Cuban port in Trinidad docks mysterious yachts from Cayman Islands and Malta

A Malta-flagged mega yacht arrived on Thursday at the Cuban port of Casilda in Trinidad, making it the second luxury vessel to stop there in the last few days.

Sonia Ramírez Suárez, in charge of the Casilda Port Establishment, belonging to Empresa de Servicios Portuarios Centro (Cienfuegos), told the website Transporte Espirituano that "a mega-yacht flying the flag of Malta—an archipelago in the central Mediterranean, in Europe—has docked at one of the docks of the port roadstead."

The vessel arrived from the Cuban tourist resort of Cayo Largo del Sur, and after the visit of its ten passengers to Casilda and Trinidad, it will continue sailing to the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Since the island reopened for tourism last November, this is the third vessel of this type to dock in Casilda. In December 2021, the mega yacht Te Manu also arrived at the port. 

Last Tuesday, another luxurious private ship arrived after a stop in Santiago de Cuba. The V6 mega yacht carried "tourists" interested in visiting the old colonial town of Trinidad. 

According to Transporte Espirituano, the website of the Provincial Transportation Directorate in Sancti Spíritus, the tourists toured the town known as the Museum City of the Caribbean and declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), and the Valle de Los Ingenios, a Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The mega yacht V6 was built in 2007 at Flyghtship shipyard in Auckland, New Zealand. She sails under the Cayman Islands flag and has measures 40 meters in length by 10 meters, with a draft of 3.8 m. The ship has been designed to comfortably accommodate up to 10 people in 5 double cabins.

Neither Transporte Espirituano nor any official state media that reproduce—among them the communist newspaper Escambray—have said who the passengers of this luxury ship are.  

The port of Casilda was certified in 2021 by the Cuban Vessel Registry, which "guarantees the conditions for the anchorage of vessels of different sizes, as the only way to promote visits by sea to the third Cuban village."

Casilda is a small Cuban town and popular council of the municipality of Trinidad, in the province of Sancti Spíritus. It is known as a seaside resort due to the presence of tourist areas such as Ancon Beach. Port authorities claim that this port is the only infrastructure of its kind in the country that receives cruise ships and mega yachts.