Blue Wave Harmony to replace Cabo Star on sea bridge

The Port Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go says it has se­cured a new roll-on/roll-off pas­sen­ger and car­go ves­sel, the MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny, to re­place the MV Cabo Star when its lease ex­pires on Jan­u­ary 12, 2026.

The ves­sel is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Trinidad around Jan­u­ary 18, sub­ject to weath­er con­di­tions and the com­ple­tion of reg­u­la­to­ry and op­er­a­tional clear­ances.

Ac­cord­ing to the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NID­CO), the ac­qui­si­tion fol­lowed a man­aged pro­cure­ment process aimed at im­prov­ing op­er­a­tional com­pat­i­bil­i­ty at the ports in Port of Spain and Scar­bor­ough, while in­creas­ing car­go ca­pac­i­ty, pas­sen­ger com­fort, safe­ty and re­li­a­bil­i­ty.

NID­CO said the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant up­grade, with four main en­gines to im­prove re­dun­dan­cy and re­duce ser­vice dis­rup­tions, as well as heav­ier-du­ty load­ing ramps to ac­com­mo­date bulk and spe­cialised car­go. The ves­sel can car­ry about 125 freight units, com­pared with rough­ly 90 trail­ers on the Cabo Star, and in­cludes 31 fixed re­frig­er­at­ed sock­ets for tem­per­a­ture-sen­si­tive goods such as food and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

Pas­sen­ger ameni­ties in­clude 73 cab­ins with beds and bath­rooms, a 142-seat self-ser­vice restau­rant, lounge and en­ter­tain­ment ar­eas, and im­proved ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty fea­tures, in­clud­ing a pas­sen­ger lift.

In the in­ter­im, the Trinidad and To­ba­go In­ter-Is­land Trans­porta­tion Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed has im­ple­ment­ed con­tin­gency arrange­ments us­ing ex­ist­ing ves­sels, in­clud­ing the A.P.T. James, T&T Spir­it and Galleons Pas­sage, to en­sure the con­tin­ued move­ment of es­sen­tial car­go be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go.

NID­CO said the ves­sel is cer­ti­fied to trans­port dan­ger­ous and spe­cialised car­go and will not re­quire sched­uled dry-dock­ing in 2026, al­low­ing for un­in­ter­rupt­ed op­er­a­tions. It added that the up­grad­ed fa­cil­i­ties are ex­pect­ed to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal em­ploy­ment and ser­vice providers.

Chief sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ples Par­ty leader, Far­ley Au­gus­tine, al­so made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Bethes­da / Les Coteaux last night.