Go to 'The Outskirts of Richmond, Virginia' or hunt Cyrus Harding, he is near Pittsburgh.
ASK HARDING JOIN THE RACE, SIT BALLOON and you will move a few rooms in the balloon and then get caught in a storm.
Once you crash go north and ASK HARDING HELP, he tells you to do a perimter check, use your journal to see what tasks you need to complete, basically explore east, west and north. If you spot some broken spectacles grab them you will need them in the next step, once you have explored everywhere return to harding and ASK HARDING HELP
Now you need to gather provisions
######Find a source a fresh water and bring a barrel of it back to Cyrus.
Go to Nab, ASK NAB BARREL, go to 'By a Stream of Fresh Waters' in the pirate area west of the camp, FILL BARREL STREAM, and then get back to Harding, GIVE BARREL HARDING (This is timed.... so you need to get back to harding super quick)
######Bring a stick of nitroglycerin back to Pencroft.
This can be located in one of the barrels near the pirates usually
######Bring a giant kestrel egg to Nab and figure out if they are a source of food.
Found in 'By a Gigantic Nest' GET EGG NEST and flee or fight the giant kestrel, bring it to Nab
#######Bring Jupiter back to Cyrus.
HUNT JUPITER who is north westish, ASK JUPITER FOLLOW, HUNT CYRUS
#######Find a powerful anesthetic and bring it back to Cyru
Kill a giant mosquito and get gland corpse, return to harding, GIVE GLAND HARDING
#######Find Gideon's missing spectacles.
Found in 'Near a Large Plateau', GET SPECTACLES and return to Gideon (journalist), GIVE SPECTACLES GIDEON
You receive the whois ...secured a camp on a mysterious island