Originally posted by QuicksandRiggs:

If you are trying not to alter anything too much and play vanilla, I would explore more and find out if there are any Black Forest biomes that are more accessible, with fine wood, bronze nails, deer hide and resin you can craft a Karve which is considerably faster than the raft and should help you cross the ocean much easier.

Thank you! Yeah trying my best to go without using mods so that's really helpful - not sure what the consequences would be if I did so trying to avoid it. Bronze nails.. not sure how to go about crafting those either. I've got plenty copper and tin? haha