Marina Puerto Chico Adds Wave Protection
A floating wave attenuator at Docks A1 and A2 means calmer water and more visitor slips at Fajardo's Marina Puerto Chico.
Boats and docks at Marina Puerto Chico in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, are getting added protection from waves and storm exposure. One of six properties in the Grand Caribbean Marinas network, the marina is installing a floating wave attenuator at Docks A1 and A2 to reduce wave action, provide more protected dockage, including for visiting boats, and increase usable capacity. The marina is coordinating installation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
| Marina | Marina Puerto Chico, Fajardo, Puerto Rico |
| Operator | Grand Caribbean Marinas (six Fajardo properties), owned by Bacalia Group, San Juan |
| Project | Floating wave attenuator across Docks A1 and A2 |
| Purpose | Less wave action, more protected slips including transient, more usable capacity |
| Agencies | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) |
| Funding | $1.137M Boating Infrastructure Grant (2023) + $968,582 marina match |
| Slips in the grant plan | 41 new, 19 transient, boats to 50 ft; restrooms, pump-out, ADA gangway, fuel dock |
| Status | Installation under way (company update, September 2026) |
Marina Puerto Chico is one of six Grand Caribbean Marinas properties, all in Fajardo: Renaissance Villa Marina, Marina Puerto Chico and The Reserve beside it, Isleta Marina, and the Sardinera and Blue Coast dry-storage yards. When the group bought its first four in the years after Hurricane Maria it became the largest marina operator in Puerto Rico, with more than 2,200 wet and dry spaces.
“A floating wave attenuator isn’t a cosmetic upgrade; it’s resilience infrastructure,” said Giuseppe Cicatelli, founder and principal of the Bacalia Group, a San Juan-headquartered private investment company that owns and operates Grand Caribbean Marinas. “Marinas function as working coastal infrastructure: they support nautical tourism, dockhands, mechanics, captains, divers, and hundreds of small businesses built around the water.”
Fajardo is the jumping-off point for Culebra, Vieques and the Spanish Virgin Islands, and the first Puerto Rico stop for boats working west from the Virgins, so a protected transient dock there matters well beyond the island. The 2023 grant was written around exactly those visitors: 41 new slips, 19 of them reserved for transients, for boats to 50 feet, with a restroom and shower block, pump-out, an ADA gangway and a fuel dock. The attenuator is what makes those slips usable on an exposed east coast.
The project builds on a $1.137 million federal Boating Infrastructure Grant awarded to Marina Puerto Chico in 2023 for transient boating improvements, matched by a $968,582 marina investment. The program, run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and paid for by federal excise taxes on fishing tackle and motorboat fuel, funds transient dockage for boats 26 feet and longer; its 2023 round put about $20 million into marinas nationwide.
Carol Bareuther has written for ALL AT SEA since 2004.
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