Puerto Rico... Que Rico!

Our time in Puerto Rico began on one of the two main Spanish Virgin Islands named Culebra. We’ve discovered that the Spanish VIs actually used to be used by

the United States military for weapons demolitions and target practice. Since they’ve discontinued such practices and made the surrounding waters nature reserves, Puerto Rico has attempted to promote the islands for tourism, specifically for cruisers; thus, the “Spanish Virgin Islands” which are located about 15 nautical miles (nm) from the western-most US Virgin Island.

Culebra is approximately 7 miles long by 3 miles wide. We had the pleasure of spending a total of six nights here, including Paul’s 31st birthday! The anchorages were so serene and peaceful, and the majority of the time we were the only boat for miles. The most ‘crowded’ anchorage we found ourselves in had a total of three boats, including

ours. It was a big change from the jam-packed anchorages of the British Virgin Islands!

Highlights were snorkeling at Carlos Rosarion Beach, where the water was so crystal clear we could see the fish and soft corals underneath our boat around 12m depth. While snorkeling, we saw an octopus, large snub-nosed eagle ray, stingray, and plenty of beautiful reef fish. Paul tried out his speargun here and managed to spear an amberjack – attracting the attention of a curious 3ft reef shark in the process! The amberjack was battered in tempura & pan fried… delish.

On Paul’s 31st he enjoyed a few of his favorite things – sailing, snorkeling, and

fishing. We picked up a free mooring at Punta Tamarindo and spent the day at a nearby beach on the north coast called Playa del Flamenco. The reason we didn’t anchor directly at the beach was due to its position on the north coast; with NE swells, it would’ve been an untenable anchorage. A nice lady gave us a ride to

Playa del Flamenco, and we spent the afternoon walking the shores and swimming. There were a few relics leftover from the US military days, which were really interesting to see. The tanks are gradually being taken over by a combination of spray-paint, flora, rust, and saltwater. Birthday lunch that day included piña coladas and empanadillas de carne – beef empanadas – amongst a gathering of chickens, roosters, chicks, and cats.

Overall, Culebra was a perfect destination after the hustle and bustle of the BVIs. It was quiet, picturesque, affordable, and the snorkeling was right up there with what we experienced back in Bonaire. We also took advantage of the FREE mooring balls almost every night! After hitting up each of our pinned spots, we set sails for the 22nm journey to the next major Spanish VI, Vieques.

Vieques is 18 miles long and 3-4 miles wide, with the majority of tenable anchorages along the southern shore. From “A Cruising Guide to Puerto Rico”: It was avoided by yachtsmen for many years due to the US military installation and gunnery practice. The installation is no longer there and as a result there is no “target practice” ongoing. Instead many parts have been designated park lands and are under the jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, patrolled by park rangers.

It may be that cruisers are still avoiding these areas, or just decide to skip Puerto Rico in favor of the Lesser Antilles (Anguilla through Grenada). Whatever the reason, we felt very spoiled that we were able to discover these incredible anchorages in almost complete solitude.

Our first night we spent in Puerto Mosquito – at first, a little wary of the name, but we didn’t see a single one (thank goodness!) It was, hands down, the most beautiful island I have ever seen in my life. I’ve never seen a more unspoiled, picturesque place… photos can’t do it justice. We knew the anchorage would be a little rolly, as it was only sheltered by a shallow reef. However, the draw for Puerto Mosquito lay nearer inland, where a bioluminescent bay was located. With the least disturbance, the water lit up brilliantly – like a sea of stars. After sunset and before the moon started to rise, we took the dinghy inside the inner bay under oar power (SUP paddles for the win!) and were astounded as to the brightness of the bioluminescence. It totally blew us both away. The coolest part was seeing the ‘trail of stars’ the fish would leave behind in zig-zag patterns as they swam away from our dinghy. Incredible!

Our last night in Vieques was spent on the west coast, just north of Punta Bermudes. We arrived to a busy anchorage on a Sunday afternoon; it seemed like a hotspot for the locals to enjoy some sun, sand, and swimming. By sunset, the area was deserted save for us and one catamaran in the expansive anchorage area. We then spent a day traveling along the east coast of Puerto Rico’s mainland, about 16nm to a tiny island called Las Palaminos. The reason we wanted to break up the trip (ultimate destination being San Juan on the north coast) is due to the distance – it would’ve been about 43nm; a good chunk of sailing, and if we can chop it in two, we will gladly do so. On arrival to Las Palaminos, we picked up one of three available moorings (loving those freebies!) Paul went spearfishing and caught us a blue runner for supper – super yummy with flour, salt and pepper, and lemon juice.

The next morning we had a 6:00 AM wake-up call to sail the remaining 35nm to our anchorage in San Juan. It was a very sporty sail with winds behind us and following seas. Our fastest speed was 6.7 knots, and we never fell below 5.8 knots. With the wind and seas behind us, it felt deceivingly comfortable, like we weren’t cruising any faster than 4.0 knots. We made excellent time! Sailing into San Juan

Harbour we needed to pass two forts – one guarding each side of the entry. We’d never have made it back in the day if they didn’t want us to! Evidence… dozens of wrecks on the chart plotter. It was a very picturesque setting, and unique for Panta Rhei as we never have sailed around a metropolitan or historic center. From the entrance channel markers, it was 1.6nm until our anchorage by San Juan Bay Marina. In other words, it was a HUGE harbour that accommodates all cargo ships, cruise ships, etc., let alone us teeny cruisers. At first, we were a bit concerned about the depth in the anchorage – averaging 11.7m. Up until then, the deepest we had anchored in was around 9m. This was our deepest anchorage yet; thankfully, we had zero drag thanks to our awesome 25kg Rocna anchor. This was the only protected anchorage along the northern coast of Puerto Rico; with the industrial sector for cargo ships, a dozen piers for cruise ships to dock, and marinas, it was a very different experience having Panta Rhei in a metropolitan center.

After setting the hook around 2:15 PM, we ventured into the city and went for a walk to a nearby plaza. We found a sports bar called ‘Arena’ and it was the first time we’ve enjoyed an air-conditioned restaurant since back in Curaçao (June 2021)!

Back at the marina, there were tables and chairs set up with free WiFi access from the restaurant above. There, we met a chef and engineer (from the US and South Africa, respectively) both working on yachts and chatted with them about their interesting experiences abroad. The next day, we were invited along with Don (South African) to run some errands, which we gratefully accepted. The last time we had been in a car was around mid-January back in St. Maarten – it was lovely to have some wheels again, so convenient! We hit up a Wal-Mart Supercenter for some major provisioning and re-stocking of groceries we had used in BVIs and 10 days in Puerto Rico. We were totally dumbfounded by the variety of stock and convenience; it’s literally been years since we’ve been in a store of that size. We also visited a huge chain store called West Marine, based out of the continental US, and Paul was in fishing-store heaven.

While in San Juan, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take ours bikes to Viejo

(Old) San Juan to explore the historical streets. We were again dumbfounded by the bike culture here; even when living in Vancouver, we’d never seen bike lanes so well maintained and so… well, large! The more we saw, the more we were reminded of our time in Guadalajara, Mexico; however, San Juan also has the coastline and beach going for it. Which kind of makes it the best of both worlds – maybe we’ll find ourselves here again in the future, who knows?!

Highlights in Old San Juan were the cobblestone streets and European-style architecture. Seeing the seawall, forts, and castles was incredible. Puerto Rico bucket list item for me: I enjoyed a piragua de frambuesa, which is kind of like a snow cone. It’s shaved ice with syrup – super sweet and refreshing after putting in several kilometers by bicycle.

For supper we followed local advice and went to La Taberna Lupulo, which allegedly was the place to be for craft beer. According to Paul, it did not disappoint! There were over 40 craft beers to choose from, and Paul enjoyed a few of those very much. We also had mahi-mahi tacos & a Cubano sandwich, which were both out of this world.

Another day we went for a bike ride with a few particular destinations in mind; Paul wanted to scope out some liquor stores to stock up on alcohol provisions (super expensive in our next destination), as well as check out a local fishing store. I ended up at Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, a gorgeous art museum that

exclusively featured Puerto Rican artists. It was such a lovely experience not having a timeline and walking aimlessly throughout the different galleries; I can’t remember the last time I was able to do just that.

Later that afternoon on our way home, we stumbled upon a ‘Food Truck Park,’ a true gem. There were just under a dozen different food trucks all ranging widely in options and cuisine. We wanted to try as many as possible, and settled on a lamb bowl from a Greek-style food truck, a local sandwich called choripan (chorizo sausage with chimichurri) from a Puerto Rican food truck, and a bacon chocolate chip cookie for dessert. YUM!

Another really cool opportunity Paul seized upon was getting in touch with the San Juan bike polo community. This is one of his most-loved hobbies, and Paul has played bike polo in East Vancouver, Saskatoon, Guadalajara, and now in San Juan. He even met a player who he knew back from Guadalajara – small world!

We’ve had a week to explore San Juan, and although we could stay so much longer, we need to jump on a weather window to take us to our next destination – the Bahamas! We’ve heard incredible things about the Bahamas from fellow cruisers, way back since our June days in Curaçao, so we are incredibly excited to check it out for ourselves. We are also eager to reunite with our cruising buddies on SV Otoka and SV Vesna, who have been in the Bahamas since February 12th and March 1st, respectively. We are notoriously known as the slowpokes of the group, but we’re pretty okay with it.

Our sail to the Bahamas is a whopper – 458nm, around the same distance our St. Maarten-Curaçao and Bonaire-St.Maarten passages were. We usually plan our trips on averaging a speed of 4.0 knots/hour, so we anticipate this passage from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas to take us between 4.5 to 5 days. It’ll be a downwind sail with following seas, so we may average a bit faster speed (fingers crossed!) We’ll be sailing west along the remainder of the northern coast of Puerto Rico, then west along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and underneath Turks and Caicos Islands. Our check in point will be on Great Inagua Island (the southernmost of the Bahamas) at Matthewtown. We’ve already been in touch with the Harbourmaster, George, and he’s been so helpful and kind. Looking forward to new experiences & friendly locals!

Internet is notoriously an issue in the Bahamas, so we aren’t sure when we’ll be able to touch base with WiFi. However, you can always check our most recently acquired position on Marine Traffic to see where we’re at!

For our upcoming sail, you can follow us here:

Nebo: https://trackme.nebo.global/?link=HEWAAB1GIMMK91HU5XWW1DW1W1S

*Link only works while we are underway for live tracking – for this trip, beginning around 12:00 Noon on Tuesday, March 8th.

Marine Traffic: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:233142/mmsi:244620720/imo:0/vessel:PANTA_RHEI_III

*Link always works to show our most recently acquired satellite position.

Thanks for checking in, and hasta luego! The Beatons