Favorite San Juan Islands destinations

[Marin]

Stealing Mark's idea to list favorite cruising places in SE Alaska, I'm going to start three other ones.* This one is for the San Juan Islands in Washington.

Our favorite destinations so far are:

Sucia Island Marine Park (good anchorages/mooring buoys, lots of nice walks from easy to challenging.)

Patos Island Marine Park* (Active Cove has only two (I think) mooring buoys and the bottom is not the greatest holding for anchors.* Nice walk out to the lighthouse, nice beach.)

Prevost Harbor Marine Park, Stuart Island.* (Somewhat exposed to weather from the north, nice walk from the county dock at the west end of the bay to the Turn Point lighthouse.)

West Sound, Orcas Island.* (Nice, low-key marina, rental cars delivered to the marina from East Sound, interesting things to see and do on the island.)

Garrison Bay, San Juan Island* (Fairly protected bay.* Can be crowded in summer with lots of boats on short scope with dragging problems if the wind kicks up. * Site of English Camp with some of the original buidlings from the British encampment during the "Pig War.")

Friday Harbor, San Juan Island* (busy little ferry town, lots of activity to watch in the harbor, good restaurants.)

Fisherman's Bay, Lopez Island.* (Entrance can be tricky, good anchoring in an often windy-ish bay, Saturday market worth visiting, two good marinas, one with a decent restaurant).





-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 10th of October 2010 08:02:04 PM

 

[carvendive]

Hunters Bay - Lopez Island. Good spot to anchor (mud/sand bottom) Nice spot to crab, shrimp and fish. Only problem is the beach is private.

Then from Hunters, around the South coast of Lopez Isl and up thru Cattle pass. Great rugged shoreline and at the right time a good spot to see whales - both Orca and I think it was a Humpback.

English Bay - My wife loves (and so do I) Roach Harbor but we both get tired of the comings and goings of both the float planes and the un-muffled cigarette boats at the fuel dock. English Bay makes for a very nice and quiet night on the hook while still keeping you close enough to make the run to Roach in the dink. Again - good crabbing with shallow pulls.

Roach - (In a kidding way...) It can be a lot of fun sitting close to the Customs dock with a pair of Binoc's watching the antics of the boats fighting each other for a spot at the dock.

Steward Island - GREAT WALKING TRAILS. And good crabbing on the north side. (Can you tell I like Crab?)