The mentioned “group area AF” (viewfinder) is the one with 4 visible markers plus the one (invisible) in the middle.
BTW
I went all the way back to your pic from the fishing boat.
ExifTool reports, that you used AF-S (single shot AF)
together with Single Area AF
.
Unfortunately you missed the focus on the fishermen & boat. Instead you got the waves behind them sharp. I tried to fix the problem to some extent … check / compare with the VC DF1_5322 2024-01-13.nef.dop (229,4 KB)
But then the pic with the 2 selling ladies (taken with the same lens) is in focus.
You really should check your equipment, what you are going to take with you the next time as well how you are going to work. – To come back from a journey with out-of-focus pics is not what you want.