A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in Desolation Sound
Dock-and-dine here is real, and the reason is simple: the lodges are the destination. You are not tying up at a restaurant in a town. You are taking a berth at a lodge that feeds you.
Dent Island Lodge is the strongest of them. Its own words: "Guests to the marina have full access to both restaurants at the lodge, bar and gift shop", and the moorage form carries a dinner reservation request field. Meals are à la carte on top of moorage, and the lodge publishes the prices: dinner $210, Rapids Grill $295, lunch $64, full breakfast $38, continental $29, children 5–12 $35. Marina guests also get showers, sauna, hot tub and fitness room. Moorage is $5.50 per foot in June and September and $6.50 in July and August, including power, water and Wi-Fi, with the season running 15 June to 15 September.
Blind Channel Resort is the northern equivalent and the more practical stop. Dock attendants stand by on VHF 66A. The Cedar Post opens for dinner from the third weekend in May to mid-September, with lunch on the patio in July and August — lunch 12:00–13:30, dinner 18:00–19:30. Bread is available year-round. Behind it sits 2,000 feet of dock, seven 80-foot fingers, fuel and 24-hour power.
Gorge Harbour's Floathouse Restaurant is closed. In its place a seasonal food truck runs May through 31 August — Wednesday to Sunday 11:00–14:30 and 17:30–21:30, Monday 11:00–18:30, closed Tuesday. The resort states that "a new waterfront restaurant is currently in development and is planned to open in 2027."
At Squirrel Cove, the community dock gives free one-hour dinghy moorage for customers visiting the store, craft shop and food truck — a small, real rule, and a good reason to go in for provisions.
Refuge Cove works the way it always has. The kitchen is open 5 June to 15 September, 09:00–20:00 daily, and the gallery 15 May to 15 September. Dock space, depth and rate are settled when you get there rather than in advance, so go — just do not build the day around a berth you think you have.
The chart below runs the cruising ground south to north — the gateway at Lund, the anchorages that make the Sound famous, and the rapids that gate the way through.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Dent Island Lodge restaurantsThe lodge puts it plainly: "Guests to the marina have full access to both restaurants at the lodge, bar and gift shop." The moorage form carries a dinner reservation request field. Meals are à la carte on top of moorage — dinner $210, Rapids Grill $295, lunch $64, full breakfast $38, continental $29, children 5–12 $35. Marina guests also get showers, sauna, hot tub and fitness room. | Dent Island, at Dent Rapids | Moorage $5.50/ft June and September, $6.50/ft July and August, including power, water and Wi-Fi |
| Cedar Post, Blind Channel ResortDinner from the third weekend in May to mid-September, with lunch on the patio in July and August — lunch 12:00–13:30, dinner 18:00–19:30. Bread available year-round. The practical northern stop: fuel, 24-hour power and free UV-treated spring water alongside the meal. | West Thurlow Island | Dock attendants stand by on VHF 66A; 2,000 ft of dock with seven 80-ft fingers |
| Gorge Harbour food truckThe Floathouse Restaurant here is closed. In its place a seasonal food truck runs May through 31 August: Wednesday to Sunday 11:00–14:30 and 17:30–21:30, Monday 11:00–18:30, closed Tuesday. The resort states a new waterfront restaurant is in development and planned to open in 2027. | Whaletown, Cortes Island | Marina moorage $2.25/ft under 80 ft, $3.50/ft over, in summer |
| Squirrel Cove store · Refuge Cove kitchenTwo of the Sound's most famous stops work on arrival rather than on a booking. Refuge Cove's kitchen is open 5 June to 15 September, 09:00–20:00 daily, and its gallery 15 May to 15 September; it is also one of the two fuel stops Dent Island Lodge names. Dock length, depth and rate are settled at the dock. The Squirrel Cove General Store sits above the community dock, which gives customers free one-hour dinghy moorage. | Cortes Island and Refuge Cove | Squirrel Cove: free one-hour dinghy moorage for customers |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
We represent buyers wherever the right boat sits — shortlisting, surveying and sea-trialing on the buyer's side of the table. Tell us the mission and we'll tell you which boat, and which berth, it calls for.