Sailing to caya Costa state park?

Anyone here sailed to caya Costa? I'm thinking of trying it as my first sail camping trip. I'm not sure if it might be a bit advanced for my first trip.

I live close to the spoil islands around Dunedin and Edgemont key so those are options as well.

Check with Bill 404. He went last year. I know he has a thread about it on this forum somewhere. Try searching.

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Zach

I've done it in my flats boat a few times. It's not very far. There can be boating traffic, depending on the day. If you hated the trip out or the weather turned bad, you could always load your kayak, sail, and stuff on the ferry and head back to Pineland. Cayo Costa is a very special island!

Another good trip is from Goodland to Cape Romano for primitive camping. You can see Chekika's thread on our trip there last year HERE]. And the upcoming trip HERE. Scroll down.

I made an attempt to sail there last year in my TI. I came from Cape Harbor around the southern end of Pine Island and north through Pine Island Sound. Heavy head winds, big swells, and tides all conspired against me and force me to turn back as I started to lose daylight. I ended up primitive camping on Picnic Island just south of St James city and had a great time anyway. I have been to Caya Costa a couple of time since then, but I have not attempted another trip in the TI. I really like CC but it's tough to get a shady camp site and its a long portage if you want your kayak at your camp site. They won't haul your yak in the pickup shuttle so it's either leave it at the docs, walk it one mile to the camp site, or land it on the gulf side of the island and haul it up the beach a couple of hundred yards to the camp sites. If you arrive on the beach side you still have to catch a shuttle (or walk) the one mile back across to the ranger station to check in (if you are camping).

yakmaster has it right: it is not convenient to camp on Cayo Costa with a kayak or Island. You can do it, just not convenient. As Terry said, you are welcome to join us on our first trip of the season from Goodland to Cape Romano. This is primitive camping--no johns, no fresh water, just beautiful sunrise/sunsets, smoke-free beach accommodations, and peace and quiet at night except for an occasional noisy fish. This should be a good fishing year. If so, we will have a group fish fry. Details are at http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&p=224477#p224477 Scroll down.

Keith

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