There was a debate recently - still ongoing actually - about depths in the Blake Sea. It's really not very deep. Not much of a problem in a virtual
Melges 24, but in a modern monohull with a draft of say 3.5 meters it becomes a real problem. I crossed the Blake Sea in
Captain Nemos Nautilus with no charts. It was bad, but to document just how bad it is, I decided to see what charts I could find.
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| The Blake Sea |
Note the depths. A large ship such as the Emma Maersk with a draft of around 12 meters wouldn't be able to cross the Blake Sea. XL cruise ships would be in trouble too. They have drafts around 9 meters and they have airdraft of 70+ meters.
Usually, - for a Cup such as the
Fizz Cup - we'd use charts that are copied off the world map of SL. Then we add wind, buys and currents. They don't look much like charts. There's no depth, only a few buoys and the lighthouses and churches aren't visible. The chart above shows the Blake Sea with depths and lighthouses and stuff. Not complete but to a sailor it looks very familiar.
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| Sea Of Fables |
The other and last chart I managed to find is this one of the Sea Of Fables. It too looks a lot like a real chart. These charts are probably hand made and man made. I suppose they take a bit of time to throw together. Since the sailing community isn't at the top of the Customer list at Linden Labs, it makes sense to automate the creation of these maps. It's just that buoys and lighthouses need to be described systematically. Anyway, does anyone out there have any other charts of the virtual seas in SL?
