My first blake sea sashay

A few days ago I discovered my joy of boating in Secondlife, in my Flickr account you can also see pictures like this. Very good friends of mine had invited me to a boat trip on the Blake Sea, and the trip into the sunrise was a really intense experience here in SecondLife, and a lot of memories have come back to me. I am really grateful that Eva and Aurora gave me this experience. So I bought a motorboat for cruising with friends and a catamaran for fun sailing, and started to explore the sailing areas here in SecondLife. 

Fortunately I found a very good map of the Blake Sea Region in Flickr. Thanks to Atlan Bade for making the map "BlakeSea, Nautilus and surrounding areas - V7-0 (26.02.2018)" accessible to everyone. Now I'm not the best card-reader, of course some people say "maps and women" or "navigate and women", but in my car the navigation system tells me where I should go and how far it is. But back to Alan, thank you. And everyone of you who is interested in boats in SecondLife should keep an eye on his profile as he updates this map. Besides, there are really nice pictures.

In the beginning I was completely overwhelmed, and only came to places by chance. Eva gave me the tip to save and use a lot of LMs, also I had to learn to use the map and mini-map, the Blake Sea consists of really many connected Sims. Otherwise it is hardly possible to know where north is and to see how everything is connected. With the direction indicator it was a lot easier, so I explored Blake Sea bit by bit and learned. I took notes and slowly I was able to orientate myself. 


Unfortunately, some landowners are unfair, and have closed off their regions without any warning, so I did fallen into the water several times and lost my boat. Then I quickly searched for one of the many rez zones and continued my journey. Residents along the navigable waterways, if you have to break the linden rules, there are simple signs for waterways which means "no entry". You should have a few prims left, so put such signs at your borders. No one wants to disturb you, but without warning, no one wants to be thrown out. Especially in the context of sailing and booting, mutual consideration should be written in capital letters.


After a few days the time had come. I planned my first trip and wanted to see if I would finally arrive at the destination. Kind of my Blake Sea navigation check. I wanted to start in "Second Norway", here there is also a Rez Zone. Even Second Norway is worth a trip, many small islands with fjords, some drawbridges, typical buildings. The slow ride through these narrow waterways is a lot of fun. It was early morning in SecondLife, and the sun was rising just as I left the small harbour heading for The Havor - Nautilus.

Directly from Second Norway I drove westwards into the narrow channels of Snug Harbor, some buoys helped me to stay on track. This area is also beautiful, but very narrow. So I searched for the lighthouse of the exit and turned south in the exit channel to drive towards Blake Sea Channel. After passing the lighthouse on the right, I was able to increase my speed and entered the Blake Sea Channel in a westerly direction. Meanwhile the sun had risen.

The Blake Sea Channel is a wide waterway, some buoys help you to stay on the route, leading you from the east to the centre of the Blake Sea Region. On the left side you will find Sailers Cove and on the right side Snug Havor. In the beginning these are the "Blake Sea Bering" - Sims. 

If you always follow the channel westwards, you get to the Blake Sea and directly to the prominent center "Crows Nest" with its lighthouse.  This was my first goal, but it was still a bit to drive.

On the way you meet nice people again and again. Also in SecondLife sailors are friendly and helpful people. Here you can see a German sailing yacht meeting me in the Blake Sea Channel. In the background you can see the Greenhouse and the Balboa Sims. The Greenhouse is a beautiful building in a garden with a waterfall. If you want explore this region, the Greenhouse is a "Must have". 

If you follow the waterway, you will find a lighthouse on the left. Here is "Sailer West Cove" on the left, and "Fanci's Deep". Also here is a nice little havor in a northern European style, a small memorial church, shops and a festival playground. Like in the most region you can rent a home here. But I stayed on the Blake Sea Channel and left the lighthouse on the left hand side.

Just before the end of the Blake Sea Channel is on the left hand side "Angels Pirate's Cove". Also this is lovingly designed, and if you are looking for excursion destinations, then you should definitely remember this. On a small jetty you can landing, unfortunately I have not found a rez zone nearby. So be more careful that the boat is not sent back. After a few minutes I continued my journey westward.

On the other side of the waterway is the "Hollywood airport". Besides sailing and boating, this region is also used by SL flyers, and you can do proper learning programs and fly different types of aircraft and helicopters.


Behind these two areas is the vast and open region of Blake Sea. This is a huge sailing and cruising area. Here you will find some of the famous regatta tracks. And yes, in SecondLife there are professional sailors and regular races. And a number of boat builders are creating and building beautiful sailing yachts and motorboats. You will also find historic ships here. Back to the Blake Sea, some buoys also help here to navigate. 

After some time I did reached "Crowns nest" with the distinctive lighthouse. This is the "Centre" of Blake Sea.

When the "Blake Sea" crosses westward, on the right side appears the coast of "Isle of Babylon" with some land for renting land. Here is the "Hibernia Marina" too. You're going to the bingo straits that surrounds the island of Nautilus City.

Nautilus City is an isle in the Bingo Strait. Aside the "Pharos tower" is there also a canal and "The Citadel" as points of interest. I drove along the north coast, and soon the skyline is coming. Here are some imposing skyscrapers, and not unlike in RL, it is of course the large real estate enterprises, who uses skyscrapers as potency aids.

Behind the last skyscraper you will drive to the North Channel. But I turned southward, and I drove along the west coast of Nautilus City to the havor . From far away you can see the eye-catching port entrance, and a rowing galley in front of the harbour entrance, which seems to originate from the time of the Romans.

You enters the Havor basin through the outer harbor. Here I landed the boat and finished my first sashay without help. And I've reached my target, my first trip without tools, once across the Blake Sea region and past Nautilus City. The troubles of the days before were forgotten. I have passed my private check of navigation. I had made a plan, places I wanted to reach. And I've found each of these places.
  

 Maybe I could give an impression of how much fun SecondLife can make, and here specifically the boating. It's not hard, you just have to trust yourself. And my boat has a media screen, here I could listen to my music playlists. One of the songs i listen today was from Sia "Unstoppable". How a girlfriend of me often says, "You just have to trust yourself."