Question
Is there a way to quickly fill in the gaps or bypass them when hatching?
Answer
Hatching used to require closed boundaries to be successful; nowadays you can enter a suitable value for HPGAPTOL on the command line, or modify the Value for Gap Tolerance on the ribbon or in the dialogue, prior to hatching. Providing the gap tolerance exceeds the physical gap in the boundary the area will hatch successfully.
Note: the hatch dialogue box has to be in its expanded form to display this setting.