I have no experience with text adventures, so it was extra hard for me to play but at least I knew that they're usually played using commands in the "[action] [target]" form. I know you said there was no tutorial but I tried a "help" command nevertheless.
I found myself in a situation in which I knew very little about, and had no clear goal so I was lost. I didn't know where to direct my actions.
The first thing I tried to do was "say hi to locals" but they were pretty rude and didn't reply.
Then I tried "ask locals about [boat, hovercraft, destination, coup, cancellation, construction, aloana, helm, side], since there were two of them I tried to target them individually but I couldn't find a way to address them. Then I tried to "examine [jungle, river, fog]", "use [helm, propeller]", and finally I tried to find out what I was supposed to be doing by "examine self".
Then decide to look at the screenshots for clues and I found out I should have been moving using cardinal directions, which didn't occur to me since I was in a boat which isn't operated by me but now I could play and the game flowed from that point onward. A sudden wall of text unrelated to what I was doing had me thinking I had run into a bug before I realized what was going on.
It was nice, the way the story is presented is interesting and mysterious, and I like the setting. As far as I can tell with no text adventure experience, it works nicely mechanics wise.
I managed to win the game, but with 0 out of 3 points, although I don't know what that means.
I know you couldn't do it because of the time but some more directions at the start would have helped, maybe make those crewmen just a little more chatty or maybe just some hints in the descriptions letting me know I should be moving in directions rather than messing with the boat and crew.