Welcome to South Padre Island, TX

Boating in South Padre Island, TX Map View

Private interests have dredged a ship basin at the S end of Padre Island just inside Brazos Santiago Pass entrance. The basin had shoaled to a reported depth of 9 feet in 1982. There is a large marina in the basin where gasoline, diesel fuel, water, ice, open berths, dry stack storage, some marine supplies, and surface launching ramps are available.
Navigation:
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Brazos Santiago Pass (Brazos Santiago), the approach to Port Isabel and Port Brownsville, is a narrow pass from the Gulf to the lower end of Laguna Madre, between the S end of Padre Island and the N end of Brazos Island.
In approaching Brazos Santiago Pass on a clear day, the radio antenna at South Padre Island Coast Guard Station and the water tank and Port Isabel Light are the first objects sighted. Soon thereafter the mariner will pickup Brazos Santiago Light and the Coast Guard station inside the entrance on the N side. The light on top of the radio antenna of the Coast Guard station is prominent at night. On clear nights it is reported to be visible 20 or more miles offshore. The large hotels and condominiums on Padre Island N of the entrance are prominent.
Port Isabel Light (26°04’36″N., 97°12’24’W.), 91 feet above the water, is shown from the white conical brick tower; the light is maintained by the State.
The pass has been improved by the construction of two rubble mound jetties extending nearly 1 mile into the Gulf and by dredging a channel between them from deep water in the Gulf. Federal project depths are 44 feet in the Brazos Santiago Pass entrance channel, thence 42 feet through the jetty channel and across Laguna Madre to the junction of the channels leading to Port Brownsville and Port Isabel, 36 feet to Port Isabel turning basin, and 42 feet from the junction to the Brownsville Turning Basin.
The entrance is marked by a lighted buoy about 2 miles E of the jetties, a lighted 269°30′ entrance range, a lighted bell buoy off the submerged part of the N jetty, and a lighted gong buoy off the end of the S jetty. The channels are marked by lighted ranges, lights, a daybeacon, and lighted buoys.

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South Padre Island, TX

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In The Zone: The Sabre 51 Salon Express

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