I was sailing solo last night and had quite the journey. I was just planning to do one gold hoarders quest before bed, something quick and easy. Should have known by now that's not how the game works.
So I got a map for Snake Island with 5 buried chests and a map for Crook's Hollow with 4. Dug up the Snake Island chests with no problem, sailed back to Plunder Outpost and sold them, no hiccups and no ships around at all.
Sailed back over toward Crook's Hollow, seeing a couple sloops in the distance but not especially worried. I dug up all four chests and one of the sloops starts closing in, so I hid my treasure on the island and got on my boat to see what he would do. (I almost never fire first.)
Sure enough, as he closed in he took a shot at me with his cannon. I'm not sure if he wanted the island or if he was just looking for a fight, but I pulled up my anchor and turned my boat to start returning fire. He hit my ship a few times but I repaired and got a good angle to shoot his boat full of holes. He finally sunk and I turn back toward Crook's Hollow...
Only to see another sloop coming up fast, this time a two-man crew. I proceeded to lead them on a massive chase, jumping off a couple times to board them but missing because they turned when they see my mermaid in the water. After a few minutes they gave up and sailed away.
I headed back to Crook's Hollow, which at that point was consumed by a storm, and anchored at the shore just in time to be attacked by a third sloop. He was a terrible aim with his cannon and decided to abandon the attempt because of the storm busting up our ships. I repaired before the storm could sink me, loaded up my chests (one of which is a Cursed Chest of Sorrows), and booked it to Golden Sands Outpost across the map to avoid more conflict.
I managed to make it there in one piece despite the Sorrow's chest trying to sink my boat every couple minutes and sold all my chests for a tidy little sum of about 2,000 gold. The satisfaction I got from fighting off and evading those sloops probably outweighed the payout, and I stayed up entirely too late, but it was a good night.
/fin
