You could be hung up on a sandbar. In some cases, the oar does not provide enough power to get you off. If reversing does not work, try pushing the raft. Step off the back and swim to the ladder. Don't press "E" but continue swimming as if you were trying to swim through the raft. Watch Your Stamina! If it gets low, press "E", climb back on the raft and sit down to rest. If you are snagged, you should be able to move the raft enough to get yourself free. May have to push on different parts of the raft's perimeter.

Originally posted by Darth Invader:

You got 3 speeds: rudder, medium, and fast. If the wind is blowing in your face, medium and fast won't work, only rudder. You can tell if the wind is blowing in your face by the indicator on the top right of your screen. If the icon is in the greyed out area, it's blowing head on, and you won't move.

You were right lol. I had to wait a looong time before I could make it to the other side lmao

Interesting thoughts from you other guys. It's not too long of a trip, but I had to make the trip over water because Elkthyr is on the other side so I'm pretty fresh and noob at the game. Thanks for the tips

I think Darth Invader has it correct. I encountered the wind blowing directly into my face, shortly after pointing the raft in a direction.

For what it is worth, you can actually throw it into reverse, tapping "S", and that allows the raft to turn in a direction where you can at least start going forward again, even if it isn't exactly where you want it to go.

Lost a raft to "ocean danger" and lost another to leeches, both due to unhelpful wind direction...

Grinding out a Karve at the moment, heh.

Your can tap the w or s key for forward and reverse just make it so there is a single arrow indicator pointing up or down and you can move without any wind.

steer straight ahead, no turn at all, and put it in reverse. You may have hit a rock or something just big enough to get stuck.
the access ladder to get back on is in the back. eat a stam food and swim around it, see if you see anything or can push on it etc.
you can try waiting on the wind to get behind it and go full sail too, that can break loose.
If nothing works and you can't figure it out, take off your weapon and punch the mast a couple of times. It will do a little damage to the craft but it may shake it loose.

you can try reloading your auto-save backup.

if you must, make a new server, log in and throw your gear into a couple of quick chests, log out, back to the raft and then go die... repop and recover gear. Or use a hack to do so.

My friend, you must have barnacles of steel to risk your gear goin into the ocean on a raft hahaha

Unfortunately i personally have never experienced this issue. Closest is that i can think of is that you might be having some severe lag spikes?

You got 3 speeds: rudder, medium, and fast. If the wind is blowing in your face, medium and fast won't work, only rudder. You can tell if the wind is blowing in your face by the indicator on the top right of your screen. If the icon is in the greyed out area, it's blowing head on, and you won't move.

I don't recommend using a raft for sailing in the open ocean. It's to slow and doesn't have many hit points. Pretty risky. There is danger besides storm and big waves ;-)
You should use it only if you are able to see the land at the other side, that's safe.
You can build a carve pretty soon, that's a much better ship.