Sail on the horizon

[groolug]

I'm trying to do a governor quest that says a courier ship will be passing by san Jose in 7 days. I get there in plenty of time and sit outside the town in sail mode. I sail abit away from san Jose, along the coast in either direction and I get a notification that says sail on the horizon. I can't see anything through my telescope and there is no option to 'sail to'. How do I find the ship?

[ArlekinV]

This means that quest ship is in island aquatory. Try to sail around the island WITHOUT leaving to global map (if you leave sail mode - quest will be failed). But mostly "sail on horizon" means that the quest ship somewhere near your position, but somewhere 3000-5000 knots far from you.

[groolug]

Do the black arrows on the compass have something to do with it?

[ArlekinV]

Nope, it's a Wind Rose.

[groolug]

So it could be anywhere around the island?

[ArlekinV]

In most cases its somewhere near you. The "Sail-to" mode depends on your spyglass, maybe you can't see the ship because of poor-quality of spyglass.

[groolug]

I have the ordinary spyglass. Iv also reloaded several times and sailed around the island and sailed out to sea.

[ArlekinV]

Ordinary spyglass gives you +500 feets of "sail-to" distance. I think that the quest ship just entered the island location and moves from location border. See the wind direction and speed and try too figure out how much time it will takes for this ship to go near the island. Also, you can try to find the ship with purple sails on the global map, if you won't find it in sail mode.

[groolug]

There wasn't a ship with purple sails which is why im in the open sea mode. Surely to work out where the ship will land I would need to know the direction it comes from?

[ArlekinV]

Yes. It's right.

[groolug]

How would I find that out?

[ArlekinV]

Well, you have the start city - where the ship came from, you can consult your map and see the direction, where it would sail from and on which side it will pass the island, where you have intercept it.

[groolug]

Which map do I look at? there is no ship with pink sails and there are lots of ships aroumd the island. If I attack a ship from the main map it says I saw the ship but the captain was too strong for me and I fail the mission.

[ArlekinV]

On global map you can intercept unique-looking ship with purple sails - this is quest ship (there are red, green or purple sails of the quest ships). Only difference between finding the quest ship on global map and local map - your time spent on search. Also you can buy archipelago map from vendors. This is inventory item, that let you see cities and island, but info of the map depends on its quality.

[groolug]

There is no ship with coloured sails on this quest. Also on another quest where I have to find slave traders in 5 days. I have seen ships with coloured sails on other quests though.

[ArlekinV]

No, in generated quests, in which you should intercept specific ship, their icon is unique - green for friendly quest ships, red - for rare quest ships, and purple for ships you should intercept. But their paint scheme will depend on their nationality, like any other ship. You can find mods to make the quest ship icons more immersive.