Rafts are nice. Rafts are simple. You can figure out what you need to do with a raft without making a complete fool of yourself. And since Jackdaw was really rather sick of feeling like a fool, she silently reviewed the raft's ability to remain a raft, doing her best not to wince visibly when Ailee kept making everything worse.

And, in that sense, it's not really [i]worrying.[/i] That's not the word for it. It's [i]business.[/i] Something useful to occupy her paws with while she ducked away from everything else for a little while. There's knots to test, oars to inspect, seals to make watertight (it won't do any good if they lose thrust around the smokestack) and a hundred other little tasks. 

As to her perch, there's really no other place but Sasha. Maybe in the crook of one of her arms? It's always nice and warm there, and it'll keep her from getting too many errant splashes.