Yes yes, I know what you're talking about now. CIO used to work at South Seas Resort.
I lived in Cape Coral for a while, including the year that Central Florida got hit with 3 hurricanes. I think that North Capitva was partially flooded and they stopped letting people go out there for a few minutes. My friends lived on a canal in the Cape, just a few houses from the river, so it was easy to get out to Sanibel/Captiva quickly. Another friend of ours from law school came over to visit once, and she went out to North Captiva with her family.
I'll say this, the access roads to Sanibel/Captiva/Fort Myers Beach suck compared to the Sarasota beaches. But if you have a boat, all of those beaches are very nice.