Check It Off the List - False Narrows

Hope Bay Public Wharf and Guest Mooring Buoy (on right)

Next on our list was a visit for lunch at the new Gather café, overlooking Hope Bay Public Wharf on North Pender Island.

Gather Teahouse Eatery & Stage at Hope Bay

Several restaurants have come and gone at Hope Bay, but we think the new Gather Teahouse Eatery & Stage has found the right combination of food and entertainment to keep folks coming back.

Live entertainment is held inside the café on Thursdays during the summer months, with outdoor concerts held on Saturdays. Tickets are available online for the Saturday venue at gatherpenderisland.com; various talented bands are scheduled throughout the summer. On July 20^th, for example, the Masimba Marimba band is scheduled to play their joyous, upbeat African music, inspired by the culture of Zimbabwe.

Owners of Gather Teahouse, Mathew and Sherry Des Roches, are off to a great start, with 200 people in attendance at their last scheduled event. The word has also gotten around for their farm-to-table inspired foods and organic eats.

You can enjoy a refreshing iced tea or a hot latte tea that’s naturally infused with flavor. The small gift shop carries over 30 organic and fresh loose-leaf teas, packaged espresso coffee, and local craft beer and ciders. Gather is open Thursday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Gather Teahouse Eatery has a good working relationship with local farms, and there’s nothing better than the taste of fresh lettuce and vegetables from the garden.

We enjoyed the Galaxy Bowl, a wonderful combination of seasonal vegetables and greens with organic brown rice and a nutritional yeast vinaigrette dressing. We also had the Lightkeepers Seafood Chowder, a traditional 50’s recipe from those who lived and tended west coast lighthouse stations. It’s a grandfather’s recipe from the staff at Gather, and includes a cream base with pacific white shrimp, wild pacific cod, sole and local root vegetables; served with local artisan bread and butter, ooh so good.

For visitors arriving by boat, you can tie vessels on the outside of the wharf as space allows, or anchor out in settled weather. A guest buoy, suitable for boats up to 38 feet, is available while visiting Hope Bay.

From Hope Bay Public Wharf, we cruised up Navy Channel, passing through the Gulf Islands that spread themselves along the east coast of Vancouver Island. The Gulf Islands provide sheltered waters from the Strait of Georgia until the northern most island of Gabriola. This is also where boaters need to go through a choke point between the islands in order to continue northward. There are actually three choices (gates), all of which should be taken at slack water. The first and most common choice is through Dodd Narrows between Vancouver Island and Mudge Island. The second choice is to turn east and go through the gap (Gabriola Passage) between Valdes Island and Gabriola Island. This puts you out in the Strait of Georgia while motoring along the east side of Gabriola, until you are able to duck into Nanaimo harbour or continue north to other destinations along Vancouver Island.

Approaching False Narrows from the south

The third and least traveled gateway is through False Narrows between Mudge Island and Gabriola Island. While the current is half that of Dodd Narrows, the channel is very shallow with reefs; two sets of range markers help keep you in the deepest part of the channel. At first glance, the narrows look wide, but reefs are lying just under the surface of the water.

Heading towards the Range Markers

We had been wanting to go through this channel for several years, but found we didn’t have enough water depth when we stopped and looked in previous years. This year, the timing was good as we were at a 13 plus tide when reaching the entrance to False Narrows. Got d’ Fever has a draft of just under 5 feet, so our personal comfort level to transit False Narrows is on a 10 foot or better tide level.


False Narrows is heavily laden with kelp, which can tangle in your prop and/or get into the water intake for engine cooling. We found that being slightly just off the range makers kept us out of the worst patches of kelp.

Cute Cottages line the shores of False Narrows

We motored slowly through the channel, keeping an eye on the charts that show the route, and another eye on the range markers for the deepest channel; we soon made it through to the northern end near Dodd Narrows. We can now check False Narrows off our “done that list.”