From a Port Royal dock, Gordon Pass is the easy part of the trip. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintained the pass in 2025. Past it, the inside channel runs south behind Keewaydin Island toward Isles of Capri and Marco, and that stretch starts the 2026–27 season in rougher shape on paper than it has in years. The Coast Guard's Local Notice to Mariners dated October 28, 2026 lists 21 daybeacons on the Big Marco Pass–Gordon Pass channel as destroyed or missing. The agency's proposed fix is to replace many of those fixed posts with floating aids that can be moved as the sand moves. A fixed line of markers is the wrong tool for a channel that keeps changing shape. Over the next few years, the route behind Keewaydin is likely to be marked by aids that follow the shoals instead of sitting in one place.
The Pass Was Dredged. The Nine Miles Past It Were Not.
The water between Gordon Pass and Big Marco Pass is a federal project with a long history. A draft environmental assessment published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in October 2026 says local interests built the channel in the early 1930s. Congress authorized federal participation in 1938, and the project was modified in 1960. The same document puts Big Marco Pass about 9 miles south of Gordon Pass. Keewaydin Island sits immediately west of the federal channel, and its northern tip marks the entrance to Gordon Pass.
Each section of that channel has its own maintenance history. Gordon Pass has been maintained regularly since 1960, most recently in 2025. Big Marco Pass, according to the Corps, has not been maintained since it was first built. The 2025 work at Gordon Pass came from a contract the Corps announced in September 2025. Southwind Construction received $3,045,784.37 for Gordon Pass cuts 1 through 7, including the settling basin, with about 65,000 cubic yards of beach-compatible sand planned for Keewaydin Island.
The stretch in between carries an unusual label. The Corps calls it the "uncontrolled" portion of the federal channel, which means it "follows best water (naturally deep areas) rather than an exact alignment." It has an authorized depth and width, but its path isn't fixed to map coordinates. The marker proposal and the dredging plan both follow from that definition. When the deep water moves, the channel moves with it, and a daybeacon set on a piling stays where it was built.
What the October 28 Notice Lists
The Coast Guard publishes its District 7 Local Notice to Mariners weekly. Every issue this fall has carried the same list of problems on this channel. The September 30 notice listed them, and so did the notices dated October 7, October 16, October 21 and October 28. Here is how the October 28 notice sorts them:
| Status in the Oct. 28, 2026 notice | Big Marco Pass–Gordon Pass daybeacons |
|---|---|
| Structure destroyed, daymark trouble | 1A, 2, 17, 26, 27A, 28A, 33, 36, 40, 46, 53, 60, 65, 66, 68 |
| Structure destroyed | 18A, 44 |
| Structure missing, daymark trouble | 2A, 3, 56, 67 |
| Listed as discontinued under temporary changes | 18A |
That comes to 21 federal daybeacons, and the notice shows no temporary replacement buoy for any of them. Daybeacon 27A also carries a hazard-to-navigation flag. The notices list privately maintained aids nearby in a separate section. The Big Marco Pass Obstruction Daybeacons A, B and C and Obstruction Light E are listed as destroyed, and Isles of Capri Daybeacon 6 is listed as missing.
The notices are public, and the Coast Guard posts them at its Navigation Center. A new one is due every week, so the latest issue is the one that matters for any given trip.
Why the Coast Guard Wants Markers That Float
The Coast Guard's September 30 notice says "Coast Guard assets are unable to access the fixed structures due to shallow water depths." Shoaling has made the water around these daybeacons too shallow for the Coast Guard's own crews to reach the pilings and repair them.
The proposal would turn 13 of those fixed daybeacons into unlighted floating aids. The notice gives the reason: "This conversion will allow for timelier relocation of Aids when shoaling evolves. This flexibility will provide a safer and more reliable channel for the mariners." The daybeacons named for conversion are:
- 1A, 2 and 2A
- 17
- 28A
- 36 and 40
- 53
- 60
- 65, 66, 67 and 68
The public comment period ran through November 2, 2026, with comments going to the Coast Guard Southeast District office in Miami. The proposal covers a window from September 2026 to August 2031. Until a later notice reports the conversion as finished, it remains a proposal, and the weekly notices still show the fixed structures as destroyed or missing.
For anyone who has run this channel for years, the change matters. The route behind Keewaydin has long been marked by posts that stayed in the same place season after season. The Coast Guard is proposing a system built around the fact that the deep water moves.
The Dredging Plan Behind the Markers
Moving the markers is half of the response. The Corps' October 2026 draft environmental assessment covers the other half, which is digging the shoals out. The Corps writes that "the accumulation of sediment, commonly referred to as shoaling, has reduced the navigable depth of the project channel." In 2024, the Coast Guard identified a need to maintenance-dredge Cuts J through O near Big Marco Pass and Cuts 1 through 3 in the uncontrolled part of the channel.
The draft would dredge those cuts to the authorized depth of 6 feet MLLW, plus 1 foot of allowable overdepth. Possible sites for the dredged material include Sand Dollar Island, the Rookery Islands Sand Bar Complex, Key Island and Keewaydin Island. The City of Naples is the project's non-federal sponsor. The Corps says the goal is to improve "navigation, safety, recreation, and tourism." The document is a draft released for a 30-day public and agency review, and it sets no construction date.
The draft also clarifies where Key Island sits. The Corps places it at the junction of the uncontrolled channel and the Gordon Pass section of the federal channel. That makes the area just south of Gordon Pass, near Keewaydin's northern end, the point where the regularly maintained channel ends and the stretch that follows best water begins.
Where the Route Still Ends
The places at the end of the run are the same ones they have always been.
- Keewaydin Island. Visit Naples describes Keewaydin, also called Key Island, as an eight-mile island south of Gordon Pass that can only be reached by boat. Its busiest anchorage is at the southern end, where boats anchor off the beach or pull up onto the sand. The same guide says dogs should be leashed.
- The Rookery Bay reserve. Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve calls Keewaydin a local recreation destination used by thousands of boaters each year. Its rules prohibit unleashed pets and glass containers. Designated camping sites north of San Marco Road, including those on Keewaydin, stay open year-round unless posted otherwise, with no permit or reservation required. Some areas close to access from March through August for nesting shorebirds. On land, the reserve's Environmental Learning Center at 300 Tower Road is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., from October through June.
- Capri Boulevard on the Isles of Capri. Capri Fish House at 203 Capri Blvd. is listed as a waterfront stop for boaters. Pelican Bend at 219 Capri Blvd. is listed as boat-accessible, and Island Gypsy Cafe & Marina Bar sits on the water at 292 Capri Blvd. This end of the route is also where the notices list Isles of Capri Daybeacon 6 as missing.
- The Marco River. Snook Inn at 1215 Bald Eagle Drive on Marco Island describes itself as a boat-accessible Marco River restaurant open 11 a.m. to midnight daily.
Keewaydin's southern anchorage, Capri Boulevard and the Marco River all sit south of the point where the regularly maintained Gordon Pass channel ends. Getting to any of them means running the uncontrolled stretch that the destroyed-marker list, the floating-aid proposal and the dredging draft all cover.
For many Port Royal owners, a home on the water south of Old Naples comes down to how easily the boat gets from the dock to places like these, and that changes faster than the property listings show. If you're weighing a waterfront home near Gordon Pass and want to talk through what the water access looks like this season, Peter Rose and the team are glad to walk through it with you. Contact Us.