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From April 18-28 we followed Don Street's route from St Thomas to Culebra to Vieques to St Croix to St Thomas. Longer trip report to follow later. For now ...

On April 19, following suggestions on this forum, I called PR C&I when 4 miles east of Culebra to check in the boat and 6 crew. Our intended destination for the night was Culebrita. I was informed by the agent who answered the phone that I could not check in by phone until we were anchored in Ensenada Honda. I explained that that was contrary to information I had received, and I attempted to persuade him to let us check in from current position. He refused, so we proceeded to EH and drove in circles for 20 minutes while I called him back and completed the check-in. In fairness, the second call went very well, and he only asked for the names and birthdates of the crew because he could get the passport numbers and expiration dates from his computer.

Did I say the second call went well? Hmm. It did until the C&I agent asked for our Puerto Rico cruising permit number. I knew we needed that, but confirming that our boat had the annual decal (it didn't) or getting the permit for our trip had simply slipped my mind. Clearly my mistake. The agent directed me to proceed to the Culebra airport where I would have to pay $28.85 and then call him back so our check in could be completed. He allowed, however, that the phones to the C&I office in Culebra were down, so he could not guarantee that anyone would be in office when I arrived. I elected to go rogue, abandon our attempt to get to Culebrita, and instead proceed downwind to Carlos Rosario for the evening. I reasoned that we were going ashore in Puerto Real in Vieques in two days, and I could just pay the fee then. Nope! The next morning, on our way around the west and north side of Culebra en route to Culebrita, I finally answered the third call from PR C&I. The agent said she hoped I was still in Culebra, because the check-in could not be completed without our cruising permit number. She also directed me to go to the Culebra airport C&I office. After much discussion, she finally informed me that I could simply go online and get the permit, and then call her back. Fifteen minutes later, we were finally in the good graces of C&I!

So, (1) if you plan to try the offshore check in method, build an extra 1-2 hours into your schedule in the event you talk to the same agent I did, and (2) make sure you have your cruising permit / decal number available when and where you check in.

Assuming you were on a charter boat, and assuming the charter company knew of your plans to head west, I'm a little surprised that the charter company didn't make sure you had the necessary permit.

Anyway, hope it was a great trip!

Dan

Yes, charter boat, and yes, they had a copy of our sail plan in advance. I think it just slipped their minds, like it did mine. A minor glitch in an otherwise fabulous trip.

We have customs decal on all of our Vessels at CYOA. The annual renewal is the same regardless. Much like the thread about BVI customs you have to be in the port of entry which is Ensenada Honda to clear. They have the right to inspect the boat and on rare occasions do.

Jay

As Jay states, CYOA is on top of this requirement. On my clearance to Culebra in March, the C&I officer in Puerto Rico that I called enroute to Culebra required that I first be anchored (we went to Ensenada Honda) and then call back with our info. This was done with no problem and then I received a call back from the local Culebra C&I office with our clearance #.

I was just trying to bring current the information in your January 2017 post in the thread "Sailing Information Requested For SVI & St Croix." You did say at that time that your procedure was to call when 4 miles out of Ensenada Honda, and you suggested that the agent might or might not require coming into EH. Looks like that is now standard procedure. And, but for the missing decal info, the process was quick and easy.

It does seem the C&I process may have changed post-Irma and Maria as the officer didn't want to take any of our info until we could confirm we were in Ensenada Honda. That said it was probably a 30 minute turnaround with PR and Culebra C&I.

This has always been the rule. Just not always enforced. Ensenada Honda is the port of entry.

We've called in before and were scolded to wait until we had anchored n Ensenada Honda. We use SVRS and have still had to give them all of our information over the phone. We usually get a callback from the C&I person at the Culebra airport "Yeah, those guys have no clue about SVRS. I see your float plan right here. Here is your confirmation number."

Anyone use the ROAM app yet for USVIs, SVIs or PR?

Cheers, RickG

I'm batting around 50/50 checking in via phone from east of Culebrita.
It wastes about 2-3 hours sailing (& motoring) the inside passage to EH, calling in, and beating feet back to Culebrita.
You can "cheat" a little by calling in when you pass the sea-buoy, and you might have the call done by the time you get to Dewey, or maybe even before.
The good thing about the Culebrita main anchorage (Bayo Tortugas), is most of the day-trippers leave about 4pm, and if you get back there at 5pm you'll probably have the whole place to yourself.

Please don't cheat when clearing in. It's a really simple process and the agents really try to make it painless. The process of sailing into the bay and dropping the hook while making the phone call is a simple rule to obey. The officers need to be able to see your boat when processing the entry and 99% of the time you won't have to present yourself or crew. The last thing we want is to turn this into the BVI process of marching everyone into the C&I office.

Culebrita, Luis Pena and the surrounding cays are all designated as conservation zones (environmentally sensitive). Public access to these areas is designated as daytime use only. Mooring and anchoring only allowed during the day, no overnights. DPNR has been historically pretty lax on enforcement but that seems to be changing.

In April 2018, we spent a very pleasant overnight in Bayo Tortugas, Culebrita. (There were a couple of other charter / cruising boats there as well.) We did so on the basis of (A) reports from several members of this forum; (B) a suggestion in "A Cruising Guide to Puerto Rico 2.0 by Frank Virgintino (2012) page 123; (C) reports from multiple persons on cruisersforum.com;, and, (D) posts / blogs by many professionals, for example photograph John Peltier (2013) www.jmpeltier.com/2013/04/08/culebrita/, Carol Kent Yacht Charters (2016) www.carolkent.com/cruising-and-diving-in-the-spanish-virgin-islands/, and www.zerotocruising.com/one-day-and-night-on-culebrita.

Given what is obviously a common practice, what is the source for your comment, quoted above?

My first source would be the actual management plan that was set in place by the US Dept of Fish and Wildlife for the refuge - the relevant sections are below.
Second source would be the writing on the morning balls - DAY USE ONLY
Third source is the DPNR meeting that I attended in San Juan last month.

Culebrita, Luis Pena and the adjacent cays are all inside the refuge boundaries.


The Commonwealth will inspect and oversee development
and management activities on the lands conveyed to them on Culebrita. The Commonwealth agrees to enforce
the land use restrictions as outlined in this Cooperative Management Agreement.
III. OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
The Commonwealth will comply with the following opera
tional procedures:
1. Only daytime use (1/2 hour before sunrise to
1/2 hour after sunset) shall be permitted on
beachfront areas and use will be restricted to
hiking, picnicking, swimming, and similar recre
ational activities. These beachfronts have been
identified as essential habitat for the hawksbill
turtle and as such must receive full and absolute
protection in accordance with the provisions of
the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended,
and the laws of Puerto Rico. Human disturbance
such as, but not limited to, nest robbing, inter
ference with the progress of the young in reaching
to such an extent as to significantly disrupt
essential behavioral patterns, which include,
but are not limited to, breeding, feeding, or
sheltering; significant environmental modifica
tion or degradation which has such effects is
included within the meaning of "harm;" (CFR 50,
Chapter I. Part 17.3).

2. Boats shall not be anchored in the intertidal
zone or left on beachfronts during nighttime
hours (1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before
sunrise).

I hope they are not serious about not overnight anchoring. It will not be good for Culebra the charter industry or cruising boats. I do not know the rational about no overnight on the government moorings. Making people leave the moorings to anchor seems counter intuitive and would cause more harm than good.

Both of these regulations seem to be aimed at the actual beach and shoreline so as to not interfere with the turtles. The second part of this "intertidal zone" is simply the area between low and high tide. It does not specifically exclude anchoring outside that very limited zone.

"The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore and seashore and sometimes referred to as the littoral zone, is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide (in other words, the area between tide marks)."

The posted beach signage at Culebrita and Luis Pena is consistent with the above OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES - stay off the beach from sunset to sunrise. The only boats that might operate in the intertidal zone are dinghies and the local day trippers that may pull their boat to the beach in calm conditions.

I noticed that the vast majority of mooring balls throughout Culebra and surrounding waters look to be marked DPNR - DAY USE ONLY. The moorings are much more substantially constructed than the BVI NPS day moorings. l'll admit that I've overnighted on these DPNR moorings - to Jay's point, it seemed counter-productive to the protection of the seafloor to drop an anchor and chain at sunset.

I'm with Captain J and BaardJ on this one. The regulatory language you quoted refers only to "land" with respect to its limitations to day use. There is nothing in that regulation that prohibits overnight anchoring. And, while many (but not all) DPNR buoys are marked for day use in Culebra and Vieques, that is certainly not how they are used. We had two other boats for company on such "day balls" at Playa Carlos Rosario the night before our Culebrita stop.