What you can see on the Fajardo cam
The camera sits high above Puerto Chico, one of the town's marinas, in the Sardinera area. Below it lie the docks crowded with yachts and the long breakwater; beyond them, a green headland dotted with buildings and the open water toward the cays. It shows what anyone about to go out on the water wants to know: whether the bay is flat or whitecapped, whether rain is coming and how busy the docks are.
Puerto Chico from the air
Directorio Marino, a Puerto Rico boating directory, runs this camera high above Puerto Chico marina in Fajardo. On the left lies the shore with its houses and trees and the floating docks packed with motor yachts; in the middle, the long breakwater; behind, a forested headland with buildings along its crest; on the right, open water toward the cays.
The date, the time and even the speed of the connection are printed on the image. Watch the surface of the bay: when it is flat, it is a good day to head out; when it is streaked with whitecaps, the trade winds are up.
The cays of La Cordillera
A chain of cays, reefs and rocks begins about a mile off Fajardo and runs some fifteen miles toward Culebra. It was first protected in 1980 and is now the La Cordillera Reef Nature Reserve, one of the largest areas of well-kept coral in Puerto Rico, with more than 80 species of fish recorded and one of the island's largest groups of manatees. Humpback whales are often seen in winter. Icacos, the largest uninhabited cay, is about a quarter of an hour away by water taxi, while Palominos, a little further, is private.
The ferries now leave from Ceiba
For decades Fajardo was the port for the passenger ferries to Culebra and Vieques. On 10 October 2018 the route moved to the former Roosevelt Roads naval base in Ceiba, a few miles south, and that is where the ferries sail from today. Fajardo kept the private boats, the charters and the water taxis.
When to watch Fajardo
Mornings bring the departures, with charter catamarans and day boats leaving for the cays; in the afternoon they come back. The trade winds usually freshen during the day, so the calmest water is early.
Nearby
Villa Marina, another marina, is next door. Seven Seas, a public beach, is about two kilometers away, and a little further north the Las Cabezas de San Juan reserve holds a lighthouse first lit in 1882 and Laguna Grande, one of the three places in Puerto Rico that glow with bioluminescence all year. Puerto del Rey, one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean, lies to the south.
Getting there
The town is about an hour's drive east of San Juan. Puerto Chico has two boatyards with repair shops, and in 2023 it received a federal grant to build facilities for visiting boats.
