The other week my friend Pepys wanted to cheer me up a bit and said he would take me out for the evening.
Well, that got me all excited of course, not being used to that often, so when he told me to be ready at 11AM ..I was!
All dressed up pretty and looking forward to it;  I got a new dress and shoes, and then on the night of the ‘date’ I got an IM in which he said: ‘I am going to send you stuff, just wear it for me please? ‘ Oooh…my!

He gave me a wetsuit, a GPS HUD and a Crew HUD and told me to get ready asap for a cruise on his catamaran, with the Topless Sailors. Yeah, I hear you thinking: topless, wetsuit?! I thought so too!

Anyway, I switched from the lovely gown and shoes into a tight (but mesh!) wetsuit, attached the HUD’s although I had NO clue what to do with them and before I knew it I got a teleport offer and off I went.

I landed on Pepys’ Catamaran and he told me we had an hour before the cruise would start, so that would give him enough time to instruct me on how to use the GPS and Crew HUD.

OMG. He clearly had no idea that it is seriously dangerous to let me operate any kind of vehicle in SL that requires HUD’s and skills? Ha ha ha. He persisted though, so I listened and we practiced. And I think I kind of understood what was expected from me, as a crew-member. And also, I looked good in the wetsuit, but that aside. At noon SLT the cruise started, and by that time many boats of all sorts had gathered around us and lots of cheerful chats were going on in the groupchat which I had to join, The Topless Sailors.

This group does not own land or water sims, but the Sailing Directors (Deni & Laycee, Gipsy & Lucka and Elva) set out a cruise every week and provide the members with a GPS HUD, a texture with the route on the worldmap for those not using the HUD and at the end of the cruise (it is NOT a race, it is a real relaxed tour) which should take about an hour, there is a party with DJ at some place someone has made available. Also, during the cruise there is a livestream online by a DJ providing the music and he even takes requests! Every week another route, a new HUD and a new party place.

What a wonderful and generous concept, as membership is free!  

Yes, you are supposed to be topless, but if you don’t want to…you can wear a top. Or, in our case due to the type of boat, we wore wetsuits. The cruises take up about an hour, and are all about having fun and exploring the seas and oceans of Second Life and it is so cool!

I am unsure if I will be able to sail a catamaran, even as crew it was tricky enough, but I’ve had so much fun and met some really nice people on the way. Yes, we lost the boat a few times on nasty simborders and due to some banlines, but that is all part of SL and no reason to not try this out.

Many thanks to Pepys for taking me out and introducing me to this wonderful group and also many thanks to the Sailing Directors and members, who put so much effort in organising this sheer fun!

You can find the link to the Topless Sailors group in my inworld profile under groups!