Sightseeing

Our Boat Tour – from a customer perspective

After a leisurely breakfast, it’s time to get on the rental boat that we have on the lift right behind our home. At first we drive slowly through Cape Coral’s canals, admiring the neighbors’ backyards from the water. A short while later we have reached the Caloosahatchee River, where we can speed up a bit on our way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The speed on the river is restricted, in parts to “no wake”, due to the manatees that are frequently spotted here. But we have soon reached the last stretch of the low speed zone, which incidentally is one of the best spots to look for dolphins. The animals look for fish where the river flows into the strait, and we often observe them just a few yards away from our boat.

Once we are out of the slow speed zone, we can finally try out how fast the boat can go. Keep left and you are headed for the Gulf of Mexico, go straight and you’ll pass between Sanibel and Pine Island on your way to Captiva. It’s a good idea to stick to the chartered waterways, as there are shoals beyond the marked routes where the water is suddenly very shallow and only a few inches deep.

On our way towards Captiva Island, we notice how the water changes color, from the muddy brown of the river to a glorious blue, the color that we all imagine when thinking of Florida.

After about an hour on the water we reach the island. Passing between Captiva and North Captiva we continue on to the Gulf of Mexico. The water now has a shade of turquoise that makes you want to jump right in. But not yet, we drive on a bit further until we reach the middle of North Captiva, right where Hurricane Charley raged through a few years ago. With the beach in front of us, we lower the anchor, jump into the Gulf of Mexico and swim towards land. Unbelievable – the beach is completely deserted. Come to think of it, that makes actually perfect sense because it can only be reached by boaters like us. Thanks to the lack of mass tourism, we discover all sorts of unusual shells all along the beach. Time flies by and we collect more shells than we can take with us. Suddenly, we realize that we are quite hungry.

Back on the boat, we hoist the anchor and steer north, leaving the Gulf at the next strait to continue behind a line of barrier islands. After about 20 minutes we reach Cabbage Key. What a truly heavenly place. The island is small and quickly explored. Now we are really hungry and, postponing the exploration until later, head into the legendary restaurant. The place is famous for the countless dollar bills that patrons have signed and stuck on the walls. Needless to say, we join in the tradition, noticing that there are already many layers. We take a picture of “our” bill, enjoy a meal and return to the boat. The long way home leaves us with memorable images. The captain suddenly stops the boat when a pod of dolphins shows up. Several animals come closer and check out the boat. After a few minutes they swim away, and we continue on our way back. Once we reach our vacation home we realize that we all got sunburned. Note to self: Use stronger sun screen next time. Because there will be a next time – there are so many places to discover, and we’re already making plans for tomorrow.