Hello Puerto Rico – Isla del Encanto!

The Island of Enchantment was never on our list of must-go destinations when planning this trip and we’ve discovered that PR is not a popular destination for cruisers heading south and most stop in Dominican Republic or continue heading directly to Grenada.  We really did not know much about PR, but chose to end our season on PR’s east coast for entirely practical reasons.

We purchased Meshuggana 2 from a Miami based yacht dealer, who also has an office in Fajardo, PR, inside the largest marina in the Caribbean. Since almost every new boat requires warranty work, and Meshuggana 2 was no exception, we decided to haul-out in Fajardo where we’d have good access to marine services. The marina had excellent reviews, and our insurance company approved land storage here for hurricane season.  We booked haul out for April 10, 2024 and flights home a few days later. But first, we needed to get to the far east end of PR from Samana, Dominican Republic, with the infamous Mona Passage between us as we felt the pinch of time. 

For much of our 2023-2024 sailing season we experienced less than ideal weather conditions and were forced to wait in protected bays far longer than we wanted to be there. There is a saying in the sailing world: plans are written in sand at low tide. We now had firm plans as we pleaded with Mother Nature to be kind.  And this time she granted our wish.

When exiting the Dominican Republic, most sailors turn south and navigate through the Mona Passage, known to be unpredictable at best and treacherous at worst, as it funnels the mighty Atlantic between two land masses, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, into the Caribbean Sea. Sailors usually turn east and sail along PR’s southern shore enjoying bluer, calmer, warmer Caribbean waters and many towns and safe ports along the way. The alternative route is the North shore, with big Atlantic swells, north wind and absolutely no ports between Samana, DR all the way to San Juan, making this a more than 24-hour non-stop journey.

As I mentioned, Mother Nature was kind to us and after nearly a week of waiting, we finally got a favorable forecast with gentle offshore winds over a scant 24-hour period. At first light on March 20, 2024, we left Samana, DR and set sail for an overnighter to San Juan.

The passage was not an easy one; however, we’ve gotten good at this. As the sun rose, revealing PR’s magnificent mountains and north coast, we almost forgot the rough night. A few hours later we sailed past the imposing walls of El Morro, the fort that has protected San Juan and it harbour for centuries, as we entered San Juan Harbour. As expected, San Juan is one of the busiest harbours in the Caribbean, bustling with industry, freighters, cruise ships, tourist boats and of course, other sailors like us.

Now we had a good problem to solve – Fajardo was only a 5-hour sail from San Juan, and with about 3 weeks before haul-out, we had some extra time. What to do? Explore Puerto Rico, of course!

We spent those weeks exploring San Juan, Fajardo and the Spanish Virgin Islands of Vieques, Culebra and Culebrita. After these three weeks, we came to realize this was not enough and we would need to see more Puerto Rico next season.

We hauled the boat as scheduled, flew home and spent Spring and Summer home in Toronto. We returned to Fajardo in November 2024, launched the boat and continued our PR adventures by both land and sea.

I’ll share highlights of our adventures, but first a little history to better understand the island.

Puerto Rico, an island of only 3500 square miles, is in the West Indies. Taino and other indigenous people occupied this land as long as 4000 years ago; however, in 1493 Christopher Columbus landed here on his second voyage and later, in 1508, Juan Ponce de León sailed into San Juan Bay, naming the island Puerto Rico (Rich Port). For centuries PR was part of the Spanish Empire and until 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the United States invaded PR making it a US territory. The following years are a very long and very complicated history between the two. Today Puerto Rico is still mostly self-governed, its citizens are US citizens, but there are many distinctions between a state and a territory.

San Juan is the capital city, with many distinct neighborhoods, from the very old to very modern. The heart of this city is Old Town, inside the fortress walls of El Morro. Cobbled streets, steep hills, historic buildings and fort walls ooze history, but the daily cruise ships dumping throngs of tourists into this city every day have spawned cheap souvenir shops and gaudy bars and restaurants.  Old San Juan is still a must-see, but evenings are the best when most cruise tourists return to their ships.

El Yunque Rain Forest is the only tropical rain forest on US soil. It is only an hour’s drive from San Juan, and is a natural wonder with miles of trails to be explored. We chose some waterfall hikes, and hope to return next year for more exploration.

Culebra, Culebrita and Vieques, known as the Spanish Virgin Islands, are smaller islands off the east coast of “mainland” Puerto Rico. Just a few hours sail from PR, these islands have become one of our favourite Caribbean destinations.

Vieques is home to the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world! We arrived on a moonless night, hiked 20 minutes down a dirt road carrying our SUP, and spent an hour marveling at what can only be described as “magic”. Every splash, every ripple, every fish swimming by glows blue under the water – I felt like I was on a Disneyworld ride! Unfortunately, photos do not turn out well, so you just have to go experience it yourself.

Culebra is the party island where main islanders go to R&R. A large, sheltered bay, several good restaurants, gorgeous beaches, decent snorkeling all make this a great weekend destination. The frequent, inexpensive ferry makes it even better – a one-way adult fare is a mere $2.00.

Culebrita is an uninhabited nature reserve next to Culebra. Hiking trails bring you up to an impressive, no-longer used light house with impressive views, as well as a large white crescent beach and bubbling pools where ocean waves power through a natural break wall. Its surrounding reef makes it tough to get inside the bay with a sailboat, but we got lucky and chose a day with calm seas, allowing us to spend few days in this little paradise.

Phew! There’s still so much to tell you about Isla del Encanto, but I will save that for next time…it really is an Isla del Encanto!