quasi Report This Comment
Date: October 20, 2025 12:25PM

Why Gasparilla Sound (circled in blue) is named above the harbor is beyond me. Pine Island Sound is circled in red. The Gulf of Mexico is the large water expanse on the left. I've kayaked them all as well as the Peace and Myakka rivers that flow into the harbor from the north though not much on the gulf because it's rarely calm enough. Punta Gorda is Spanish for Fat Point and notice how it is a fat point of land extending into the harbor; the name goes back to Spanish fishermen long before there was a town there, it was just a landmark. Before the Spaniards drove them out the area along the gulf from the harbor south to the tip of Florida was the realm of the Caloosa Indians and I'm both honored and saddened to be paddling these waters much the same as they did.