The characters are bigger than life, and doing just what we all wish we could be doing. Tully's interaction with  them makes compelling reading. There is the Mayan, Ix-Nay and eating lobsters coated with a Mayan hot sauce called Agua del Infierno. Meet Cleopatra Hightower, the 101-year-old captain of a schooner who wants Tully to renovate a lighthouse as a final resting place and monument to her. We follow Tully through several stops as a fishing guide, a mate on a large schooner, through a wild party and near capture in Belize. Who would think of banana pancakes with coconut syrup as a hangover cure?

Passions run high in this improbable story that is mostly autobiographical and shares some history, philosophy and geography with us in an armchair Caribbean vacation. Jimmy Buffett is a dreamer and romantic who makes a living as a musician and thankfully, writes fiction sometimes. It's not a white-knuckle suspense read, but a fast and pleasant sojourn for late-night entertainment.