Laythe circumnavigation by boat [Completed]

[juzeris]

Summary: I'm attempting a Laythe circumnavigation by boat for the Elcano challenge. It promises to be boring. [EDIT: But it wasn't. ]

Part 1-1: Bill and Bob won a free boat trip for three and pick Jeb up from "Fiji". We get a look at the boat, sporting three jet engines, a white structurite hull, six deckchairs and a parasol over a table. I'm using Ferram's BetterBuoyancy, but it can swim in stock hydrodynamics as well, if not as fast.

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Intermission: Here's the planned course for the journey, the red circle is the starting point, the yellow arrow shows direction of travel, all the other arrows are landings.

Map courtesy of www.kerbalmaps.com

Part 1-2: Bill tests the autopilot and the trip reaches the first island.

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Part 1-3: The crew reach the next two islands, Jeb is being Jeb, and a cliffhanger.

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Edited April 12, 2015 by juzeris

[Slam_Jones]

Nice boat! I hope Jeb, Bill, and Bob make it without too much trouble...

[juzeris]

Part 2-1: Continuing our story, a likely rescue from orbit appears to save the explorers in distress.

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For this mission, I'm considering hyperediting supplies into a 100x100 equatorial orbit fair game (did enough trips to Laythe), and then proceed to land them manually. I'm always imagining Worms sounds when I do it - a crate teleports in high up in the air and then parachutes down to the surface.

Intermission: Meanwhile in orbit - a test of the fuel pod system goes... well... mostly in the same direction as the plan.

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Part 2-2: The travellers leave the fourth island with their pockets full of flags, however night will soon fall and the fuel pod needs to be found somewhere in the ocean.

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Part 2-3: Continuing the journey with fuel tanks, the crew are crossing a long empty stretch, when, well, come and see!

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The incident, or "Kraken Strike" actually occurred when I quicksaved with Jeb on the parasol, before testing if Jeb can float on the water. He couldn't, and upon loading, the parasol, and Jeb, decided to proceed downward energetically. Jeb, as the selected Kerbal, floated up, while the other two sunk like rocks, which, as I understand, is a known BetterBuoyancy issue.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Uh oh. I hope you can fix this.

Also, why Bob's always in a space suit?

[juzeris]

Well, I suppose Bob is always with a suit because he knows things like that boat explosion happen. Also, maybe slightly because the atmosphere of Laythe is toxic. He also likes his new reflective visor.

I hope I can fix this too.

Part 3-1: New boat!

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I really couldn't think of another way to get Bill and Bob from the 2.5km depth, leaving them there did not feel right. So I used hyperedit to get them into orbit. Jeb is officially the only one who properly completed the circumnavigation.

Part 3-2: Reaching the next island. Really nothing special happens.

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Intermission: Jeb grabs the wheel. It quickly ended without a major incident.

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Part 3-3: Crossing the inner sea - engine problems, another refueling and looking for that island in the dark.

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Part 3-4: The final stretch and Bob almost gets left behind (also one last refueling). Completed the circumnavigation!

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Circumnavigation complete! It was a lot more fun that I expected, with lots of stuff happening on the way. Also crossing the seas at 130 m/s is not that slow at all.

[Not-A-Rocket-Scientist]

Hey, just a question, how much dV did you use total?

Edited August 1, 2015 by Not-A-Rocket-Scientist