Most of Charlotte County Florida’s waterfront homes are situated on canals. Some canals have seawalls, others have rip-rap rock and others have the natural setting. The canals in Punta Gorda Isles and Burnt Store Isles are owned by the incorporated city of Punta Gorda. The benefit of this is they maintain the seawall systems. All homes in these neighborhoods have seawalls. All of the homes in Punta Gorda Isles and Burnt Store Isles have a minimum of 100 feet in width
Port Charlotte waterways have a variety of canal fronts. Some homeowners prefer the natural landscape for their water frontage and others like a seawall or rip-rap. Rip rap is a rock bank that is typically hand laid with a backing to minimize water intrusion. Some rip-rap is secured with concrete- either way it serves the purpose well of maintaining your property line. The county does not maintain any seawalls in Port Charlotte. Both Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte have a huge network of canal systems that have varying depths depending on the individual canal.
Punta Gorda Isles and Burnt Store Isles canals generally have a minimum of 8 feet in the center of the canal and 10-15 canal depths are quite common in many of the canals. The canal exist’s offer different characteristics. The northern exists of many Punta Gorda Isles homes are Bass Inlet, Sailfish Inlet and Tarpon inlet. Large sailboats, trawlers and sportfisherman are often seen traversing these inlets. The western exit for many homes in Punta Gorda Isles is via the Ponce de Leon Inlet. This inlet is essentially a natural river that winds its way to the harbor. It is well marked with day markers outlining the channel. Canal dredging is occasionally performed to maintain adequate depths. There are no bridges and deep draft boats, sailboats and large power cruisers can be seen leaving their home port.
Burnt Store Isles (BSI) canal systems exit via Alligator Creek. Because of the strong tidal flow in the creek care is needed to follow the channel markers out. While driving through BSI you will see a variety of sizable craft from large sailboats to power boats.
Port Charlotte canals depths vary depending on the canal. The “old sailboat section” located to the south of Edgewater Drive has deep water canals that exit directly into Charlotte Harbor. Generally, you will find over 7 feet of draft in these canals. Sailboats are moored up and down these canals with street names such as Beeney, Bangsberg, Cousley, Croop, Small, Frye Terrace and the like. These are the deepest quick access canals in Port Charlotte and are perfect for the sailboater or power boater that requires a deeper draft. Other sailboat access waters are off of Harbor Blvd. south and offer a little longer boat ride time out with good water depths. Perhaps the best way to size up the neighborhood is to drive the streets and see the various types of vessels that are moored behind the boats.
Port Charlotte has several exit waterways including:
- Elkcam Waterway
- Sunrise Waterway
- East Spring Lake
- West Spring Lake
- Countryman Waterway
- Ackerman Waterway
- Manchester Waterway
Pirate Harbor is the southernmost neighborhood in Punta Gorda. It is a non-deed restricted neighborhood with deep water canals and no bridges. The limiting factor is primarily the Pirate Harbor channel that runs east to west after you leave the canal systems. You will see sailboats and powerboats up to 32 feet in the canals. At one point in time there was a neighbor who had a 45’ Hatteras Sportsfisherman which in reality is larger than one should expect to dock at their home. Most boats in the neighborhood average under 25 feet. For the larger boats, attention to the tide height is advisable.
