ShellSanibel
Read the beach.
Beaches · Saturday, August 22
Captiva Beach
North Captiva · West-northwest facing
Here, today
Promising
- The daylight low drops to 0.3 ft, which uncovers about as much bar as this coast gets.
- Wind is 12 mph onshore from the WSW — helping, though not strong enough to suggest a major new deposit.
- Work the wet wash and the edge of the wrack line rather than expecting a pile.
Best walk window here
3:39 PM–6:39 PM
Low water 0.3 ft at 5:09 PM.
Today’s tides here
| Tide | Time | Height |
|---|---|---|
| High | 8:14 AM | 2.2 ft |
| Low | 5:09 PM | 0.3 ft |
These times are interpolated between the Point Ybel and Redfish Pass tide-table offsets, applied to NOAA’s St. Petersburg predictions — -61.6 minutes on the high, -73.76 on the low, heights scaled by 0.95.
The beach
North-end Gulf beach with a steeper profile than Sanibel’s. A steeper beach means a narrower wash line — less ground, more concentrated.
- Access
- Captiva Drive, near the north end.
- Parking
- Very limited. Read the signs carefully.
- Orientation
- West-northwest facing
- What to look for
- The narrow band at the waterline, and the base of the steeper slope.
Access and parking change with the season and after storms. Check the City of Sanibel or Lee County before you rely on them.
Taking live shells is prohibited in Lee County
That includes anything with the animal still in it, and sand dollars, sea stars and urchins whether or not they look alive. If it moves, if it closes, if it is anchored to the sand — put it back where you found it, the right way up.
A shell with an animal in it is not a souvenir that has been left out. It is the animal’s house, and the beach is not producing spares.