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.