Why did the Pilgrims face hardship to get aboard on the Mayflower?

Most long sea voyages of that era were harrowing ordeals, and it was not uncommon for ships to wreck.  There were dangers from pirates, storms, and running out of supplies.  The Pilgrims risked all of these dangers to get to the New World in order to practice their religion freely.  While they intended to settle closer to the English settlement already in Virginia, they were blown off course and ended up in Massachusetts in late fall.  The Pilgrims were already running low on food and drinking water after their long voyage.  There were also issues of sanitation, especially since the Mayflower was not designed to carry that many people.  It would have been quite difficult to move that many people on a voyage across the Atlantic in total comfort.  The Pilgrims took on this challenge in order to create a new society where they sought to please God and set an example for the rest of the world.