The Coast Guard's latest Local Notice to Mariners for the Southeast District lists 21 daybeacons on the Big Marco Pass to Gordon Pass channel as destroyed or missing. For most of them, the proposed replacement is a different kind of marker, not a new post driven into the same spot. Thirteen fixed aids would become unlighted floating aids, because the Coast Guard can no longer get its own boats to the fixed structures in water that shallow.
For anyone who leaves a Port Royal dock and turns south at Gordon Pass toward Keewaydin, Capri or Marco, that is the real news this fall. The route has always moved with the sand. The proposal would give it markers that can move too, and the public comment window closes Monday, November 2.
A channel drawn around the water
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers describes the stretch between the two passes as "uncontrolled." In its October 2026 draft environmental assessment, the Corps explains that this kind of channel "follows best water (naturally deep areas) rather than an exact alignment." It has an authorized depth and width, but nobody fixes its path to coordinates.
The route is older than most of the houses that use it. Local interests built it in the early 1930s, and Congress authorized it as a federal project in 1938, running from the southern limit of Naples to Big Marco Pass. Big Marco Pass sits about 9 miles south of Gordon Pass. Keewaydin Island lies just west of the channel for most of that distance, with its northern tip at the Gordon Pass entrance. The City of Naples is the project's local sponsor and also owns Keewaydin.
So both ends of this story start at Port Royal's back door. Gordon Pass is the northern anchor, and the city that owns the island along the route is also the local sponsor of the federal project that maintains it.
What the October 21 notice lists
The notice dated 10/21/2026 lists each damaged daybeacon by number. Set against the proposed conversion list, they fall into four groups:
| Status in the notice | Daybeacons | Proposed for floating conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Destroyed | 1A, 2, 17, 28A, 36, 40, 53, 60, 65, 66, 68 | Yes |
| Missing | 2A, 67 | Yes |
| Destroyed | 18A, 26, 27A, 33, 44, 46 | Not on the list |
| Missing | 3, 56 | Not on the list |
Two entries need a word of explanation. Daybeacon 27A carries an extra flag as a hazard to navigation. Daybeacon 18A appeared under temporary changes as discontinued in the September 30 notice.
The private aids near the south end are in the same condition. Big Marco Pass Obstruction Daybeacons A, B and C and Obstruction Light E are all listed as destroyed, and Isles of Capri Daybeacon 6 is listed as missing.
The notices don't give a cause for the losses. What they show is how many there are. Twenty-one federal daybeacons on one 9-mile route are damaged or gone at the same time.
Why the replacement is a buoy
The Coast Guard explains its reasoning in the notice. Its assets "are unable to access the fixed structures due to shallow water depths." Converting to unlighted floating aids "will allow for timelier relocation of Aids when shoaling evolves," which the agency says "will provide a safer and more reliable channel for the mariners."
Read that next to the Corps definition, and the proposal is the agencies admitting what the channel has always been. A fixed daybeacon assumes the deep water will stay where it was when the piling went in. In an uncontrolled channel, the deep water is the alignment. When the shoals move, a fixed mark stays put while the deep water moves away from it. A floating aid can be picked up and reset where the deep water has gone.
The thirteen proposed conversions are 1A, 2, 2A, 17, 28A, 36, 40, 53, 60, 65, 66, 67 and 68. The notice describes this as a proposed change. Nothing in it says any floating aid has been set yet.
The dredge that would deepen the route at both ends
Moving the markers is half of the federal response. The other half is moving sand, and that work is planned for the two places the route has been neglected longest.
The Corps says Gordon Pass has been maintained since it was built in 1960, most recently in 2025. Big Marco Pass has never been maintained since its original construction, because there were few places to put the material and shoaling there has been slow. In 2024, the Coast Guard flagged the need to dredge Cuts J through O near Big Marco Pass and Cuts 1 through 3 of the uncontrolled channel near Gordon Pass. That is the same agency now proposing the floating aids, and it raised the depth problem two years earlier.
The October 2026 draft assessment covers that work. For the northern cuts, the Corps proposes dredging to an authorized 6 feet MLLW plus 1 foot of allowable overdepth. Where the sand goes depends on how much there is and whether it is compatible. Options include the western side of Key Island, built up to a target of +2 feet NAVD88, and the nearshore of Keewaydin Island between Florida Department of Environmental Protection monuments R-90 and R-94. Material from the southern cuts could go to the sand bar complex inside the waterway or to Tigertail Beach at Sand Dollar Island. Key Island is owned by the state's Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund and leased to Rookery Bay Preserve, and the sand bar complex is also leased to Rookery Bay.
The draft, along with a proposed Finding of No Significant Impact, is open for a 30-calendar-day public and agency review on the Corps' Environmental Documents page, listed under "Collier County." It is still a draft.
That work is separate from the Gordon Pass dredge announced last year. In September 2025, the Corps awarded Southwind Construction Corp. a $3,045,784.37 contract for Gordon Pass Cuts 1 through 7 and the settling basin. About 65,000 cubic yards of beach-compatible sand was set for Keewaydin Island, disaster relief supplemental money paid for it, and work was expected to start in November 2025. Taken together, the federal plan treats the pass, the channel behind Keewaydin and Big Marco Pass as one system, with Keewaydin's beach receiving sand from more than one of those projects.
The season's lunch runs, sorted by how much channel they cross
Because the problem sits in the uncontrolled stretch, it helps to group the familiar destinations by how much of that stretch they require. Starting from Port Royal:
- Naples Bay, no inside channel at all. The Boathouse on Naples Bay, at 990 Broad Avenue South, welcomes boat arrivals and offers free dockage. The Dock at Crayton Cove, at 845 12th Ave. S., has four first-come, first-served boat slips.
- Isles of Capri, the full run behind Keewaydin. Island Gypsy Cafe & Marina Bar, at 292 Capri Blvd., is on Capri Marina. Its published slip rates are for monthly, six-month and annual rentals. Pelican Bend, at 219 Capri Boulevard, offers waterfront dining and says at least 90% of its wet slips are available for public rent. At either one, a call ahead settles whether a slip is available for the length of a meal.
- Marco Island, the full run plus the Big Marco end. Snook Inn, at 1215 Bald Eagle Drive, advertises arrival by boat and waterfront dining. CJ's on the Bay at The Esplanade, 760 N. Collier Blvd., points boaters to free public dockage at the Esplanade docks, and The Esplanade Shoppes lists a 77-slip marina.
The sandbars past Marco have a calendar of their own. Rookery Bay closed Second-Chance Sandbar, about one mile southeast of Cape Romano, as a Critical Wildlife Area for nesting least terns, black skimmers and Wilson's plovers. In its 2025 notice, the closure began March 1 and barred people, pets and vessels, with signs coming down on Aug. 31 or earlier once the birds had left.
The farther down that list a trip goes, the more of it runs through water whose markers the federal agencies are reworking.
Where the comment window stands
The Coast Guard is taking comments on the floating-aid proposal by email at [email protected] or [email protected], with "Big Marco/Gordon Pass" as the subject line. Comments can also be mailed to Commander (dpw), U.S. Coast Guard Southeast District, 909 SE 1st Ave (STE 406), Brickell Plaza Federal Bldg, Miami, FL 33131-3050. Either way, they must arrive by November 2, 2026. That deadline falls on a Monday. The full notice, with every daybeacon and coordinate, is in the October 21 Local Notice to Mariners.
For a Port Royal homeowner, a deep-water dock and easy access to Gordon Pass are part of what the property is worth, and the condition of the water beyond the pass matters for the same reason. If you're weighing a waterfront purchase, planning a dock or lift project, or want a straightforward read on how boating access figures into a specific address, Anthony Caraballo is available for a private consultation.
