You will need:
Five Islands
Nine "Special Cargo" pieces
10 of each the Cargo pieces
Plenty of 1 and 5 Doubloon pieces
Your Ship package, fresh from assembly

STEP ONE: Arranging the Islands

There is no hard and fast rule concerning island placement. At camp, I liked to mix things up a little bit (there were also MORE islands...). The idea is that you want a player to be able to their destination island on the first turn, but to spend the rest of their time trying to turn and get around other players. To that end, placing the islands as indicated above meets with some success. Feel free to place things further apart, or to add obsticles. A sock dropped neatly in the middle of the table forces players to sail around an exposed reef, though I might let them fire their cannons over it.

STEP TWO: Sort all of your little pieces.

At camp, I kept every cargo in a seperate little baggie. At home, I'm a bit more compulsive. Lindsay has these cute short glass bowls that hold game pieces very cunningly. How ever you arrange things, make sure you seperate you monkeys from your doubloons.

STEP THREE: Will you be playing with Pirates?.

Before you begin, decide if you will have pirates sailing around causing trouble. Typically, the answer is "YES!" But who will control them? If you have enough players, one of you should agree to play all of the pirates THIS time. Otherwise, you could consider having each player control one pirate ship. Pirate ships should be assumed to be on the same team, and shouldn't attack one another.

STEP FOUR: Roll to see who gets to play first.

Each player should roll two dice (here defined as dice with six clearly labeled sides). The player to roll the highest total plays frist. Play continues around the the table in a clockwise direction.

That's it! You will actually place your pieces and Learn to Play in the section titled