Naked Night Swim

I always thought night sailing was a very special experience. Tried it quite a few times in RL; Both racing and cruising. So, I wanted to see if the ambiance of a night sail can be replicated in SL. I checked the weather forecast, chose my most relaxing boat, the Bolero, and off I went... 

Trying to capture that special night ambience...

The essence of a beautiful night cruise is the silence, the darkness of the sea, and the huge twinkling bubble above. It is the perfect reminder of how small we are. The navigation by light houses and bouys raises your awareness, as you need to be just a bit more sharp on the navigation. 

Me cruising at night, looking for a spot...

This raised awareness extends into your entire body. The scent of coffee gets more intense. The digestives taste better. Peace and love fill your heart. However, in SL navigation is a bit different. We do not have navigational charts; We see the bouys and all the lighthouses, but sadly they aren't plotted on the map.

Let's go for a swim

One thing that is really great in SL is, that it can be a hot summer night, - every night. After a night cruise, nothing is better than a swim at sunrise. Sails down, anchor out, kettle on, clothes off and splash... Get right in. My watch tells me it's just above 21 degrees C; That's roughly 70 degrees F.

Skinny dipping, standing on my toes.

Ahh, and there is no need to wear a bikini, because there is no one around. Perfect opportunity for skinny dipping. If this isn't relaxing I dunno what is. The everyday treadmill is far far away it seems. Uh, thats the kettle whistleling... Lets get up and have a hot coffee and yet another Digestive, and then...

A little nap before sailing home.

Down below for a nap; I will probably wake up in a few hours, when the sun heats up the boat. Then it is sails up and back home before lunch. So, what do you think? Is it unreal? I know I did this in RL with a few beers and a few friends. To me it looks almost too real to be true. The feeling, the ambiance, the relaxing mindset, - it's all there. You can definately enjoy night sailing in SL, and perhaps it could even set the scene for romance... Now, where do I click to get a blanket?

Psst! The sailing in SL is keeps getting and better with new boats such as the Q-2m, the IOD and the Bolero.

Winter wonderland

Someone asked me, why I am sailing in SL. Actually that's really easy to answer. Now, I promised myself to keep this blog clean and not post RL images, but for once I will make an exception. This is my world during winter:

Beware of the killer penguins!

OMFG. It looks like Greenland. Even if I had an ice-boat, I'd be scared of meeting a bunch of killer-penguins on a field trip. I know, - they live on the southpole, and I am in Europe, but you never know... Anyway, instead of getting a depression from looking over the sea, I can go here:

Mmmmhmmmm...

Nice and warm afternoon in "Coconut Islands"; Beautiful too, - and thats not all; You can't see, what you can't hear. Seagulls, waves, wind; Sometimes dolphins and whales will pop up for air. So... why not hop aboard and do this:

... sail!

Ahhh, - that feels great. It's not the real thing, but the sceneries are definately worth it. Some of the boats are worth it, and sometimes there is even a race that's worth it; Besides that, there's a bunch of sweet people  doing the same thing. Many of these hang at Tradewinds Yacht Club. See ya there...

One World Regatta, finals

We had four beautiful races at the One World Regatta finals. Pure sailing with few crashes, and few protests. Here's a few shots from the race. First one shows our team in pursuit; We have the black sails. These helicopter shots are really great for seeing windshifts on the course, btw.

Momomos in pursuit...

Bunnie (in the red boat) went off like that twice... winning the start is important, no matter if you race in SL or in RL, and Bunnie clearly demonstrated that. Below you see Bunnie - again in the lead. Quite comfortably.

Momomos still in pursuit.

Spin up and go get. Unfortunately, in the third race our boat had technical difficulties, and that meant four points; Not a total disaster with one throwaway, but I am speculating this pushed Momomos outta balance;

Last race.

I cheered the best I could in the last race, but we ended up on fourth place any way. That gave us a total of 2-2-4-4 = 8p (One discard). Not too bad really, but the other teams were better on this day. Congrats to Bunnie (5p), Armano (6p) and Alain (6p), and again... woots to everybody involved in making the whole One World regatta a reality.

One World Cup Finals

The One World Cup is coming to and end. The finals are today - in less a half hour. At 1700 CET. Be there or be square. I am on team SVC-472, and we're sailing today.

Last minute peptalk.

We are five on the team. Liv, Momomos, Bunta, Nobuko and myself. Today Momomos and Bunta represent us. Above, we are in Momomos boat going over the last details before the finals. 

The four courses used in the final.

Four races will be sailed. Each with a different course; They are shown here. If you need them in more detail, then go to metaverse sailing; Link in the link-list.

Result of the One World quals.

The results of the qualification rounds are amazing. Four teams made it through the quals with perfect score. It is going to be very exciting to see who comes out on top. Woots to Jane and everybody else involved in making all this happen.

Virtual RC sailing

Virtual radio controlled sailing? LOL, - or is it OMFG? I thought I had seen many things in SL. Then along comes Eta; She takes Beccas boat, shrinks it to modelsize, adds RC controls and boom - there is a whole new thing going down...

RC sailing at Tradewinds. Yes, it is a wing-cat on the right.

It is not the same thing as RC in RL. I tried a Seawind; I have friends sailing those; I also tried a IOM; It is a ton of fun. However, it is great fun to do RC sailing in SL as well... even though it strikes me as completely insane.

Shhhh... full concentration during start.

I guess you could say the difference between sailing and RC sailing is about the same in SL as it is in RL. RC sailing is cheaper, simpler and more informal. There are a few advantages in SL; You do not have to worry about batteries and frequencies, and the boat is always waterproof, so no breakdowns due to water in the receiver.

Full racetrack available at Tradewinds.

Another advantage in SL is the ability to place a platform  anywhere u need; That gives the sailors perfect overview of the track, and there is no need to run around to see you boat. I gotta say, I prefer the real thing, but if you always dreamt of RC sailing, this is a really affordable way to try it. A complete RC boat is less than a cop of coffee :-) Get it at Tradewinds.