Ah, the heck with it. I can put up with my dislike of water nations for one game.
And you've already spent plenty of time on the map so let's go with this version.
Btw, I think it would be worth posting this map in the maps & mods subforum as others might like playing on it as well (maybe post two versions - one with water provinces and one without).
I'll go setup the game on the server now.