The Exumas are usually counted as 365 cays, one for every day of the year, strung south-east from just below Nassau for well over a hundred miles. Few of them have roads, many have no one living on them at all, and the water between them shifts from pale sand to deep blue within a boat's length. Most of a day here is spent between a hull, a sandbar and a wooden dock, with land as the exception rather than the rule, and that shapes what to wear in the Exumas more than any dress code.

The chain divides naturally in two. Great Exuma and Little Exuma in the south hold George Town, the airport and most of the island's houses and hotels, and the anchorage of Elizabeth Harbour fills with sailing yachts through the winter. The northern cays are wilder. Here lies the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, founded in 1958 and often described as the first protected area of its kind, where fishing is not allowed and the reefs show it. The season that matters runs from December to April, when days sit in the high twenties, the air is dry and the trade wind keeps evenings soft. From June to November the hurricane season shapes plans, and the quiet months of autumn suit only the flexible.

Most days start in swimwear and stay in it longer than anywhere else. The sandbars that surface at low tide, the snorkelling at Thunderball Grotto off Staniel Cay, the famous swimming pigs of Big Major Cay a few minutes away: all of it begins with a step off a boat into knee-deep water. PP swim shorts in Oyster or Black are the garment for that part of the day, and they dry on the warm deck between stops. A linen shirt waits in the dry bag for the moment the boat ties up at a dock or the cooler comes out on the beach.

That shirt carries a great deal. On deck it shades shoulders that have had four hours of sun; on a dock it turns a swimsuit into something fit for a bar stool. The Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Light Blue repeats the colour of the shallows and stays open over the chest in the heat of the day. Men who prefer a fuller cut can choose the Vibes Linen Shirt in Vanille, which hangs well when the wind is up. PP linen shorts stay on land, kept for George Town and the walk to dinner.

Women spending the day on the water will find the Amelia linen dress shirt in Blue the simplest answer: worn as a dress once the swimming is over, it covers what the sun has reached and still looks right when the boat stops at Staniel Cay for lunch. For a day ashore on Great Exuma, the linen ladies set in Sky Blue is easy for the market stalls of George Town and the drive along the Queen's Highway to the beaches of Little Exuma. The women's linen collection holds the full range of both.

Evenings are relaxed but not careless. The Staniel Cay Yacht Club, where boaters have gathered on the deck above the marina for decades, and the restaurants of the resorts on Great Exuma usually ask for no more than a collared shirt with long trousers or clean shorts. The Male Linen Shirt in White with PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue fits the occasion without overstating it, and the cloth is cool enough for an evening that can stay at twenty-five degrees well after dark. For a woman, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Dubarry gives the evening its colour.

Charter crews usually ask guests to pack soft bags rather than hard cases, because storage on board is limited and a rigid suitcase has nowhere to go. Linen folds into very little space and comes out of a cabin locker wearable, which is one reason it suits life on a boat. The same wardrobe carries across to Eleuthera and to Harbour Island, where pink sand and painted clapboard cottages add one or two evening pieces to the list and nothing else.

The Exumas reward the traveller who arrives with less. On a sandbar at low tide, with the boat anchored a few metres off and nothing on the horizon but another cay, the only clothes that make sense are the ones that can get wet, dry in the wind and still be worn to dinner.

Read more: What to Wear in the Bahamas  ·  The Linen Shirt on a Yacht Charter