A thought that I'd had, was to add a new cargo type to the game -- a Longboat (1pt). A longboat could be launched as a free action before a ship takes any other action, and can be retrieved as a free action after all other actions (ends the player's turn). A longboat once launched, becomes a Zero Mast, Ship with movement of Zero and a Cargo of 2. (essentially a direlict.) When launching the long boat, you can launch it with cargo. So you could launch the longboat with an Oarsman and an explorer.

This would, for example allow you to move within 'S' of an island on turn 1. Then on turn 2, you launch the longboat with a oarsman and dock on the island. The ship can then move on to another location during turn 2 -- or can stand off right where it's at.

The longboat can then explore during turn 3, and the ship won't be tied up with the exploration. So if nessesary, it could move off to attack/defend. If the ship doesn't need to move off, it could then instead move in so that it's touching the longboat. Then at the end of the player's turn it can retrieve the longboat and it's crew/cargo as a free action.

Also useful for letting the poor oarsman get sacked by the plague, or drunk from the rum w/o affecting your ship (and it's crew.)