The sun warms you. The wind caresses you. The sea heals you.

All this -- and you have absolutely no responsibilities when you're a passenger on the Sir Francis Drake, a three-masted sailing ship that meanders throughout the Caribbean all year long.

A week cruising on the Drake is a a dream vacation, if relaxing every day is your idea of something to do. Favorite stress-reducing activities while aboard include pondering the myriad colors of blue of the sea, watching the wind fill the nine sails and drifting off to sleep on deck under the spell of the rising and falling bow.

Picture this: a habitual list maker lying on a mat under a tree on the beach the first day of vacation.

"OK," I say to myself. "What do I have to do today?"

After a minute or two of concentrated thought, this is all I come up with: Rinse off my sandals before getting back on the ship.

That's it. One task and a self-directed one at that.

I lay back, turned off my brain and let having nothing to do wash over me like gentle aquamarine waves.

I went on a week-long cruise on the Drake recently, and I'm happy to report that the symptoms of terminal calm stayed with me for weeks.

The Drake is a beautiful ship, posh and well-appointed. The ship is 165 feet long, 23 feet wide and has a 9-foot draft. She carries up to 30 passengers and a crew of 14. The big wooden deck is full of cozy chairs and benches, and a generous canopy over some of them protects those passengers hiding from the Caribbean sun.

Almost all the ports of call are lovely isolated beaches or quiet coves in the American And British Virgin Islands. We stopped at Christmas Cove, Francis Bay, Sandy Cay, Brewers Bay, the Baths at Virgin Gorda (a sandy beach with giant rock formations) and Leverick Bay.

At each stop, you may snorkel, swim, play in the water, lie on the beach (in the sun or under a tree) or hike. Most of the beaches are deserted, but on one, an enterprising saleswoman had hung her wares on nearby branches, and she welcomed each visitor to her Tree-Shirt Shop.

We spent part of an afternoon on Tintimarre, a small island off St. Martin. There, we visited Bernard's Bar, a beach bar owned by a Frenchman (the aforementioned Bernard) and staffed by his brother-in-law, Tommy, from Brooklyn.

About 200 wild goats roam the island, and one is known for its penchant for whiskey. Some of the birds on the island wait patiently for bar customers to set down a glass of beer, and then they swoop in for a taste. Chickens and ducks also roam around, and one sunbather found a duck egg buried in the sand.

You also can sample island night life on the trip, specifically on Virgin Borda and St. Martin.

Wondering what to wear to a bar, a club or a casino? As a crew member put it, "Dressing up in the Caribbean means wearing shoes." Put on earrings, and you're positively formal.

One shopping orgy is planned on each trip, in Dutch St. Maarten. After you've exhausted yourself looking at watches and china and camera equipment, check out the guavaberry liqueur, made from berries native to the island.

In at least one port, you can go ashore to Pusser's, a combination restaurant-bar-souvenir shop, and sample their famous rum drink, The Painkiller. (It was delicious!)

Of course, you never have to get off the ship at all.

Here's the entry from my notebook our second day out: "Too lazy to read. Too unwound to think. Watched feeding pelicans dive into the sea this morning. Overheard rumors of sea turtles nearby. Snorkeled this afternoon -- saw fish."

Late one afternoon, I dragged a chair up to the bow and sat gazing at the gentle rolling hills that make up the Caribbean islands. Only the occasional burst of sea spray interrupted my sunset reverie.

The Drake has an excellent sound system on deck, and in the course of the week, we heard everything from Handel's "Water Music" to Jimmy Buffet to sea chanteys to operatic arias. The day we heard way too much Neil Diamond, I protested. The captain invited me into the wheelhouse to choose something else. I went with the Pointer Sisters.

Two captains serve on the Drake: Brian Petley and Harry Schoenauer. The week I was aboard, Captain Harry, as he is known, was in charge. Just 30, Capt. Harry is charming, personable and fun to have around.

"My job," he said one sunny afternoon, "is to unwind you the first part of the week and then crank you back up toward the end, to send you home ready to face your job."

We talked philosophy, photo equipment and fishing -- and he let me drive the Drake for awhile one afternoon. I laughed aloud when I saw this bumper sticker in he wheelhouse: "Another Ho-Hum Day in Paradise."

The Drake was built in 1915 in Brake, Germany, for a doctor, who named her Landkirchen. She was one of a fleet of five schooners that sailed from Hamburg to Chile and around Cape Horn, carrying copper orre.

During World War II, the Landkirchen ran over a mine off the Dutch island of Moeen. The mine blew a hole in the engine room, but the ship, full of lumber, did not sink. After being repaired, the ship returned to service, again carrying cargo.

In 1979, a new owner rechristened her Godewind and had her refitted as a sailing ship. She sailed the Windward Islands on 14-day cruises and ran short-term charters in the Baltic Sea. In 1989, Eckart Straub bought the ship and renamed her the Sir Francis Drake, after the famous admiral and buccaneer.

Before getting on the ship from St. Thomas, I made one stop in town, at Zora of St. Thomas, a shop at 34 Norre Gade, about three blocks from the busy arcades. there, Zora Belle McCann (formerly of Brentwood) makes and sells colorful canvas bags and backpacks in all sizes and shapes and custom-made leather sandals, also in all sizes and shapes.

When I arrived at the Drake, I was met by the purser, who showed me to my room. The cabins on the ship are remarkably spacious and quite comfortable for a sailing ship. Some have side-by-side twin berths, and there is one suite with a double bed. Every cabin is carpeted and air conditioned, and each has a private bathroom, which includes a shower with hot water.

The friendly crew tends to passengers' every need. The week I was on, the crew included Alwyn Ferguson, the cook; Joan Hood, the stewardess, Dan Nordstrom, the mate: Jenna Nordstrom, purser; Trish Patterson, the bartender, Winston Paul, engineer; Adolphus Peters, first mate; and deckhands philip Petley and Romauld Weeks.

Each day, Ferguson fed us three fine meals, usually served in the salon, a lovely paneled room in the center of the ship. A hot breakfast is offered each morning, but you also may choose cold cereal and fresh fruit. Lunch generally is an entree (the lobster pizza was delicious), assorted salads, fruit and muffins. One day, we had a picnic on a beach. A snack, along with a glass of Pirate's Punch is served on deck every afternoon.

Dinner is a big to-do, including soup, salad, entree, vegetables, bread and dessert. Among the dinner entrees were roast turkey, baked mahi, grilled steak in garlic sauce, and lobster tail. Two nights, Ferguson barbecued and we ate on deck.

Full bar service is always available, and assorted wines and coffee are available with diner. From time to time, everyone aboard favored bartender Patterson's "Drink of the Day," a froufrou rum concoction that went down easy and, usually,way too fast. Especially good were her Banana-Baileys Colada and Strawberry Kiss.

We raised the sails (that's the royal "we" -- passengers don't work on the Drake) each morning, and we dropped anchor every night but one. The night we sailed, all the passengers went up on deck to look at the stars. After a bit of a catnap in a deck chair, I went down to my cabin.

As I lay in my berth, drifting off to sleep, I imagined accompanying a hold full of copper ore around Cape Horn -- and decided I was glad that the Drake now confines itself to meandering around the Caribbean sea.