From Issue One of the Gear Patrol Magazine. Subscribe today for 15% off the GP Store.
“When people talk about the beauty of the San Juan Islands, they’re usually referring to the four islands you can access by ferry,” Seattle-based photographer Coco Aramaki says of the archipelago off the coast of Washington. “When I started asking boat captains if it was possible to see all of the 128 named islands in eight days, they all had a similar response: ‘I don’t think anyone has ever done that before.’ That’s when I knew it would be my kind of project.”
Aramaki found a captain, Greg Hertel of Friday Harbor Cruises, and together with some friends she set out aboard his 1968 Grand Banks trawler yacht, loaded with a Zodiac and kayaks for accessing the islands. While traveling in the archipelago, they encountered a 1,500-pound sea lion, paid homage to soaring bald eagles, climbed tall trees and weather-beaten crags, swam in 50-degree water and met one local who carves totem poles for a living.
