It s little more than a mile long, powder white sand curving around to a rocky promontory backed by elegant red-barked trees whose tall canopies offer shelter for a grand old house overlooking the channel. Steep green hillsides thick with the bramble of tropical foliage plunge into the darkening water. That night it rains violently, as if the heavens are ripping apart. Thunder cracks like mortar fire, the lightening stabs through closed eyelids. A short but vigorous storm rolls through as we peer out from closed hatches and portholes to watch the spectacle.
Morning dawns clear and bright, the air smells fresh from a rainwater rinse.
After a leisurely breakfast and coffee on deck, we decide to scuba dive around the point . The sea is clear, mirroring the blue reflection of a tropical sky. As we descend into the warm water a big school of yellowtail snapper and grunts glide into view and we raise our cameras in unison. A curious gray angelfish is close behind as we spy a spiny lobster poking out from underneath a colorful coral ledge. We swim to a beach that s fringed with tall coconut palms.