>>714363219
I'd pick a flatter area for your first base. If you look around, you shouldn't have to look far to see wide open patches of nearly perfectly flat dirt. This will give you more room to set up the necessary facilities
Try and get a rough feel for how big a pal's hitbox is, and leave them that much room to get around. If you can avoid obstructing their pathing, they'll find their way to stuff (particularly the feed box) much easier
You'll naturally get better ways of managing pal sanity as you go along, so don't stress too much for now. You're the best worker early on, but your pals will start to take over for you as you level and get some good handiwork ones (Wixen is a very good early choice at around level 20, if you ford your way northeast as you explore you'll probably eventually find the lava area they hang out in)
The boss Chillet you fight early on is a fantastic early swimmer to help you get between islands
Don't be ashamed of spending your money on ingredients to make a ton of good food. Lamball/Chikipi + Berries is a good early food until you get some real good farms set up.
Having said that, you can just eat small food yourself, since neither you nor pals in your party have a sanity value. Assigning a Chikipi to a ranch and just cooking the eggs sorts out your own food situation basically just like that