Puerto Rica Bound – Flying South for the 1st time

The start of our 2025 – 26 sailing season began with a very different journey; a bus, a plane and lastly a car. Mark spent a bit of time reorganizing our garage so that our car could be stored inside for the winter. It was a snug fit but it looked very cozy in the garage (for the first time!). We left Kingston at 12:30pm on Saturday, Oct. 25th and took a Megabus to Pearson Airport in Toronto. We got dropped off at terminal 1 around 4:30pm and we took a hotel shuttle to the Quality Inn. Our Sunday, Oct. 26th flight left at 6:10 am so we had to be at the airport by 3:30am. It made loads of sense to stay at a hotel with a free shuttle which got us to the airport by 3:30am (it was early!!).

As you can imagine, terminal 1 was fairly quiet at that time of the morning but terminal 3 was in full swing (good thing we left from terminal 1). We had a very easy baggage drop-off (we’d already checked in online), security screening and US immigration so we were relaxing with a coffee and breakfast before 5 am. We travelled with United Airlines with 1 stop – Toronto to Houston and then Houston to San Juan PR (not the most direct route but it worked). Both our flights were good and our 2 checked bags arrived with us in San Juan. After a long day of travelling, we picked up our rental car and drove the roughly 1 hour to Fajardo. I forgot to mention that we had company on our journey south. John Hodgson (Sundog), who lives with Sharron in Ottawa, came down on the same flights and we’re sharing the car and the rental unit with him. We’re staying at the home of our boat concierge Sam (he has 2 rental units that he will rent out to some of his clients).

Okay we were expecting the heat (because Mark has been watching the Fajardo weather for awhile) but holy cow it was a bit of a shock at first! It’s super humid here (lots of rain!!) and we were stilled wearing our fallish clothes from home. We were all much better dressed for the weather when we left for the boatyard at 8am Monday, Oct. 27th. It’s always a bit stressful when you get to the boat for the first time each season. You never know what you will find (think back to the fall after Covid – YIKES). This season was no exception but am I super happy to say that our boat was beautiful!!! The deck and cockpit weren’t super dirty and the interior was absolutely amazing!! Sam ran a dehumidifier every 2 weeks at the beginning of the storage season and then moved to once a week during the more humid part of the season. There was very little mold and it looked great. It was definitely worth paying someone to go onboard and take care of the boat.

The first day onboard is usually a bit hectic. It’s sometimes hard to even know where to start but with the boat being in such good condition, it made our first day quite easy. We washed the deck and cockpit and were able to put the enclosure back up all before lunch. After lunch Mark worked on cleaning the cockpit floor and I got the main cabin washed and set-up a bit. All in all it was a great start to the season. We only have 3 more days to get all the out of the water jobs done because we are splashing on Friday at 10:30am. Lots to do over the next few days, including setting up the V-berth for John (who will be staying with us until his boat gets launched on Nov. 4th).