New Ships

Actually it is rater silly that I keep buying ships. I am totally out of prims and I cannot even rezz the ones I already have. Star Port , since the disappearing of the facing sims, is almost a dead end. Sometimes I have fun rezzing the ships in the Bay of Mishra where the wonderful Miss Alpha alwaya hosts one or two of them (and used them as a backdrop for wonderful photoshots). And, of course, I can still rezz ships and boats for my explorations and I can cruise the Blake Sea and the Sailing Sims.

But I guess I can't help. I love SL ships. I think they are among the finest accomplishments of SL builders and scripters.

A few days ago, I was attending a meeting. I recentely entered a fine initiative called "The Quest forthe Golden Prim". I will tell more about this in my next posts. It is something big and it is going to ... well ... still too early for that :)

Anyway, I was at a meeting where the applicants were briefed about the initiative, at the main office of Prim Perfect in Caledon Glengarry. As in many meetings where the discussion is typed, there were some moments of silence where nothing was happening, so I started camming around. After a while, while I was exploring the local coast I noticed a nice little schooner docked there. It was really cute and I looked for the creator. It turned out that the owner of the plot there, Chrisocolla Rau, was also the creator and the schooner itself - Excelsior 1.0 - was for sale at a booth nearby. It took and instant and I got it. Must have been the first time I buy a ship this way, while exploring with my camera :)

Anyway ... here is my new "Star of Ebonshire"

A couple of days after that I stumbled upon a post in the Swash Buccateer , where the great Chase Speculaas was outlining his new fighting system SPDIII. I prefer the exploration and I am not really into hard RP'ing, even if any new technological improvement makes me happy, but I was thrilled by the news of two new ships coming out in July (so be prepared for some new addition to the fleet :) ). Even if I do not partecipate in battles too much I still oove to see beautiful ships and to dsail them.

The post also mentioned a SPD model I had overlooked so far : the Discovery, a replica of an historical ship from the XVII century. I went to Beek Haven, to Chase Speculaas' shop, I had a quick look and another ship was in my inventory :) ... Introducing the Exploring Star.

The picture was taken in counterlight at sunset and it is rather dark , but I assure you that she is a fine little beauty.

Fair Winds for now ... Happy 4th of July

W

if only ...

this morning I woke up reading some interesting news in my google reader, concerning the move of the United Sailing Sims to an area east of Nautilus City and their connection to the mainland through a new Linden region called the Blake Sea. You can read about it here and here.

I was very happy at first to see that there is some growth in a period of shrinking and that this move will surely improve the sailing experience. After a while I had some doubts about the lindenization of such an important group of estates, and I see that in the forum the sual flamewars has started about favoritism toward some groups of residents vs. others.

But after a while my thoughts drifted. The United Sailing Sims are one of the biggest regions in SL, yet, looking at the map shown in the SL blog announcement, I realized how small they are with respect to the mainland landmass. And this made me think what the SL experience could have been (and it still could be) and what a lost opportunity mainland has been so far, if only the Lindens had taken a bit more care of it.

As I have posted before I love to explore, both sailing and walking through the land. And the mainland is a great place for explorations. One can chose an area or a path on the map and spend literally days going around, finding new flaces and meeting new people. Yet the experience is almost always spoiled by ugly landscapes here and there, wastelands (fortunately ad farms are mostly gone), banlines (how much I dislike banlines, especially those covering the waterways !), aggressive security devices, inconsistent settings of rezzing and script rights, even on Linden land.

I value very much the privacy of the people in their plots, yet I cant help but wonder how much better the experience on mainland might have been if some of the issues I listed had been given a consistent set of rules.

The Lindens have shown in the past months that they are somehow getting away from their laissez faire attitude and this move about the USS goes in that direction too. I hope this also mean that in due time a more consistent set of rule of behavior will be created for mainland, that save both the privacy of the residents and the possibility to explore a mainland that has a neverending potential for creativity and beauty.

Have a nice week-end and Happy Holidays

W

sunken and shut down

So, yesterday it was the a significant portion of the flying community that decided to give up and implement a contingency plan, as announced in the Royal Caledon Air Force Page and discussed today in Capt. O'Toole's Blog. Today many fears about the sailing community have been made official by the SL Sailing Blog and by another post by Capt. O'Toole.



I wonder what is next ? Will the elves be forced to chop their trees and the mermaids to move into tiny pools ? Will spellfire and DCS2 be forbidden because too expensive for the servers ?

We will wait and see. Or many will not wait ?

sailracing

This is a "live" post: I am attending a sail race (as a spectator) in the Zinneman sim of the United Sailing Sims.
These boats are SOOOO fast ! The wind fills the spinnaker and pushes them faster and faster ! Just being here and watching is great fun!



I can't image the fun being in the race ! :))



have fun with a sail race !

W

the sailing paradise

I had read about it several times but I had never actually been there, except for a couple of TPs here and there. It is an area of over 125 sims all intended to enjoy the sailing experience.



The region is called United Sailing Sims and it is made by several regions that have connected over time, like Sailors' Cove that connected at the beginning of the summer.
It is a fantastic area: open waters, islands, beaches, yacht clubs, race courses, different styles in the different regions. Everybody who likes marine landscapes is going to love it.



I left with Mykyl from Isla de Jacqinda, the headquarter of Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts, after having rezzed my Morning Star (a Trudeau Tradewind), and I headed north-west through newest canal opened there and in the direction of the beautiful Sailors Cove area.



The pictures show the the beauty of the region. Different regions have different styles. Somewhere the feeling is tropical. In other places it reminds more of a New England scenery. There is a great feeling of freedom: even with the Draw Distance set at the maximum one can see unlimited water all around.



Mykyl and I enjoyed the cruise very much (by the way: she was wearing a lovely swimsuit patterned with stars that Aurora had created for her). Unfortunately she had to leave to RL too soon and we were forced to dock.



It was a beautiful trip: the region ensures hours and hours of fun. I still have to explore most of it, all the eastern and southern portions. By the way ... I have found out that sims that I know and I have visited in the past by TP'ing there, like Hollywood, or Nantucket are part of the region. I look forward to reach them by sea and to dock there!

Have fun with your own sailing

W