Tropical Storm Sally caused some excitement on Sanibel this week, even if she did not come ashore here. Following many rainy season days, Southwest Florida already was soggy when the storm slowly passed offshore last weekend. So slowly, that as the week began, the City reported that in just nine days, 20.47” of rain had been recorded. Then, there was more.

Late Sunday, between bands (silly me, I thought it had stopped), I went out to check a nearby listing. Just minutes from my home, I received multiple City and County tornado warning messages – cell calls, texts, and emails. Thankfully, those were just caution alerts. Within the hour, the warnings were canceled. There are some cool wall-of-water photos taken then, posted on www.MySanibel.com.

With more often-heavy rain and strong winds Sunday night, by daybreak Monday, a moat surrounded my home and Anchor Dr, at the gulf-end was impassable in a low vehicle. Since that was the last day of my Continuing Ed classes via Zoom, I opted to take them at home, while Elise opened the office.

A surprise for her was finding SanibelSquare also flooded. A little water made it in up the step and through our back door, but for the most part, the buildings here bordering Periwinkle are OK.

The back buildings were not as lucky. They remained flooded as did the parking lot until the sun came out Wednesday.

Monday when the water in our front lawn along the bike path subsided, Elise spotted the return of a marsh bunny. We were worried about those little guys.

We love our critters and got a giggle Tuesday afternoon when ducks enjoyed our parking lot, swimming by our back door.

Island-wide, including on Captiva, it took nearly all week for the water to go down in many areas. Today, when out doing sign and property checks, I saw high water at the entrance to West Rocks and in the swales along West Gulf Dr. Luckily the forecast for the next week (other than Sunday) has little or no rain expected.

At SanibelSusan Realty Associates

Our listings had a few more inquiries and showings this week. The action posted since last Friday in the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service follows a couple of news items below.

The Association of Realtors® annual 12-part educational series to earn the islands specialist designation began this week. On Tuesday morning, I will be teaching the Resort and 2^nd Home Market module by Zoom. It probably will not be as much fun as a classroom setting but I have my course material updated and will do my best to make it informative.

City of Sanibel

Again, this week, Sanibel Mayor Ruane extended the declared state of emergency due to COVID-19 until September 22, 2020, unless further extended. (Per State Statute, the maximum duration for a Mayoral Declaration of Emergency is seven days and thus must be updated weekly as the emergency exists.)

Per the Florida Department of Health, Sanibel’s total accumulative number of COVID-19 cases since March 26 is 49.

Effective today (Sep 18, 2020), on Sanibel, irrigation is permitted only two days per week based on property address. Odd addresses on Mondays and Thursdays, even addresses on Tuesdays and Fridays. No irrigation is permitted between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. As of today, these regulations now apply year-‘round.

Another recent pro-environment City change is: As of Oct 1, 2020, plastic bags many no longer be used for yard and horticulture waste for collection by the City’s waste hauler. Yard and horticulture waste may continue to be properly bundled, collected in refuse containers, or disposed of in biodegradable paper lawn and leaf bags.

SCCF’s Turtle Patrol

The Conservation Foundation’s Turtle Patrol reported Monday that more than 50 sea turtle nests on Sanibel and about 25 on Captiva were still incubating as of Saturday. They thought about 10 nests may have washed away on Sanibel, but their team had not been able to assess Captiva due to high water.

Some nests were visibly washed out. Others had their stakes washed away, but eggs still incubating under the sand. Their turtle team worked all week to confirm which nests were fully lost. In some, they found stranded hatchlings and assisted getting them to the gulf.

Their updated report on Wednesday, said “Our team is using a GPS device to confirm which nests have been fully lost…. the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva, once crowded with a record number of yellow stakes marking nests, now host only 51 incubating nests on both islands combined. The season is all but over, with our last nests due to hatch in October. So far, 569 nests have hatched and 32,862 hatchlings have started their long journey to the Loop Current.”

Openings/Closings/September Scoop

The September vacations, deep cleans, and maintenance projects and improvements continue with the following business announcements this week:

Blue Giraffe – reopens tomorrow (Sat, Sep 18).

Cheeburger Cheeburger – reopens tomorrow (Sat, Sep 18).

Joey’s Custard – closed through Sep 30.

Over Easy Café – reopens tomorrow (Sat, Sep 18).

Paper Fig Kitchen – closed through Sep 20.

Schnapper’s – closed through  Sep 20.

The Sanctuary – Is often the site of our annual Realtor® End-of-Season Golf Tournament & Auction which some old-timers still call the “Over-the-Hump Party”. This year, because of the pandemic, it was postponed from late May until mid-October. This week it was announced that The Sanctuary has canceled all member and non-member events through December, so our tournament and party are canceled. But we will still have an RPAC auction – albeit a 2-day on-line event ending with a Zoom meeting. Just another twist to 2020.

Traditions at Island Inn – Closed for vacations through Sept 29.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service Activity September 11-18, 2020

Sanibel

CONDOS

3 new listings: Casa Blanca #8 2/1 $375K, Sundial #D204 1/1 $450K, Loggerhead Cay #573 2/2 $679K.

4 price changes: Seawind #A108 2/2.5 now $528K, Mariner Pointe #421 2/2.5 now $579K, Loggerhead Cay #192 2/2 now $719K, Pointe Santo #E23 2/2 now $899K.

5 new sales: Seawind #A103 2/2.5 listed at $579K, Loggerhead Cay #532 2/2 listed at $689K, Island Beach Club #220F 2/2 listed at $745K, Blue Gulf #201 3/2 listed at $1.199M, Sanibel Sunset #301 3/2 listed at $1.95M.

2 closed sales: Colonnades #3 1/1 $235K, Pointe Santo #D21 2/2 $530K.

HOMES

2 new listings: 1653 Bunting Ln 3/2.5 $647K, 1352 Eagle Run Dr 3/2.5 $1.095M.

1 price change: 3751 Coquina Dr 3/2 now $839K.

8 new sales: 915 Main St 2/1 listed at $439K, 1797 Serenity Ln 2/2 listed at $445K, 799 Casa Ybel Rd 5/3 duplex listed at $570K, 690 Durion Ct 3/2 listed at $695K, 9307 Dimmick Dr 3/2 listed at $699K, 1170 Buttonwood Ln 4/2 listed at $899K, 2343 Wulfert Rd 4/4.5 listed at $1.42M, 1175 Bird Ln 4/3/2 listed at $3.25M.

6 closed sales: 3001 Swinging Wind Dr 2/2 $406K; 1350 Middle Gulf Dr #1F (Moonshadows) 3/3 half-duplex $708,375; 1406 Causey Ct 3/2.5 $830K; 1271 Sand Castle Rd 3/2.5 $880K; 1437 Causey Ct 3/2.5 $902K; 940 Lindgren Blvd 3/2 $935K.

LOTS

No new listings.

1 price change: 1159 Golden Olive Ct now $1.599M.

No new sales.

1 closed sale: 4767 Tradewinds Dr $1,435,750.

Captiva

CONDOS

No new listings or price changes.

6 new sales: Bayside Villas #5110 1/2 listed at $369.5K, Bayside Villas #4204 1/2 listed at $389K, Bayside Villas #5136 1/2 listed at $399K, Bayside Villas #5228 12 listed at $399K, Bayside Villas #4220 1/2 listed at $415K, Beach Villas #2422 1/1 listed at $545K.

1 closed sale: Tennis Villas #3120 1/1 $300K.

HOMES & LOTS

No new listings, price changes, new or closed sales.

This representation is based in part on data supplied by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors® Multiple Listing Service. Neither the association nor its MLS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy.  Data maintained by the association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.  The information provided represents the general real estate activity in the community and does not imply that SanibelSusan Realty Associates is participating or participated in these transactions.

Below is our ad from today’s “Island Sun”.

Until next Friday, Susan Andrews, aka SanibelSusan