Star Pride: a Caribbean cruise without the crowds

I am lounging on the net of a giant catamaran, rum punch in hand. The sun is blazing and the boat’s speaker is blaring out Louis Armstrong growling “What a wonderful world”. Back home, it’s all Brexit gloom and Dry January. I accept a second rum punch. It’s barely 11am.

There’s a lot to be said for a last-minute winter getaway and a much-needed dose of vitamin D. This catamaran trip is an excursion on Windstar’s 212-passenger Star Pride, which waits back in St Lucia’s capital, Castries. While it’s a busy and not especially attractive port, pretty much everywhere else we visit over the course of a week sailing from Barbados to Puerto Rico is tiny, more suited to sailing yachts and gin palaces than…