6. Fort Myers Beach

The sheltered harbour behind the slip of sand they call Fort Myers Beach, where the shrimp boats tie up and where cruisers used to anchor, is full of moorings now. You have to pay to stay. But it is a good harbour and that is the way things are going.

Fort Myers Beach has avoided the sophistication of other costal resorts. No high-rise condos here: cottages, wooden motels with rotting skirts, ‘Weekly rentals’, and communities of mobile homes that never move: an oasis for the thrifty. On the beach you can meet brittle boned seniors striding stiffly or an unshaven man pulling on a cigarette, which seems to require considerable suction, cupped in one hand. But everyone nods or smiles whether they have teeth or not. The main street offers ‘Voted Best Beach Ware’, ‘Tattoos’, ‘Body piercing’, ‘Tanning’ (Tanning in Florida?) and the intriguing ‘Treasures from underwater wrecks’ which include shells, stuffed toy dolphins and lighthouse ashtrays.

A local tells us that the shrimp boats have not been out all summer. What with the high price of fuel and the low price of shrimp it is not worth it. The fresh shrimp served in the waterfront restaurants come frozen from Asia.