Kanil

I took my basic little plane thing and stuck another engine on it. I even gave it a name, too. The SeaDart! Part count is up to 9. Reaction wheel and stabilizing fin probably still optional.

Er, the command module is perfectly visible? It's an Octo 2, the grey ring in between the fuel tank and the intake...

A quick and dirty entry. Single Juno, 6 parts total. You could probably break 700m/s with it, but it flies terribly with a full fuel tank and isn't as fast without, so I'll leave that for someone else. You could probably also fly it with 5 parts, but I'm not nearly a competent enough pilot to take off the vertical stabilizer.

No worries. I took inspiration from Fengist's craft, pleased to see someone taking inspiration from mine. Just keep in mind, the more you stick underwater, the harder your engines have to work, the more fuel they have to consume -- having submerged rover wheels nearly tripled fuel consumption, which is why I switched to landing gear. I'm still working on my mission, despite my inactivity, I still plan on finishing it. The bugs are a bit discouraging at times, though -- some surfaces cause the craft to accelerate for no apparent reason, typically resulting in a crash and quickload.

I pondered doing Laythe but decided to do Kerbin on a water route instead. I think Laythe is probably going to be a pretty boring trip, as it's mostly open water, and the few islands Laythe does have aren't especially interesting. On the bright side, it'd probably be one of the fastest trips, as it's mostly full throttle across oceans and the distance is the shortest of all the aquatic worlds.

I've completed the second leg of my journey. My ship's proving reliable enough that finishing it should be just a matter of time. Clicky.

I believe the intakes have a crash tolerance of 100m/s, so that's the limit on this design. The E/F/G models can do 190, but that's really just because their engines won't push them any faster in the thick atmosphere. Things on water behave odd and only check for collision when they enter/exit the water, so keeping your intakes underwater the entire time allows them to float your craft without destroying them at any speed. However once you time warp, you occasionally get physics hiccups where they breach the surface and are instantly destroyed... with the rest of your craft shortly following. Still haven't figured out a way around that, although I have some ideas (but they'd make refueling a lot harder than it already is.) Edit: -- I found this informative when designing the craft. It's a little dated, but explains how to avoid horrible death well enough.

Here's my attempt at a mostly water based circumnavigation of Kerbin! Leg One: Leg Two:

I've been tinkering with a Laythe circumnavigator after reading about your Eve mission, and I'll probably give this a go once I get all the little bugs worked out. Design would work fine on Kerbin too, perhaps I should start there?

Can someone offer a more detailed explanation as to where exactly the highest peak is? I've located one that's 6764 meters, and I really don't see any that are higher than that within walking range. I sadly can't explore beyond walking range for... reasons... but in my next attempt, I'd like to aim towards the correct point.

I gave this an attempt, figured I'd just point my rocket directly at the VAB, fire, and see what happens. Turns out, if you hit the VAB at 1,500m/s, you don't actually hit it -- you just glide right through. Rocket had slowed all the way down to 200m/s by the time it actually hit the ground, and that wasn't even enough to destroy it. Guess it needs more work...

Are short jumps acceptable? The course has some steep drops, and a few ramps in it... Edit: Well, I went ahead and attempted it. Here's my first complete run.

This is awesome. Everything just looks nicer with color.

Mainsails you say?

Just completed the short course in 3:32, using a stock craft. Eventually time accelerated until noon, hence the odd starting flight time of nearly an hour. Lots of fun, but really hard. The long course looks daunting!