Fizz Cup 2012

Real soon now: Coming to a screen near you! Read all about it on the official site here: Fizz Cup 2012 or check out Liv's blog here: Liv Leigh.

Advanced virtual sailing 

Here's one of the courses. Be there or be square...

Dinghy quiz

There are so many beautiful boats to sail on the virtual oceans; This time I was just walking around the piers, thinking about windsystems, when I stumbled upon a - to me - completely unknown boat. It was so pretty I simply had to stop and look. Here it is:

Pretty pretty

It only took me a few seconds to realize that these lines had to come from a real boat. I looked inside and found the name of the builder. Called him up, and sure enough, - it's a remake of a real boat. One that I never saw or heard of. Probably because it is manufactured at the other end of Europe. The southern parts (1). 

Yummy

The real boat is a dinghy; It is pretty obvious from the looks too, so I was kinda surprised to see a keeler script running this baby, creating the sailing experience. The builder told me it is because, he builds mostly for himself; It is not a commercial product, and the current sailing script was easy to fit. However, the sailing script of this 12 footer (2) can easily be swapped with something more sophisticated. 

A dinghy with a keeler feel?

It is a pretty thing allright. In fact the class name has a french ring to it, and it kinda translates to "thingie" (3). It is a pretty simple thingie too. There is only a  main, and it looks beautiful under sail. I hope to sail it sometime soon. There are videos on youtube with the real version. I won't link there, because that would make the quiz a bit too easy, right... So there it is: Three hints. What is it, and how many hints did it take for you to guess it?

Update: Since Bea guessed it, here's a link to a Truc12 video. Incidentally, what's with the stupid music on all those boat commercials? I'd much rather hear the sailing sound...

Who u gonna call

Walking around at Tradewinds, - "enjoying" the spooky Halloween show, I met this rather creepy ghost, and that old song came to mind... 

Boooh!

Who u gonna call: Ghostbusters! But ofcourse... Who else? There is just one minor problem; Two actually: I don't seem to have the number, and I dunno if they have an office in SL.

Ghostbusters at sea?

So I was wondering if the coastguard can help. They have impressive boats all over the virtual oceans, but this particular one wasn't manned. Again I need a number. Don't wanna send out a mayday just because of a few ghost...

Sailing Nautilus

It's Nautilus time. Woohooo. I walked down to the pier at Tradewinds, rezzed my brand new Nautilus mini sub. Then I jumped on board, started the engines and headed south. I'll show you why in a minute; Here's me taking off:

Heading south, course set for Eliades

It was a beautiful day to go sailing; I crossed the startline in Siracusa and for a minute there I really felt more like Fun Fizzin. Then I pressed the dive button. The alarm sounded, pictures from "Das Boot" flashed before my eyes, there was a bubbly sound and then silence...

Cavitation

I was undercover; Not very deep though. These waters are very shallow, so navigation is important. Regrettably the charts aren't very good. There's only rudimentary depth curves available, so navigation is about watching the seafloor and getting a visual on your waypoints.

Waypoint one

After a while I managed to find my first waypoint; The shot above is me parked at a buoy in Eliades. Next stop is waypoint two, - a small island due south, at the entrance of the Blake Sea. Then I'll set the course to a 125 degrees and speed up a bit to get to my third waypoint.

Surface at waypoint three

After a while the seafloor raised, and I must admit I was kinda excited to see if my navigation was good. I surfaced to take a peek, and yesss... there is was! I had arrived safely at Sharp Tooth Isle. I've been there before, but i never arrived submerged. Till now. 

Filling the tanks...

So far so good. Let's set the course to 150 and see what we find... I am sure the Nautilus will love a little snack this morning. We better sneak a bit... so water in, air out. More bubbly. After a couple of minutes of careful sailing navigation I got some bleebs on the radar, and it was time to take another peek at the world up there.

Nautilus looking for lunch

Yummy. Hello lunch! Did u ever hear the story about the tall ship that was transformed into a pile of chopsticks within seconds? No? Oh well, I'll be good and not tell it then, but I'll tell you this: It was pretty hard to hold the Nautilus back. 

Outside view

Anyway, here's me and my Nautilus looking at tallships in Blake Diego Harbour, and I decided to sail home via Nantucket Yacht Club. Beautiful place, but that's another story. You can't see it on the picture, but is it the lighthouse there - seen though the surface...

Passing NYC on a westerly course

Passing NYC while going west; Next stop Pslande, after which I turned 90 degrees to starboard going up the west coast looking for my good old first waypoint, and here it is...

Tradewinds due north

Tradewinds straight ahead on a northernly course, but let's go 15 degrees instead, and see what's there...  It's the little island east of Tradewinds - in Dizadare. The radar says that something's there; Since it is not on the surface, it might be on the seafloor?

Is there a treasure to be found here?

Ancient Greece? The lost city of Atlantis? Nah, it is hardly big enough for that, but it looks great, and there just might be a treasure to be found out there. Diamonds and pearls or rocks and clams? That remains to be seen; Can't seem to find my wetsuit, so let's save that for laterz...

Sun sets after a long day below surface

This is about the Nautilus anyway, and she is a fun toy. She sails, dives, cavitates, bubbles and whirls just like you'd expect from an electrical submarine. You can use it as a hideaway, - sit and talk with friends. Take a nap. Go diving. Go anywhere there's water and pop up and say booh! It is stable and low lag, and it is fast. I could probably outrun those overly fast sailboats, but since the charts are so bad, I expect I'd run aground before I could spell speeding is not allowed. So... This kinda concludes my Nautilus experiences. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I know I did.

The Nautilus

The virtual Nautilus is on display at the Tradewinds Halloween show. I haven't had a chance to ask Tasha, why it is there, but I am assuming it is due to the Nautilus being at the center of a dark and mysterious myth of an evil sea creature. I am - ofcourse - referring to Captain Nemo's fantastic boat, the Nautilus from the Jules Verne Novel: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

The virtual Nautilus 

It is a great looking build with loads of details. True to the Disney movie from sometime in the fifties. Never saw that movie; Way before my time. However, it seems the Disney design has inspired most pictures of the Nautilus since then. The Nautilus in the book is in fact much more like a modern sub. Nemo describes it a a cigarshaped hull 70 meters long and 8 meters wide. Kinda like a Whiskey-Class, says Wikipedia.

Nautilus mini sub v3.7

The virtual Nautilus is much smaller though, On the first image, you can see me sitting inside the boat; Check  the window. On the second image it is pretty obvious the boat is not 70 meters long. It still looks great,  though perhaps not quite as impressive as a 70 meter sub. The real Nautilus was big. However, todays super subs are bigger. The Russian Typhoon, says Wikipedia, is 175 meters. Way bigger.

Inside the beast

The inside is - sadly - not quite as spacious as the real boat; Err, - I mean the real Nautilus from the book. However, the famous organ is there as can be seen on this picture. It is playing Bach or something. Continuously. Sounds like Bach. There is also a small dining table, a couch and a bookshelf, referring to the library of the real boat. Of course those fabulous mid-ship windows to the ocean are there too.

Bunks

At the rear end there's a couple of bunks. Several ancient charts decorate the inside of the hull, though I suppose they really aren't meant as decoration. Sadly there is no access to the engine room; Those fantastic batteries cannot be inspected, and the watermaker isn't visible either. There is also a ladder to the control room.

Bridge

I really would have expected to see more controls up here, but then again, noone really knows what controls the Nautilus had; The boat was built way before the computer was invented, so it is probably not a "drive by wire" vessel. Rumours has it that Nemo was in fact building a Nautilus II; Bigger, faster and more deadly. Perhaps it would have an onboard computer. Dunno. A nav system like GPS would make submerged navigation a lot easier.

The controls

Here's a complete view of the controls. They seem to work. At least the compass is showing the right bearing. To the left there is engine power. Oh, that thing there to the right, outside the window, it is not a bigger Nautilus or the Nautilus II. It is a giant squidlike sea monster; Part of Ana's Halloween installation.

Exits

Back on the outside... There is a hatch on top of the boat, so that you can get in without getting wet. My straw hat isn't exactly made for diving. Nemo was into seafloor gardening, and the mini Nautilus sports a  hatch at the bottom too. I opened it on the picture above. That way you can stay submerged and go for a walk in your favourite neopren suit. Yes, I have one; Didn't bother to change.

So what's left... Ahh, the best part of it all: The Nautilus mini sub v3.7 is free. How about that, George?  Aley, the builder, is giving it away; I've read somewhere that Aley has an entire area with a Nautilus theme. I better go there and check it out someday, but right now I can't wait to get inworld and sail my brand new Nautilus. Maybe sail down to the Blake and ram some of those full-riggers! Just kidding...

PS: More on virtual subs. I especially like the on seen here; 

Halloween bits

Here's a few more bits more from the Halloween show at Tradewinds. First there's this sub. Not entirely sure how it relates to Halloween, but dark and depressing organ tunes seem to float right out of it. Eeeek, and those bats... go away...

Bats and depressing music

Then there's these two amazing creatures. They are kinda like big and little sis on both hull and saildesign. On the picture they're kinda sailing their separate ways, but in reality there is a convergence thing going on; Bigger boats begin to look more and more like dinghies.

Family?

As usual with Dutch Kain boats the details are many and well done. Nothing left untouched or unfinished. Here's a top view:

The VO dressed up for Halloween

The Flying Halloweenish Fizz is almost as detailed, but of course there's a less winches and stuff. I especially like the ghost in the sail; It almost looks like a real class insignia.

The Flying Fizz, Halloweenish edition

In the back you see the entrance to the fabulous Flying Dutchman Halloween experience by Ana. Not only is  it surrounded by monsters, but there are skeletons, spooks, chains, spiders and what nuts on board, and more of it if you dare enter the maze.

PS: More on the Tradewinds site.
PPS: Did anyone try www.pumpkinrace2012.com?

The Flying Dutchman

There is a spookylicious Halloween show at Tradewinds these days. I went there and looked for the Flying Dutchman, and this is what I found:

Not really the Flying Dutchman I was looking for

Nah... the truth is that Tasha and Co have a spectacular show running, - including a very special Flying Dutchman with spooks, skeletons and what nuts crazy house effects, and that's not all, but come see for yourself. It is way bigger than last year. 

The real virtual Flying Dutchman

With a bit of luck you might even complete the maze in the belly of the beast, and... Oh I wont reveal it all. See that pumpkin there in the middle? Looks  like it is kinda floating... What will it do? Perhaps this:

How about a sailing pumpkin

A sailing pumpkin! Complete with jib, main, mast and keel... Rumours has it there will be a race with these things. Perhaps not the sleekest and most elegant of yachts, but it does act like a sailboat.

Is that a cousin to the Lock Ness monster?

In fact it's the perfect vessel for a closer look at the Flying Dutchman and the surrounding monsters. Just add garlic and your perfectly safe...