SL Go Places: Blake Sea, a Vast Waterway for Realistic Sailing on the Second Life Sea (NWN Partner Co-Production)

Blake Sea is a sprawling, atmosphere-rich place in Second Life (click here to teleport), and when I told readers I was planning to explore the best areas and communities in SL, it was was one of the suggestions which stood out most, and the one I wanted to visit first in SL Go Places, a new travelogue series we're doing with the help of NWN partner OnLive, which help powered this visit with SL Go on my old Dell laptop. 

While Blake Sea is visually detailed, full of little elements that make it feel like a real place, the feature I like most about it is the sound: With constantly crashing waves and crying seagulls, Blake Sea has the audio ambience that many places in Second Life lack, and it's the kind of cue that makes strolling on the docks or wandering along the shorelines that make visiting feel so immersive. 

But that's not even the main purpose of Blake Sea, because it's the home of large flying and sailing communities, who worked with Linden Lab to make the place what it is:

The United Sailing Sims was the first community [Linden Lab] approached. They informed him that while the United Sailing Sims was indeed a growing community of ten region owners in the SL Sailing community that it was only one part of the larger sailing community. Nevertheless, he said, the USS was the organization that LL had identified as a well run community that seemed to fit LL’s criteria of the kind of organization they wanted to work with. So for a period of several months the ten owners of the USS and LL negotiated what eventually became the Blake Sea Community Partnership. One key component of the deal that was reached was that LL would donate a series of Linden water sims that would join the mainland on one end while joining the USS regions on the other end.

More on that history here, and on the official Wiki page. You can get a free sailboat with realistic physics at one of the docks (that's me about to leap in), and start exploring on your own. Just don't crash into any passing ship during the many races, which operate on official RL sailing rules.

If you're visiting Black Sea through SL Go or a third party viewer, copy and paste this link into the viewer's address bar to start exploring:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Blake%20Sea%20-%20Half%20Hitch/120/136/22

Here's some more advice from NWN reader Kim Anubis:

[C]heck out the new Blake Passage area -- Walla Walla is a good place to start. If you don't have a boat, you can pick up a nice free one at the Spyglass region or just about any marina. Sail to Walla Walla, or TP and use a free rental kayak. From there, travel the Columbia River Gorge (watch out for the automated ferry boat), and shoot the rapids at the river mouth. Then sail northeast to Juneau, where you will find an airport, marina, and train. The train makes a stop a little further north, in Skagway, where they are just now installing a zip line ride. The New England sims are pretty sailing, too -- I recommend Land's End at sunset, and Bear Skin Neck at night. New England residents have decorated for autumn, so it's a good time to visit. Stop at the bakery in Marblehead for hot cocoa while you're there. There are countless cool things to see and do around the Blake Sea, and the sailing and flying communities are wonderful. Stand-alone regions are great for a lot of purposes, but I like living in a world.

When you see Blake Sea, you may say that too.

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Comments

[Amanda Dallin]

Don't forget the Blake Deeps with historical pirate ship battles on the surface and mers under the water. You can see a map of the area at the Puerto Diego Courtyard.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blake%20Diego/208/53/37

There is also a schedule of ship battles and other events posted on a calendar.

[Jose Squeegee]

Blake Sea, Sailor Cove Sims and other growing regions to the East of Nautilus Continent have a big advantage: they are private sims with a lot of regulations and are also connected to Mainland through water sims, so this is perfect for sailing an flying because you can access three continents from Blake Sea region. There is beautiful places to discover and activities to do, like sailing, flying, scuba diving, skydiving and many more. We run a virtual airline called Avatair, and we offer free charter flights and paid tours at low rates around all these regions. Feel free to visit our website: avatair.com

[2014]

very dated sim.

[zz bottom]

We can only say that the Blake Sea is probably one of the best places to live and or visit but there are also lovely private stand alone regions that are made for sailing as well (North Atlantic and Mar Lesbiana for example).
Still the unique connection that the blake sea has with mainland continents (you can acess Satori, Nautilius, Corsica and luckly Gaheta without a single teleport) makes it a perfect place to understand and realize that Sl is much more then a live chat room.

[Pussycat Catnap]

One big advantage Blake Sea has it is actually have a mainland covenant.

Many people don't know this.

But it is written into the SL rules that 'RL sailing rights of way' apply in a sort of way in Blake Sea.

Sailors have right of way over powerboats, who have right of way over other water vessels, who have right of way over airborne vessels.

There's then some complex stuff about which sailor has right of way in an encounter - based on the rules for this in RL, somewhat, or if someone is alone or in an organized racing event that was posted on the official calendars.

You can be asked to 'get out of the way' of a sailing group there. And I've read that there are even a few residents with the power to toss powerboats, airplanes, and misbehaving sailors out of the way.

And that works to the benefit of the regions purpose: sailing in SL.

Blake Sea has historically erupted into drama fights a number of times when groups have moved in and refused to obey its covenant, trying to enforce the normal mainland covenant instead.

[zz bottom]

Any just needs to read the link on the post:
http://blakesea.blogspot.de/p/history-of-blake-sea.html
And for sure the best way to know the blake sea is just to visit it, there are weekly cruises done by more then 4 cruising groups that will make one understand why its priceless, the blake sea.

[zz bottom]

I dare any t join Leeward Cruising, le bar est la marina, rainbow sailors or topless sailors groups, just to mention the ones i know.
All them are free to join, all them organize weekly cruise , some twice a week, and in all the goal is to sail or on same even to use a power boat, across the mainland waters and the blake sea.
And not only using ll waters, there is at least a group that deals with flying tours, where one can join just to be a passenger on a modern plane and just fly over.

[zz bottom]

But all just leads to one thing = Mainland and / or the blake sea are unique on virtual worlds and the major advantage of Linden lab when compared to open sim grids.
But with var regions a reality and crossing from one to another with a vehicle without being attached to the avatar, with bullets physics in place, with more and more vehicle scripts showing every day, that advantage can disappear sooner, just think of having a region that is the same as 100 sl sims and not only one but several of those, connected.
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2014/10/next-reality-merges-with-aviworlds/

[Takara Izumi]

I am a brand new sailor and LOVE the Blake Sea. I have several friends who rent in the USS and, from what I even see on the world map, many of the rental properties are - well - rented. No idea what this Orca person is talking about, but he/she is completely wrong.

I love participating in cruises or just sailing from port to port. Everyone there has been friendly and welcoming. I've made new friends and really feel the sense of community. And griefing? Other than the occasional new gamer who thinks it's fun to revive tactics from 2006, I see very little griefing there.

I've successfully sailed from Satori, through the USS, north through Blake Passage, back out into mainland waters, through Seychelles Isles, and all the way to Ennis, a region in Corsica, with no problems. How cool is that?

I completely recommend all budding sailors or aviators to visit the Blake Sea. And if certain people don't visit the Blake because of some bitter issue, that's okay - more room for those of us who want to have fun.

[MG Canonmill]

Takara, Enjoy sailing the Blake area and the surrounding sims. It's a wonderful place to sail and explore. Listen to those that really want to help and ignore the ones that have the need to throw their 7 years worth of experience in your face. They do a wonderful job of patting themselves on the back and with snide remarks towards new people. The important thing is to go out and sail. Learn and explore all that Second Life has to offer. Make it YOUR Second Life experience.

[MarkTwain White]

Well said MG

[zz bottom]

Takara, you remind me how i felt when, after a few years with lots of issues that would never le me cross more then 4 sims before crashing and never allow me visit mainland.
That even led me to leave sl for a few months and join the open sim community at OSg.
But as i figured (do not laugh, the biggest issue for not crossing sims was using a bandwidth larger then 1500kb) and tried for the 1st time to explore mainland and found about the Blake Sea i felt like in a new world, even if i was already for more then a year on Sl.
And i still remember like today, the trip i made from our small island at honnah lee ne to our house in Corsica, by seaplane, with a lovely flight till i found the security orbs and banlines on Nautilius and Corsica and how we managed to avoid those by using a ban line hud (called the explorer hud and sold only at bay city:)) and ended without a single crash (me and my soul mate).
This was in june 2011 and from that moment we knew that we had to have at least a home in each mainland continent and luckly not only that but now 2 at diff spots off the Blake sea.
And we did a lot more trips around mainland, but the 1st time i fly solo and manged to do it, that i'll never forget.
And just for the fact that sec orbs and ban lines is some we don't need to worry at the Blake Sea makes me wish that all mainland residents at least for once, do the same, to realize how useless those are and how much pain they cause for many to enjoy fully some that is quite unique to Sl, to travel without teleport.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Its fairly easy to avoid deletion here. You will see some of us argue with each other a lot - and don't get deleted.

Just avoid anything with swear words, ad hominem (attacks), or intentional meanness. Be polite, debate the points and not the people - and things survive here.

I've almost always had a pleasant experience on the Blake Sea. My only frustration with it is a universal one: finding a spot of land on it.

I actually had 'nearby Blake' for a few years and didn't use it enough so sold my roughly 1500m of 3x-protected water land there for about 15000L...
(My plot was partway down the east coast of the continent south of Blake Sea - a coast that can be blocked by one owner 6 sims up from me... and at one point... that owner did just that and put up a freebie mall on the water blocking all of us).

There's an infohub in the water east of the Nautilus "Atlantis" island - and two of the docks on that infohub can be used to rez boats.

I've both sailed and driven Blake Sea - I once started on that island in a rough-scripted mesh car (the kind that tends to toss you on sim crossings), and drove at high speed all the way across the Blake Sea without getting tossed. I did it because the car was a demo and the seller's shop was on that island at the time.

I thought Blake Sea had some rules to it - thus my post above.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Blake_Sea_Code_of_Conduct
- Interesting that according to this, those land barons with signs that cover the map are violating the Blake Sea ToS with a promotion not rooted to the ground.

And here's the key part that makes Blake good for boats:

" Vehicle right of Way

While all are welcome, Residents must observe certain rights of way. The purpose of the Blake Sea is to provide an open space for the Residents of Second Life to enjoy sailing, and therefore other vehicle types should allow sailboats to have the right of way."

[Kimi O]

I used to like the Black Sea too, until about my second time sailing in it.Being run over by aircraft carriers, buzzed by aircraft, straying into some precious race every 3 sims and getting yelled at, being chased by pirates....kinda took the fun out of it for me.

I still rez at Spyglass on occasion, but only to go someplace else. Maybe I'm just weird?

[Pussycat Catnap]

(It was a big mistake for me to shed my near Blake Sea water... my interests in SL go back and forth, and after a year of the lot going nearly unused I figured I'd not want it. On the other hand it was a tier breakpoint that saved me $40/US a month by sliding me 1100m under the next point).

There's a few other smaller mainland seas - one that even goes to 80m deep water - and if you are lucky to own one of the very few water lots on that sea, you could have an Octopus's garden... Another plot of land I shouldn't have sold... :)

There is one continent shaped like a 'U' that has an inside sea, and an outside sea... but for some reason the lindens ended the sims at the water's edge at the top of the 'U' so those two seas do no connect. If they did - you'd see that as a seriously hot spot for people looking for places to enjoy sailing.

[Pussycat Catnap]

@Kimi: I remember all those giant boats. Stuff comes and goes just about everywhere. I now own the land that used to be a very annoying 'free XXX' club near me (still surrounded by those, as I live on A land - but the other ones are not annoying).

If the carrier rolls over you today - try again tomorrow.

Apparently there's some drama going on with some sailor people - they might consider keeping that to their own communities, and also being less stressed about it.

[Anjuni Jayaram]

Well, for my part I am glad that 'landbarons' like MTW guarantie that sailing sims stay open for everybody, and are not owned privately by people who create banlines or kick others out with their security systems. This type of co-operation between LindenLab and a few sim owners is exemplary and shows what can be achieved if LL and residents work together. For my part I am not sure if there was a noteworthy sailing community at all without the efforts of Mark Twain White and some others. I am truely grateful for the beauty he and others created and kept open for everybody to enjoy.

[zz bottom]

Could not say it better, Anjuni.
Regarding mainland i can only say, read this:
http://www.virtualworldsailing.com/index.php?/topic/278-protected-land-encroachment-november-9th-2014/
Abuse report is easy to fill and together we all can prevent some that all they want is to speculate on land.
And also go to Sl coast guard HQ (yes they exist and do a terrific job keeping LL waters clean and safe for All) and grab their FREE sec orb (If indeed you feel you need one) with a clear notecard that teaches any how to set it without risking screwing all the rest!

[pepys ponnier]

Lubbers & sailors, let's not forget Eden, the North Sea and the Fruit Islands - some mighty fine sailing to be had in this large group of regions....

I have noticed that sim crossings certainly are better now than they used to be, if one keeps clear from sim corners.

The sailing community is very vibrant and helpful, however as with any community, there can at times be some dissonance but that's because everyone wants the seas to better places.

[Pussycat Catnap]

If you look west of Blake Sea - down the coast of that continent south of Nautilus Island, before if bends down it has a small couple sim bay.

That's a spot with Blake Sea access that I grabbed a spot on... and sailed from there all the way to the Tradewinds Yatch Club on a Loonetta 31 yesterday - without ever using the bwind cheat to change my wind.

Smooth trip, lag free, no issues.

Never took of my AO or my mesh eyes or mesh tail / ears, or mesh clothes.

Had my camera dialed up to about 280m or so.

Oddly my new plot there - a friend got it for me, and said it'd been sitting there at 15,000L right on the protected Blake Sea water for who knows how long...

There are some more similarly low priced lots north of the TYC, but on 'G' land (my plot was on M).