CaribbeanTrinidad & Tobago

Chaguaramas is THE yachting center in Trinidad

By March 10, 2020 No Comments

Night time when everything calms down

Chaguaramas is the northwest peninsula of Trinidad and where you will find almost all marinas and ship yards to haul-out, store, and work on yachts in the entire island of Trinidad. Not only will you want to take your boat to Chaguaramas when you are in Trinidad for the services, but also for a calm anchorage while you check out the sites ashore, of which there are many. I recommend picking up a mooring for 50TT (about $7 US) a day instead of anchoring since the holding is poor and the water deep. Outside of the main anchorage area there are 3-4 other places along the southern shore of the peninsula, but be warned that they have many moored boats and can get rough if the winds are south of east. That is really it for anchorages in Trinidad besides the two islands to the west and 4 or so coves on the north shore when the swell is not up

Oil rig ship out in the bay. Lots of oil related work around.

The history of Chaguaramas is rather interesting since the entire peninsula was leased to the United States in 1940 for the construction of a naval base. This eventually became the largest naval base outside the USA in history. It was procured by offering Britain some older destroyers for base lease agreements. This was the USA’s way of supporting Britain in the war against Germany while still showing neutrality in World War II before the Pearl Harbor attack drew us in.

Off laying island that serves as the prison

The base was also used as an early warning radar site as well as a missile tracking site on the US Air Force Eastern Test Range in the early 1960s. In 1963 the entire area was returned to Trinidad and Tobago and the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) was formed to develop the area. It did not really happen until the late 80’s, but all the old wharfs and boat yards were divided up and became the marinas and boat yards we see today.

You get great sunsets here

This is a great place to store your boat for hurricane season OR get a mooring for Carnival as I have done. At night the anchorage is so peaceful……of course during the day you bounce around a bit due to all the boat traffic. Haha I also used Chaguaramas as a home base to see many of the sights I did not see two years ago when I was here. Check out the blog each day as I tell you about my adventures ashore before finally getting to Carnival.

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