Ahoy, Cruisers and Sailors - Greetings from Puerto Rico

[heribertorosas]

Hi, I cruise on my 55 ft Defender Pilothouse in Puerto Rico and the virgin Islands.

[Reality Check]

Welcome aboard !

We may cross paths occasionally. I also spend most of my time in and around the Virgin Islands. Hope to make it to the Spanish Virgin Islands in May if possible and then back to US and British Island where I station my boat.

[James S]

Welcome.
Any chance of seeing some pics and hearing a little more about you and your boat.

[Kiteboarder]

Hola Heriberto. Greetings from a Puerto Rican in California and quasi-new member as well. -Danny

[RetiredSailor]

Hola. I'm new to this board myself, but used to cruise a Watkins 27 around Fajardo, Vieques, and Culebra. I sold that boat a few years ago, and now use boats from a local sailing club out of Fajardo. My wife and I have a condo in the Fajardo area where we spend winters, and even when we're not sailing we look out at the beautiful offshore islands and do a lot of day anchoring at Palominos and Icacos. We've probably seen you sailing by.

[captain58sailin]

Greetings from a fellow pilot house cruiser.

[Kiteboarder]

Originally Posted by RetiredSailor

Hola. I'm new to this board myself, but used to cruise a Watkins 27 around Fajardo, Vieques, and Culebra. I sold that boat a few years ago, and now use boats from a local sailing club out of Fajardo. My wife and I have a condo in the Fajardo area where we spend winters, and even when we're not sailing we look out at the beautiful offshore islands and do a lot of day anchoring at Palominos and Icacos. We've probably seen you sailing by.

Man, you just brought back tons of memories with your post. I've camped at Palominitos for 2 weeks at a time, anchored at Palominos dozens of times and windsurfed from Fajardo to Icacos. I've cruised that area multiple times at night, kiteboarded at Punta Arenas in vieques and spent weeks cruising Culebras and other nearby islands. I have great memories from Fajardo.

I remember doing an overnight camp with about 15 friends. I had a little Chaparral 16 footer with a 70hp outboard back then. Since I could only fit about 5 people on the boat, I had to do 3 trips to Palominitos to drop people off. All this at night with no moon and no GPS. I know the reefs there pretty well. With a really bright flashlight, we would locate the reef and then find the entrance. No problems

[Hud3]

Bienvenido, Heriberto.

The Spanish Virgins have some beautiful anchorages. I'm surprised that more sailors don't visit them. Our favorites were Bahia de Almodovar on Culebra, the beautiful bay on Culebrita, and Bahia Icacos on Vieques. On weekdays, we pretty much had them to ourselves.

[RetiredSailor]

Originally Posted by Kiteboarder

All this at night with no moon and no GPS. I know the reefs there pretty well. With a really bright flashlight, we would locate the reef and then find the entrance. No problems

You're a braver sailor than me. Well, maybe with a power boat I might try that, but with a sailboat I steer well clear of those reefs even in the daytime.

I've anchored out at Palominos and Icacos on a Beneteau 323 a couple of times in the last few weeks, and there are some anchorages very close to shore, but the entrances are narrow and there's not much room to maneuver around if you change your mind. And GPS doesn't really help in those situations, it's all visual. So I stay a little further out than others, but no big deal.

There's a new island that's opening up, it's called Pineros and it's 5 nm S-SW of Palominos. The island was (still is) controlled by the Navy, but the Navy is in the process of selling those lands and leaving. There are a couple of great anchorages there but, technically, it's still a restricted area. Since there's no ongoing operations, I doubt if they would care as long as you don't go ashore. I've anchored there myself, and have seen other boats anchored.

[heribertorosas]

I live in the western region of Puerto Rico, in Cabo Rojo, my boat is in Marina Boqueron, Boqueron is a nice bay where lots of sailors and cruisers stop all year long on there way to and from the VI, most of my weekends are spent in Combate beach and La Parguera reefs in Lajas. I will cruise to the virgin islands in July 2009.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and Welcome aboard! It appears you've made some friends already. I've only sailed into Roosevelt Roads on a Cruiser.
Kind regards,
JohnL