Puerto Lucia (La Libertad) - Repair Facilities

I stayed at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club for a week at the end of September 2016 to have some repairs done and refuel before going on to Easter island (Rapa Nui). My Echomax antenna broke off and I lost the VHF antenna, while sailing from Panama to Salinas. Jeremy from Stewart Yacht Services provided an excellent service for the repairs, which included in getting me a VHF antenna on short notice, making new holders for the Echomax and VHF antenna and repairing a hole in the gelcoat of the cabin roof, where the Echomax antenna struck, when breaking off. The work was done very professionally and was very reasonably priced. Jeremy also provided us with a refill for our Panamanian propane gas tank. As my previous experience with repair services in Mallorca, Martinique and Panama have been disappointing, Stewart Yacht Services did excellent work overall.
The fees at the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club are rather expensive but the staff is very helpful. The Internet service is rather slow and has some peculiarities like being unable to send e-mails, except as webmail. The Marina office has VHF contact (Channel 19) and can receive transmissions but their transmitter is not able to send out transmissions. When you are at the entrance to the Marina and call them, they will send out a launch that will guide you to the mooring ball or dock. Diesel fuel is cheap at $2.43 per gallon. The clearing fee for the agent is now $520.00 which is expensive but the officials come to the yacht for the clearing in and clearing out.

Posted on behalf of Hans-Rudolf Lehmann, SY IBIS
I have just recently arrived in Ecuador and as Ecuadorian citizen I am in the process of re-establishing myself in the country. Up to now, Ecuador has a very reduced oportunity to cruisers to stay and we are very concerned at this point to change the infrastructure for cruisers.

This is what we have achieved at this point:
1. The new city administration of Salinas has almost finished the public access to the beach in Salinas.
2. The new city administration of Salinas is very open to discuss a project for a Marina with city administration for about 48 vessels between 25 and 60 feet.
3. The new administration of Salinas in cooperation with the National office for tourism will review the procedures to document the boat for tourism and suggest the national administration a different procedure to facilitate a less expensive and more efficient way to visit the country by boating.

In the meantime we are setting 10 mooring buoys in Salinas just outside the yacht club, which can be reserved at the email [email protected] at a cost of USD 15 a day, or USD 350 monthly. We also provide water service to the boat, electricity provided by 110 V generator and fuel provision to the boat. Our agent will service the boat permit with the custom office, immigration and port clearing. Communication to the e-mail [email protected]
Best regards and fair winds
Hans

Posted on behalf of SV Legacy
Legacy (40') was in Puerto Lucia in May 2014. $350 a week at a floating dock . Big surge in the marina $5.02 gal of diesel, well guarded marina with sporadic Wifi ( better at the restaurant) if needed for an extended stay , haul out the boat$400 +/- 1000 a month . Agent will charge between $200 and $700 depending how you cleared the previous country. We came from the Galapagos with a zarpe to Callao, Peru, We paid $200 .The marina will not let you in if they don't get the OK from the agent (Julia Yturralde)as you are anchored in front of the marina while you do the process.

Posted on behalf of Michael Bland, SY Salamander of Hamble (UK)
We have had some experiences that differ somewhat from the articles already posted.
Agent: Mr. Roque Proano is no longer the agent at Puerto Lucia, the agent is now Julia Yturralde: [email protected] (Feb 2014)
Boat Yard: We had a fair amount of work done by Stewart Yacht Services and were very happy with the quality, cost and timing. The work we had done included: Bottom stripped and repainted. GRP repair, stainless steel work for solar panels and anchor roller, anchor chain galvanised, fabricate awning to cover coach roof, fabricate dingy cover. These were all completed in one month.
All work was done to a high standard and to quoted cost and time. The boatyard manager Jeremy Whalen was on hand and kept us up to date with progress. We would recommend them to anyone needing boat work done in the area.
The marina staff were friendly and efficient and we found the wifi to be good most of the time. The marina and agent fees are expensive though.