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In my opinion, you can solo pretty much all of this game (I can’t say anything about the final quest battle though). I’m at notoriety 30, with all my skills except my new staff at least 15 (21 Sailing is my highest skill), and I’ve worked alone through it all. You sort of become hooked on it because the game will feel significantly less than challenging when you have help. Early on there were times when I had to think about switching over to a busy servers to accomplish something quest related; for me, the last time was to search a desk in the Thieves Den back when I was still in single-digit notoriety.
You’re on the right track with developing all your weapons, but I would add that you should have an all-encompassing strategy for when and where you will use each weapon. For me, the Dagger is about inflicting large amounts of damage against single foes, while the Cutlass is about waging defensive campaigns in high-traffic areas. I actually use my Voodoo Doll entirely for healing and resisting, and the Staff will be for high-powered voodoo offense. The Pistol is great for free mop up duty against non-human mobs, and for removing voodoo power from voodoo-only mobs. You can decouple the nautical skills (Cannon and Sailing) from the land skills, but I’d recommend keeping all the land weapons near the same level.
However, if you really want to get serious about soloing, then learn to love the Grenades you are about to receive. Learning to use them on the move, and against foes that might be moving around on you, is the key to winning fighting retreats instead of having to run completely away and lose your work.
I don’t know where you are on the main story quest; but, I know you’re around 20 notoriety, so if you happen to be about 50% done, then stop there until all your skills are 12+. Since the quest is really just one long “to do” list, you probably would like to keep that moving along somewhat; I’d suggest extending the plan and going for 60% quest done, and all skills 15+ (and don’t let your main notoriety get too falsely inflated by the quest). After that, you should be able to go back to traveling around wherever you like without worrying about being able to escape dire situations.
Now, the bad news: once you have your grenades, and you’ve unlocked the Hexeater shot with level 10 Pistol, go to Padres Del Fuego (PDF), and stay there until you’ve unlocked the PDF teleport quest at notoriety 23. You can get away from it for a while by Sailing; but, for Cannon, just off the shores of PDF is a pretty good location too (solo boarding the EITC Sentinel there is a nice source of plunder also). Fort Dundee is a nice little Navy fort for battle-jogging with your Voodoo Doll; and, between the Catacombs, El Sudoron, and the back beach area you can find an impressive range of different types of foe.
Finally, stop trying to melee with groups of foes that are close to your level; you don’t want to get swarmed by anything that is within 10 levels of you, with even more mobs meaning you should have an even greater level advantage than that. I don’t think you need to adopt exactly my plan, just have a comprehensive plan for your skills. If you’re facing a group of mobs that are close to your level, then that’s a sure sign that you should be backing up and lobbing Grenades at them.
EDIT: I almost forgot one other thing: I am generally well-invested in the passive protection skills. When you suddenly find yourself overwhelmed by foes, you'll be grateful for every Parry, Dodge, and Resist you see instead of a number.
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