[Once on shore, he was glad to rest on the ground for a moment, all while wringing out his clothing the best he could. He set aside some of the articles of clothing he could, setting his bracers, scarf, and vest off to the side after wringing them out.]

This does mean it's theoretically possible. It just needs more fine-tuning. Even if it was not the destination in mind, the fact that it worked at all is a step in the right direction. Now we need to just consider what went wrong.