I'm on a boat!

[poolio]

Greetings! I'm currently working on a small three game campaign that begins with a boat ride out to see to take care of some pirates, it'll be a four hour game and i have the final encounter planned out (mostly anyways) but I'm wondering how i would my fellow, and probably more experienced, DM's handle/write this section of an adventure?

[MasterMercury]

I find that combat encounters work best when they all fit together, as long as they have variety. Have them encounter a pirate scout ship, monsters enslaved by pirates, sea hags forced from their homes from pirates. Every combat encounter should push the group forward.

[DarkKnightJin]

And you should probably lay plenty of track to railroad them back towards the final encounter.

Since it seems players never quite go about handling the campaign in rhe way you want them to.