Don't know what all the fuss is about.
Yes, you have to take precautions - for me that means life jacket, a raft and a personal PLB.
Always amuses me when I hear of pilots saying "I now have 200 hours and think I'm ready for Lydd to Le Touquet" you can see the French runway from 4,000ft over Lydd on a clear day!
95% of my flying is over the ocean (I'm a PPL and live in Barbados) we have no helicopters to come get us and yup, sharks!
My first post check ride cross country was New Jersey to Barbados - longest over water leg Antigua to Barbados about 350 miles - if the engine keeps running no problems so one needs to have a adequately maintained machine.
As it happens my airplane is up in Florida at the moment (FXE) and I'll be flying it back down in the next couple of weeks after a massive rebuild and refurb (new everything and I mean everything except the basic structure and engine block). I am a lot more worried now than I was when it looked ready for the scrap heap - will I fall foul of the bathtub curve I wonder?