On one of the stormest days on record in Second Life the Passages Course and Passages Pub were launched. In a near melt down day for the grid over two dozen people gathered at the new Passages Course and Pub to learn from MarkTwain White how the new system works.

Four beautiful pre-release Tradewind square-masters lined the docks for the event. Three of them participated in the practice start that was part of the activities. Photo courtesy of Nber Medici.
 
 
 

After introductory comments from MarkTwain White (included below) a special appearance was made by Passsages Course designer Aubrey Trafalgar. Trafalgar is a hard man to reach and his appearance in SL for this event was a treat.

Following the opening ceremonies a practice start was demonstarted. The foul SL weather played a role in the event. Jane Fossett was least impacted and prevailed in the short demo start.

Only an hour or so after the event seven sims around Hollywood came down for the supposed ip address change over. For more than two hours Hollywood looked like it did a long time ago. a single sim in an unbroken horizon. Hopefully the SL weather of the day will not be the norm.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IF I MAY HAVE YOU ATTENTION PLEASE…
Welcome to the United Sailing Sims of SL and the new Passages Pub here at SYC….
Today and tomorrow mark the beginning of a new type of sailing activity in SL….
With the establishment of the Passages Contests and the release of the Tradewind brig….
(scheduled for release just south of here at Jacqueline’s Isla de Jacqinda tomorrow)….
we will be introducing a kind of competative sailing that is quite different than what…
we are accustomed to. The Passages Contests in square rigged ships will simulate what…
sea captains have had to do for hundreds of years as they plied the oceans of the world….
A contest of this type would be more akin to a race between clipper ships between New York…
and San Franciso to be the first there to unload cargo at a better price. Or akin to the…
“race” between ships of the Napoleonic era as one ship trys to overtake another. Think of…
the movie “Master and Commander”. When sailing your Tradewind brig in Passages you…
will feel like Captain Jack Aubrey as he in turn tries to outrun and subsequently overtake…
an enemy ship. In these Passages Contests you will be “racing” with incredible slow vessels…
at times you will want to pound your keyboard wanting to get these boats to “speed up damn it”….
because your whole basis for experiencing speed has been colored by Takos and Fizzes…
you will constantly be tempted to pinch a bit closer to the wind because you could do so..
in your Takos and Fizzes and other big boats. Thats about to change. And for some of you,..
it won’t work. And thats ok. Sailing square rigged vessels will not prove to be everyone’s…
cup of tea. But for those of us that really want to feel like what it does to sail one of these…
magnificient vessels in the manner that a Jack Aubrey, or a Horatio Hornblower, or a first class…
merchant captain would have, you are in for a treat….
Today we introduce the Passages Contests and the Passages Pub to you. Tomorrow we will…
witness the formal launching of the Tradewind in Jaqueline’s sim. Next week we will learn how…
to sail the Passages Course, and on Saturday March 1 at 9am we will hold the inagural…
PASSAGES CONTEST right here at the Passages Startline….
Now for those of you that don’t plan to buy a Tradewind but are still interested in racing your…
other big boats, there will be opportunities. We will announce big boat Passages races as soon..
as we have gatered a cadre of voluteer race directors for other big boat classes. So stay tuned…
So lets begin by doing two things. First I would like you all to meet the man who has designed the…
Passages Contest and who will be working closely with me to run the events. He is a busy man in…
RL and cannot be with us on a regular basis, but will visit when he can. But before I introduce him…
let me share that our second activity today will be to do a practice start of the Passages Course….
Jane Fosset and Oliphant Ming will take the boat one and two postions as outlined in the rules…
which  you can get in the Rules and Regs sign on the west side of the Pub. We will assign other boats..
to other postions as you volunteer (suggest the other boats be Larindas). Ok so now…
without futher audieu let me introduct to you The Admiral of the Blue Fleet, Aubrey Trafalgar….
lets give him a warm welcome. CLAP, CLAP, CLAP.