On my 166th day of flying The Great Balloon Adventure, I completed my tour of Blake Sea & Island Communities and began my tour of the continent of Nautilus on the following day.
If there was ever a stage in my tour of all of Second Life's continents and regions that I wished could have lasted longer, this would have been it. I blew through the region in only 13 days and wished it could have taken twice as long. Forget having a schedule! This is the kind of region that makes you want to linger. It had the most beautiful views of any region I had flown through and suspect no other future continent will even be able to come close matching it for sheer beauty and ease of transport.
Oh, and did I mention ease? Despite sim border crossing complications that sometimes leave boats lagging, jerking, or worst of all FLYING out of control across them, I had almost no perceptible complications in the balloon. I'd noticed a minor lag bump here and there, but beyond that no issues to report. And best of all, in my 13 days of flying in the region I only had four flight disruptions—FOUR! That's surely a mark that will be difficult to beat for the remaining continents.
I finished my tour of Blake Sea & Island communities on the sixth day of my 24th week. The seventh day marked my first day of flying in the Nautilus continent. The BSIC highlights were modest in comparison to some continents, but none with as much impact or suspenseful drama as news that the New England Village properties teetered on the verge of collapsing back into the Linden off grid sea due to a multiple-month lapse in tier payments being paid by the region owner for reasons unknown by most residents—even those directly affected by the turn of events.
The situation, a potential resolution, and the risk of being reclaimed by the sea continues at the time of this writing, but there are signs that some form or level of support by both new and former resident and commercial supporters may keep the properties afloat—at least temporarily. As is often the case, the Lindens are either non-responsive to inquiries, or non-commital to guarantee any future actions or agreements. So stay tuned as the drama over New England Village continues to unfold in weeks—maybe even months—ahead.
The New England Village sims are comprised of: Sag Harbor, Mystic, Nantucket, New England, Block Island and Boston Light. Boston Light is the only link through which people can navigate to get to these sims, as well as the other multiple New England Island sims. Without Boston Light, this segment of the region would be cut off from the mainland.
So while that big news plays out, please enjoy more of my highlights from Week 24 of The Great Balloon Adventure:
> Mar Menor: On Christmas Day, I performed a series of daredevil stunt ballooning by flying under the great stone aqueduct overpasses three times! I had the pleasure of flying with my co-pilot, MsPaddles Ninetails (aka Jackie) while the talented videographer, Roberto Highfield, recorded the effort. Due to technical difficulties, Rob missed the first successful series, so I went back and did it again. Rob managed to save some usable film to produce a short video which can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31969140@N06/5317183714/. My thanks to Rob for all his selfless efforts and hard work! And oh, the third time I performed the stunt was immediately after Jackie and Rob left. I picked up another passenger who I told I had just completed the stunt, and so to show how it went, I did it again rather than explain the entire thing with only my words. =)
> Jeremy Point, Billingsgate: I arrived here at one of my all-time favourite locations to relax and take pictures of the beauty of the natural environment. Billingsgate, along with the adjoining Lands End and Point of Pines are home to my friend, Sudane Erato. I always love to stop by whenever I'm in the area, and by calling in advance to receive her blessing to enter her home, I'm always happy to sit at her kitchen table to sample her latest sumptuous roast pork meal. Like almost all properties in New England, the sims are open to travelers, but if you plan to stop by Sudane's home, please do the courteous thing to get permission to enter her home in advance...and don't forget to knock the sand (or snow, in my case this time) off your shoes before you enter!
> Boston Light: A whale breeched right next to the balloon basket and sprayed me and my passenger, Maysha Xenga, as I skimmed near the surface of the water where a statue of a mermaid marked the location where humans could come sit to wait and hopefully meet mer-people as they surfaced from the depths of the sea.
> Nantucket Village: As described earlier above, but also because the village is full of all kinds of little shops for retail products or services. There's even a place to get information about the Galaxy luxury cruise ship, and a dock where a free-to-use pedal boat awaits guests. You can actually pedal the boat as far away as six sims...maybe more!
> Santa Rosa: "Tugby" league match play. Got a tug boat? Like to play rugby? Put the two together, and you could play Tugby! Teams chase a big container of coal around the watery field much in the way rugby or field hockey is played. Looked like a lot of fun to me, so if you got a spare tug boat in your garage maybe you'll like to put that work boat of yours to do some real work!
> Holly Kai Three: Here you will find the Bettie Page Island—a clothing-optional island just east of Hollywood Airport. I wondered how many accidents have been caused by boat and airplane pilots not paying attention to where they were going because they were distracted by naked beach goers there!
> Blake Sea Crows Nest: Blake Sea's iconic lighthouse resides here. It is a natural focal and turning point for traffic. If you want to see something exciting happen in Blake Sea, this is one of the best places to go.
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