Fort Myers Beach Mooring Field
On 11/6/08, as part of a “Western Florida Wish List,” I posed the following question:
15. The community of Fort Myers Beach sits on Estero Island. Just north of this isle, was once located the most popular anchorage on this portion of the WF coastline. Some time ago, this anchorage was converted to a mooring field, and we have previously received impressive reports about the shoreside amenities (showers, waste pump-out, Laundromt, etc) that the city of Fort Myers Beach has constructed to support this mooring field. Who has berthed in the Fort Myers Beach Mooring Field in 2008? Please give us a full report on what you found here!
Responses follow:
Hi:
Regarding item #17 (Fort Meyers Beach), on 10/21/08 approximately 15 boats from the Punta Gorda Sailing Club spent the night at the mooring ball field in Fort Myers Beach. There were plenty of vacancies and all of us were able to contact Mantanzas Inn–the folks who operate the mooring ball field– by cell phone or VHF to announce our arrival. The young lady at the desk who signed us up and took our money (around $13.50) was very pleasant. There were no complaints from our group about any problems with the mooring balls.
I have no information for you regarding the shower facilities (We are fortunate to have a sailboat–a Catalina 350– with a great shower so we rarely use dockside facilities of that type.) And, I failed to ask others in our group about that amenity.
Our group all convened for cocktails at the second story outdoor patio of the Mantanzas Inn and had a blast. You get your drinks on your own from the bar and bring them over to the patio area (which saves $ on tips, etc.) Several of us went downstairs later for dinner and found the food and service to be good. Entree prices were in the $20 range–a bit higher than we had expected. None of our group made it to the beachside restaurants on this trip, although, as you know, there are a number of fun ones.
We had to abandon our plans to head South to Marco and Naples because of the front that blew in that week, but the trip to Fort Myers Beach — preceded by a couple of nights in Pelican Bay– was pretty cool.
Bill Welsch
S/V “Escapade
Message: The Ft. Myers Beach Mooring Field is a great place to visit. We live in the area and frequent it several times a year. There is a public dinghy dock under the Matanzas Bridge and you are in walking distance to the beach and a host of restaurants and shopping (although not too close for a major grocery for provisioning – there is a trolley that will take you to a local Public Supermarket). The Mooring Field is managed by Matanzas Inn and boater patrons are able to utilize all of their facilities, including showers, laundry and the pool. They do have a pump-out boat that makes its rounds but we haven’t used it. Steve and Regina Smith, M/V Island Time.
Regina Smith
We stayed at the Fort Myers Beach Mooring Field a couple of weeks ago. The overall quality of this facility is still very good. The only gripe we had is that the pennants for some of the mooring balls are really, really nasty with marine growth. The mooring we picked up was the worst I have ever seen. I highly recommend that anyone planning to use this facility should have a pair of sturdy work gloves available.
Best regards,
Gene and Sue Fuller
Punta Gorda, Florida
Yorkshire Rose
(Catalina 42 sailboat, 5 foot draft)
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