Puerto Real to Vieques
by Don Street
Are you among the sailors who plan to come from the east coast of North America to the Caribbean in the fall via the “Thornless Path” rather than offshore directly to the Lesser Antilles? Here is some advice to make the trip easier and more enjoyable. This article is based on numerous exploratory trips along Puerto Rico’s south coast, on Iolaire and Li’l Iolaire from the early ’80s to 2002. Experienced Puerto Rican yachtsman Ronnie Ramos checked the article for accuracy, updated information where necessary, and added numerous important bits of information.
Just a few days before I started writing this article I skimmed through my 1966 Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles; the piloting and sailing directions are just as true today as they were in 1966. The 2001 edition is available from Amazon.com.
Having fought your way eastward through the Bahamas or along the north coast of Hispaniola, you’ll arrive at the western end of Puerto Rico. Clear in at Marina Pescaderia, relax, and then spend a few days enjoying their facilities and exploring the village of Puerto Real to get a flavor of the wonderful Puerto Rican hospitality.
You might be dreading the next leg: to Vieques in the “Spanish Virgins,” the ideal jumping-off spot for the short sail onward to the US Virgin islands. It can be a 110-mile slog to windward against the westwardflowing equatorial current along the south coast of Puerto Rico. However, if you take advantage of the land and sea breezes, you can sail from one anchorage to another with no long hard beats.
Start early for favorable winds
The south coast of Puerto Rico has built-in air conditioning — the katabatic winds. The hills are so high that as soon as the sun sets the air cools and falls down off the mountains, counteracting the tradewinds and producing a light northerly breeze that continues at dawn. Then, after the sun warms the hills in the morning, the breeze will switch to northeasterly then easterly and sometimes southeasterly. If it goes southeasterly it allows a long starboard tack along the shore, with occasional short port tacks when getting too close to shore.
The key to sailing eastward on Puerto Rico’s south coast is getting an early start. In 1993, the engineless 46-foot yawl Iolaire left Boquerón, just south of Puerto Real, at about the same time as a group of four yachts cruising in company that was also heading east. Almost every morning Iolaire was underway at the crack of dawn, taking advantage of the light northerly, which would slowly switch to northeasterly than easterly, increasing as the day went on. By 11:00am we had a nice fresh easterly or southeasterly. By noon, when the wind was on the nose and really increasing, we were sailing into an anchorage. About 4:00 or 5:00pm our friends would come staggering in with tales of battling 20- to 25-knot easterlies.
Lobster pots and fish traps
While heading eastward in the early morning, careful navigation is necessary as the sun is low and ahead, making eyeball navigation difficult but possible. Your chart plotter and GPS are useful instruments but eyeball navigation is more important, glancing at the chart plotter and GPS now and then. Lobster pots and fish traps, often marked by nothing but a Clorox bottle, must be spotted and avoided. (It is no use for the lookout to say “lobster pot ahead” as a warning. Rather, if under sail say, “lobster pot spotted, hold course,” or “head up,” or “bear off,” as the case may be. If under power say, “come to starboard” or “come to port.”)
Charts
I suggest using the Imray Iolaire charts A11, 12, 13 and 131. I made these based on NOAA’s published charts, an unpublished US Navy survey of 1902, and a copy of a DMA chart of the eastern half of Vieques unavailable to the public, as Vieques was then a naval base. Sales of these paper charts have dropped off as Puerto Rican sailors evidently rely on electronic charts, so Imray no longer corrects them. However, two years ago I carefully reviewed the updated NOAA charts against the Imray Iolaire charts. Buoy characteristics have changed, the deep-water channel to Ponce and the turning basin in the harbor have been dredged, and Sunbay Marina has been established
north of Fajardo, but everything else seems to be the same as on the Imray Iolaire charts.
Sailing directions
From Puerto Real head south two and a half miles to Boquerón. Enter the harbor via Canal Norte, thus avoiding the Bajo Enmedio shoal. Head for the northeast corner of the harbor, avoiding Roca Velásquez and also the two five-foot coral heads that are on the Imray Iolaire chart. Explore the pleasant town of Boquerón for a couple of days.
The following day you do not have to start dawn as you do not want to be at the eastern end of sheltered water and leaving through the gap at the north end of Arrecife Laurel before 11:00am, when the sun is high. Leave Boquerón about 9:00 through Canal Sur. You’ll be sailing dead downwind, a so rig a main boom foreguy preventer so you do not have an unexpected gybe. When the harbor is cleared, head south along the coast but watch the fathometer. Stay in two fathoms of water to avoid shoals off Punta Aguila. Once clear of the shoals, half a mile south of Punta Aguila is a isolated shoal which should be well to the east of you when you head for Cabo Rojo.
Once you have rounded Cabo Rojo immediately head close inshore, right up on the beach. It will now be about 11:00. The wind has probably switched to the east, but even if it’s blowing hard you’ll be in sheltered water and should only have a small chop. Work your way eastwards, passing inside all the reefs and favoring the shore, as it is easier to pick out shoal water rather than the isolated coral heads near the reefs. As you approach the gap at the north end of Arrecife Laurel, start the engine and motorsail through the gap.
LA PARGUERA
Work your way eastwards until you find the buoyed channel into La Parguera. Anchor and enjoy; the village, offshore islands and cays are within easy dinghy exploring distance. You can also visit the bioluminescent bay — considered one of the best places in the world to see bioluminescence — in your dinghy. This is best done on a night when there is no moon. Overnight anchorage in the bioluminescent bay is not recommended because of tourist boats and mosquitoes. You can have another lazy morning at La Parguera, as exiting the reefs before the sun is high is not a good idea. Get underway at midday and work your way eastward inside the reefs, and then exit the sheltered water through the gap in the reef east of Arrecife Enmedio.
CALETA SALINAS
Your next anchorage will be at Caleta Salinas, off the white hotel. This is a rolly anchorage so anchor bow and stern facing into the swell. It gives you an excellent early departure point for a choice of points east: Caña Gorda, the anchorage east of Punta San Jacinto, or Ponce. Leave Caleta Salinas at first light. Go far enough south to clear Arrecife Baúl.
CANA GORDA
Then continue east until your longitude is approaching 63°53′. Look inshore and find a hotel with peaked-roof buildings: Copamarina Beach Resort at Caña Gorda. Bring the buildings to bear 017° magnetic. Run in on this bearing, threading your way through the reef and coral heads, and dodging one isolated coral head once you have passed through the reef. Anchor off the hotel, which in the past has been most hospitable.
ANCHORAGE EAST OF PUNTA SAN JACINTO
Alternatively, proceed just a bit farther, and east of Punta San Jacinto there is an excellent sheltered anchorage with good holding and a good beach to leeward. In the southeast corner of the harbor in among the islands is a wonderful beach loaded with tourists over the weekends, but fairly deserted in midweek. It is well worth a visit in the dinghy. It would also provide a nighttime anchorage but being in among the mangroves I suspect might be rather buggy.
PONCE
Or instead of stopping as above, continue on another 14 miles to Ponce. Stay inshore to stay out on the westward-flowing current. Off Guayanilla on theinshore tack keep a good lookout for reefs. As you approach Ponce you can pass inside Cayo Arenas, tacking through and eyeballing for the deepest water. When we sailed Iolaire through here in ’93 the fathometer showed 11 feet.
In the harbor of Ponce there are two shoals that are difficult to spot: Cayo Viejo and Las Hojitas. Take bearings on the big crane on the pier in the commercial harbor to
keep track of your position to avoid the two shoals. Work your way into the southeast corner of the harbor and anchor off Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club (Club Náutico de Ponce). Be forewarned, the bottom is soft, gooey mud with poor holding. Once sure you are not dragging, go ashore and introduce yourself to the yacht club manager. Organize guest cards for yourself and crew, and ascertain if there is space in the marina for your boat. Ponce YC is reputedly the most hospitable yacht club in Eastern Caribbean.
There is also an excellent anchorage in two fathoms northwest of Buoy 7, which is just west of the northwest corner of the commercial pier.
PONCE TO SALINAS
It is 18 miles from Ponce to Salinas. If you make a dawn departure you have a very good chance of reaching Salinas with almost all the trip made in a light northerly or northeasterly. Even if the easterly comes in, it will not be blowing hard by the time you reach Salinas. Stay inshore, right up on the beach. There is a reef off Punta Petrona. The chart shows a narrow channel with a seven-foot depth. If the sun is high enough and the light good enough for eyeball navigation and you draw six feet or less, this channel can be used motor sailing with the jib rolled up. This will keep you out of the sea, in shore, with a better chance of holding the early-morning offshore breeze. Alternately, depart at 8:00 or 9:00am and sail seven miles southeast to Isla Caja de Muertos, pick up one of their free moorings, and enjoy a day ashore. The next day make an early morning departure and sail 12 miles to Salinas, which you should reach before the offshore breeze dies out.
SALINAS
Salinas is an excellent harbor with an easy entrance. The controlling depth of the channel is seven feet. Deep draft boats should proceed slowly so if you accidentally “park” you can back off. The channel into Salinas and the bay is all soft mud and sand. Within the harbor the general depth seems to be about ten feet. There is an excellent an excellent anchorage in 12 feet of water immediately west of Punta Arenas. This anchorage is within easy dinghy distance of Marina de Salinas. Marina de Salinas is an
excellent marina offering all the facilities one has come to expect. The staff will be able to tell you what is available in the area.
From Salinas take a dawn departure, as it is 18 miles to the anchorage just west of Punta Viento, an anchorage that must be eyeballed. When leaving Salinas, head southeast, noting the buoys while continuing east, exiting at Boca del Infierno. Then continue east hugging the shore and hoping that since you left at dawn you are sailing or motor sailing on a light northerly or northeasterly. WARNING: Four miles east northeast of Boca del Infierno you will see the buoys marking the entrance to the commercial harbor of Las Mareas. The shoal Arrecife Mareas extends one and a half miles eastward from these buoys.
Once clear of the eastern end of the reef continue close inshore, passing inside the five-foot spot 0.6 miles due south of Punta Barrancas. Also pass inshore of Arrecife Algarrobo, which should be easy to spot, and Arrecife Corona, which may be difficult to spot. Pass inside Arrecife Guayama and continue east inshore to the eastern corner of Puerto Patillas.
PUERTO PATILLAS
NOTE: What follows are the sailing directions we were given in 1993. They worked fine then but the marks have probably changed. Hopefully someone can come up with better piloting directions to the inner cove where we anchored. We found ten feet with the white splotch of paint on the retaining wall bearing 030° magnetic with the southeast of the point of the harbor bearing 125° magnetic. Exploring with the dinghy rediscovered that only 50 yards to the south
east of us the water shoaled. The sea hooks around the point and sets a swell into the bay. We left our yawl’s mizzen up to minimize the roll. Sloops should anchor bow and stern facing into the swell.
From Punta Patillas, you have a number of choices for your next anchorage. You can stop at the Yacht Club marina at Palmas del Mar, but it is only 32 miles from Punta Patillas to a good anchorage on western end Vieques, with its numerous harbors and coves to explore.
AFTER PUNTA PATILLAS
Leave the anchorage at first light, heading north toward shore, then west into you feel you can turn south and clear the reefs to the south. Once clear of them, turn east.
Hug the shore 12 miles to Punta Yeguas then try and hold a course of approximately 080° magnetic to an anchorage south of Punta Boca Quebrada with its beautiful white sand beach.
VIEQUES
Five miles to the east of Punta Boca Quebrada is the town of Esperanza on Vieques.
When entering Esperanza harbor leave Cayo Real to port and enter in the center of the channel. (Unless you draw five feet or less do not try to pass between Cayo Real and Vieques as there is no more than six feet of water.) There is roughly eight feet of water in the channel and in the majority of the basin.
Puerto Mosquito just to the east has excellent phosphorescence and a perfect anchorage at the mouth of the harbor. You are behind the reef, perfectly sheltered from the sea but cooled by the breeze. There is good snorkeling and a white sand beach all within swimming distance, so no need to launch the dinghy.
From Vieques to Marina Puerto del Rey on the east coast of Puerto Rico is easy course to sail — approximately north for 13 miles. The marina is huge and has all the services one would expect, including a major hauling facility. If you have crew departing or arriving, transportation to San Juan airport can easily be organized.
Heading north you can pass inside or outside Isla Piñeros. If passing inside consult the back of Imray Iolaire chart A141 for the sailing directions for Pasaje Medio Mundo. Iolaire has successfully used this passage, twice southbound, twice northbound, by paying strict attention to these directions.
Detailed piloting and sailing directions are in Street’s Guide to Puerto Rico, Spanish, US and British Virgin Islands (1995) available as a print-on-demand facsimile edition at iuniverse.com or as secondhand originals from Amazon.
See “Eastern Puerto Rico: Stop Over or Stay” by Joan Conover in the May 2021 issue of Caribbean Compass at www.caribbeancompass.com/online/ may21compass_online.pdf
