There ia a tall cylindrical island out in the bay, you get to the top of it by climbing a cliff on the side. Not the big one with all the pirates. There are 3 or 4 ore and stone nodes that spawn up there along with several of those attack chests, which are solo. You can sit up there and harvest/kill chests because no one goes up there unless they're doing one particular quest. The ore seems to spawn pretty fast, and if you're a templar like me killing the chests, the first one will be respawining about when you kill the last. The fringe benefit is the chests drop pretty good coin and loot, and you'll see a soloable named chest now and then that drops a pretty nice item.
Ore nodes can also be found along the beach/cliff that runs perpendicular to the main beach going out to sea, past the Spectres. They're surrounded by easy solo pirate MoB's, which you can repeatedly kill for Maj'Dul faction quests. Also, up at the top of the cliffs overlooking the bay where the big spiders and blue orcs are. You'll have competition there but not as bad as the caves. The MoB's get harder as you go inland, Orcs and Goblns. Generally speaking in SS, sand and cliffs = ore and stone nodes, grassy ground = roots, dens, wood and shrubs.