Stonington — A Borough resident is making her own contribution to efforts to send medical supplies to a small island in Puerto Rico that has been largely isolated from relief efforts since Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the country last month.

At the end of this week, a 57-foot sailboat owned by "freelance relief captain" Sequoia Sun will leave its dock at the New England Science and Sailing Foundation's facility in Stonington, making its way down the East Coast and collecting donated goods and supplies before Sun makes one of his annual trips to Île-à-Vache, Haiti, and stops on the island of Vieques off the East Coast of Puerto Rico.

Guylaine “Sky” Nicol, a Borough resident who met Sun through a fellow sailing enthusiast on Facebook, has helped him load his sailboat with goods that he takes to Haiti each year, including several hundred pairs of children's shoes that will make the trip to Haiti.

This year, Sun will also be carrying to Vieques pallets of medical supplies like syringes and gloves donated by Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. Nicol said she plans to load them onto the boat Thursday, and Sun will deliver them to medical clinics and hospitals in Vieques, where about 9,000 people live.

Sun plans to leave Stonington on Thursday or Friday, then spend the rest of the fall stopping in other ports in Connecticut, New York, the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. He'll set sail for Haiti from Florida in December, he said.

Most relief efforts to Puerto Rico since the hurricane destroyed much of the island's infrastructure have gone to more populated areas, Sun said, and help to outlying parts of the country like Vieques has been slower to arrive.

"All the people are going to San Juan" expecting that aid will trickle outwards to more rural areas, he said. "The trickle down doesn't always help."

Sun said he is one of many independent boat captains who have planned trips to Puerto Rico since the storm. He said he has contacts in Vieques through Puerto Rican natives living in Boston and New York.

Sun will also be taking the shoes Nicol collected and a small donation of baby food to Haiti. He plans to stay docked behind the New England Science and Sailing office on Water Street in Stonington Borough until Thursday or Friday, and people have until then to donate goods like baby food and formula, Dacron sails, threads and needles for sail repair, life jackets and fishing gear to be placed on the boat for delivery to Haiti or Puerto Rico.

Those goods, as well as donated items like rope, VHF radios, batteries, shovels and tools, can be left at the front desk of New England Science and Sailing.

m.shanahan@theday.com