Taking the life boats to the water made them all worry a little. They had not been in the life boats out in the open ocean and they felt too small. But in the grand scheme of things, the ships were even very small. They had already seen an island swallowing whale that could easily eat every single ship and still be hungry. Everything in the ocean was small by comparison.
But what was even stranger was the fact that as they moved, no one saw any movements in the water other than the merfolk, demi-humans, and the golems. That was all. Not a single fish or any monsters to be seen. It made everyone uncomfortable.
Walker was constantly using his all around appraisal skill on the water to make sure that he was not missing any monsters that had the skills to hide invisibly. He knew that in the open ocean that this might be the only way for some monsters to survive. What better place was there to hide than plain sight?
if things are weird, why explore more!?