For some time I've intended to try out the Port of the Islands boat ramp which is owned by the Collier County Parks Department. They purchased it for millions of dollars back when the Florida real estate boom was on and I had always wondered why. The Parks Department has been renovating Bayview Park for most of the winter (they finished on time on June 5th). This is my preferred launch site for gunkholing in and around Dollar Bay and Keewaydin Island and for getting out on the water quickly. It is just minutes from downtown Naples and you can be completely isolated in mangroves in just a few minutes.
On this Memorial Day week-end Saturday I hooked "Gertie the Gheenoe"' to my 4-Runner and took the 22 mile trip to the launch ramp. The $75 annual Collier County boat launch sticker is good here, even if it feels like you are in another county. The advantage of this particular embarkation point is that it puts you significantly further
into the 35,000 acre Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge once you get out of the approaches. The disadvantage is that the approach is a seemingly long (3.0 nautical miles) no wake zone to get out of the Faka Union Canal. What should take a couple of minutes takes either a half hour or an hour (depending on one's definition of a wake). One does this ridiculous speed in deference to the manatees and sea turtles and in order not to get a ticket. I saw no manatees but did see a loggerhead sea turtle floating on the surface on my return leg. It would definitely have been vulnerable to a boat prop injury in a high speed zone. Not sure I would take this approach again because of that but it is worth noting that the next ramp south is in Everglades National Park and it would require a separate launch fee. The closest ramp in Collier County is a relatively new one as well at Goodland (according to some residents....a drinking village with a fishing problem). Goodland is a relatively remote outpost at the south east corner of Marco Island. This puts you in the water in the northern reaches of the 10,000 islands but it is still only seven nautical miles to Panther Key though you can run these seven miles at full speed. I've used this approach past the Coon Key light on two sailing embarkations a couple of years apart to Little Shark River and Vaca Key (Boot Key Harbor). One trip was in an Irwin 28 and the other was in a Watkins 31 after having motored down the Marco River from the Marco Island Yacht Club. It is worth noting that the Goodland route is in exposed water to the west and south and the Faka Union Canal route was entirely in sheltered water this day in a modest easterly wind. Depending on the direction and velocity of the wind, this might factor into your decision making. I've also used Goodland to approach Blind Pass and Kice Island from the east but took a drubbing on the way back when the wind shifted from the south. Many of you may be familiar with the little ditty "sailing, sailing over the ocean blue..." well that day mine was "bailing, bailing over the ocean green, white and effin frothy".
The track from the end of the Faka Union Canal out to Panther Key is well marked with navigation markers though there was frequent shoaling and Gertie had to "eat more dirt" than I was comfortable with even when I thought I was well within the marks. Luckily it is all muck down there and no rock so no permanent damage was done despite the wailing and screaming of her little Nissan in protest at being made to eat more dirt than a little engine should.
The jpeg above illustrates the length of the Panther Key beach looking east. At the eastern end of this beach there was a fast in-bound tide that led one to a seemingly tranquil lagoon that I would have liked to explore further but I didn't have my kayak with me this day. I considered letting the tide take me for an inbound float but thought better of it and sure enough while I was contemplating a huge mother of a sting ray brushed my ankle. I have done the dive with the rays excursion over in Grand Cayman's North Sound but felt more or less fully protected in mask, fins and a wet-suit. Under the circumstances, i.e. nearly naked with 95% skin exposed, I chose not to swim with the sharks (they are related you know). Further up closer to Gertie there were a few horseshoe crabs engaging in behavior that I will call cavorting though they could have been making baby horseshoes but how would I know. There were thousands of so-called "love bugs" on the beach and in general I would say their contortions while cavorting were similar to those of the crabs. I like the alliteration so let's just go with the fact that I saw a number of "contorting cavorting crabs".
