Being addicted to port raiding I spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for traffic to pass between movements. Though it can take a very long time (irt) you can count on the ships momentum to keep you moving for awhile, even if the traffic is so bad you can only muster bursts of slow at silent your ship will still keep moving for a few more meters. If you get lucky and get a chance where all traffic is moving away from you at long range you can hit flank speed and then cut the engines which should get you a hundred meters or better safely. Though there are no real ocean current ingame as mentioned, your boat still is subject to P=MV
