Blackfin Resort and Marina, Marathon, Florida, is an island paradise and a welcome slice…
New Pass Interlude Near Bonita Springs, Florida
New Pass, a welcome break before we head into Fort Myers for a month.
Lisa and I have an unquenched passion, as it relates to cruising, and it has to do with going places we’ve never been. With this in mind, we departed Ft Myers Beach and instead of heading out into the open Gulf, we decided to cruise the inside route through Estero Bay, south past Big Carlos Pass, to an anchorage at New Pass inlet, just north of Big Hickory Island. The eight-mile trek is a well-marked channel but you’d better stay in the channel as it does get very shallow very quickly in many places, having a two-foot draft makes a trip like this a lot easier for our Ranger Tug.
The cruise to New Pass could very well have been a day trip, however, we thought it would be nice to stretch this scenic cruise into a couple of days’ stay. New Pass is surrounded by parks and nature, not a house, high-rise, store, or marina within eyesight – a welcome break before we head into Fort Myers. The surrounding area has a great deal of traffic during the day with fishermen, and people walking the beach, and a wonderful area dedicated as a beach-side dog park, Bonita Springs Dog Beach. Dogs would start showing up at the beach early in the morning, joining their owners for a fun-filled romp, running up and down the beach, chasing other dogs and playing fetch with balls in and out of the water. At times the dog park beach had 20 to 30 dogs having a blast and amazingly they all seemed to get along with each other.
We amused ourselves awhile one afternoon when this boat got stuck on a sandbar near our boat. They worked, with the help of another boat for quite some time to get free.
One afternoon we dinghied over to the beach at the adjoining Lover’s Key State Park. Beautiful beach on the Gulf with driftwood remnants lining the pass’ shoreline.
The second morning we decided to take a day trip for a lunch outing. We pulled anchor and headed two miles further south towards Big Hickory Bay and to Big Hickory Pass to find the Big Hickory Restaurant to have lunch. Again there was a well-marked channel to Big Hickory Pass but that’s about as far south as one can boat without going out into the Gulf. Returning to New Pass, we were happy to find our anchorage spot still available and spent another night in paradise.
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