The islands are one of the most strategic elements of the game, they allow for several things:

Docking : As a free action, a ship touching an island or a fort with its bow is allowed to dock, it then can drop off and board crew or equipment, or transfer crew or equipment to and from another ship docked at the same island. You can't dock at an opponent's home island or at an enemy fort.

Unloading treasure: When you dock at your home island or a fort, you must unload all treasure worth gold points; this is a free action. Treasure unloaded at a fort is placed inside of the fort, and it counts toward victory.

Repairing : The repair action allows a ship docked at her home island or fort to repair (bring back into play) one mast.

Placing islands : For a 40-point game, players must use three islands per player (six islands for two players, nine islands for three players, etc.). If you don't have enough islands, use similarly sized and shaped objects to represent them. Starting with the first player, players take turns randomly choosing an island and placing it on the play area. Islands must be placed at least 3L but not more than 6L from each other. Depending on your own preferences and the number of ships/points you are playing with, players may agree on any starting rules including the setup of the playing area.

Choosing home islands : The last player chooses which island will be the home island of the first player. The first player places his or her ships so that their bows (fronts of the ships) touch that island. The first player then chooses a different island to be the second player's home island, and that player places his or her ships so that their bows touch that island. The remaining player's home islands are chosen in order in this manner. The remaining islands are called wild islands.

A fog bank has the numbers 1-6 printed around its edge. Fog banks block lines of fire. When any part of a ship or sea creature touches a fog bank, the entire game piece must be placed within the fog bank as a free action; the game piece's turn ends, even if it could move farther that turn.

A game piece in a fog bank is lost. Lost game pieces can't shoot, be shot at, ram or be rammed, pin or be pinned, or board or be boarded by other ships. Game pieces exit fog banks in random directions. When a game piece is given a move action to exit a fog bank, roll one d6 before moving it. Place the game piece outside of the fog bank facing away from the fog bank and touching the number on the fog bank that matches the die result; it can face in any direction away from the fog bank and is no longer lost. Begin moving the game piece from that point.