No, I ran a ways from spawn looking for an island. I'd guess about 1500 blocks or so. I planned to build some sort of ocean base this world. Shore isn't that far off, and I did cut some stairs down for stone, soil and sand. Clay, on the other hand, was plentiful, for once. All the island around tended to have some in the shallow water around them. Also lots of oysters around. I stopped gathering them at 20. Monster loot is pretty rare though. Not much comes my way beyond the occasional fallen knights that homes in from one of the close islands.
At first wood was tough because just not much room for trees (unless I want to dive for the planks...). Then I lucked into a fir sapling. Those 2x2 fir trees are about 2.5 stacks of wood and saplings each! Limited room has kept my farms small too. Since I am mostly working up to 10 seeds, I just have a couple rows of actual production farms and I rotate in and out what I need. Only things automated at all are the chicken coop (standing on it) and the smeltery. Try to not accumulate too much junk until I move to my actual base location. Moving can be painful.
Wish someone would mod in a sea anchor for boats. I am forever chasing them. Then they get stuck somewhere and won't come loose or break. Bleh. At least my little dock doesn't bug them out. Shorelinhe disembarks usually means the boat goes shooting off either forwards or backwards and if it crashes into something, it's time to break out a new one or swim home.
What I need is a frames-based cargo ship.
