Puerto Rico : Profile

Facts

Puerto Rico consists of the main island as well as a variety of smaller islands off the west, east and south coasts. The south coast and the east coast with its islands, present the best cruising opportunities for cruising sailors.
Among the many smaller islands, the major ones are: Mona Island (west coast) and Vieques and Culebra (east coast). The islands of the east coast were originally known as the Passage Islands and are now known as the Spanish Virgin Islands.
The islands of Vieques and Culebra are underutilized and consist of large areas of protected park land under the jurisdiction of the US Wildlife and Fisheries Agency. Park Rangers patrol the area and in many bays free moorings are available.
Puerto Rico is part of the Greater Antilles and is often overlooked by cruising sailors on the way to points east in the Lesser Antilles.
The major ports are San Juan on the North Coast, Ponce on the South Coast and Fajardo on the East Coast. Yachting facilities are best in Fajardo where numerous marinas and boatyards can store, haul and repair virtually any class of boat.
Puerto Rico is a US Commonwealth. The currency is the US dollar and debit and credit cards are acceptable virtually everywhere. Puerto Ricans are US citizens.
The island is fully bi-lingual, Spanish and English, and in addition in the major cities there is some fluency in other languages as well.

All countries in the Caribbean have issues of crime and theft from yachts. Some have more and others have less. Puerto Rico has few reported incidents and the overall safety of the area is high in comparison to many other Caribbean destinations.

Nevertheless, cruisers should take basic safety precautions and use common sense when leaving the boat or going ashore at night. Dinghy thieves operate throughout the Caribbean and best advice is to place your dinghy on deck and chain it overnight.

Check the Noonsite Piracy Pages and the Caribbean Safety & Security Net for information on the current island situation.

The Caribbean Safety and Security Net (safetyandsecuritynet@gmail.com) gather information by anchorage or by island, so sailors can plan their cruising in the Caribbean with an eye to appropriate behaviour and precautions wherever they decide to go. Should you have information about a security incident, as well as contacting Noonsite please also forward details to the Caribbean Safety and Security Net, as theirs is the most comprehensive source of Caribbean security incidents against sailors on the net. Please be sure to include boat name, date of incident and anchorage/port where the incident took place.