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Each small island has its own society, so it’s a little bit like traveling from state to state. Islands create their own communities.
Top 10 Things To Do On, Under and Near the Water
Check off Randy Wayne White’s Top 10 list and enjoy The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel waters like a resident expert. Use this inspired collection to cruise up to restaurants and catch meteor showers raining down over the Gulf, or to discover where the local music scene really is. Whether it’s windsurfing, kayaking or cozying up to the mangroves, you’ll get local perspective and local color.
By Juliette Reynolds
Check off Randy Wayne White’s Top 10 list and enjoy The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel waters like a resident expert. Use this inspired collection to cruise up to restaurants and catch meteor showers raining down over the Gulf, or to discover where the local music scene really is. Whether it’s windsurfing, kayaking or cozying up to the mangroves, you’ll get local perspective and local color.
By Juliette Reynolds
  Kayaking Tarpon Bay |
It was in Sanibel that White plied his trade as a fishing guide up ’til the time Tarpon Bay Marina closed in 1987. Claiming he wasn’t fit for anything else, he wrote a novel, Sanibel Flats, recently named one of the 100 best mystery novels of the 20th century by the members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Beginners luck? Hardly. White’s 13th novel in the Doc Ford series, Dark Light, was released in 2006.
A natural storyteller and a biology and baseball buff, White found his own version of paradise on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel. View the area through the kaleidoscopic lens of his imagination in his best-selling books, then read on to find out what we discovered when we tapped into the writer’s extensive experience on, around and near the water. Here’s his very own top 10…
10. Coast Up to Restaurants
 Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant |
9. Catch the Local Tunes
Tune in to the native rhythm – and blues – as they float on the salt-laced air. You never know who’s going to show up to play with nationally acclaimed blues guitarist and vocalist John Mooney, a longtime fixture at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. White says you can sometimes catch the St. James City resident playing for free at The Island Hardware & Marine Supply store in St. James City at the southern tip of Pine Island. Concerts at the hardware store are bi-monthly and draw crowds from 15 to 500 people. Another impromptu musical treat awaits at Jensen’s Marina on Captiva Island. The Trouble Starters band is made up of Jimmy Jensen, employees and friends of the family who own the palm-fringed marina and cottages. White continues, "These are small island venues. Many of the songs are about the local community."
8. Star Gaze
Watch stars fall from the sky. In August, go out on a boat, anchor at a safe place and watch The Perseids meteorite shower. You can also get a good view from the beach. The Perseids is an annual meteor shower, sometimes called the Tears of St. Lawrence because they fall near the saint’s feast day of August 10. White says, "The sky is so clear and clean that you can get a great look," while pondering, "the enormity of the universe."
7. Scope Sanibel’s Wildlife
Travel around Sanibel Island. "Touring, boat tours, taking a look at the manatees, saltwater ’crocs; even though it’s a small place, it has a number of things to see in terms of natural history," says the writer. One place of particular interest is the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge. White says, "Each season’s different – winter is wonderful." There’s a large variety of fish and wildlife depending on the season. "All different, but wonderful," he says.
6. Mind the Mangroves
Investigate the mangroves. If you drift slowly in two to four feet of water, you’ll be privy to a network of root systems and have a chance to see many unexpected things, especially on a clear, sunny day. You may see mullet feeding on detritus, various kinds of crabs, barnacles, immature fish, oysters, snapper and sheepshead. "You may also surprise very large fish, such as mature snook or grouper, a too-seldom-experienced pleasure," White says. "Winter’s probably the best time to do that."
5. Kayak the Calusa Way
Paddle the Great Calusa Blueway. "You’ll not only see plenty of wildlife, but you’ll also see the (shell) mounds of people who were contemporaries of the Maya and the Aztec. You’ll be traveling that waterway much the same way that people were traveling it 5,000 years ago," the mystery writer says.
4. Watch Tarpon Fishing
See unexpected theater. Head out to Boca Grande Pass (you won’t need your fishing gear – or box seats) in a boat and watch the professional and amateur fishermen jockey for position during tarpon season. You’ll see "different boats vying for the same fish – the theater and human comedy of it all." White cautions that it’s best to stay out of everyone’s way, but the resulting show is "Spectacular. Very amusing and entertaining."
3. Windsurf in Winter
Windsurf. "Don’t count it out," says White. "It’s no longer difficult, and it’s one of the most intimate water experiences a person can have interacting with wind, water and tides on a very low platform." The outdoorsman says you don’t have to be an athlete because of advances in board design, and that winter winds offer the best rides. Where to go? There are lots of great spots, but "Sanibel Causeway is good," he says. Call surf shops to find out the other area "hot" spots.
2. Chart a Fishing Trip
Go fishing. "Charter a fishing guide, and you’ll learn more in a day than you will (on your own) in a year," the writer says. ’Nuff said.
1. Take in the Sunset
Watch the sunset at Pineland. "It’s a quiet and intimate place," to see day turn into night, says White. There’s a particular spot on Waterfront Drive where you can pull over, read a history of Pineland and be transported by the beauty of the natural universe.
If You Go…
Cabbage Key Inn, 239-283-2278, www.cabbagekey.com
Island Hardware and Marine Supply, 239-283-2998
J.N. “Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 239-472-1100, www.fws.gov/dingdarling
Jensen’s Marina, 239-472-5800, www.jensen-captiva.com
The Tarpon Restaurant/Tarpon Lodge, 239-283-3999, www.tarponlodge.com
The Temptation Restaurant and Bar, 941-964-2610
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