Threading our way out of the channel that led to Uncle Henry's Marina, we then turned right passing through the break in the old Northern Railway causeway and rejoined the ICW. We headed south along the Gasparilla Island and across the Boca Grande Inlet - the main Gulf entrance to Charlotte Harbor. The rest of the journey was along the ICW with Cayo Costa on the west, passing the exclusive enclave of Useppa Island on the east and then further down past Captiva Island. Once past the Blind Pass that separates Captiva from Sanibel, we followed the long curve of Sanibel Island to the southeast, then once past the Sanibel Causeway, we turned into entrance of the Sanibel Marina just before the eastern most point on the island.

Sanibel Marina

Decorated aircraft on the marina grounds.

The marina was an attractive boat yard with a popular little restaurant - Gramma Dot's - on site. The marina owners were very friendly - dropping off hot blueberry muffins and a newspaper on our aft cockpit every morning.

We unloaded the bikes upon arrival and took a 10-mile ride through Sanibel Island. The shocker was that Sanibel Island is pretty much a single lane highway - misleadingly named Periwinkle Way - with nightmarish traffic backups. All the traffic from Captiva and Sanibel essentially have to be on that two-lane road to come and go to the mainland over the Sanibel Causeway Bridge. Thankfully the bike lane is separate from the main drag - and that most of Sanibel is nature preserve. There is no real town center to Sanibel, just a number of small mall-type structures and restaurants along Periwinkle Way. You hear Sanibel advertised so much as a beachy paradise, but it appears to be made up of huge vacation condominium blocks and on the south end of the island, gigantic resort hotels - not a small cottages and fried clams kind of place.

Next day we took a 17 mile round trip to Shell Point Village - over the Causeway to the mainland - to visit the retirement development where Evan's grandmother lived a few decades ago and where he visited as a child. The complex was well-maintained, very large and with beautiful views over the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Coral.

Shell Point Village

All the forecasts and apps indicated that bad weather was heading our way. We had planned to spend another day in Sanibel, but figured that because we had to go out over open water to Naples that we leave a day earlier while the weather was good. So we cut short our visit and prepared to leave next day.