Destination Guide · Curaçao
Caracas Bay
The Tugboat wreck, Caracas Bay Island, and the long jetty — the easy first anchorage and the most-loved snorkel on the south-east coast.
From Spanish Water
2 nautical miles · 30-minute reach
Best time to sail
Year-round. The bay is sheltered from the trades by the headland, so it is calm and clear in every season; the Tugboat snorkel is best on settled mornings.
Caracas Bay — Caracasbaai — sits just outside the mouth of the Spaanse Water, a couple of miles from the base, and it is the first sail of nearly every charter. The bay is shaped by a long curving spit of land, Caracas Bay Island, with an old industrial jetty reaching out into deep blue water. The draw is what lies just beneath the surface: the Tugboat, a small sunken tug resting in shallow water close to shore, encrusted with coral and surrounded by fish — one of the most photographed and easiest snorkels in all of Curaçao.
We anchor in the bay in clear water, with the Tugboat a short swim or tender ride away. The wreck sits shallow enough to snorkel straight off the boat, and the wall just beyond it drops into excellent diving for guests who want a tank. Mornings are for the water; the bay is sheltered from the trades by the headland, so it is calm, clear, and warm almost every day of the year.
Ashore, Caracas Bay Island is an open, arid spit of cactus and low scrub with paths out to the point and a small ruined fort — a quiet walk with the long view back to Spanish Water and across to Jan Thiel. It is the gentle, beautiful start to a charter, close enough to the base that we can be at anchor with masks in the water within the first hour of the day.
Anchorages
Caracas Bay (the Tugboat)
The main anchorage — clear, sheltered water with the sunken Tugboat a short swim from the boat. Snorkel straight off the deck; the reef wall just beyond drops into the blue for divers.
Caracas Bay Island spit
Anchor along the curving spit in flat water on the leeward side, out of the trades — an easy swimming and lunch stop with the jetty and the point a short tender ride away.
Spaanse Water mouth
Just inside the lagoon entrance — the calmest fallback in any swell, a few minutes from Caracas Bay and a flat-water night within reach of the marinas.
Ashore
The Tugboat snorkel
Mask and fins straight off the boat — the small sunken tug in shallow water, coral-grown and circled by fish. The easiest, most rewarding snorkel on the south-east coast, best in the calm of the morning.
Caracas Bay Island
The arid spit of cactus and scrub with paths out to the point and a small ruined fort. A short walk ashore with the long view back to Spanish Water and across the bay.
The old jetty
The long industrial jetty reaching into deep blue water — a relic of the bay's working past, now a landmark on the snorkel and a striking foreground for the photographs.
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RexSailing · Spanish Water · Curaçao