Time Lapse Video: Canals in Cape Coral, FL

All:

Thought you all might find this interesting. I keep my boat at my folk's place on a lift in NW Cape Coral in the off season. It takes a LONG time to motor all the way down Matlacha Pass from my marina, and through the canals to their house.

This year when we took the boat out for the season, my buddy put a GoPro cam on the flying bridge to capture time lapse video. Turned out pretty cool (the clouds look neat) and it gives you some idea of what life on a canal would be like . . .

https://youtu.be/GP2XKYlhKU0

Cheers!

Dave

Hey no wake!!!! LOL That was awesome. Thanks for sharing Dave.

I live in Punta Gorda for the winters and it now takes me 50 minutes to work through the canals to open water. Hopefully when the Poachers/Bird/Buckley cut is finished later this year it should cut that in half.


David

Greetings,
Mr. d. Very nice but...

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Hey no wake!!!! LOL That was awesome. Thanks for sharing Dave.

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Florida canals have no specific speed limits. You are supposed to travel at a speed which minimizes wake, whatever that means.


Probably 99% of the boats I see on the PG canals are on lifts which are not affected by wakes. Mine is in the water and every now and then I see a boat go by that I think is too fast but the wake just gently rocks my boat so no harm.


Boats in the canal travel a 6-7 mph and of course the smaller boats make the most wake at those speeds. A dinghy going 7 mph kicks up quite a wake.


David

Another underway video from San Diego Bay. First time tryin' to post a video.https://youtu.be/qxsFRUh6lbk

dos cervezas, por favor

My Lovely wife calls ours a two beer canal. she says on a good day she can drink two beers by the time we hit the normal speed zone heading towards Sanibel. At idle speed it takes about 15/20 minutes.

And before anyone asks, no I do not drink while driving.

Capitaine R said:

My Lovely wife calls ours a two beer canal. she says on a good day she can drink two beers by the time we hit the normal speed zone heading towards Sanibel. At idle speed it takes about 15/20 minutes.

And before anyone asks, no I do not drink while driving.

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15/20 minutes sounds AWESOME. One hour and change to get through the trip captured in the video. Then another 30 minutes at 11 knots to get to the "deep" water North of Matlacha pass. Hence the reason I keep the boat in the Burnt Store Marina during the cruising season.

St. James City looks like a nice place to operate out of. I looked at some lots down there a few years ago. Easy access to Sanibel and Ft. Myers.

Cheers!

Dave

Dave: South of the bridge to Pine island Matlacha pass seems shallow. How is it really?

Very nice video! I had a GoPro on the flybridge for the whole Down East Loop trip I did in 2016. It was my first attempt at converting those GoPro stills to video, and my lack of production skills really shows. But some of them came out pretty good.

My favorites are along the canals, through the locks and bridges, at this link and this link.

The whole blog and all the videos are at this link.

bayview said:

Dave: South of the bridge to Pine island Matlacha pass seems shallow. How is it really?

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It sucks. They call it "Hell's Gate" for a reason.

Avoid it if you can. When I brought my first boat to the area from Stuart, FL I ran it up South Matlacha pass and it was a white-knuckle experience. Very windy. Very shallow.

Go around the West side of Pine Island and come in from the North if you need to get into the canals at Matlacha. If you're going into the canals there, HUG the end of the docks going in. The channel is extremely narrow until you get into the canals maintained by Cape Coral. Matlacha doesn't have the tax revenue to pay for dredging.

Dave

CaptTom said:

Very nice video! I had a GoPro on the flybridge for the whole Down East Loop trip I did in 2016. It was my first attempt at converting those GoPro stills to video, and my lack of production skills really shows. But some of them came out pretty good.

My favorites are along the canals, through the locks and bridges, at this link and this link.

The whole blog and all the videos are at this link.

Click to expand...

Cool! Thanks.

dave907 said:

15/20 minutes sounds AWESOME. One hour and change to get through the trip captured in the video. Then another 30 minutes at 11 knots to get to the "deep" water North of Matlacha pass. Hence the reason I keep the boat in the Burnt Store Marina during the cruising season.

St. James City looks like a nice place to operate out of. I looked at some lots down there a few years ago. Easy access to Sanibel and Ft. Myers.

Cheers!

Dave

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And it is a very interesting trip thru the canal, going passed the Ragged Ass Saloon, the Low Key Tiki and Woody's with there out door bands playing. And there is always a few people hanging out on their own docks waving and saying hello.