Flying Fizz Follies

I think I’m fairly intelligent. I mean, I can do a lot of things and some of them fairly well. But I’m wondering if I have some kind of mental handicap when it comes to…..sailing. Yes, that “S” word again.

This morning, I decided to rez that cute little Flying Fizz that Karson is so excited about. Oh, he loves his. He sails it all around. He told me it has a beginner mode. All you do is raise the sails and steer! The boat does the rest….it lets the sails in and out…it moves your avatar from one side of the boat to the other to help balance (yes, I know there is a sailing term for that. No, I don’t know what it is.)

So encouraged that THIS will be the boat for me, I blopped my Fizz into the water. (blop, blop, fizz, fizz…yeah, you got it!). Skipper Jeanne got into the boat and raised the sails. Immediately, the boat took off. I turned the rudder to avoid hitting the island as I whizzed past. Did I mention that this is a FAST little sailboat?

There is a compass built right into the boat, so you don’t have to wear a hud. I do like that feature. The compass easy to see and when the indicator turns into the red part…it means no wind and you stop going. Ok, that makes sense.

I was sailing along, when suddenly, the boat took a nosedive. That’s not a good thing. That means, yes, I capsized it. Well, this boat is adorable…when you capsize, your avatar climbs onto the rudder and hangs onto the side of the boat, slowing pulling the boat back down into the water, rightside up. Once that’s done, your avatar, steps back into the boat, the sails are automatically raised and off you go again. Wow, how cool!  Unless you go just a short distance and capsize again, then again, and once again.

Karson came along and joined me and tried to give me some pointers. I did a bit better after that. I was cruising along, turned down into a channel hoping to be able to maneuver through it. Only it wasn’t a channel, it was a dead-end cove. So I brought the boat to a screeching halt, before I ended up on land. I guess I need to learn to read a map at the same time I am trying to control the boat. It’s a lot to do at once! I decided to moor the boat and get out to see if I still had my land legs. As soon as I got off the boat, it was returned to inventory. In a way, I was relieved. Maybe I’ll keep it there for awhile.

Karson decided to go find some professional sailboat racers and try his hand at racing.

As for me, well, maybe I’ll watch from the sidelines while I continue to search my inventory for my neverfail motorboat.



The way it should be done...Karson sailing away.