NO Ships?
 

Was out sailing tonight and there were no ships at all except the flagships. There were only a few of those. No ships at all to sink anywhere. Weird.

Yeah, ever since the last update there have been virtually no EITC ships and only a very few Navy ships; and none of those over level 9 except for the unsinkable pirate ships. I finally got another quest to obtain a letter for Elizabeth from a "powerful" Navy ship, and now there aren't any. Arrrr....

Also, I can no longer get to Padre De Fuego. The game crashes whenever I attempt to TP to it or when I'm just about to the island after sailing there from Tortuga. (Anyone know of a gunsmith on any of the other islands where I can buy the special ammo. for the pistol)

Last time I was able to play, there were ships, but they seemed to have a very long respawn timer. So once you sunk them, they didn't come back until after you were bored and had already left! hehe

Glad to hear I am not the only one who can not get to Padre del Fuego.
As to the gunsmith...there is one on Port Royal across the stream from Will Turner's place. He is inside the building that has a treasure chest digging spot.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: There are lots of EITC ships around Tortuga as of now, 5/18/07, 1823 EDT