Buying a Boat in Second Life

 

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

John Masefield

 

          Earlier, I’d blogged about grand adventure of mine - a boat trip through the twelve sims of Mieville in honor of their recent sixth anniversary celebrations. 

          You may ask why?

          I will not insult your intelligence with the perfectly logical retort, “Why not?” 

          I do it because it’s there.  It’s never been done before.  And, I figured I could get a few good stories out of it.  (Hey, it ain’t easy coming up with new ideas every week.)

          My loyal friend and Research Assistant (RA), Tera Trenchcoat, who always asks that I add that she’s also unpaid, stepped up and volunteered to come along. 

          A third traveler joined our group when Becca (“Bec”) Kellstrom asked to join us as well.  You may recall Bec as the Real Life (RL) minister who also works with the Second Life (SL) congregation, First UCC.  Bec hopes to see more of SL and learn to sail as we make our way across the Grid.  (Please no wisecracks about the need for bringing a chaplain along.)

          (Significant Other’s eyes roll and I overhear something about Gilligan, Ginger, and Mary Ann.) 

          We have our crew.  I have a complete list of the Mieville sims from Mike Olbracht.  What more do we need?

          Seems we need a boat. A motor boat.  (Sorry, Bec.)

          Tera in her usual efficient way has gone ahead and done a recce.  (I love using that word.  Confuses the Hell out of all my American friends and my British ones ask just exactly how old I am.)  The long and the short of it is that if we try to make this voyage by sail boat as originally planned then we’ll need at least a third life.  Tera’s recommendation is that we get a motor boat.  She doesn’t want to be an OAP and still be doing this.

          Since we don’t have one handy and this was my brainstorm, I’m tasked with acquiring one.  (Tera’s very good at delegating upwards.)

          I should point out that I can neither swim in RL nor have any inclination to do so.  (Significant Other is always amazed by this.) I’m not a beach person and as a matter of course I normally avoid boats.  (Let’s put it this way, the Staten Island Ferry is the biggest boat that I’ve ever been on that wasn’t moored to a dock.) 

          Despite all these shortcomings I’m the one going out to get a boat.  (The film Titanic started out better than this.)

          I tell myself that I can do this.  I’ve done more difficult things in both SL and RL.  (Significant Other’s eyebrow arches here.)  After all, how difficult can this be?

          Our boat needs a few basic features.  First, it should float.  (See?  I’ve got the basics covered.)  It has to be a power boat and it needs to seat three people. This is going to be cake!  (I always find Significant Other’s rolling on the floor laughing rather undignified.)

          My next challenge is where to buy a boat inworld? 

I do a search and come up with two names.  How’d I select these two?  Simple.  They were the first two names in my search results.  I’m ruthless when I’m on a mission.

I TP to the first boat yard.  A place called Best Jet Skis.  I find myself standing in water up to my knees in the harbor.  (I keep getting all these auspicious signals.)  I drag myself up onto land and start looking around.

This place has a lot of toys.  Motorbikes, jet skis, helicopters, planes, and boats!  I’ll spare you the ugly details but I find a beauty.  It’s a zodiac boat with two high powered engines and has plenty of seating capacity.  It’s like what the US Navy SEALs use.  (Mount an M60 on this and I could have some fun!  Better not talk like that around the chaplain, er, I mean Bec.)  She’s sleek with good lines and black like the night.  And fast!  Did I say she’s fast?  I love her!  (What’d you expect?  I’m a guy after all!)

Of course, there are problems.

One problem is that despite supposedly being in the business of selling boats and things, there doesn’t appear to any mechanism to purchase my dream boat.  Further, as I research the builder, it appears that he only does business in French.  While I have a limited control of the French language, I decide not to make American-French relations any worse by attempting to conduct a business transaction.  (Tera’s fluent in French, I do read profiles, but this is my mission and I’m going to complete it myself!)

I move onto my next stop, Roark Marine.  Now, here’s a place that just sells boats.  All sorts of boats!  In fact, they have this really neat pirate ship with working cannons!  I control myself.  (Facing a mutiny and being forced to walk the plank by my crew doesn’t really appeal to me.)

I come across a nice, little three seater runabout.  Won’t be any tighter than three people sitting in the back of a NYC taxi cab.  It’s quick enough. It’s cheap, 450 Lindens. (Significant Other wants to know what happened to SL being a free experience for me.) 

          I’ve made my decision.  We have a motor boat!

          My next problem is to figure out how to get her into the water to cast off.  Then gather up part of the crew and begin our voyage.  Oh, yes, another little difficulty.  I live on the East Coast of the US.  Bec’s somewhere in the Midwest.  Tera’s somewhere Down Under.  So, we’ll make this trip in relays.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to make a few legs of the trip together.

          My next post in this series will be the first leg of our voyage with whomever I can con into starting with me.  I’m not sure how many stories it’ll take but I hope to be finished before the end of the year.

          Wish us luck!

           I’ve included pictures of Tera and Bec along with a few shots of my boat buying expedition. 

          I’d like to thank both Tera and Bec for offering to accompany me on this trip and look forward to traversing Mieville with them!    

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.   

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

 

 

Photo No. 1 Tera Trenchcoat

Photo No. 2 Becca Kellstrom

Photo No. 3 Best Jet Skis Offerings

Photo No. 4 The One for Me!

Photo No. 5 Zodiac Bombard X4 Details

Photo No. 6 Roark Marine Landing Zone

Photo No. 7 Dreams of Being a Pirate!

Photo No. 8 Runabout – The Sensible Choice

Photo No. 9 Roark Marine Offerings