First, I wouldn't go for a crew entirely of tyros simply because the relationships among the crew are such a source of good stories. Think about some of the great sea-going stories like Mutiny on the Bounty and Moby Dick. Here the power struggles aboard are important. A great example of this is Greg's scenarios in the RQ Viking boxed set. A crew with struggles among them, so that the players can choose sides is surely an important part of any game.
Second, don't roll for the Opening unless something is at stake that we care about. This is true for all contests, but especially so for this kind of 'gateway to adventure' roll. If tonight's adventure takes place on a far off island and the players fluff their roll, then there will be no adventure. So don't roll, just say 'You do the Dormal ceremony and head out into the ocean'. In cases where you want to roll the stakes won't be 'do we get into the oceans' but something else. Perhaps we are fleeing our enemies who pursue us in their outrigger canoes. Will our heroes be able to cross the reef and into the open waters and escape, or have to turn and fight? Perhaps a player has lead a mutiny and now commands a crew of pirates. Can he organize the opening and head out into open waters, or will the crew mutiny against his leadership in turn and cast him and his comrades away on a desert island?
One key difference between RuneQuest and HeroQuest is that HeroQuest is about conflict not task resolution. Only roll when a something is at stake that we care about, not just to accomplish a task. The trick to this is that failure should advance the story as well as success. If failure means no adventure tonight there is no point in rolling. Just have the hero do it. If failure means go left instead of right, then its worth rolling to see how the conflict plays out.
In the same way I wouldn't roll for entering the hero plane on a common basis. If the interesting conflict will happen in the heroquest, just get to it. Unless the Lunar sympathizer chief opposes our heroquest and success will rally the fence-sitters in the clan to our cause and failure will stregthen his hold on the clan.
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