Outside of using the debug mode to fly, not really. A few map seeds will have all you need on one land mass, but the odds of you having that are just shy of slim and none.

The sailing in here is actually fairly realistic for a video game, especially compared to other games with sailing. It's a system that has a learning curve to it, but once you do it's easy to manage. If all you've built so far is a raft, I can understand your feeling. Rafts suck the chrome of a bumper. They're fine for crossing rivers or short coast hops, but you need to get yourself the next tier up and it'll be like night and day.

Plus you don't want to miss the fun of cutting sharp turns in the water on a stormy night, trying to ride the waves to avoid being swamped while a serpent follows behind waiting for you to fall overboard! :D