I'm at the island but no one is telling me to visit the captain and thus start the quest. I've used every dialogue option available for basks in sun and the guards, and even talking to the captain failed to start the quest.
Am I doing something wrong?
I just re-read your post. Sorry. I think before you do what I suggested above, you should make sure that the "An Island to the North" quest has completed. Enter "getstage fbmwbmrumors" into the console. If it didn't come back as 100, set it to 100. Then try talking to the Captain, as everything should be OK, and you can advance the next quest without console commands. I had no problem getting Basks-in-the-Sun to refer me to the Captain, but you should close out that quest before beginning the next.
I've played some more of the Bloodmoon quests. They are basically unplayable unless you are comfortable with using console commands. I will probably post more details later, but this thread has a pretty good list:
https://tesrenewal.com/comment/71360#comment-71360
Hircine's Hunt will be impossible to complete without the workaround included here:
https://tesrenewal.com/forums/morroblivion-problems/bug-tharsten-in-quest-hircine-hunt
Have Completed ( An Island to the North ).
Up to East Empire Company (The Factors Estate )
Plus others Went and Talked to Captain Carius no Quest comes in any Dialog, so go Talk to other Npc (Guards) around the Fort (Rumors,Advice,Secrets) go Back to talk Carius in His Dialog List ( Captain Carius ) Follow next Entry that comes Up in Dialog ,Quest Activates ( No Problems ) to Much Console Usage. Have played over 75% of the Quest for Bloodmoon Never have Had to Use Console, Can Wreck other Quests..
I haven't done any East Empire quests. I did get "Rebellion at Frostmouth" to start from Carius, and gave some booze to Saenus Lusius, who later accompanied me on the next quest "The Frostmouth Smugglers". Saenus Lusius died, and Gaea Artoria was bugged and did not give me enough dialogue, nor the Skaal skull, in order to progress the Main Quest. I had the same problem as reported here:
https://tesrenewal.com/forums/morroblivion-problems/broken-bloodmoon-quest-0
Also, I could not loot bodies of Bloodmoon creatures, so I want to go back with the patch found here:
https://tesrenewal.com/comment/71360#comment-71360
and the problem is confirmed here:
https://tesrenewal.com/forums/morroblivion-problems/thanks-and-a-list-of-bugs
Basically, you can't get many quest items, since you need to loot them off of the bodies of creatures/npcs that you've killed. I didn't find the fix before I played, so I used console commands to add the items. There were a few more problems, too, that I hope will be fixed if I simply take Gaea and am able to loot bodies. It is always better when you don't have to use console commands!
I just played through it for
I just played through it for the first time without any difficulties. If you have spoken to Carius, and did not get the dialogue to ask about low morale, I would like you to check if the quest has stated by using console commands. Press ~ and type "getstage fbmwbmmorale" and press enter. If it comes back 0, it hasn't. I am relatively new to Oblivion/Morroblivion, but am experienced with Skyrim. I know many people do not like setstage, but it has worked for me dozens of times without breaking my game. A possible workaround could be to enter the command "setstage fbmwbmmorale 10", and try speaking with Carius again. If nothing is different, try, "setstage fbmwbmmorale 20", which will put you to the part where you have to give a soldier a drink. If you get stuck, consult
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Bloodmoon:Rebellion_at_Frostmoth