It worked for me on my old crappy, slow Mac. Shutting off the sound makes you able to move the view finder faster and the boat moves faster. The boat moving faster on its own is a good thing because the gas usage is on a timer. A faster boat (without using up arrow key) uses less gas.
A couple other things to try... Set your mouse tracking to fastest and set your mouse double click to something fairly fast but slow enough that you can double click in that amount of time.
Oh, the animals appear in the same places every time so get used to the patterns.
I confess, Jungle Cruise is the only game I was able to play well on my Mac. I got way too good at playing it.
qruthie (the 'q' is silent)