Beach Camping around Charlotte Harbor

The camp sites on Cayo Costa are very nice, just leave your boat on the beach and use the campgrounds. We stayed there for six days during spring break and had a great time. Get someone to pack your camping gear to the island and pack light. You will love it. 😉

Bill,

Thanks! I understand reservations are required and I haven't made one yet, but I'll look into it. Are the sites close enough to the beach that you can be by your boat? We had already planned on packing our own gear, since it's just overnight.

By the way, We're planning for the night of Sept 8th... I'm from Missouri (actually from Virginia Beach, but I've lived in Missouri for the last 22 years) and my only camping experience in FL is last year at about the same time in Myakka State Park. The mosquitoes were horrible! I'm guessing it MIGHT be a little better on the beach, what do you think?

Thanks again!

--arthur

Here is my 21 on the beach, the campground is about 100 yds or so. It is a beautiful place and we left the boat on the beach. A couple nights my son spent the night on a tent on the boat. The mosquitoes weren't bad when we were there in March. You can't see the beach/boat from the campsites, but it is not too far.
We loved it and would go back. They have wonderful volunteers who work there, a small store, bike and kayak rentals, and ice for coolers 🙂

Bill,

Thanks again! So, you set a tent up on the tramp, and your son spent the night in it? That's great to hear, and exactly what we want to do. I assume nobody said anything about it? I wonder why the lady I spoke to said it wasn't allowed.... I think we'll try it 😉

Take care!

--arthur

We set that tent up at sunset and took it down early in the morning. My son Peter complained about sliding down hill during the night as my 21SE wasn't sitting flat on the beach but on a hill. We didn't bring our cat traxs with us and dragging the big boat up to flat ground seemed like a lot of work at the time.

To play it safe just get a camp site or try the tent on the boat in the bay area on the island.

Good luck and have fun! 🙂

Arthur, where in MO you located? I'm in Columbia, send me a PM, we need to get together and do some sailing........ :denk:

Thanks again Bill!

Turbo, I'm near Potosi, MO (about 70 miles south of STL). But, my boat lives in Florida 🙂 I had it up here but it's so far to trailer to go sailing anywhere from here I never sailed it. I'm in Florida several times a year (my fiance lives there), and found a place to store the cat, so I hauled it down there this summer and left it. When I do sail around here, it's usually with my sister and brother in law down on greer's ferry lake in Arkansas. That said, it'd be great to get together sometime. I'm up around Lake of the Ozarks once in a while 🙂

--arthur

Will be down in FL 8/3/12 - 8/10/12, looking to take my G-Cat down but sometimes that is not feasible, staying in Daytona Beach, just sold my P18 and picked up this 16' cat to see if it will be cost effective to trailer around, if I do take it down, the trip will tell me if I made a good decision.

You don't want to launch at Port Charlotte Beach unless you have a place to store your car and trailer. Right now the parking meters are being replaced, so there is no charge, but they should be back in place real soon. Also Port Charlotte Beach is 25 miles from Cayo Costa.

For Bill's trip, I sent him to Eldred's Marina in Placida. It is much closer and has long term storage.

I'll be cruising by there on the stinkpot on Saturday.

What's worse, mosquitos or sand gnats.

Jack,

Thanks for the tip! Last time I was there sailing, we launched from Port Charlotte Beach, and saw that the parking meters were gone. Seemed like even if they were there it wasn't very expensive? I don't remember. Is overnight parking at Eldred's Marina free? Is there a fee to launch? I figured it was 25 miles, but thought that was probably doable. Closer would be good though. Thanks for the advice!

--arthur

I would launch from the Coast Connection ,Scott Player's place which is right across the channel from the ferry business that services Cayo Costa. He has a small ramp and you pay him a few bucks for overnight parking. He is all about sailing and a real nice guy. Call him at 239-677-6931

Coast Connection serves good food and has a band too. Give him your business... 😉

Hmmmm.. Interesting thought... Coast Connection is about 1.5 hour drive for us, where Eldred's marina is just over 30 mins. However, Coast Connection would be much closer, which would mean we could do more exploring on the boat and less "getting there"... I'll definitely thing about that, thank you!!

--arthur

Well, I guess Coast Connection is out. I emailed them and got back from Tonya Player - "Sorry, We're Closed" 🙁

--arthur

You can also get ferry service from Pineland Marina. Its a mile or so before Bokeelia. I wished I had the Hobie down there on Saturday until about 4:00 PM when the 4 day out of 7 thunderstorms came thru. October is a good time to come down.

Just an idea, but I keep my boat at clearwater community sailing center, they have plenty of boats you can rent, lots of local hotels. Sand key state park is across the street. Also don't forget. Dunedin causeway. By. Honey moon island park. I live here so I can,t speak for the camping, but great area to go sailing.

Will

If you are dead set on your own boat I am sure for a smallfee/donation they would let you stoe there fro a weekend.

Thanks guys!

Jack - really, Cayo Costa is a secondary goal. The first is beach camping on the cat! No ferries for us, hehehe!

Will - Thanks for the tip! Our boat is stored in North Port, so it's much closer for us to sail Charlotte Harbor, but we will definitely keep your ideas in mind 🙂

It's really nice to have feedback from local sailors! I hope to meet some/all of you over the next few times I'm down!

--arthur

(part of this is in my other thread about the cargo net. please don't shoot me for double posting) heheheh

Well, I'm in Florida now 🙂 Got the boat out yesterday - launched at Nokomis (north jetty) and sailed out the channel and around to the beach, where we stayed most of the day. Wind picked up to 8/9 knots and family let me sail alone for a little bit, so I even got to fly a hull briefly 🙂

Still haven't totally decided where to launch, but kinda hoping to find somewhere on Boca Grande. Forecast is 15 kt west winds and 2-4 foot seas, so we'll probably shoot across to Cayo Costa and hide on the lee side if it's too rough.

--arthur

Hi!!! I'm sorry I didn't post back sooner, but we had an AWESOME time camping on Cayo Costa! Check out these links for a video and pics:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xthvxf_september-3-9-2012_lifestyle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallencreek/sets/72157631469403064/with/7957401830/

Thanks for all the advice! We ended up launching at the public ramp close to Eldred's Marina, and paddling out to a little beach to hoist sails 🙂 We came back the intracostal. It was fun having the swinging bridge open for us 🙂

It was a wild ride both ways, but luck was on our side - at least until we were pulling the boat out on the trailer. It slipped sideways and a projection on the trailer punctured the starboard hull 🙁 I guess Karma was exacting payment. Totally fixable, but GRRRRR!

--arthur

Arthur,

Thanks for sharing your good time with everyone... 😎

My pleasure 😉

ac0rn wrote: Hi!!! I'm sorry I didn't post back sooner, but we had an AWESOME time camping on Cayo Costa! Check out these links for a video and pics:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xthvxf_september-3-9-2012_lifestyle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallencreek/sets/72157631469403064/with/7957401830/

--arthur

Thanks for sharing, and great job on the video! Bound to inspire a lot of folks to get out there.