Duchess Kate looks great in a vacation tan

Amazing what a mid-winter vacation in the Caribbean can do for your look.

Duchess Kate, wearing a white coat that showcased her tan, hobnobbed with sailors today in her first public engagement since returning to London from a vacation on Mustique with Prince George and Prince William and her Middleton family.

Now more than six months pregnant, her baby bump was more visible than ever in a Max Mara white belted wool coat, with an Alice Temperley dress underneath, according to the blogs that track her style.

But it was her tan that got the attention.

Kate's Temperley dress had a boat pattern — appropriate because she was visiting seaside Portsmouth to check up on Ben Ainslie's yacht racing center.

The famed British Olympic yachtsman is training the British team and building a yacht for the British bid in the next America's Cup race in 2017, an effort Kate helped launch last summer.

The young royals and the Middletons spent two weeks on the private luxury island of Mustique, an annual winter sojourn for the Middletons, who celebrated mother Carole Middleton's 60th birthday there.

A few paparazzi pictures emerged of the family relaxing in beach clothes (including Pippa Middleton in a bikini), and on their return to London when they changed planes on a different island.

Earlier this week, Kate also carried out two private engagements, which were not announced in advance and not photographed.

But reports from London said she met with staff and children and even received a lesson on how to play a ukulele.