WELCOME ABOARD!
Now I hate to be negative, but if you read the GWX manual you will find that they took away the renown for going to your patrol grid, because they didn't think captains should be rewarded for just following orders.
For myself, I don't play it as a game but try to do what they really did, which means I go to my assigned grid and stay there, not for twenty-four hours but for the entire patrol. If that means I don't get much tonnage, well, neither did a lot of them.
Game-wise, though, you're free to do whatever you like, so make the most of it and
have fun. You won't get into any trouble at all; the game's not built that way.