Getting enough food can be a bit hard right off the bat - O2 not so bad. So I recommend:

Definitely eat the space bar food - don't worry about saving them early game.

Gather all resources you can right off the bat. Yep everyone does this anyways. You can readily explore without worry - baddies are marked red on your mini map and even if you antagonize a baddie you can easily outrun it if you don't feel like doing battle.

After a couple minutes of gathering hit that research button and have at - you can queue up a bit right off the bat and look to gain level 2 research very quickly - at which point queue up your cooker, backpack and pickaxe.

Make a net, and capture a critter (easiest to get them from behind - your mini map can help with this). Then build a cooker and cook all food. Now you are sitting pretty.

Where to build your base? I recommend one of the thin passes that will sometimes connect biomes - more defensible (preferable a passage that is North/South or East/West). A bit of open space also helps.
Also if you build in/near the Wildlands or Open Plains zones, you can dig up and replant a bunch of Kepple close to your base (no feeders needed)

Lastly the two things I like to exploit - mini turrets (gained at level 7) and trading.
Turrets are almost like cheating, drop down 3 and any fight is significantly easier.
Trade: after using turrets to kill some big baddies, you can get some good coin and then buy hundreds of cheap mats (and maybe a favorite weapon)

And in the very beginning don't be afraid of doing a sprint for your ship or the next objective. You'll be totally fine (probably).

Time of Day. You apparently have a 16 hour day: daylight from 0:00 to 12:00 and night is 12:00 to 16:00