] Catherine Morland or even Marianne may have enjoyed being 'frightened' but this doesn't seem to fit with Eleanor!

...that Elinor was looking forward to being frightened any more than she was looking forward to being wet through and fatigued! I'm inclined to ascribe it all to a distaste for sailing.

What's more, the whole sentence is but the set-up to another delicious bit of Authorial Irony: "...the event was still more unfortunate, for they did not go at all." It'll be inconvenient and unpleasant--but worse is not going at all. Kind of like the old line "The food here is awful, and such small portions!"