John's Sanibel Island Real Estate Blog

Another weekend outing on the boat took us (Scott McPhee and I) up the canals of Pine Island. More specifically, the southern end of Pine Island. Lots of people were out fishing as we passed under the Sanibel Causeway and we had to slow down to watch one angler catch what looks like about a 12-pound grouper. He was fishing just under the causeway pilings to make use of the swift currents, which attract some nice size fish.

It's an easy, and fairly quick, trip to Pine Island from the south end of Sanibel. All you have to do when you get there is to figure out the entrance markers and then find the canal you are looking for. We wanted to find the "Monroe" canal because we wanted to check out a restaurant/bar that someone told us about.

We easily found the canal (the big sign at the entrance was a major clue) and idled down the canal with single family homes on both sides. This is a terrific area with all the houses being colorful and all having boat docks and well kept boats. This is definitely a boating community.

We found the place we were looking for and tied the boat up to their dock. How could you not seek out a place with a name like "The Ragged Ass Saloon"? With a name like that it's got to be worth finding. And we were right - Dark, well used bar stools and friendly patrons and staff.

We both had burgers, a couple drafts and enjoyed the atmosphere of a non-tourist comfortable place. The food was good and the prices were reasonable. Listening to the local conversations around us reinforced our view that this is a boating community. Another enjoyable day.

I guess I have to mention the boat motor. In the last two posts I said how good it was finally running, but it seems to be back to its old tricks again. It runs like its got a tennis ball stuck in its carburetor, but by shutting off the motor and restarting it, the problem is cured. It sounds electrical to me, but if anyone reading this has a clue to what the problem is, feel free to comment to this post.