You wished for Critic:
the Mechanik to move in one direction by pressing a Direction button is counterintuitiv to the wirlpool where you always go front. how about you turn the ship your self first and then press a button to unleashe the sails -> then the ship goes the direction you ve choosen.
the Wirlpool mechanik would make more sense I guess.
Make the islands bigger- let players imerse in the island feeling a bit more. I know more Work on the artside but would make the islands look more different.
the backgroundshader is WAY TO CONTRAST make the saturation a little lower between the blue tones so the wave effect does not make you dizzy. I was a little suprised at first but got the hang of it, but people could get thrown off by that.
the "refill houses" look like torned down, didn t know what they where doing. How about you make a Barrel of Rum or something to replenish a pirat ship - would be more logical to the theme.
Make the UI in the Top Center so it is Prominent. I wasn t seeing it at the beginning because it felt out of scope. but the readability is very great!
The X at the end was interesting. How about getting a Chest when reaching it? (did i miss it?)
Another Mechanik you could enter would be a Ship shooting at you if you pass by -> pushing you one gridlevel in shooting direction away from your current one.
The Game felt more like a micro Game you find inside another Game, thats because the Game moves very fast with no actual new goal after the first. Try writing some Story into the game. Each level 1 or 2 lines to make the player feel some progress.
I hope that was helpfull and you keep up your GameDevJourney - I liked the Game - felt like icedungeons in Pokemon or Zelda ! Nice Game so far!