Burnt Store Isles is a beautiful neighborhood just outside the center of town of Punta Gorda. There are no bridges to access the harbor from this neighborhood and many would call it a sailboat accessible neighborhood just on that fact alone. However, any mariner that has a boat with any significant draft knows that water depths are all important. A hard or soft grounding is never fun!
The short answer is YES, Burnt Store Isles (BSI) is indeed a sailboat access neighborhood in the real sense of the word. The mitigating water depths that are of most concern are to be found in Alligator Creek which is the path from the canal systems to the creek to make final entrance into Charlotte Harbor. The county maintains the water depths in Alligator Creek and recently dredged to 6 feet mean low water (MLW). I just confirmed by doing actual soundings on December 16, 2018 that they indeed accomplished this along the entire creek. A true 6 feet of water minimum on a low tide. Most of the water way was deeper but there were just a few spots that were slightly deeper than 6 feet. Perhaps if I would shift the boat off the center of the channel I may have found a little deeper water but I mainly stayed true to the center of the channel well up into Burnt Store Isles. I will also say that the Rim Canal of Burnt Store Isles is well above 6 feet and mainly over 7 in most places so any concerns whether the rim canal is sailboat accesible is not a question. The rim canal has a few tight spots if two boats were passing at the same time but there is relatively light boat traffic and I don’t expect anyone to have a problem.
I am adding the complete sounding measurements for Alligator Creek prior to the end of December 2018. There will be a lot of detail covering depths, markers, scenary, photographs and other commentary on the ride through the creek into Burnt Store Isles
For years there was a common misconception that there was often less than 5 feet MLW, which was true many years ago however the county has been aggressively dredging to keep up with the ebb and flow of the tidal waters which in themselves change bottom contours and reduce depth.
The area that is of the biggest concern is the “S” bend entrance at Marker 1 in the harbor from there your entrance is from a northwesterly direction to a hard left to the east with a couple of minor sways in the channel which is very nicely marked and easy to navigate. This area actually cuts through a tidal flats area which explains why it sometimes requires more dredging then other parts of the creek navigation channel. It is indeed sailboat accessible with drafts close to 6 feet and no problem on mid to higher tides with a true 6 foot draft.
Is Burnt Store Isles a good place for your catamaran or tri-maran vessel? NO! The mitigating area for cat hulls is the exit from the BSI canals into Alligator Creek which has 17 feet of width so your beam on a cat hull is likely not going to make it through. This location was once a lock system, that was disabled after the canals were created and filled from the harbor. Negotiating through this narrowing is normally not an issue as there are mirrors at either end of the opening to let you know if another vessel is approaching.
What Are The Canal Depths In Burnt Store Isles? For the most part they are plenty deep from 8-12 feet and more.
