Skipper’s Eye View: Of the West Indies

A re-print of a hand drawn cruising manual prepared on board his own cruising sailboat by Capt. Bruno Brown in Antigua, BWI in the late 1960’s. Picture a salty, retired Royal Navy Captain sitting on his aft deck under a harbour awning drawing and writing in a spiral bound notebook, all the things one needs to know about cruising and enjoying the Caribbean islands, particularly the Windward and Leeward islands lying across the trade winds. Imagine also his glass of Gordon s London Dry Gin with a twist of lime from a tree growing on a hillside near the ruins of a old plantation that only he knows, running dry after about two or three pages of steady drawing and making notes. Imagine his mate, a tanned, fit and smiling lassie urging his to finish so they can get on to other things, there under the awning, on this bright, clear afternoon in the tropics. Imagine…. To put it in his own words, Capt. W.S.M. (Bruno) Brown, DSO, OBE, DSC, RN(ret) the author and illustrator of this pamphlet originally prepared if for Yacht charterers based on his almost ten years of cruising these waters. The information in it, however appears to be of general interest to all those enjoying this delightful area whether on land, cruise ships, or island hopping by air.