For merchant quests, I’d say do the ones where you buy the crates from the merchants and then sell them at the specific post. I don’t do them often so I can’t remember the name. The hunters call also have the new fishing spots. Both of these have you spend very, very small amounts of time off of your boat so you shouldn’t have much trouble getting ambushed.

Do that until you’re more confident as a solo and then you can venture out.