Category: Caribbean Cruising Season 1

It’s always great to be back onboard while floating at the dock. The familiar motion of the boat swaying with a bit of surge coming in from the marina entrance is comforting (and really helps you fall asleep!!). We still have jobs to do but we’re tackling them at a much slowly pace!

So far Mark and I have put up all 3 sails and moved the dinghy from the bow to its place at the stern. That process was very interesting. We’re in a narrow slip with power boats on each side. There was no way to lower the dinghy into the water at the bow and easily move it back. So Mark came up with a plan – we lowered the dinghy as usual (off the bow) and as I pulled it back to the stern, Mark tilted the far side of the dinghy up towards our boat. It awkwardly slid between our boat and the slip post! I sure wish I could have videoed the whole thing but I had my hands full!!

Mark has also been tinkering with the freezer. After initially getting it running on the weekend, it hasn’t been working properly. It took a bit of trial and error, adding more coolant and then releasing some to get the perfect amount. Now both fridge and freezer are working well.

I know you all probably don’t want to hear this but the heat down here is a killer!! The sun is very strong and there’s high humidity so we can only spend an hour or so outside before we need to hide inside our incredibly well air-conditioned boat. It really zaps your energy so our jobs are taking a bit more time. It would be great to open the boat up and give it a good airing out but there’s no way I’m turning off the air-con at this point. We’ll soon be off the dock and getting lots of fresh (hot) air inside.

Our friend John has been working away on his boat – much longer days than we were doing when we were still on the hard. John leaves here around 8am and usually gets back after 5pm. That’s a long time to be working in this heat. His launch day is Thursday so jobs must get done!! We’ve been having some nice meals together and chit chatting about our boats and all kinds of things at night. It’s been fun having John aboard.

So today is Nov. 4th. We’ve rented another car (one day rental) for Friday. The day after John’s boat goes in the water, we’ll do another shopping trip into San Juan. This time we’ll go to Costco and stock up on larger quantities of items. Time to make a list and start thinking about provisioning for the next 6 weeks or so.

It’s been a very busy 3 days but now we can slow down a bit and catch our breath! On Thursday we kept up our pre launch pace and managed to complete all but a few minor jobs. Mark finished the installation of the chain plates for the drogue and I finished putting stuff away. It was another hot day so we spent time in the air-conditioned office getting info about our slip assignment and launch details and then we had a longer than usual lunch in some more air conditioning!!

Friday was a crazy busy day!! We were all up early, had breakfast and packed up the car with all our items. We made a quick stop at Walmart and were at the boat around 9 am. We did our last few jobs (dock lines and fenders put in place, ladder removed, etc). At 10:20 am (they were early – good thing we were ready) the travel lift and trailer arrived at our boat. They have an interesting storage system here. In order to fit as many boats as possible, they use the lift to get boats into the yard and then a remote controlled trailer to slide the boats into place with just a few inches between the boats.

When we were hauled out in April, we were the only boat in our area so no trailer was used. Watching the whole process for the first time was very interesting. Using a controller hung around his neck, the trailer operator maneuvered the trailer into position and slowly guided it under the boat. As the trailer went under, the stands holding Crimson Kathryn in place were removed!! By the time the trailer was fully in place, the boat was being held in place by 1 stand at the bow and 2 at the very stern – normal its 9 – 10 stands. The workers moved very sturdy supports into place and those supports held CK in place. The trailer also had supports that went under the keel so the boat was completed secure on it. They had a bit of a challenge moving us out the our spot because of all the mud. The front wheels of the trailer had difficulty finding traction at first and spun wildly before grabbing hold. Once we were on solid ground, the trailer moved us into position and the travel lift picked us up. The rest of the launch process was easy and we were in the water and getting the engine running by about 11:30 or so. John came onboard to help with our dock lines. We made a brief stop at the fuel dock and then headed to our slip (#889). Mark steered us in perfectly and we were secured by 12:30pm!

First job once we were settled was to get the air-conditioning running. John left to go back to his boat and we grabbed the laundry and headed over to the little market/restaurant to have some lunch. We were back at the lovely air conditioned boat later in the afternoon and discovered our fridge and freezer were not cooling – not great because we had food in the fridge!! Mark found some of the water cooling lines were clogged so he blew them out and things seemed to improve. Mark, John and I decided to have dinner out at the on-site restaurant (not the market/restaurant) and we enjoyed a fun Halloween night out.

We had big plans for Saturday which included getting a new one day rental car and returning the first rental car back to the San Juan Airport. Our plan was to do grocery shopping for the week and do a bunch of boat shopping all in San Juan. We wanted to get an early start but our refrigeration units had other plans. Neither were cooling!!! So Mark went back to work on them after breakfast. John left us to go get the new rental car (which is right on-site here) and I cleaned up from breakfast. About a hour later, Mark had solved our problem – both units needed more coolant. They were cooling like a charm as we headed to the 2 cars to drive into San Juan. It was a big shopping day and a very busy one and we didn’t get back to the boat until after 7pm! Long productive day!

The last 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday) have been a whirlwind of activities. Our launch is scheduled for Friday (Halloween) at 10:30am so we must have all the out of the water jobs done before that time. Nothing like an imminent deadline to make you work hard!!

Tuesday morning we made a few shopping stops before heading to the boat (looking for items we needed for the day). Mark spent the day scrapping barnacles off the bottom of the boat, cleaning the 2 bronze plates on the hull, changing zincs and cleaning and spraying the propeller with an anti-fouling paint to help protect it from ocean growth (I’m sure there are more jobs). I spent the day waterproofing the enclosure top (called a bimini), washing and organizing the aft cabin, and setting up the cockpit.

We headed straight to the boat on Wednesday (Oct. 29) and got to work quickly. We had a heat warning so we wanted to get as much done in the morning as we could. Mark started working on outdoor jobs and I went to work on the galley (kitchen) and the aft head. Lots of stuff to put away but at least the boat was fairly clean so the wash-up went really smoothly (and quickly). By lunch we were both hot and tired!! We met up with John and had lunch at the on-site market/restaurant and relaxed in the air conditioning!!

After lunch Mark started his last out of the water job – attaching chain plates for our drogue – it’s like a water parachute that is deployed at the stern if you get into some serious weather. I went to work on the V-berth – emptying it, washing it and setting it up for John. I got halfway through the job and I went back into the main cabin to rest (while the area dried). It felt so cool in the main cabin that I figured the temperature had dropped. Nope! It was 33 degrees in the cabin so it must have been close to 40 in the V-berth! That’s way too not for me!! Even with the heat, I completed all my before launch jobs and Mark is very close to being done with his jobs.

Thursday will be our last full day out of the water! I’m really looking forward to being at the dock – no more ladders to climb to get onboard and we can run the air conditioning!! Can’t wait!

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).