We had 2 full weeks for out boat trip this year, and decided to spend it in the beautiful San Juan Islands. Normally we’d go further north with that much time, but due to Covid-19 border closures, we decided to slow down and visit some new anchorages and stay longer in some places.

During the trip, we anchored at James Island, Sucia Island, San Juan Island (Roche Harbor, Wescott Bay, and Friday Harbor), Stuart Island, Shaw Island (Blind Bay), and Lopez Island (Hunter Bay). On the way to and from the San Juan’s, we anchored at Port Townsend and Kingston. Overall, the anchorages were pretty crowded due to the Canadian border closure.

Here are some pictures:

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I flew my Mavic drone at some of the anchorages for a different view from the air:

Here’s a video I put together from drone video and pictures:

https://www.skypixel.com/videos/check-out-my-new-content-0baeb9d7-8689-492c-ad0f-c98d1d337345?utm_source=djigo5&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1CgWehuyX-axQyPhFC1xWN0ENd86zjXQudgjh0hePQ6JHzrvNw0umoyP8

The Good:

We’ve been cruising the San Juan Islands for 15 years, and usually go to the same 5 or 6 places. Having more time, this trip allowed us to explore new anchorages and we found some (Hunter Bay, Wescott Bay, James Island) that we really liked and will return to. The slow pace was good for a change and I enjoyed getting up early, making coffee, and reading in the swing chair for a few hours in the morning. Crabbing was pretty good and we caught 9 Red Rock and Dungeness crabs at various anchorages. They made for some delicious meals. Our dog Champ finally learned that it was ok to relieve himself on the green grass carpet we bring along. On previous trips we would have to go ashore for those tasks, sometimes at odd hours. The weather was great–mostly sunny and warm. There were only 2 days that were cloudy with some rain.

The Bad:

Well, there were a few things that went wrong. The biggest was that we discovered our house AGM battery bank was toast. This went unnoticed during day trips throughout the summer, but when your anchoring for 2 weeks (we plugged in only once while at Roche Harbor), you quickly uncover problems like that. We coped by using the solar panels during the day (and adjusting them to keep them in the sun), and, when needed, using our Honda generator at anchorage. This also forced us to be very frugal with power, so instead of microwave popcorn, we made stove-top popcorn! We also turned off refrigeration during the night-time. I figured we had only about 30 AHrs of usable charge out of our 672 AHr battery bank! Another winter project added to my list…