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.

An iceberg has the numbers 1-6 printed around its edge, as well as a gold number printed at its center. At the beginning of each player's turn, before any actions are assigned, that player must roll a d6. Compare the result to the gold number printed on all icebergs in play. If the result matches any iceberg(s), those icebergs move that turn. For each iceberg that will move, roll another d6 and match the result to the number printed around the iceberg's edge. Measuring straight out from that number away from the iceberg, move the iceberg S. Do not turn or rotate it.

If an iceberg touches any ship or sea creature, stop moving it and eliminate one mast or segment form the touched ship or sea creature. If an iceberg hits an island, it can no longer move the rest of the game.