Hard it may be for the Fort Myers Offshore faithful to accept, the club’s 2025/2026 event-season is winding down. Just one traditional lunch run—the April 25 Season Finale outing to Riviera Bar and Grill in Punta Gorda—remains on the roster before out-of-town members return to their summer places in the Upper Midwest, Northeast and Canada. The mass exodus is just one month away.
But before that, as in next weekend, there is the club’s Cayo Costa Beach Raft-Up. In years past, the casual affair has attracted 20 to 30 boats to the Southwest Florida locale for a day on the sand. But the key words are “in years past,” because club-participation set records at every event this season.
This Saturday’s Cayo Costa happening follows last weekend’s remarkable adventure at Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key, where 37 club-members and their guests departed the Cape Coral/Fort Myers area and spent three days playing in the Middle Florida Keys. The event included two lunch runs one successful raft-up, a Friday night banquet and nonstop socializing among members of the close-knit but ever-inclusive group.
You would think the Fort Myers Offshore crowd might be ready for a break from “organized” events after such an immersive affair in the Keys. But chances are, you’d be wrong. The Cayo Costa Raft-Up is laidback for sure, which is saying something for a group that thrives on laidback. There is no set arrival time. Participants arrive and depart when they feel like it.
“Cayo Costa is super-chill, super-mellow event,” Julie Weiss, a Fort Myers Offshore board-member, told a reporter during Sunday’s ride back from Hawks Cay on a 39-foot Nor-Tech center console she owns with husband, Dan. “It’s just simple and fun.”
Short version? Don’t bet against next weekend’s affair being another record-setter for the club. It’s been that kind of season for Fort Myers Offshore—and the season is almost over.