find a (stolen) ship, person on a ship and so on

[ahab]

I took on some of those quests, but so far could complete just one. So i wonder, if there is a time limit for such quests. In the quest I completed, I found the ship right after leaving the harbor on the minimap (colored sails). I have sailed to many towns ans asked the harbormasters about ships, but he always answered that he didnt know about ships I like to find. I have so far not visited enemy towns. Is it possible, that the wanted ships are in enemy towns? If so, how can i asked harbormasters in those towns?

 

[Sordid]

You an sneak into towns by switching your flag to a different one, but the harbormaster is generally completely useless anyway. These quests have no time limit, so just go about your business as usual and sooner or later you'll bump into your target on the map.

 

[Handel]

The harbor master is bugged. When he says "Captain XXX left the port at YYY date going to ZZZ" this is not true. Go ASAP in the sea and you have serious chance to see colored sails nearby OR the captain is in the city and you can talk with him (but his ship cannot be found so this is useless)
Actually the harbor master should say "The captain XXX just left the port" or "The captain XXX just entered the port"

 

[Sordid]

Well yeah, there's that too. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> I stopped asking the guy when he told me a captain I talked to just the previous day had left a month ago. Um, no, dude, he was like <i>right here</i> just yesterday. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />