19. Johnson Bay Anchorage
19. Johnson Bay Anchorage
Lat/Lon: near 25 59.952 North/081 44.569 West
Location: found on the charted deep water west-northwest of the Marco to Naples waterway’s unlighted daybeacon #14
Minimum Depth: 8-feet
Swing Room: sufficient swinging room for vessels as large as 40 feet
Foul Weather Shelter: good, but strong eastern or northeastern winds might be a problem
Rating:
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Comments from Cruisers (2)
If you decide to stop in the Marco Island area I’ll share info on an anchorage there that I picked up from another T & T contributor a couple of years ago.
Take a look at a spot a short distance north of Marco Island along the channel between Naples and Marco Island, NW of R 14 (25 59.972N, 081 44.564W). It’s not very impressive on the chart, but is beautifully protected by mangroves and shallows, has great holding, and there is plenty of room for two or three boats. IMHO it’s far superior to the commonly recommended spot in Factory Bay, with its sloppy mud poor holding. The downside is that there no easy dinghy access to shore or facilities. Also, there is some wave action from passing boats in the channel, but that all stops at dark, since those channel markers are not lighted. Was even able to get fair wifi from some source there.
Dan Stone
St. Pete
We anchored here oer the Thanksgiving weekend. We draw 5’8″ and had no issues. We entered Capri Pass at low tide (0.9′ above MLW) and our lowest reading was 8′. We did favor the south side of the channel as shoaling to the north was pretty evident and we were concerned that it may be shoaling into the channel. The shoaling did help break the seas. Entering into the channel we still favored the starboard side until after turning north, at which point we favored the port side. You will feel the wake of passing boats, but for us it didn’t seem to be much of a problem. A front blew through so we had fairly strong north winds and Umbrella Island afforded a reasonable lee. Holding was very good, but the mud is sticky. We anchored pretty much right over the anchor in the chartlet provided by the Cruising Guide to Western Florida (we carry it and the Cruising Guide to the Florida Keys aboard) . It was pretty nice sitting in a peaceful and pretty anchorage, with fresh backed cookies and coffee and our diesel fireplace going.
s/v John Galt
Tayana 37