Captiva Island, Florida

August 27, 2020

Captiva is the smallest, most isolated, northernmost island we visited. It’s so narrow, you can’t even see it on the below map. It is a small strip of land running north off of the north west tip of Sanibel Island. The only way to get to Captiva by car is to drive the entire length of Sanibel Island first and then cross over a few bridges.

Captiva-Map — Here’s where Captiva is in Florida.

Captiva-Map2 — This is a zoomed in view of the above map. You can see all three islands at the bottom – Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Captiva. As you can see, you must drive across Sanibel to get to Captiva.

This island was home to private mansions, villas, and estates of large size. Arriving minutes after a heavy downpour, we found the main road and many of the tiny side lanes flooded, and were unable to reach the extreme northern tip of the island for that reason.

Captiva-1 — A narrow strip of beach, coquina stone and a rock jetty made Turner beach on Captiva a nice stopping point.

Captiva-2 — Tom peers west into the vast expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. The beach sand here was even more grey and course than Sanibel. A bit rough on bare feet. Because the Island runs north-south, the sunsets are directly offshore from this vantage point. All that we could hear was the lapping of waves and distant thunder.

Captiva-3 — Agave, with its serrated sharp leaves, oxeye daisies, various palms and seagrasses are home to anoles, fiddler crabs, and the occasional venomous snake: cottonmouth, rattler, and coral snake. We didn’t see any of the latter.

Captiva-4 — The fruits of the fleshy-leaved sea grape (plant at right adjacent to gulf and sky) were ripening and we sampled their sweet purple fruit, which is made into jellies, jams, and even sea grape wine!

Captiva-5 — We still look the wrong way when taking selfies, which clearly dates us as oldsters.

We stopped for a coffee at a tiny cluster of stores (most closed) and restaurants. It appeared to us, that most goods and services had to be brought from the mainland via Estero and Sanibel islands. If one requires serious medical attention, their is a helicopter landing site for transport to Lee Hospital in Fort Meyers proper.

Our impressions after a brief time on a stormy day is that Captiva Island is an intriguing, but isolated locale, perfectly suited for those who really want to get away from it all.

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Captiva Island, Florida

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