Placida

Saturday, 7 February                                                                        23.7 SM

The Palm Island Ferry readies to cross to the mainland.

One of the many great joys of traveling on a small boat is the people you meet along the way. Take Patty and Rich, for instance. They were on their 41’ American Tug Sovereign when first we met, locking through the Dismal Swamp Canal. Over dinner in Elizabeth City, the invitation was extended, “So when you get to the Gulf side,” said Rich, “Give us a call. We’ll have a slip for ya and give ya the nickel tour.” And that’s where Steadfast heads today, southward down the narrow length of Lemon Bay to Placida Harbor.

It’s an easy run that includes one ferry crossing and four opening bridges, all in just over three hours. Patty’s on the pier waving hello when Steadfast motors up the channel from Gasparilla Sound. Once tied off, it’s time for cocktails and a quiet dinner of home-made manicotti and salad, followed by cannoli for dessert.

The 1925 light to mark the pass is still in service.

Trees form a natural canopy over Banyan Street.

Now remember that “nickel tour?” A one-time commercial diver, former New York City policeman and then marine entrepreneur, Rich leads a Sunday afternoon tour that would be priced in the twenty-dollar range, at least. Granted, he works with some good material, crossing the privately-owned two-lane Boca Grande Causeway to see every notable location on the island, some twice, from the world famous Gasparilla Inn to the 125-year-old light at Boca Grande Pass.

The latter is where the deep waters of the pass run close to the white sandy beach at the southernmost end of Gasparilla. The pass once was end of the line for Seaboard Railroad cars loaded with Florida phosphate to fill ocean-going ships at the Boca dock. Phosphate now is loaded at Tampa. The dock is in ruins, seemingly the only scar on an otherwise well-maintained island landscape.

A sportfisherman heads in from the Gulf to Pine Island Sound.

Today sportfishermen are the biggest vessels navigating this pass to the Gulf of Mexico. These waters yield more tarpon than any other location in the world and Boca’s home to perhaps the biggest tarpon tournament in the world.

A certain sailor smiles at the thought of a night ashore.

Gasparilla Island, meantime, has forsaken its industrial past in favor of tourism. Boca has always been a unique community, with a large number of wealthy winter residents—the Bush Family and Audrey Hepburn, for example—rubbing elbows with fishermen who lived here year-round.

This started with the opening of the Gasparilla Inn in 1911. The Inn remains much as it did 100 years ago but its menu of amenities has expanded to include championship golf, tennis, croquet, sport fishing, eco tours and on and on. Its popularity as a winter resort has not diminished in the least, a destination of choice for the well-heeled.

Boca sunsets are unforgettable.

Rich’s tour concludes with a stop for dinner at a beachfront-dive-sort-of-place called South Beach. As the name might imply, it’s almost down to the pass, and its patio is a popular perch for watching the sun go down over the Gulf while sipping one’s libation of choice.

What a treat! Patty and Rich could not have been more hospitable in opening to us their beautiful home (not to mention pier!).  And to think the whole memorable experience goes back to a chance greeting at a lock on the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Yes, one of the great joys, for sure.

Steadfast out.