Sailed into Lopang Island. I had been there once before. The load screen hung, waited about 5 minutes. Manually crashed the game using task manager, restarted via Steam client, joined using alt chc. no issue.
File attached is from another with the same issue and shows where the load bar freezes.
Returned to chc swap, selected main at Lopang, load screen hung again. waited another 5 minutes. manually crashed it again. restarted on alt again - no issue.
Just repeated the whole process above again. same result. main is hung trying to load into island.
Proved it was Character specific issue
Waited and retested after Server Maintenance window.
No improvement - issue remained.
Further reviewed other support tickets and identified a Post from another user, recommending run Steam File Integrity Check.
Find information with regard to this check here
Followed the instructions.
Re-started game.
Huzzaah - success.
I hope this helps someone else.