Sailing is interesting. You sail until you see ships (you can use a spyglass to identify their colors) and you’ll see frequent sea battles between ships and pirates all from a charmingly cartoony top down perspective. You can intervene and eventually, if you choose to be a scourge or Privateer, you can attack innocent ships yourself. Sea combat is challenging and a bit unrefined. You get a 3rd person view, or first person, and it (somewhat) realistically has you tacking with the wind to maneuver for broadsides or to board the enemy. Destroying ships or capturing them grants you experience and cash to upgrade your skills, the skills of your officers, and repair and outfit your fleet. Later in the game you’ll face multiple ships, so you better have a fleet going by then.