran that drew a lot less water than we do. That said, there were plenty of other sailboats our size or close to it in the Marina.
Once we cleared all the channel markers, we cruised across the open water toward Bokeelia on the northern end of Pine Island. The kids were enjoying the fast boat ride for a change of pace. We went around the eastern side of the island and cut through some mangroves that crossed the island. This was a great treat to see all the paths between the trees. We saw large birds, and the girls got a chance to see a couple of manatee in one of the small mangrove paths.
As we continued site seeing in the mangroves, we were crossing pine island to the West. We went to Cabbage Key Inn for a great little lunch. This was a hot spot as there were a lot of other people pulling up in boats as we were docking. The rush to this small restaurant was CRAZY. It was a little Inn as well, and you could rent small cottages scattered about on Cabbage Key. The original wooden water tower that supplies the inn is still standing on the island and was fun to climb to the top. We then walked down the nature trails and saw some tortoises, which was quite a treat for the girls.
We wanted to swim on our agenda as well, and we found a nice little sandbar and nosed right up onto it. The catamaran allowed for easy disembarking down a forward ladder right to the beach. We all played in the water and enjoyed swimming in salt water that was clear enough to open your eyes in. While not crystal clear, you could see fish around you when swimming which was great. At one point we swam through a deeper section of water out to a shallower sand bar, and in the deep section, I saw a barracuda. I went back to get the camera, but by the time I got back, it was gone. Both girls had a blast swimming here, and we drew the parallel of being able to anchor out in DreamChaser in this kind of an area to swim. (We are looking at reasons to get them to want to do more cruising). We can force it, but it would be better if they both decided that is what they wanted.
After swimming, we went to Gasparilla Island and the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse. This marks the entrance from the Gulf of Mexico into Charlotte Harbor. The water was so blue. You can see where the old port uses to be by the pylons still standing up above the water. There were people fishing and jet ski’s running around. While here, we saw dolphins playing in the water again. There was a group of about 4 of them that we tried to get to play in the wake from the boat. They weren’t having any of that, but they did stick around jumping and surfacing for a while. I attempted to hold the go-pro into the water to get some video of them swimming. The water was clear but not that clear, plus I didn’t have an extension tripod with me so was limited by how far I could lean over the side of the boat. I think I was making the Captain nervous.
All in all, it was a GREAT day on Charlotte Harbor. We will be back again by land and likely by boat in the not too distant future.