Second Life Sailing | Once Around!

I finally bought myself a yacht. It’s called Looneta. It is quite expensive boat. Didn’t matter, I raised the funds with sex at the Magic Angels Club. As a whore basically.

I bought it for a specific purpose:

It is my intention to actually sail around the entire mainland, a trip around the entire Second Life World so to speak. Not in one go of course. I will sail from one interesting port or location to the next, until coming back to Blake Sea, which is my starting point.

This is in itself a challenge as every time I need to find a location that allows rezzing, otherwise, I can not continue the trip from the location I last logged out.

Yes, I financed this great yacht from the money I made with escorting and I even have about 5.000 L$ travel money left. A juicy back-story isn’t it? How lame is using a credit card compared to this?!

I am not sure if what I plan is actually possible to achieve. There are many possible obstacles, such as ban-lines for example. I don’t even know if there are sailable regions or open waters around each and every continent of Second Life.

I will start the trip in the Blake Sea region, going West to the Nautilus continent and then sailing its coastline as far North as possible, hoping to find a port or region where I can rez my boat to be able to continue the trip from there.

I am asking myself whether or not I will be able to go around Corsica reaching Tomuli´s restaurant on its northern coast, one of my favorite places in Second Life.

Will I ever reach Bay City, Second Life´s nonofficial capital? For my readers, this will actually be an excellent lesson in Second Life geography. I will try to get maps of the grid to show you the different locations I visit on this trip.

Day 1: The Blake Sea

It logged in at one of those extreme adult sims. My intention was to promote the Magic Dream Angels Club. So I slipped in my „work uniform“, a set of very sexy lingerie called “black lace” and was basically standing around in that region in a crowd of guys and girls looking for a fuck.

Sorry guys, this will not be a report of yet another sex adventure, as things went in a different direction – literally.

Suddenly a totally naked girl called Ana, who was standing around there too, IM-ed me: „Hey I know you from your blog“. We started talking a bit and apparently she is a fan of my writings. She seemed pretty excited to meet me in person.

Ana told me when she first saw me she thought: „Hey, that girl looks like Caroline Resident“, then she saw my name and her jaw hit the floor. I felt a bit like a celebrity when she told me this.

Am I already famous?

I invited her over to the club and we continued our conversation at the Tiki bar. She was a bit embarrassed that I met her naked at a sex club and she assured me, she just wanted to „goof around with noobs“, whatever that exactly is. She dressed up at the bar, to show me the “usual” Ana:

I suggested to her work with us at the club and she seemed to like the idea. See if I found a new team member for us. She definitely has the looks for it, don’t you think so? A face with personality, a nice figure, and especially her hands caught my attention, so slick and elegant.

I am sure Rebecca will go wild when she meets Ana.

After a while, Abi (Abraham Windstorm, an old friend of mine) joined us at the bar.

I had a spontaneous idea: “Why don´t we go on a little sailing trip?”.

Both liked the idea and off we went to the St. Martin region in the very South-East of the Blake Sea. In fact, this area of the Blake Sea is the very South-East of the Second Life mainland. The end of the world so to speak.

I rezzed the Looneta, the sailing yacht I bought recently and off we went. We had good wind conditions and at times we really went quite fast at about 10kts.

This was when I realized, what a great boat the Looneta is. The movements on the water, the sounds, the waves the boat makes when moving through the sea, all of it extremely realistic. If you have a little bit of imagination, the immersion can be that good, you can almost feel the wind and water.

After crossing at least 20 very beautiful tropical SIMs we sailed past a girl who had a bit of trouble with her own boat and we invited her to join us. She was a pretty little girl from Spain called Anne.

This was when I gave Abi control of the boat. He is far more experienced with sailing and I wanted to be able to focus on the conversation rather than on wind and waves.

Every man’s dream, a sailing trip with three beautiful women in bikinis, isn’t it?

There was one moment when I and Ana came a bit closer, caressing each other a little, not much, and almost casual. It did feel nice and sensual. Let’s see to what this might lead to eventually!

A little later Pit, a guy I know from the Club, also joined us. Unfortunately, he could not speak English, hence it proved to be a bit difficult to include him in the conversation going on. Despite we all had a lot of fun on the little boat. Ana even said: “I should have been gone to RL life an hour ago, but this is too exciting”.

When we reached the open waters of Blake Sea, where the winds are strong and the waves high, everybody was excited about crossing a huge part of the mainland by boat instead of the usual teleport system.

We must have crossed at least 50 SIMs when we reached the Ibiza region in the very North-West of the Blake Sea.

Here we docked the boat and finished our sailing trip. From this location, I will start my trip around the mainland which I had been planing for some time.

At the time I had no idea, that this little island will soon become my home. It was here where Toni, Auri, and myself would be living for some time.

Day 2: Setting Sail to Nautilus with a Zombie on Board

I arrived at an Island in the very North-West part of the Blake Sea called Ibiza. That is where I did set sail for Nautilus again. Nautilus is the closest Second Life continent to the Blake Sea.

You will reach it sailing straight westwards from most parts of the western Blake Sea, as it is a rather large continent, famous for its waterways but unfortunately infamous for having the most ban-lines of all continents.

For those of you new to Second Life, I should explain this stuff about continents a bit at this point. You know that Second Life is comprised of many different regions, also referred to as SIMS. We actually differentiate between two types of regions. For one there are the “private estates”.

You have most likely visited many of them when you went to clubs or other social venues which are typically located on stand-alone private estates. Those estates are owned by a Second Life resident and are usually not attached to other regions unless the resident owns several regions. The only way to get to or leave a private estate is via teleporting.

The other type of region is the mainland region. Those are of the same size but form attached to each other the individual 9 continents of the so-called mainland. Just to give you an idea about the size of one continent: Nautilus is formed of 864 regions and together with its neighbor Satori and several subcontinents (such as the blake sea) we are talking about a super-continent with something in the region of 2.000 regions attached to each other forming a huge landmass.

See a map of Nautilus here:

More details about Nautilus on the Second Life Wiki
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Nautilus

Many noobs, if not all, do not realize for a long time, that such “mainland” actually does exist in Second Life and instead hop from one private estate to the next by teleporting, thinking this is how the entire Second Life grid is actually build. For those visiting the mainland for the first time, it might be an overwhelming experience, simply it is something they did not expect.

I show you what the mainland is all about by trying to sail the entire mainland and take pictures of its special places and sometimes breathtaking landscapes.

Back to the trip

I had passengers actually when I headed west towards Nautilus. I met him when I just logged in elsewhere and he appeared right in front of me. The guy actually logged into Second Life the first time after years of absence. I found that quite funny that the first thing he sees after “sleeping” for a long time, is sexy me in my work outfit.

He was quite impressed by how different Second Life looks today compared to when he got his avatar to sleep for more than a year. So I decided to take him with me on my sailing trip. I change to a more appropriate outfit and off we went via TP to my last sailing location in the Blake Sea.

Unfortunately, he did not see much of it, as shortly after leaving the docks of Ibiza he apparently went AFK for some reason for the entire route. Felt like having a zombie on board.

A short while after I reached the East coast of Nautilus. From where I started to the coast I only had to cross no more than 4 regions (nothing for Nautilus standards). The coast held a bit of a surprise for me.

I knew the Southern Shores of Nautilus, as I used to have a region there, which hosted an art gallery I used to have. That was before Caroline was born, in another Second Life.

I never knew how popular sailing actually is in this region. This part of its coast is full of privately owned parcels, all with luxury houses and yachting moors for one or more boats. It looks everybody who owns a parcel here is into sailing or yachting.

And I was about to become one of them!

I did set course North, heading towards the Corsica continent. I passed at least 15 to 20 regions. Every parcel sold and occupied, I must have passed thousands of boats and moors. Always a steady wind from behind I developed quite some speed there, especially in open waters.

I can tell you it was great fun, despite the zombie sitting on the boat staring at my ass all the time. I wondered if he would bite!

Finally, I reached a region where rezzing appeared to be allowed. I lowered sails and went engine on slow speed, slowly to the coast and realized: It’s a public marina. There I moored and jumped on land to have a look around.

To me huge surprise there was one moor actually available for rent. All other Moors were actually occupied. Other than this moor parcel, there was a small parcel of land right next to it available for rent at the price of 3.500 LD per week, for only about 2.000 Square meters. A lot of money for such a small parcel. But hey, it has access to Blake Sea!

The price was incredibly low: just 100 LD per week including a 50 prim allowance. This is a bargain for this part of the mainland.

I did not have to think very long about this, I took the place for the next 10 weeks. Now I have a base for exploring Nautilus in-depth before I will continue further North to the next continent called Corsica.

The nice thing about it is, that I have a permanent home location for my boat. Feels cool to have a boat as my home in Second Life. It has everything a small home would have as well, but I can move with it wherever and whenever I want.

In addition, all tenants of the marina can use free of charge their party club location in the sky and a sky airport. What else would you want as a base for 100 LD per week?

The Zombie woke up: “Sorry phone call, what happened?”

Day 3: The Coastal Waterways of Nautilus in Second Life

I finally got around to continuing my sailing trip.

Do you remember?

I wanted to sail around the entire mainland, assuming it is actually possible. I started on the very southeast edge of the blake sea heading for nautilus where I parked the yacht in a marina for some time.

A couple of days ago, it was time to set sail again heading further north. I had company on board. Danni who works with me at Magic Dream Angels joined me on the trip.

We had very good wind conditions hence the boat moved along pretty fast. We sailed at the eastern coast of Nautilus straight north in regions known as „Coastal Waterways“. Just like on the southern coasts of Nautilus, we saw lots of marinas and sailing clubs with hundreds of boats and yachts being moored. I never knew sailing was such a popular pastime in Second Life.

Something on the map caught my attention. A huge „for rent“ sign over a parcel. I had to check this out, could be a chance to acquire a plot at a very good location, even with access to the blake sea. Blake sea would be quite a bit further south, but hey at least access to it.

We approached the coast and what we saw was quite stunning: A huge villa on a parcel that must be at least half a region. I was wondering if that whole thing including the villa, several moors, private beach, and gardens was all for rent, If so it must be very expensive.

„Carol, let’s ask the two guys there, Danni suggested. Anchor down and off we went a couple of steps to the beach and approached these guys. The guy happened to be one guy actually. It was the new tenant of the parcel and his ALT, in the process of moving. I came too late!

The parcel was rented out to him just the day before and he was busy moving all his bits and pieces from his old parcel to this one. A conversation sprung up and he told that this is his private home which he will be sharing with his girlfriend. I asked how much this kind of parcel costs and how he finances this. 22.000 LD per month, he replied.

Honestly, I thought it to be much more than that. He is also very much into boats and yachts, hence the reason he needed a waterfront parcel.

Money doesn’t seem to be an issue for him. He made good money in Second Life in the days, casinos were still allowed in Second Life. He told me in his really crazy days he did spend 1.000.000 LD in only 10 days and spending 100.000 LD in a couple of hours gambling is not unusual for him. Ha, I met one of the rich guys in Second Life!

Danni, apparently fancied him, judging by some comments she made in IM. „He is taken, honey forget it“, I informed her. „ Come on Carol, how many of our guests are actually taken and still visit us regularly? Do they say, hey I am taken?“, she replied.

Good point actually!

She didn’t pursue the idea, as she had to get off to real life. I added him to my friend’s list and left also. He allowed me to rez my yacht there whenever I wanted to continue my trip from there. Nice of him!

Actually, all people I met so far who are in the Second Life sailing or flying communities are very cool people.

I felt I will meet this guy again!

Day 4: Stranded on Nautilus

I knew this is going to happen eventually. I was stranded on the coast of The Nautilus continent.

I am shipwrecked!

I continued my trip on the North-East coast of Nautilus. I rezzed my yacht on the “rich guy’s property”, set sail, and took course north, with the intention to reach the Corsica continent that day.  Suddenly the ship disappeared and I found myself on the ground of the sea.

What happened? I crossed a sim info a region, which does not allow the entry of objects such as boats or planes. I was really pissed off. As I said above, I was anticipating problems like no objects, banlines, and security orbs, but when it actually happens, I can tell you are not a happy person anymore.

<rant start>

I do understand that there are legitimate and valid reasons to use banlines or similar methods to keep people away. For example:  if you are celebrating a wedding on your property, you most likely would not be very amused, if a naked noob runs through the place, showing off his pixel erection. Go figure.

The same applies to business meetings, private parties, or when having some intimate time with a significant other.

Yes I do understand! Seriously!

But what the fuck does it matter, when in your ABSENCE somebody wants to cross your waters or airspace with a boat or a plane. Come on folks, you are not even online or at least not on the property.

So who fucking cares?

Nobody will steal your virtual items and nobody will destroy your house. Everything will be exactly the way you left it behind.

But no! There are people in Second Life, who seem to have a very strange, egoistic, and possessive attitude. Something down the line: “Hey fuck off, I pay for this parcel, so when I am not here, nobody else is allowed here either. I eject you just because I can, for no other reason.

My humble opinion is: This is just downright selfish, rude, and bears any sense of community.

The worst are those security orbs. Usually, they are set to eject you 10 seconds after entering the property. You even get a message telling you about it.

Hey you, yes you, the security obsessed paranoid orb user:

How for fuck sake, can I cross an entire region in ten seconds with a boat or a plane? Can you not have the damn courtesy, to set this fucking stupid piece of software to let’s say – 10 minutes?

You are that selfish, not to grant me 10 friggin minutes to pass your MAINLAND property?  What is the problem in letting an object (a boat for example) cross over the water in front of your house?

You should not even be on the mainland. In my opinion, people like you should be limited to private estates. If you are that concerned about “this is mine, my treasure, only for me” then a PRIVATE estate suits your lifestyle perfectly well.

Buy one and let nobody is – perfectly valid. You will have a very lonely Second Life, but hey, if that rocks your boat, go ahead. I am sure you are one of those guys who wine at the forums about not having friends – keep wining you don’t deserve friends anyway!

</rant end>

Good, that was fun. Now back to the actual story.

I activated my swim hud and made it eventually to the shores. My anger was cooled down a little and I had a look around what’s to explore.

The first thing was this “outdoor living room”. I thought it is an interesting idea to have the living room in front of the house instead of in the house. Hey, your world your imagination!

I sat down on that sofa and a few moments later I noticed a guy in the neighboring house. I (never on the shy side of life as you probably noticed) did send him an IM. He invited me over to his place and we started a very pleasant conversation, just what I needed to save my day.

He was very talkative actually and told me about his ex-girlfriend, his hobbies and so on. We found out that we have quite a lot in common, such as sailing, flying planes, photography, and a very liberal attitude about sex. He and his girlfriend used to have adventures with other couples as well as threesomes and such. He actually said: “Second Life is like Disneyland and who wants to do always the same ride?” – Good point!

He works as a photographer for an In-World Magazine and showed me his Flickr stream. I was amazed by the quality of his work.

I have never seen such brilliant In-World photography, not even in the days back when I was running an art gallery myself (under my main account).

In the end, he added me to the property group, to allow me to rez my yacht on his seafront property in order to continue my trip from here – the next time I log in. That was nice of him and shows a sense of community. I jokingly said: “You know me 5 minutes and I already move in here”.

We laughed and decided to meet again soon!

This parcel will be starting point for the next stage of my trip around the world!

Day 5: Reaching Corsica

Setting sail again and taking course for Corsica. This time I had Toni with me. Do you remember him?

It’s the guy I gave some lessons in love some time ago. Ever since we became friends and meet quite regularly. like here when we went diving and such.

He was actually the one who introduced me to Chear and Mel at the Magic Dream Angels Club and I got him hooked on sailing in Sl too. In fact, he has now a quite big yacht and a moor in the blake sea.

We actually were looking at some property, as he is thinking about establishing a home in Second Life, sort off, when I invited him to join my next „etappe“ on my trip around the world.

Raising anchor at Jackson’s parcel (where I last stranded, you remember) setting sail and taking course direction east towards open waters, beyond which are located part of the „Seychelles regions“. This however proved to become a difficult task because we had wind from the east.

Cruising time. Cruising is in fact the most difficult sailing exercise. It basically means going Zick-zack trying to catch enough wind in the sails to move forward. Southeast, the Northeast, and so on.

Requires a lot of concentration, especially at the turn-arounds.

The Seychelles Regions

We managed. Arriving in the Seychelles regions, we took course Northwest and the strong east wind gave us speed. The boat was leaning a lot to the left, especially when I did set the spinnaker sail. We reach almost 8 knots that way and left region after region behind us, passing numerous little very beautiful islands on the way.

Until we were faced with yet another idiotic idea of another Second Life resident!

There is only one way to reach Corsica from Seychelles. One passage only between the two continents, at least on this side of Nautilus.

Exactly on the last sim/region of this waterway, somebody did put up this wall, making it apparently impossible to pass towards the coast of Corsica. I live in Berlin, which makes me a person allergic to stupid, unnecessary walls!

However, I found a tiny little passage on the west side of that region. My boat did fit just about through there and Ahoi waters of Corsica. I had arrived at the Southern shores of the continent going westwards. That means I am not sailing around the continent as I had originally planned, but sailing between the continents Nautilus and Corsica.

On the Coast of Corsica

Corsica surprised me: There is a lot of nothing. The shoreline consists mainly of green hills and some small bays and beaches in-between.

At first, I saw a couple of buildings (got stuck in banlines for a moment around a private property), but the further you go West the more nothing there is. We passed several regions with hardly anything on there but the occasional set of trees or a little tiki hut.

We saw several parcels classified as “abandoned land”. That means it has been sold to somebody who then stopped paying tier fees and just walked away from it. By the way: If you see abandoned land somewhere and you fancy this specific piece of property, you can contact Linden Lab support and ask for this land to be put on the land auction system. This way you can sometimes buy land at a real bargain price.

The downside of it is: those parcels are usually rather remote in the middle of nowhere, which is probably the reason the original owner abandoned it. The advantage: no lag, no annoying neighbors (actually no neighbors at all), and a lot of privacy. If that’s what you are looking for, the Southern coast of Corsica might be just what you were looking for.

We reached a parcel, which allows us to rezz objects. An ideal location to finish the etappe for today and rez the boat right here next time, when I continue my trip around the world.

Sex at the end of the world

There was actually a building on this particular parcel. We decided to go on land and have a look around. The region happens to be owned by somebody selling “breedables”, such as horses and little fantasy animals – a Second Life past time, which at one stage was quite popular.

For this guy, the location is just perfect. Breedables consume quite a lot of sim resources, which might annoy neighbors not being able to move of lag and scripts, but here in the middle of nowhere, he has no issues with that.

So we went to the house. Nobody there, no banlines, no security orb, and the doors unlocked. “What for?” Toni remarked, “there is nobody around anyway”.

We entered a rather different totally roundhouse with those huge windows offering a view over the sea. In the upper part, he had a beautifully lighted bedroom on some sort of a gallery, from which you can look down to the living area. Very pretty.

I jumped on the bed and said to Toni with tongue in cheek: “Hey, there is space enough for two, we should relax a bit after a hard day on the sea!”. “I know how this is going to end”, he replied. I laughed, took off my shirt, and tossed it at him.

He joined me on the bed and said: “ I so want to fuck you !”. Said and done. We didn’t bother much with foreplay and such, tore off our cloth and he took me there and then passionate and fast. The fact that the owner could surprise us at any given moment added some extra excitement to it.

We stayed a bit longer, talked, cuddled on the bed, watching the sun go down over Corsica indicating the way for me when I continue my trip around the world!

Day 6: A Second Life Infohub in the Linden Ocean

I did set sail the next day, taking the course to the West (I had some passengers with me this time, members from Caroline’s Swinger Mansion). It was then that I learned there is yet another huge sailing area in Second Life: The Linden Ocean.

This is the sea that connects the two continents Corsica and Nautilus. Between the two you find approximately 100 sail-able open water regions.

All of you sailors out there: If you get tired of the blake sea, try the Linden Ocean for a change!

It was good fun sailing on so many open waters. I discovered something really bizarre. I reached a small island somewhere in the middle of this big ocean. Checking the land profile quickly, I realized that it is Linden Lab-owned land.

For those new to Second Life:

The mainland of Second Life is operated and administrated by Linden Lab directly. They actually sold most mainland regions to Second Life residents. If you have a premium account you can buy land on the mainland from small parcels of just 512 m² up to entire regions of 65.000 m².

Most of it is actually sold already, so the only way to obtain a nice parcel in a popular area, is actually buying it from another Second Life resident who then transfers ownership to you for a take over fee.

The latter can be quite high in some areas and you are responsible to pay the tier to Linden Lab once the transfer is completed.

If you do so, you pay every month an amount of what is called tier fee (in USD) for the hosting and you now own that parcel. You can resell it, rent it out to someone else or simply build stuff on it.

Whatever you build on your mainland parcel must be compliant with the general rules for the mainland.

Some of the regions of the mainland are still owned by Linden Lab. You can see that, looking into the Land-info where it shows the owner of the parcel. Whenever you see an avatar called „Governor Linden“, it is Linden-owned land.

I was curious of course about why would the Governor reserve an open water sim with a small island on it, in a less than populated area. Thought and done. I moored my yacht and off I went to discover the island.

You can not imagine my surprise when I realized:

It is an Info Hub!

Ok for those who don’t know what that is:

Info hub is areas where people can set their home landing spot (if you do not own the land yourself) and (as the name suggests) you find Information about Second Life, such as tutorials or links to other sources.

Most of these Infohubs are fairly busy. The reason being is they are regions frequented by many new residents when they leave orientation island. They are starter points in Second Life and many new residents come back to them for having set their start location at an Infohub.

When you are logging into Second Life to the last location you have been and that region is not available for whatever reason, you automatically get redirected to the nearest Infohub.

The latter can be rather embarrassing when your last location as your bedroom or a sex sim and you had sex before logging out but did not bother to put some cloth on before logging out. It does happen! You have been warned.

Actually, my regular readers know who probably would have fun flashing naked at an Infohub by accident.

Cathy, I dare you: Flash at a G-rated Infohub!

Lets have a closer look at this Infohub in the middle of nowhere.

It is totally senseless in my not so humble opinion. This Infohub could have been a great location to introduce new residents to sailing or other water sports. Maybe with a social gathering point, even some free boats to try, tutorials about how to. Maybe even with some Linden coaches to answer questions or proactive help noobs with technicalities.

There was none of that.

Some buildings with nothing in them, a couple of signs with broken links, a boat which only serves as deco. Totally useless exercise. There was nothing to do, nothing to learn – no wonder the few noobs I spotted seemed rather lost.

This island is yet another proof of the lack of imagination of the Lindens when it comes to content creation.

I asked some of the people I met there: “Why are you here, there is nothing to do and not many people around either”. One answered: “We land here as starting point because its quiet.

I personally do not want to check in at those busy Infohubs with all their drama and hundreds of silly noobs”.

Ok point taken. In other words: If you actually look for a dead place to check into Second Life , to be away from it all, this is the perfect spot! The strangest thing of all was this: I noticed there is something in the water. I dived into it and saw this:

Zombies!

A number of abandoned avatars (at least 10) underwater, all in “away mode”. I tried to speak to them, sent an IM, no reaction at all. This remained a mystery to me: Why do several Residents “park” their avatars here in the ocean? Anyone can shed some light on this?

Then please leave a comment!

I could not rez here either. Hence I sailed to the near coast of Corsica, where I discovered a little airport, which b its very nature allows rezzing. From here I will continue my trip next time. Stay tuned!

Day 7: Taking a Shortcut

Those of you who know about the geography of Second Life already know that I am not sailing around the entire mainland. When I reached Corsica some time ago, I set course West towards the Linden Ocean, the open water regions between Corsica and the Nautilus Continent. To sail around the entire continent of Corsica and Gaeta 5 I would have had to turn east.

I did not do that for a simple reason: It is not possible.

East from the region that connects the Coastal Waterways with Corsica, is a sim that has no sailable waters, and there are two regions owned by „Mystical Rentals“. Mystical rentals rent out skyboxes on their land on several levels and the tenants use security orbs to prevent people from entering the parcel.

Sad attitude, but I have to live with that.

Having said that, I might do Corsica later on a bike.

On my journey through Linden waters South of Corsica, I came to the point where I am facing that same situation. A region which I can not pass sailing. For you to get an idea, here is a map. You can see clearly what the problem is.

Of course, I could simply sail to the regions that end the continent, walk a bit over land, and rez the boat on the other side of those regions and continue the journey. Well, that wouldn’t be me, don’t you think so?

Do you remember where I finished the last etape?

Right at Smugglers Cove airport. Caroline at the airport. Those who read my stuff for a bit longer know what had to happen. Out comes my little Debonair and I planned to do a shortcut, by simply flying over the problematic areas.

If it only was that simple!

Ok, here I am, ready for take-off.

I have done lots of take-offs in the past. So that is the easy part. But I am still making that same mistake I did in the past: to not properly prepare the flight. The most important part is, actually checking the map for the route to take, finding a suitable airport, and checking for potential obstacles.

Hence my first attempt ended in a disaster. Took me only 5 minutes to fly into a „Mystical Rentals Region“ (on the map you can identify them looking for regions covered with a huge heart) and being kicked out by a security orb.

Wankers!

Ok, next try. This time better prepared. I manage to avoid the “Mystical Rentals” sim and finally set course to the West, where I identified an airport place after the problematic areas and right on a shore.

Perfect I thought to myself.

If it only was that simple!

The airspace over the Second Life grid is full of stuff. Stuff which you can see on the map. There are skyboxes, building platforms, or just unfinished rubbish the landowner forgot to delete or collect.

Yes. If you are good at flying, and if you have hardware that allows you to fly at high resolution and long-distance view, you fly around those obstacles and get back on course after that.

I lack the latter (some bad people insist I lack both). That is why I suddenly crashed into this funny building platform in the sky.

At that time Leo came online. Who is Leo you might ask? Well, he is a fan of Second Life Adventures. He follows this blog from day one. I bumped into him by accident the other day and he needed to say hello to me. We had a good chat that day and decided to meet up again.

I invited him to come over and have a look at the disastrous result of my flight at the risk of him making fun of me. This is Leo, good looking isn’t he?

I decided to give it another try, this time with a passenger:

Leo.

He felt what he calls “star struck” (I never heard that term before), as he never would have imagined flying with me one day. I guess he also would have never imagined crashing with me one day, which is what happened a little later, again because of a huge skybox in the way.

I decided to call it a day and to try another day again. Which is what I did, ending up finding one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen in Second Life.

Day 8: Reaching the West Coast of the Nautilus Continent

As you know from day 7, I tried to fly over the South coast of Corsica in order to find waters easier to sail. I tried several times but did not succeed to reach that airport close to sailable waters. Either I got kicked out from security orbs or crashed into skyboxes.

I tried one last time and decided, if it doesn’t work out this time, I will walk to the shores. Almost, I almost reached my target but crashed yet again into some rubbish in the sky. At least I was wearing my parachute, so at least I had a fun glide down to the grid.

Down on the ground, I saw a typical mainland scenery. Several parcels being built with weird stuff on it, even with wallpaper around parcels, banlines, and nothing actually fitting together:

But I saw the sea!

Not too far away, I could see the shores of that ocean connecting Corisca to Nautilus again. At least that is what I thought it is. I also saw a bit further down a huge tree and something that looked like a garden. The closer I got to that parcel, the more curious I became.

Finally, I arrived on a huge parcel with beautiful gardens, waterfalls, caves, a superb beach on which one is even allowed to rez. Fantastic, here I can rez my boat and continue my journey.

But before I did so I strolled alone this place with Leo (who I Tped over) and took some pictures for you:

Here is the Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dura/203/200/23

We decided to move on. I rezzed the boat and off we went. It was then that I realized: Fuck, I didn’t make it to the ocean, there are two regions between us and open waters. But we were lucky, we found a passage through those regions in our way. It was tricky to move the boat there as it was a very narrow passage. I actually used the engine, not the sails.

We reached the open waters of Nautilus, yeah! Setting sail and a strong East wind lead us with 9 knots average speed to the shores of Nautilus.

At a small yacht club on its Western coast, I moored the boat. I actually felt as if I had traveled in time. This marina looked like Second Life in 2007. Those of you who have been in SL that year might remember those guys with a small penis syndrome.

Those who compensated for their lack of manhood with huge luxury motor yachts, pretending to be part of the rich and famous society.

Those yachts do not actually move. They simply stand there in a marina and serve their respective owners as a home. Fine with me. Those guys hire escorts. I might actually make some money in this port.

By the way:

You can rez boats in the marina. It is a great place to discover the waterways of Nautilus.
Give it a try!

Here is the Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oggy/132/33/22

Day 9: Take me to Church

Setting sail again to go South. My next goal: The Satori continent south of Nautilus. From the marina where I last moored it was an easy sail along the western coast of Nautilus until I reached a port called „The Gateway Marina“. A funny little port that connects the Western Nautilus waterway to a big sea within Nautilus.

From here on the only way forward is passing through this narrow gate, entering this huge mediterranean sea. The only problem: It is entirely surrounded by land. Hence there is no way to actually continue the journey by boat.

Trapped in Nautilus so to speak.

I moored the boat in a small marina located North in this sea, right under (literally under) an airport.

The next day I went there again with Leo. Yet again we had no choice but to fly over the land enclosing this sea. Out comes my seaplane and minutes later we took off on the sea.

Flying over the sea was easygoing. Just when we overflew land, we got into turbulences again.

Once again I crashed the plane.

We were stranded on a beach on the South coast of this sea. We did see a bit further down something strange.

This thing looked somewhat like a transparent dome. We decided to inspect this thing. Getting nearer we realized, there was a chapel under that dome.

At the entrance, we saw those signs offering different means of transport. One of which is a couple-walk. That’s funny I thought, and we went walking arm in arm towards the chapel. We walked like that into the chapel, going nearer towards what I assume is the altar.

I am not very familiar with these things as I am not Christian, but suddenly I realized:

Hey, I am standing with Leo in a church in front of that thing. This is where Christian people get married. I am surprised I did not get stroked by sudden lightning in this place.

Panic!

Suddenly Leo said:

“Hey wait, this was all preplanned, you got me here to ask this all-important question”.

He laughed. “Don’t even think about it!” I warned him, “this is pure coincidence”. He smiled and remarked: “Well, hopefully, one day…”

I don’t think so. Sorry Cathy!

Anyway was good fun to play that piano together. Then I had an idea: “What do you think, would it be very inappropriate to have sex in here? Its M rated. “ – “Very much so, Darling”, he answered, “imagine we get caught, this would get us a ban from this land at its best or even an abuse report to the Lindens at its worst,” Leo explained.

“Why?” I asked innocently, “it’s rated mature and we are in a building, that would not be against the TOS of Second Life at all, and the possibility of getting caught adds some more excitement to it”.

We didn’t do it.

Yet. But I am seriously considering it. What do you think, should I go ahead and give it a try, or is it a no-go?

Day 10: Reaching the Satori Continent

We did not do it in the end. What? Well, having sex in that chapel which Leo and myself discovered the last time. We met there right after I have been booked for a one-hour sex encounter with a fan.

I wrote about that in my last post. I had enough sex for the day and we decided to continue the journey instead.

Poor Leo 😉

We were still stuck on that sea surrounded by landmasses. There was no way to get to that ocean between the Nautilus and what is called the Satori continent in the South of the mainland by boat. Hence once again the seaplane was our best option.

This time it worked out very well.

Smooth take off, no turbulence on the way and I managed to actually land the plane as opposed to crash it somewhere. Finally arriving at the main ocean between the continents on the South coast of Nautilus.

Here we found something which could be of interest to anyone of you dear readers who want to try or practice sailing himself.

There is this small public sailing club where you can rez boats and you get some freebies too, such as appropriate cloth.

There are maps of the region too and it looks like the owners occasionally arrange races here. Probably a good start to get into this fun activity in Second Life.

Anyway, time to set sail again to cross the ocean, taking course South West heading for Satori. Crossing about six or seven open water regions, land in sight! We reached the North of Satori – a milestone in my attempt to travel around the mainland.

Did not take me long to find a place to moor the boat. This rather interesting airport right on the coast had a moor for the coastguards. One side was actually not used, so I decided to anchor here hoping the owner doesn’t mind. The owner actually did contact me about it a few days later, asking very friendly if I want to come and get my boat back. I told him I will come soon and write about this place – but that is a story for another post.

Here is the taxi:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mbokomu/65/211/49

Day 11: Second Life Route Number 8 on the Satori Continent

This is a rezz zone at route 8 on Satori. What am I doing here and what has it got to do with sailing, you might ask yourself. Ok, let me explain: We (Me and Leo that is) did set sail the other day and sailed the Western Coastal Waterways of the Satori continent in the Southern direction.

We did this after some hot sex at home, so we (especially him) were kinda relaxed when traveling and not thinking about sex all the time. Getting it out of the way, so to speak.

That part kinda failed: He was still staring at my ass most of the time anyway.

The Satori Western Waterways end pretty abruptly. Just the end of the story, no way to proceed with the journey by boat. :

One option I had (Leo had to go back to RL in-between) was using my seaplane yet again. However, I was stuck on the South-West of the continent and the Eastern Waterways are located North-East. This meant I would have to fly almost over the entire continent.

Given my previous experiences flying over a continent makes this a mission impossible. To many banlines, security orbs, no entry parcels and not to mention all the rubbish in the sky.

Luckily I did discover right behind this property the rezz zone of route 8.

Route 8 is an extensive road network on Satori. Some time ago I bought a bike. I have not used it much, as at the time I was on an old computer with not much processing speed and a so-so graphic card. Now I have much better computing power: 12 GB RAM and an Nvidia Geforce 960.

Time to give it a go.

Said and done, I rezzed the bike, and off I went. After quite a ride over many miles, the first challenge was to be overcome. The road was interrupted at this lake.

How bizarre!

The only way to get to the other side where the road continues was with a little sailboat. Free to get, free to rezz. It was a silly sailboat. Very basic really. But more important, it is quite a challenge to cross the lake. Again, banlines and no entry parcels.

How stupid is that?

I made it eventually and rested at this small Japanese-style square. A quite busy place actually.

Then I did ride almost the entire road network of route 8. Most of the landscape is pretty boring: shops, private parcels, a lot of abandoned land. However, there are some highlights on the way which make up easily for the 90 percent of a dull experience.

Those are the few pretty sceneries on route 8 on Satori:

Finally reaching my destination: A rez point on Danu Beach Northwest of Satori:

Day 12: Coming Home

The Eastern Coastal Waterways of Satori did not offer anything spectacular. Long shores, mainly dotted with private homes, beaches, buildings, the usual stuff.

The only thing worth mentioning was at an edge of the continent, this airport which potentially could have blocked the waterway.

they did build it in a way so you can actually sail through under the runways.

Very considering of them.

It took us a while to reach the Eastern shores of Nautilus. „Us“ means me Leo and an old friend of mine called Pizarro. He joined us for part of the journey.

The night was fallen over Nautilus when we took course east. Actually, that was rather difficult, as we had to cruise against the wind. But soon we reached our destination and Leo said:

„Hey, this looks familiar“.

Of course, it does. We were coming home after a long trip around two major continents of the mainland. I docked the yacht on its home moor.

Nice end of the trip and this storyline isn’t it?

There is still a lot to discover. I haven’t been yet on the Northern shores of Corsica nor on the Gaeta continent. There is also the „old“ Mainland, which is not connected to the continents I was exploring.

I will make that part of a new storyline.

We celebrated coming home in the kitchen, Caroline style.