Launching a sailboat on Gabriola

It took us almost a month for my husband and I find a few hours together during the day to launch our little sailboat. On Friday that timed up perfectly with slack tide. We had heard that False Narrows would be the right place to launch our Nordica sail boat, so we thought we'd give it a try. The boat launch for False Narrows is located just off of El Verano on Gabriola. The launch couldn't have gone any better, the sandy bottom and the slack made it really easy for us. When we got to the dock we worked on rigging up the mast and the shrouds, not a bad job for our first time, but we'll have our neighbour come and have a look before we set sail. There are a few options for launching a boat on Gabriola, there is a place at the end of Gray Road (Degnen Bay), a small boat launch at Twin Beaches (Gabriola Sands), and you can also arrange it at Silva Bay for a small fee. With all the outer islands in such close proximity, Gabriola is the perfect place to begin your explorations at sea.

Launching into fun from Gabriola

If you live on an Island, you likely have some love/appreciation/longing of the beautiful waters that surround you. We recently put our dad's boat in the water, and found it easy to launch from the end of Gray Road (Degnen Bay, Gabriola). There is also a place to launch your boat from Narrow’s Road just off of Elverano. The best time to launch is definitely high tide, and there are many places to explore around Gabriola, including Valdez, Ruxton, Mudge and Decourcy. With sun in the forecast everyday during the next 14 day period, you definitely want to consider being close to the beach. I've created a google map to show places on Gabriola to set your boat or kayak, if there are any others that you know of please let me know and I'll add them too.

A great level walk on Gabriola.

The weather seems to be cheering up, giving lots of opportunities to get outside for some fresh air and a chance to burn off some of the winter reservoirs that some of us may be packing around. Some people have injuries, physical limitations or just prefer a relatively flat walking route and the loop from Brickyard around El Verano Road and onto the beach seems to be one of the favorites on Gabriola.

There are some ways to extend this walk as well by adding in the clamshell/stokes roads, you can make it all on the road or incorporate a walk on the sandy beach into your route by going down the boat launch off El Verano (which is easy to spot – it’s one of the few places on the Island that has more than 5 cars on the side of the road).

There is also history here, brickyard beach use to have a substantial industrial role on the Island, producing over 80,000 bricks daily, brick remnants still line the beaches. If you’re in to creating an adventure, there is a geocache site hidden near the Brickyard picnic site – have fun!