From my limited experience, it seems the patrol/deploy missions are satisfied by different means.
If your orders tell you to DEPLOY to an area, getting within 50 miles of the center of the highlighted star is all you need to do, other than any following orders such as destroy enemy merchant shipping.
If the orders are to PATROL a hghlighted area, I find that if I draw a 50 mile radius circle based on the center of the star and use a plotted course to tool around inside the circle for 48 hours, the mission is deemed a success. It always helps if the game puts a ship or convoy or two in the patrol area to keep it interesting.
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