San Juan Island Archives | Jennifer Donogh

Family Winter Update

Happy 2023! We spent our second New Year's Eve on the boat, this time in Friday Harbor. Last year we were absolutely spoiled with midnight fireworks viewing off of our stern in Port Townsend. This year was a much quieter celebration. A cozy celebration onboard Coco Mar. We've been in Friday Harbor for three months now! That's three months on the dock with plenty of time spent on the mainland with family. Even with the our time off the boat, we've still been able to explore the island and mix in with the community here. Shane and the boys have been able[...]

Travel Log

Reality Check: Fall Edition

It's officially fall here in the Pacific Northwest. True, autumn may have begun a month ago, but we've been in the 70's here since the end of August. Just this past Friday the crew onboard Coco Mar experienced our first real rain since the beginning of July. Summer is over and dampness has returned. Our first, "off season," full-time liveaboards experience is here. Turning heads once again in my bright neon Grundens. Our fall and winter plans changed quite a few times this summer. In fact, we didn't know for sure what we would be doing in October until the[...]

Travel Log

4th of July Fireworks at Roche Harbor

If we thought the anchorage was busy before, I don't know how to describe the Harbor the morning of the 4th. More boats were coming in to fill in the small gaps here and there. We left early to head to shore for the kids games hosted on the pool lawn. This was the first Fourth of July in 13 years that Shane and I would not be at Lake Marcel. We loved our small town parade and community parade that followed. The lake always had activities for the kids and an incredible fireworks display. Absolute small town Americana. This year, we were grateful to have a very[...]

Travel Log

Lightning and the Thunder

The boys have loved music by Imagine Dragons over the years. One of their songs they like to listen to in the car is Thunder. It’s from 2017 and hasn’t gotten old yet. There’s a line in it that goes… “I was lightning before the thunder.” This morning Shane and I awoke abruptly to the sounds of lighting and thunder overhead. Never a great sound when you’re on a sailboat. It passed shortly and we eventually got back into bed. Rainy morning onboard. It had been raining for a bit when Shane went out to lower the dinghy not long after th[...]

Travel Log

Paddleboarding 36 Miles Around San Juan Island

Shane's paddle aspirations landed him here at San Juan Island, anchored at Roche Harbor on a Saturday morning before 4th of July. We had a quiet morning, sleeping in a bit and relaxing in the sunshine of our pilot house. The air was chilly, compared to the previous days here. The plan was for him to leave at 10:30 when the current was, in theory, pushing him south towards Cattle Pass and then giving him a boost up the pass when he arrived. I made him an egg breakfast with sautéed kale and zucchini, and fried polenta. He had purchased cliff bars, nuts, and hi[...]

Travel Log

Sprouting Fails on Anchor

Day two of anchoring out in the busy 4th of July harbor found me with a mess on my hands. I had tried my new tray for sprouting and was less than pleased with the results. It was day six, and looked about time to place the trays in the sunlight to let photosynthesis do its thing. I purchased stainless steel trays, trying to get alway from glass mason jars and avoiding plastic. Troubles in sprout land! Unfortunately, after a couple hours in the sunlight I was worried that the stainless steel was cooking the spouts. I moved them back inside the cabin and[...]

Travel Log

We Tried to Get Away

Good morning Roche Harbor Marina! After a restful night with all of our gadgets plugged in, I awoke hours after Shane had already left to paddle. He had a few islands left to paddle around northern San Juan Island. Spieden Island, Centinel Island, Centinel Rock, Pearl Island, Barren Island and Cactus Islands were crossed off his list that morning. Shane circumnavigates each island, giving him in-depth knowledge of the shores and waterways of where he paddles. He started to focus on paddling around all of the islands in the Puget Sound at the end of 2020. Limit[...]

Travel Log

Living the Resort Life at Roche Harbor

Roche Harbor Marina was on the agenda for the day, so we left Stuart Island early in the morning after Shane finished paddling around the island (that was a very early wakeup call for him). We motored for approximately one hour through strong currents passing Spieden Island and it's channel to Roche Harbor. The boys and I had driven to Roche Harbor over the winter when we moored at Friday Harbor. It was a different vibe then. Few people and those that were there gave the impression that they lived in the development attached to the resort in retirement. The g[...]

Travel Log

Spendy Provisioning at Friday Harbor

Prior to lockdowns I brought my own jars and bags to shop as low waste as I could. We ate a small amount of processed foods and I focused on fruits and vegetables. Once COVID hit I tried to make shopping as effective as possible. First thing to go was bringing my bags and jars. For the first few weeks I admit I was even wiping down my groceries. Once we got a better idea of what we were dealing with I stopped wiping down the groceries and started bringing in some fun foods to keep our spirits up. When we were preparing to list our house I started to use pre-ma[...]

Travel Log

Anchoring in Griffin Bay off of San Juan Island

As I’m writing this it’s 7am and we’re headed off to our next anchorage. Griffin Bay brought us scenery filled with different shades of green to the south and a variety of purple shady mountains in the background to the north. The water was smooth as glass, with wind picking up over the plain only once.