Looking good

1-1-2-7 and leading race five... Looking good so far... Very good. WOOOOOT; Go go go!
Oh Yeah! Race five won... and a second place in race six. Whooohoooo...

Go go go 

And the 49ers were leading as well. All this excitement! It is almost unbearable. Will this last?

Go Jonas

Whoa! First boat at the first mark, and with a margin... That's mayby a littlebit surprising but very nice.

Very nice indeed

GO JONAS !!

Weeee!!! What a win. Start first and stay there. What an absolutely lovely, - no wait - spectacular race. And in Paul Elvstrøms favourite boat, - the Finn. More Weeeee :-D

GEEZZZZ, - twice! Two firsts in one day; Doesn't get much better...

Second life sailors, - note the little wind arrow mounted on many boats... very much like the one we have on the Shelly Fizz.

Sunset

There's nothing like a great sunset by the sea. It is quiet and calming, and yet it is a magnificent and heartfilling experience. Of course the real thing can't be beaten, but this virtual sunset here...

Virtual sunset

... It's not too bad. The colours are great; The seashore is well made, but check the sea and the sea foam. It's truly amazing. And then there's the sounds on top of it. I almost miss the virtual sunset, teehee... Warm and fair winds to all summer cruisers out there... real and unreal...

PS: After weeks of easy summer cruising I also begin to miss some racing action.

Summer

Ahh, finally... Summer has arrived and I am out to enjoy it. In RL that is.

Summer

Meanwhile, in Second Life, sailors are still enjoying the Flying Fizz, there's one in the back of the photo, - and the Ktaba Teleri 20 is out. Jane took a good and thorough look at it here. The virtual world never stops turning. Fair winds to all sailors, - virtual and real.

Just like a real boat

Yesterday I got a new friend from Italy... By chance I met Titiro Arriago. He was looking for a boat, so I asked him on a blind sailing date. Lucky me. He looked kinda cute. Turned out he also knew a littlebit about sailing from RL, so we took off; Me in the trapez for once.

Me, Titiro and the Flying Fizz in Blake

We had a wonderfull cruise around the Blake Sea. Started off in "fun" mode. Dunno why it is called that, because it is no fun at all. All you gotta do is steer; Everything else is done automatically. Titiro at the helm quickly got the hang of it, and started asking about the sails.

Bad jib trim

I explained how to trim the sails using the telltales. Titiro said: Got it and immediately switched to novice mode. Thirty seconds later he yelled: Yay, it works! I was like... Course it works. It's a boat. Let me show you something else... I can trim the jib for you... He said: "Really"? I took the sheet, and obviously I am not doing a very good job as a trimmer. See the shot above...

Perfect trim

This shot here shows much better balance. Horizon tilted a bit. It is hard to take photos while hanging in the trapez. Time to talk balance... I explained how we could both move around to actively balance the boat, - in competition mode. Didn't take long before we switched. Didn't take long before we got wet. Titiro was perhaps a little confused, but I was all laughs and smiles.

Tilføj billedtekst

After a few minutes he was up to speed on the balancing too, so here we are in perfect balance and trim probably doing around eight knots. My new friend changed mood... At first he was, - rightfully skeptic - and only an occasional wauw escaped his lips... Now he was yelling "Weeeee", whenever we surfed down a wave and reached 10 knots. I was too. 

Low winds

That's when the wind faded, and I almost dipped my butt in the blue soup... Not a big problem. I was wearing a bikini under my surfshorts. Still, it was the perfect time to introduce saildepth trimming; It is kinda like a combo of outhaul, halyard and back stay on the main; Halyard and sheeting point on the jib. It is used for powering and depowering the sails. 

Bingo

Titiro looked at me in disbelief and said: Geezzz, it is just like a real boat. Bingo. That's right. It is just that. Like a real boat, and that's why we love it. You've already noted us surfing down a wave. What you can't see right here is, that there is also currents to take into account when we race... "You race it"?

Currents can be seen by the trained eye

The current will be visible once we approach that buoy out there. Tiny dot on the horizon in the pic above. You will see us slip sideways. That is, - if there is a current here... And yes we absolutely race in this one. For that we also have a genakker on the bow spirit... Wanna see it?

Genakker UP!

I hoisted the genakker and we crossed 10 knots and stayed there; Both of us yelling weee, woohooo and what nuts... Virtual sailing to the max! Titiro, - I am pretty sure I enjoyed it just as much as you did. Probably more. Hearing you say "It is just like a real boat" really made my day. Thanx for a great time.

New fanatics start here...

PS: I forgot to tell you about the italian sailing school. Not like you need any sailing lessons. Just a fun day at Tradewinds :-)

Wildwinds

Didn't make it in time to get pictures of all the Wildwinds as mentioned in this post. I guess it wasn't an official exhibition, and now it is gone. Here's just a shot of me returning to Tradewinds in my RM20. Lots of Wildwinds all over the place.

The beautifull RM20 

I wanted to get a shot of each an every boat, and maybe sometime I will, but for now, this next one - showing Tradewinds loaded with Wildwinds - is it. The boats aren't there anymore.

The Wildwinds

Clearly it is a major loss that the Wildwind boat yard packed up and left. They had everything and anything from 420s over cruising monohulls to mega-multihulls.

Destination Paradise III

Bow pointing southwards, kite up, and we flew southwards. The wind increased a littlebit, so Marin moved to my side, and we made 9.5 knots. The Norse Archipelago in the rear mirror; Open waters ahead.

Speeding southwards

After a while we finally saw some palms again. Had to change course to avoid them, but we didn't mind. Palms Yeah! Course was more southly now; Wind almost in the back; Increased a bit, so Marin considered the trapez again. The view was beautiful.

Palms... Yeah!

This area reminds me of where I sailed for the first time. I can never be sure, because back then I was both a total newbie and utterly clueless. Didn't know where I was. Didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know a thing about virtual sailing. I am glad to say that it's getting better. At least now, I am not that much of a newbie.

The essence of sailing

I love this shot. It captures the very essence of sailing. There is a beautiful view ahead, you see two people having a blast, and you can almost feel the dynamics of the boat. Slightly heeled over, a little water in the leeward side of the boat, wind in the hair, and Marin out there... striving to keep the boat upright. All we need is a little more seaspray...

More seaspray

Got that right here. Seaspray. Turned out we couldn't get further south, so we checked the map and luffed a bit to go east again. The scenery was spectacular. A total mood setter. Palms and sandy beaches everywhere we looked. Lovely blue sky and flat inshore waters...

Eastwards

All this sailing made us hungry. Any sailor knows that even if you eat more at sea, you tend to loose weight, because the body is constantly moving, working to keep the balance of yourself and the boat. Ehm, - this might be a little different for virtual sailing. Anyway, we shared two virtual Oranginas and a pack of bisquets, and then we decided to push it to the max, and see what's in the farthest end of this remote area.

We expected to find nothing less than Coconut Island...

To bee continued...

(Continued from Destination Paradise II)

Continue to Destination Paradise IV.