It’s coming to that time of year again where Caribbean cruisers planning to stay in the region start looking for somewhere safe to ride out the Atlantic hurricane season. After considering the options we’ve chosen to head back down to the dual island nation of Trinidad & Tobago.

Deciding where to haul out for the Caribbean hurricane season can be a big decision. Some choose to head north to the United States and Canada while others go south, sailing down to Grenada, the ABC’s  or even Colombia. At the very southern end of the windward islands is Trinidad, a place we’ve spent a lot of time and have chosen for this hurricane season as well.

Chaguaramas – Trinidad’s yachting hub

Trinidad’s marine industry is centered around Chaguaramas on the island’s very western tip. It’s where you’ll find all of the haul out facilities, marina’s and moorings available to foreigners and there’s Customs and Immigration offices for commercial and pleasure vessels to check in and out of.

The mains options you have to store your boat at are:

• Peake Yacht Services – Hardstand & Docks
• Power Boats – Hardstand & Docks
• Coral Cove – Hardstand & Docks
• Crews Inn – Marina
• Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA) – Moorings

In general Peake and Power Boats are considered to be fairly similar, with some slight advantages to each like the free shopping bus Peake runs. Coral Cove and TTSA are seen as the more budget friendly options, while Crews Inn can be pricey.

Here’s a general look at how the three haul out facilities compare, keeping in mind they quote in USD.

	Power Boats	Peake Yacht Services	Coral Cove
Haul Out Method	50 ton travel lift 60 ton travel lift hydraulic catamaran trailer	150 ton travel lift	travel lift (monohulls only)
Facilities	Storage rooms Free Wi-Fi Token laundry Work space Dinghy dock Chandlery Onsite apartments with kitchenette Rents out air-conditioners	Storage rooms Free Wi-Fi Token laundry Hot showers Dinghy dock Chandlery Courtesy bus Onsite hotel rooms	Storage rooms Swimming pool Chandlery Onsite hotel rooms Free Wi-Fi
Fees	Haul and launch: 6 days (haul/launch/4days): FREE $7.25 per foot LOA Storage per day from Day 7 onwards: Monos and Multis under 19’6″ beam (Day 7-365): $0.53 per foot Monos and Multis under 19’6″ beam (Day 366+): $0.60 per foot Multis over 19’6″ beam (Day 7-365): $0.75 per foot Multis over 19’6″ beam (Day 366+): $0.80 per foot See the full current fee list including electricity and chocking	Haul and launch: First 6 days: FREE Up to 70ft/ton: $7.26 per foot/ton 71-100ft/ton: $22.00 per foot/ton Over 100ft/ton: $32.00 per foot/ton Multihull 50ft and over: $8.80 per foot Storage per day from Day 7 onwards: Monohull up to 70ft/t: $0.53 per ft/t Monohull over 70ft/t: $1.00 per ft/t Multihull up to 19ft beam: $0.53 per ft Multihull over 19ft beam: $0.75 per ft See the full current fee list including electricity and chocking	Haul and launch: Pricing not available online Storage per day: First 7 days: FREE Main Area: $0.40 per foot per day Front Yard Storage: $0.41 per foot per day Minimum charge of 40ft See the full current fee list including electricity and chocking

Aside from choosing a shipyard or marina, you could take a local mooring in the Chaguaramas Bay or live on anchor, with most cruisers preferring to head out to Chacachacare, Scotland Bay (weekends here are insanely BUSY!) and Turtle Bay since it’s cleaner. The local moorings are run by a couple of different people but the active morning net will be able to point you in the right direction.

Clearing customs and immigration

Something people say about Trinidad is that it’s hard to enter, and I’m not going to lie, it would be much better if the government enacted advice from the various local marine industry stakeholders and introduced Sailclear. It’s something that came up again after Hurricane Beryl and is apparently being considered, but for now the process isn’t hard as much as time consuming. All of the forms are still paper and you’ll find yourself filling in multiple copies of the same form. Take a good pen!

If you need to pay for a visa, like we did as Australians, you need to do that in TTD cash, although they usually accept USD cash. There’s no card payment available and the closest ATM is at Peake, inside the chandlery. The process to get a pet import permit is also one of the more involved I’ve done so if you need one I’d advise you start early.

Safety and security

In 2024 a State of Emergency was declared in Trinidad, but in this situation context is important. Most of the problem is gang related violence in areas well away from the boat yards, that the average Trinidadian will tell you they prefer to avoid. Chaguramas is relatively isolated and is completely centered around commercial businesses and the Trinidadian coastguard, who have a base at the end of Western Main Road. The yards have security and within the yards theft is not considered an issue. It’s not unusual to see people walking their dogs or going for a jog up the sidewalk, and to have any crime impacting cruisers directly in Chaguaramas would be extremely abnormal. The only exception is that out in the bay there’s always the risk of dinghy theft, but that’s the same in many places around the world with the standard “lock it or lose it” rules applying.

I also spent quite a bit of time in Trinidad’s nearby capital, Port of Spain, driving around during the day to visit shops and going in after dark as there’s some great restaurants there.  My advice; use the same common sense and protective behaviors you would anywhere unfamiliar, i.e situational awareness, vigilance, avoiding problem areas and using common sense. If you prefer not to use the maxi buses, there is a local version of Uber called TTRideshare which I used a number of times without issue.

Shopping and supplies

The area has multiple chandleries including Budget Marine, the Boaters Shop and Peake Chandlery, as well as specialty stores like Majestic Coatings and Dumore. If there’s something you can’t get in Trinidad it’s easy enough to order it in yourself using services like EZone, and as a huge bonus, Trinidad has tax free imports for yacht in transit parts. The process is easy too; just make sure it’s addressed to YACHT IN TRANSIT “BOAT NAME”.

For food shopping there’s Daniels and Dockside Mart in Chaguaramas, but most cruisers go on shopping trips or catch the local bus to Massy Supermarket, Price Smart and the Central Market. For us the Central Market was where we did the bulk of our shopping, buying all of our fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, beef and chicken. I’d supplement that with deliveries straight to the boat from Price Smart.

The Central Market

During our time in Trinidad I ended up being the latest person in a long line of cruisers to take charge of organizing the weekly Cruiser Market Bus on Saturday morning’s, taking up to 55 cruisers to do their shopping with the help of our lead maxi taxi drivers, Earl and Lerry. The general feedback was it’s the best market in the eastern Caribbean, with many people ending up making connections to certain vendors.

 

 

Personally I had Brian my shrimp guy, Faizul the beef man, Jessica the chicken lady (of Jerry’s Chicken, her husband), and Jocelyn, a women whose warm nature brightened my Saturday morning. She is happy to share her knowledge of how to use local ingredients and cook local foods with visiting foreigners, so if you have questions she’s the lady to see. On the way out (or in) many stopped at the food court to grab a bite to eat, with the aloo pies being my favorite!

What to do around the boat yards

There’s a relatively strong cruiser community in Trinidad with an active Facebook page, morning net and Whatsapp groups. There are cruisers we met down there who we’ve caught up with intentionally or by accident further north during the sailing season, and others that we know we’ll see when we head back this year.

Around Chaguaramas there’s not a huge amount to do as it’s quite industrial and surrounded by jungle, but when cruisers put their mind to it things happen. During our time there a few guys at Peake started a walking club, which morphed into daily walks finishing with fresh smoothies, bike rides to local attractions, pizza lunches, weekly poker and even free yoga or Pilates classes, run by cruisers who were trained instructors. Whenever the infamous Ragga sails in there are Friday BBQ jams at Peake that go quite late into the night, and Power Boats has a weekly pot luck on Thursday’s.

Within bike riding distance there’s some nice places to explore in Tucker Valley, including Covigne Gorge, Macqueripe Beach and the old Tracking Station up the hill from Bamboo Cathedral. If you have kids (or are a big kid!) the 5 Islands water park is just before the turn off to Tucker Valley, and is somewhere that I’ve seen cruiser families organize groups trips for the kids to. Unfortunately the water on the shipyard side is quite polluted, so you should consider swimming there a no-go. But, if your tender is in the water you may be able to zip up the coast a bit towards Scotland Bay.

If you’re looking for more to do in Trinidad you can go further afield and explore what else the country has to offer. Some cruisers get a group together to hire a car or maxi van driver for the day to go check out the countryside or a special event that’s on, like Carnival or Diwali. Others use the services of Jesse James who offers tours and other services to cruisers. We had a car so would drive ourselves out on day trips. We had no problems doing this the entire time we were there, although it might have been easier for us than some because like Australia, Trinidadians drive on the left!

Eating out

Around the yards there are some good restaurants if you feel like eating out, including cruiser favorite The Wheelhouse, and Patches Bar & Restaurant in Peake, who serve local craft beer from Tommy’s Brewery. There’s also some food stands along Western Main Road, with many raving about the doubles stand outside Power Boats, and the local version of UberEats, FoodDrop, will deliver to the yards.

Genuine connections

Something we found about Trinidad that’s been echoed by other cruisers is how easy it can be to form genuine relationships with locals, especially if you’re there for a while or return year on year. We’ve been to Trinidad once before for what was meant to be a 3 month haul out, but it turned into 21 months while severe warranty issues on our Leopard 45 were resolved. During that time we developed relationships with Trinidadians we met around Chaguaramas, including fellow boat owners who were members at the yard we were in.

Those relationships became genuine friendships. We hung out at the yard and spend time away from it too, meeting their families and friends, and sharing many meals, weekend trips “Down de Island”, celebrating birthdays and Christmas, and staying in touch once we left. For us the circumstances for why we were in Trinidad were not great, so having the support of our local friends meant the world to us and seeing them again was a factor in our decision to return to Trinidad.