I know you can edit the time compression settings in SHIII which will alter the rate it jumps to when you get close to land or spot a ship or something;
http://www.communitymanuals.com/shii...ssion_Settings
I have changed the max setting from 1024 to 2048.
Also if you're at full compression and you want to get to 1 quickly, you can press the Backspace key (top right next to your = sign) and it'll pause the game, you can then press the + key to get it to real-time.