From an Aqualane Shores Dock, Where Naples Bay Takes You This Season

"The following year-round zones are established, which include all associated and navigable tributaries, lakes, creeks, coves, bends, backwaters, canals, channels, boat basins, and other waterways unless otherwise designated or excluded."

That sentence opens the Collier County section of Florida's manatee protection rule, F.A.C. 68C-22.023. The key word is "year-round." Plenty of boaters treat Naples Bay's slow zones as a winter rule that switches on around mid-November. For Naples Bay, Gordon Pass, Port Royal and the canals connected to them, the rule sets no seasonal window. So the bay at the end of an Aqualane Shores dock works more like a slow neighborhood street than a highway. Once that sinks in, the useful question for this season is where the street lets you stop.

Three Fast Channels, and None Starts at Your Dock

The rule names the whole area as "Naples Bay/Gordon Pass/Dollar Bay." All of it is Slow Speed, from the Tamiami Trail bridges south to marker 52 at the north end of The Narrows. Its western edge is a line across Gordon Pass through marker 7. Inside that area, the rule allows 30 mph only in specific marked channels:

1. The north-south marked channel in Naples Bay, from south of marker 33 to north of marker 52.
2. The east-west marked channel inside Gordon Pass, east of marker 10, running to a line off the southern tip of the peninsula that holds Bayview Park.
3. The marked channel of Haldeman Creek, north to marker 3.

Everything outside those channels stays Slow Speed, including the canals behind Gordon Drive. The 30-mph allowance in the pass ends at marker 10, and the zone's outer boundary sits at marker 7. That leaves a stretch at the mouth of Gordon Pass that is slow water, even though it looks like open water. To the north, the Gordon River above the US 41 bridges, up to the structure at Golden Gate Parkway, is its own Slow Speed zone with no fast-channel allowance.

This is general information, not legal advice. The rule text is the authority, and anyone with a question about how it applies to a specific route should take it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The final rule page lists an effective date of February 19, 2018.

Markers deserve a look too. The Coast Guard's Local Notice to Mariners dated March 25, 2026 listed Gordon Pass Channel Light 3 as missing and Daybeacons 5 and 18 as destroyed. In Naples Bay, it listed Daybeacon 22 as destroyed and Daybeacon 25 as destroyed and a hazard to navigation. That notice is seven months old. The current weekly notice is the one to check before the first run of the season.

Where the Bay Publishes an Open Invitation

With most of the trip at slow speed, the lunch stop is the outing. Many waterfront restaurants on the bay offer views. Far fewer publish clear terms for tying up a private boat. Here is how the main stops describe themselves.

The Boathouse on Naples Bay is the clearest case. Its site invites guests to arrive "by land or sea" and says dockage is free.

Naples City Dock is the public option, and it is a full-service stop. It sells Rec 90 ethanol-free gasoline and off-highway dyed diesel, runs a free self-serve pump-out around the clock, and stocks ice, frozen bait and live shrimp. Seventeen fishing, sailing and sightseeing charters also run from there. Transient reservations open up to three months ahead. Since June 1, 2025, cancelling less than 24 hours before the 2 p.m. check-in on arrival day costs one night of dockage. On a busy winter weekend, that three-month booking window matters more than the nightly rate.

The resort stops have changed too. Naples Bay Resort lists Nosh on Naples Bay, Blackbird Modern Asian, Bluewater Bar & Grill, Indulge and Café on the Bay. Gulfshore Business counted Blackbird among the resort's new additions in 2025. At Bayfront, Bambu Tropical Bar & Grille serves breakfast, lunch and dinner on the water. Up the Gordon River, Tin City lists Riverwalk and Pinchers as its two waterfront restaurants. Riverwalk describes itself as fully open-air, with seafood and live music.

For guests who belong to a yacht club elsewhere in Florida, the private Naples Yacht Club gives members of other Florida Council of Yacht Clubs clubs their first 24 hours of reciprocal dockage free. It asks for reservations in advance.

Crayton Cove Is Getting Some Depth Back

The bay's stopping points are also changing physically. On September 2, 2026, according to the city's 2026 voting record, Naples City Council voted 7-0 to approve a maintenance dredge at the Old Naples Seaport, 895 10th Street South, which the Old Naples Seaport Yacht Association owns. The request aims to remove shoaling that has limited boat access to the facility. The plan calls for a mechanical dredge to depths between minus 4 and minus 7 feet, removing about 4,499 cubic yards of material. In the meeting record, city staff said the work would not change flow in the Naples Bay navigation channel.

At the same meeting, Council approved new dredging in the Gordon River next to the Hyatt House at 1331 5th Avenue South, with added conditions on when the marine permit can be issued. The application pairs the dredge with a reconfigured dock that includes transient slips, in water described as 4 to 5 feet deep today. Neither approval came with a construction date. For now, it is enough to know that two waterfronts close to Fifth Avenue South have been cleared for work to make them easier to reach by boat.

When the Guests Arrive Without a Boat

Visitors from out of town often want the bay without the slow ride from Gordon Pass. The Naples Bay Water Shuttle is on its off-season break and returns Thanksgiving weekend 2026. Sand Dollar Boat Tours runs it aboard the Blue Pelican. A $20 all-day pass covers unlimited hop-on, hop-off rides. The boat loops about once an hour, generally from noon to 8 p.m., though hours vary by season.

The named stops line up closely with the boater's map above:

• Naples City Dock and the Crayton Cove dock
• Syren Oyster Bar
• Naples Bay Resort
• Hyatt House
• Bayfront, home to Cabana Bar, K Rico, EJ's, Tavern on the Bay and Bambu Tropical Bar & Grille
• Naples Sailing & Yacht Club
• The Boathouse on Naples Bay

That gives a household a practical setup for the holidays. Whoever has the boat can run to The Boathouse or City Dock, and everyone else can ride the shuttle to the same table. A guest who starts at City Dock is also a few blocks from Third Street South. The two weeks after stone crab season opens is when that end of town feels fully back for the season.

Keewaydin in the Months It Belongs to Boaters

The longest outing from an Aqualane dock goes south of Gordon Pass to Keewaydin Island. Rookery Bay describes the island as eight miles of public recreational barrier island and wildlife nesting habitat. Its rules prohibit unleashed animals, glass containers, harassing or removing wildlife, and pollution. Access is restricted from March through August for nesting shorebirds. Visit Florida describes Keewaydin as reachable only by boat, dog-friendly and without permanent facilities, with food barges that may stop by. Check any posted signs before anchoring or landing.

The calendar works in a boater's favor here. The months when the bay is busiest, from late fall through February, fall outside the March-to-August restrictions. By the time those restrictions return, the island's turtle season is being tracked in public. In 2026 the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and Rookery Bay launched a live Keewaydin nesting dashboard that shows new nests, false crawls and hatchling emergence as they happen.

Transient reservations at Naples City Dock open three months ahead, so a slip for a late-February weekend can be booked starting in late November.

If you are weighing what a dock on these canals offers day to day, from the run to Gordon Pass to the places you can tie up, I am glad to talk it through from a long-time Naples resident's perspective. Samantha Kiffney knows these waters and the neighborhoods along them, from Aqualane Shores to Port Royal. Let's Connect.