False Bay () is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcated by Cape Point to the west and Cape Hangklip to the east. The north side of the bay is the low-lying Cape Flats, and the east side is the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains to Cape Hangklip, which is at nearly the same latitude as Cape Point. The bay is approximately square-shaped, with roughly the same length from north to south as from east to west, and the southern side open to the ocean. The seabed generally slopes gradually down from north to south, and is mostly fairly flat unconsolidated sediments. Much of the bay is off the coast of the City of Cape Town, and it includes part of the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area and the whole of the Helderberg Marine Protected Area. The name "False Bay" was applied at least 300 years ago by sailors returning from the east, who confused Cape Point and Cape Hangklip, which are somewhat similar in profile when approached from the southeast.

Suburbs of Cape Town stretch right across the Cape Flats, from Simon's Town halfway down the Cape Peninsula to the north-eastern corner at Gordon's Bay. There are also two small towns of the Overberg region on the east coast of the bay, Rooiels and Pringle Bay.

  • <!-- Dutch East Indiaman Hollandia Caught fire and sank in Simon's Bay c.1720 -->
  • 25 August 1778: British East Indiaman Colebrooke, wrecked south of the Steenbras River mouth, at
  • 7 October 1786: Dutch East Indian schooner Catwyk aan Rhyn, driven ashore in a gale in Simon's Bay without loss of life.
  • 1803: Dutch warship HNMS Bato, burned and sank in Simon's Bay at at .
  • 1810: British East Indiaman Euphrates, struck Whittle Rock but was repaired.
  • 29 July 1816: Brig-sloop HMS Zebra (1815), was stranded, but not wrecked, in Simon's Bay; it was eventually wrecked on 2 December 1840, when a heavy gale drove it ashore and wrecked it off Mount Carmel near Haifa.
  • 29 July 1816: Frigate HMS Revolutionnaire, stranded in Simon's Bay, but could not have been wrecked as it was broken up on 4 October 1822 after further service.
  • 18 October 1816: Brig Camille, wrecked at Muizenberg beach.
  • 1818: Vrouw Ida Alida, wrecked at Muizenberg.
  • 25 October 1821: Waterloo, wrecked at Fish Hoek.
  • 1823: Wooden sailing schooner Cockburn, wrecked on Muizenberg beach. Alternative dates from 3 to 6 April have been cited.
  • 29 June 1828: Padang, wrecked in Simon's Bay.
  • 12 July 1829: Phoenix, wrecked at Phoenix Shoal off Boulders Beach, Simon's Town on 19 July 1829 at .
  • 10 January 1839: French whaler Le Protee, wrecked at Strandfontein.
  • 27 July 1839: Barque Admiral Cockburn, wrecked at Muizenberg beach.
  • 28 July 1841: Schooner Felix Vincidor, wrecked at Muizenberg beach.
  • 12 February 1847: Robert, sprang a leak and was beached without loss of life near Gordon's Bay.
  • 13 January 1850: Slaving barque Rowvonia, wrecked in Simon's Bay.
  • 16 July 1862: Prussian barque Johanna Wagner, wrecked at Zandfontein near Muizenberg.

<!--* 9 October 1862:Parana (Panama?) Wrecked in Simon's Bay -->

  • November 1878: Benefactress, wrecked at Lourens River mouth, The Strand.
  • 9 August 1897: Schooner Nukteris, wrecked at Buffels Bay just north of Cape Point.

<!--* Rex wrecked in the vicinity of Fish Hoek in 1903-->

  • 21 November 1914: British turret steamer SS Clan Stuart, ran aground at Glencairn,
  • HMS Trident, struck Whittle Rock and sank.

Scuttled:

  • MV Rockeater, scuttled as an artificial reef in Smitswinkel Bay on 15 December 1972 at
  • Kalk Bay (commercial fishing harbour, with rail slipway for repairs)

Other slipways

  • Buffels Bay (public trailer slipway inside the TMNP)
  • Miller's Point (public trailer slipway for recreational and commercial ski-boats)

Sailing is also a popular recreational activity in False Bay. The sailing clubs in False Bay include False Bay Yacht Club in Simon's Town, Fish Hoek Beach Sailing Club at the main beach in Fish Hoek, Gordon's Bay Yacht Club in the Gordon's Bay Harbour, and Hottentots Holland Beach Sailing Club in Strand. The moorings at the False Bay Yacht club are well protected from south easterly waves, as they are in the lee of the naval base harbour, and are in the lee of the peninsula for westerly waves, and the water is relatively deep. The marina at Harbour Island in Gordon's Bay is protected against swells from all directions. Still, the entrance and inshore approaches are exposed to large south-westerly seas. Gordon's Bay harbour is largely silted up by sand, and access by keeled sailing yachts is limited by draught and tide.

There is a small granite island in the bay called Seal Island, which is one of the main breeding sites for the Cape fur seal. The seals attract many great white sharks, and some of the largest sharks ever recorded have been spotted in these waters. These sharks are famous for breaching the surface while attacking seals, sometimes jumping entirely out of the water. Despite this, swimming, surfing, sailing, scuba diving and freediving are popular pastimes around the bay, at centres such as Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, Smitswinkel Bay, Strand and Gordon's Bay. Shark attacks are uncommon but not unknown, with two deaths since 2010.

The fetch is generally too short for southeasterly winds to produce good surf.

Named dive sites

thumb|upright=1|Map showing the distribution of most of the wreck and reef dive sites of the Cape Town local area

False Bay has numerous rocky reefs and wreck recreational dive sites, which have been identified by position and named.

The shark-watching industry centers on boat trips to Seal Island by licensed operators, in the hope of seeing breaching predation of seals by great white sharks. Since the major reduction in the shark population attributed to orcas, particularly the two large males named Port and Starboard, the shark watching industry in the bay has declined. Before 2015, False Bay was well known for its large population of great white sharks, but by 2020, sightings were reduced to nearly zero.

</references>