The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (Continued)

[timmers_uk]

Okay ...

Well it was a struggle at times. We had smiles. We had tears. We had Bill collecting Jeb's toenail clippings and refusing to leave the vehicle for several weeks, but I have completed by first Elcano challenge, that of the maritime crossing of Kerbin.

The craft I used was my fifth iteration on an amphibious self-sufficient Stock compatible design (I'll go back to the rules and recheck the exact name - I have a couple of mods loaded but the craft works fine totally stock). My shakedown trip out to the island and back went so well we struck out straight away on our Elcano challenge attempt (which is unfortunately the reason I have no screenshot of the departure - hopefully it doesn't mean we have to do it all again).

Things went well until coming up to stop #4, where overconfidence on fuel requirements to reach land left me out of fuel and drifting on the open seas. This was the point to bring out my support plane to drop a refuelling drone - something I'd expected to use at some point, and tested in waters local to KSC. Turns out I succeeded there more by luck than judgement, but eventually, after many aborted attempts (and the odd F9), we were refuelled and off again.

 

I had hoped to recover my refuelling drone back on land and bring it back to KSC in my now landed support plane ... but ... nope

 

My intrepid crew used this fuel to get to land, passing the unfortunate ex-care package on their way, and rendezvoused with the support plane before making their way on.

 

From there we made good time, pausing only to refuelling (leaving margin this time, and avoiding unbroken sea crossings, up towards the land bridge and our single major portage.

At some point during this stage, we broke 2 of the heatsink and 2 solar panels. I think it may have been a 'sporty' departure, but I can't honestly remember how it happened now. It was definitely my own stupid fault though.

 

During the portage, I found that whilst beautifully stable as a boat, and relatively speedy (50-70m/s depending on fuel state), on land, the vehicle was ... sketchy, with a distinct tendency to take random left + right turns. 1/10 would not buy again!

 

Still, by keeping speeds to about 30m/s, and watching my heading like a hawk (rover guidance was no use at all here), we made it across the land, and had some really nice views along the way (though we took a lot longer to make it across the land bridge).

 

A swift trip down the coat took Jeb + Bill back to the equator from here.

And as this was uneventful, the decision was made to take a detour down to the south polar ice flows - partially to ensure we went equally as far south as we had north, and also as this part of Kerbin is somewhere we'd rarely visited, and never travelled to before by land.

 

It was at this time that we had a wee accident as the craft doesn't exactly slow down quickly on water, and turns kindof like an oil tanker. Still. We only lost 1 headlamp, and learned something new ... the south polar ice flow is ringed with blooming enormous cliffs.

It was as a result of this that we had to perform our second aid mission, as the plan had been to beach and refuel, and in the absence of any way to get up a huge cliff, we were stuck.

As the first refuelling mission had gone so well (not) the decision was made to send an autonomous suborbital drone to refuel, rather than the whole cargo plane + airdrop approach. This went mostly well, however the landing left the drone with no engines (oops). This wasn't the end of the world, as we'd added Vernors as manoeuvring thrusters this time around, to avoid the failings of our last care package, which could make a glorious 0.2m/s across the water.

It easily refuelled Elcano 5, with plenty left over, but lacking main propulsion, was left as a memorial to our folly (and took the place of the flag we couldn't plant).

From there we zipped back north to avoid exploiting our southern latitude, and continued our voyage.

 

It was refuelling back at the equatorial coast where things began to fall apart between Jeb and Bill. Who knows why. Maybe the paddling pool had been a mistake.

 

...

 

To be continued. I shall finish the chronicle of the voyage later tonight.

 

Full voyage at (http://imgur.com/a/6eHPD)

 

 

Continued in part 2

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by timmers_uk
continued in part 2, and aaghhh formatting

[Alchemist]

24 minutes ago, Martian Emigrant said:

On the subject of wheels refusing to be fixed. I found that doing a quicksave followed by a reload makes them fixable again. There seem to be a problem with what you see and what the program think of the wheel. Reloading the game puts everything back where they should be.....Broken that is. Problem with that is that sometime you would rather go back to an earlier state and not save right there and then

The problem I often faced with the black wheels is them getting instantly broken again when fixed while touching the ground. Or getting broken on load. Of course, this can fixed if you have deployable gear/legs installed for some reason, but extremely annoying if you can't do this

With wider suspension range, and smaller collider when damaged, the yellow wheels are less likely to start seriously losing grip on half the wheels or overloading separate wheels into damage on slightly uneven terrain, and even if something pops it won't drag the broken wheel on the surface. Of course with less power and grip you'll have to pack more wheels to climb something steep

[timmers_uk]

Kerbin Maritime Elcano Part 2 ...

Previously, in Elcano...

 

 

From here on, Jeb just had to make do with planting in his own flags.

 

This turn was a pity as this leg of the trip featured some of the nicest scenery.

It was also around this time that we also lost a further heatsink (not needed), and solar panel (needed), and started suffering gremlins in the landing gear whilst refuelling, where even (because?) the brakes were applied, the vessel had about 0.3m/s forward + rotating movement. Hence from here the final refuelling stops were performed resting on the cargo bay doors.

 

Further evidence that the PR department should be fired was found in the post-mission analysis when it transpired that Historian settings had not saved correctly, and images were not showing the oh-so-worthwhile comments written on the flags Jeb was now planting on his own.

 

One final fuel stop about 100km from KSC and they were off on their final leg of the journey, which needed to end at The Island Runway as that was where the first flag had been planted.

 

And so the historic arrival back at stop #1, 36 days after Jeb + Bill had set out from KSC.If only Bill would come out of the cab. We still don't know who knocked over the stop #1 flag. 

 

And so for the epilogue, and Elcano 5's final journey back to KSC, where we see the Engineering Test Article, used in testing of the Care Package refuelling drones. Its just like Elcano 5, only less broken, and ... cleaner ... inside.

 

The journey created quite a ring of flags around Kerbin. Plus a fair bit of debris.

 

Bill and Jeb will now be taking a well earned rest. As for Elcano 5. Well that didn't end so well. It *almost* made it onto the KSC runway... but that final incline was taken a wee bit too carelessly, and ... well.. yeah. Oops

 

If you've read this far. Thanks for reading. Not sure what I'll do next, but this has been a nice challenge and a change from career, so I suspect I'll certainly be hitting up another Elcano challenge soon - perhaps Laythe and the master mariner award?

.

Full voyage at (http://imgur.com/a/6eHPD)

 

[Maverick_aus]

@timmers_uk Good job! I enjoyed your posts. And I'm so glad to see Bill was in the cabin all along. After this shot http://imgur.com/SJMfAsI (sorry, mobile phone), I thought Jeb had gotten sick of him and left alone! 

I'm exactly half way around, myself, having all sorts of adventures along the way. (Link in my sig if interested). 

One thing you could think about doing, if you're not totally sick of the challenge yet, which lots of us do during and/or at the end, is a map (eg kerbalmaps) with the route marked on. I was trying to visualise from your storytelling and your in game M map but would be good to see the detail. 

Ps: oh and bad luck about Historian not showing your commentary! 

 

Edited August 29, 2016 by Maverick_aus

[Claw]

On 8/27/2016 at 10:06 AM, Martian Emigrant said:

Here is the link for the gorge crossing my team did a little earlier.

Nice driving! From looking at it, I wouldn't have guessed that rover to be so stout. Looks like it survived quite well.

 

 

15 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Alright - it's fully complete

Nice! I've added your completion to the front page. Confirm it's all stock rover?

[Claw]

11 hours ago, timmers_uk said:

Kerbin Maritime Elcano Part 2

Nice job! I've also added you to the front page.

Do you have a name for that ship (maybe I missed it - Elcano 5?)? Looks pretty neat, like a fish out of water.

[Martian Emigrant]

On 2016-08-28 at 3:16 AM, W. Kerman said:

I officially hate boats, all of mine seem to spin out or break apart or... Well you get the idea. I would like to just go to north pole from the KSC, then go to where the Turkey-like desert and the Africa shaped landmass are closest*, and then head to the KSC again. Would this be an Elcano?

 

*Does anyone know how far apart they are? I estimated 26 km.

Well the choice seem to be a boat that can ride on land or a truck (Rover) that can push itself on water.

Not sure if you are asking the for the distance between the desert continent and the KSC continent.

Using http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

The distance seem to be about 20km.

A little closer than crossing from the KSC to the old airport island.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[Claw]

On 8/27/2016 at 9:16 PM, W. Kerman said:

I officially hate boats, all of mine seem to spin out or break apart or... Well you get the idea. I would like to just go to north pole from the KSC, then go to where the Turkey-like desert and the Africa shaped landmass are closest*, and then head to the KSC again. Would this be an Elcano?

Yes, polar routes are perfectly acceptable as well. For a mainly land route (or water route for that matter), there is no prescribed path. So as long as you manage to reach very close to both poles, it should be good.

And no worries about boats. You aren't required to make a boat, but the rover will likely need to be capable of motoring across some water. Might be easier to head south, crossing the water first. Then your rover can have some external fuel tanks or something to help it assist with the crossing.

[Claw]

@W. Kerman I also meant to mention... In my opinion, part of the intresting thing about this challenge is the shere variety of ways you can complete it, and also at how it can really push you to do something you might not have done otherwise.

I probably would have never built a boat either had it not been for this challenge. I don't think any of my boat designs were very boat-like, but it was fun building and testing them out. I also would have never sent a massive mothership to Jool (or do the Jool-5 challenge) if I hadn't been doing this challenge.

And while I'm not saying you should build a boat, or that you should do the challenge in a certain way, I am saying that this challenge is intentionally one that pushes the game and the player in new directions, and has a fairly unique way of doing it. However you decide to tackle it, have fun getting there.

Cheers,
-Claw

[Alchemist]

10 hours ago, Claw said:

Nice! I've added your completion to the front page. Confirm it's all stock rover?

Apart from a kOS processor slapped on (and it was actually used just to measure distances, so for mission purposes it's about as good as if it wasn't there), it's completely stock and piloted fully manually. (Heh, I've read the rules on mods by the time I was in the middle of the second ocean, otherwise might have not taken the part at all. And I just got the habit of taking a kOS core with me for any cases it may turn useful, even without using autopilots)

I wasn't initially sure what kind of cruise control this kind of craft would require, but it turned out quite good on manual controls (just need to properly adjust hydrofoil deflection or it will end belly up). Although at some fuel levels it tends to yaw terribly (must be some interference of pitch and roll oscillations), so that I had to adjust yaw trim regularly.

[timmers_uk]

12 hours ago, Claw said:

Nice job! I've also added you to the front page.

Do you have a name for that ship (maybe I missed it - Elcano 5?)? Looks pretty neat, like a fish out of water.

Elcano 5 officially. Unofficially, the Bananaboat.

Still can't believe I didn't check the screenshots till after, only to find none of the flag plaques were showing. Live and learn. Designs have begun on my next gen craft, which needs to be transportable, which the bananaboat definitely isn't. 

Edited August 29, 2016 by timmers_uk
sp

[W. Kerman]

Man, my rovers always flip or something. Does anyone know how to build kerbin stable rovers?

[Claw]

Just now, W. Kerman said:

Man, my rovers always flip or something. Does anyone know how to build kerbin stable rovers?

Flip in what manner? Typically, flipping for rovers is associated with the fact that WASDQE controls both the wheels (forward/backward, left/right steering) as well as Torque controls like for a rocket (pitch, roll, yaw). What often happens is that you mean to turn left/right, but you also induce a torque which can cause the rover to flip. In my case, I have split the rover wheel controls (WASD) from the torque controls (moved to the numeric keypad). That way I can independently control steering and torque, to make torque-aided recoveries (i.e. prevent flipping) while driving.

Beyond that, we would need some pictures to give more specific feedback for your particular rover.

9 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Apart from a kOS processor slapped on

Hmm, okay. Well, I think this technically puts you into the modded craft category. In either case, it is still a really, really nice run.

 

7 hours ago, timmers_uk said:

Elcano 5 officially. Unofficially, the Bananaboat.

Bananaboat it is! And no worries about missing the flag screenshots. I'm looking forward to your next adventure.

[Koolkei]

well i've been working on this for a few weeks..... but only 2-3 days of it is i'm actually playing the game for a few hours.

this is part 1. done with the spitfire mod. also. done on career mode. because why not?

http://imgur.com/a/4LDpW

[damerell]

10 hours ago, Claw said:

Flip in what manner? Typically, flipping for rovers is associated with the fact that WASDQE controls both the wheels (forward/backward, left/right steering) as well as Torque controls like for a rocket (pitch, roll, yaw). What often happens is that you mean to turn left/right, but you also induce a torque which can cause the rover to flip. In my case, I have split the rover wheel controls (WASD) from the torque controls (moved to the numeric keypad).

Beyond this, MechJeb's Rover Stability Control is a boon, although it burns up electriccharge like nobody's business.

[timmers_uk]

On 29/08/2016 at 2:54 AM, Maverick_aus said:

@timmers_uk Good job! I enjoyed your posts. And I'm so glad to see Bill was in the cabin all along. After this shot http://imgur.com/SJMfAsI (sorry, mobile phone), I thought Jeb had gotten sick of him and left alone! 

I'm exactly half way around, myself, having all sorts of adventures along the way. (Link in my sig if interested). 

One thing you could think about doing, if you're not totally sick of the challenge yet, which lots of us do during and/or at the end, is a map (eg kerbalmaps) with the route marked on. I was trying to visualise from your storytelling and your in game M map but would be good to see the detail. 

Ps: oh and bad luck about Historian not showing your commentary! 

 

Thanks - for a single mission that took over a week realtime to grind through, it was excellent fun, even (especially) when things went wrong.

I had a bit of a struggle with the editor, but I added a map on part 1 with the route I took.

 

 

p.s. Anyone have any suggestions for Laythe - I'm currently torn between trying to launch another self-sufficient craft including ISRU (mk2 based though for compactness, so smaller, less efficient ISRU, which means I'd need to properly map + plan my route to get >5% ore concentrations, or whatever the limit is for the mini-drill), or launch a minimalist Main vessel, plus a support vehicle for ISRU.

Edited August 30, 2016 by timmers_uk

[W. Kerman]

Unfortunately, school is starting up again, and my weekends will contain the most horrifying thing to ever exist....

 

HOMEWORK!

 

I still plan to do some KSP, but don't expect a Elcano too soon.

[Maverick_aus]

9 hours ago, timmers_uk said:

even (especially) when things went wrong.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm finding. It add a diversity of drama and challenges. 

9 hours ago, timmers_uk said:

but I added a map on part 1 with the route I took.

Cool. Looks good. That really helps to grasp where you went.
All the best for Laythe! 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Maverick_aus

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all Elcanites.

Back in the saddle yesterday.

Imgur mixed the images.....Again. Of course.

http://imgur.com/a/4GrtE

The Mark II is good enough to ship to my Circumnavigators.
 

Spoiler

 

 

It can fly.

Spoiler

It can land. Well Splash anyway.

Spoiler

But not all the times.....Not very consistent.....

Spoiler

The design team is positive......

Absolutely positive.....That they will not tell them that there could be a problem.....Or two....
So Vallina and Nedbur are unaware and happy.

Spoiler

 

 

They are celebrating their Dateline crossing.

I know. They crossed the actual line a long time ago but let me explain.

As they travel West their days are slightly more than one day (They go to bed a little later every time). They had their first bivouac on day zero. Second bivouac on day one. Etc.

This is bivouac 21 on day 21. They had one night less than the folks at the KSC.
They transferred fuel some more to offset the front tires taking too much of a beating on slope changes.

Spoiler

 

 

With good results this time. I just have to be careful of using warp.....Which is annoying as I, we, are tired.

Vallina keeps talking of her career in space and Nedbur keep talking of is time in the Navy. When he is not retelling Vallina of a Sci-fi book he has read. Or a movie for that matter.

He is converting her from a perfect science officer into a perfect nerd.

She can now sing "The Green Hills of Earth Kerbin" with him now. Which he sings every time they climb a green hill. And there are a lot of them you know.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Oh. And Major Tom Bob too.

As it stands they are to make their way around the bay, to their West, and up the "Long Point" where they will get the Mark II and get home through sea crossings.

Till next time.

Over and out.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[Claw]

2 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

With good results this time. I just have to be careful of using warp.....Which is annoying as I, we, are tired.

...

She can now sing "The Green Hills of Earth Kerbin" with him now. Which he sings every time they climb a green hill. And there are a lot of them you know.

 

Haha, the rambling musings of someone nearing the end of an Elcano mission.

There was more than one time I was face planting on my desk, wondering "whyyyyyy!?"

[damerell]

I think it's been long enough, so I'm off again. I'm not going to focus on minor details like having no tracks to put on my rover - with any luck by the time I'm otherwise ready to go there will be some sort of working Kerbal Foundries.

[richfiles]

Has anyone tried for a double land/marine circumnavigation of Kerbin?

Basically, hit up a land trip (maybe polar), and after making the complete circle, and with the same crew and rover, continue on by sea this time, crossing one of the two accepted narrow land bridges. Alternately, if a land circumnavigation already crosses one of the two land bridges, then one would already have a waypoint at both locations. Would one need only meet the waypoint they didn't depart from to count for a maritime attempt, since a land crossing through one of those points would have bridged that gap already?

Note: This is merely a proposed route, not one taken, nor is it definite. I am also very curious about the points I marked in yellow. Due to the extreme stretching near the poles caused by the Mercator projection, I would suspect that the distance between the yellow points isn't that much different than the distance between the red points. I don't know how distorted the map is, but honestly... How does it compare with the green points even?why is this narrow spot not considered a valid maritime circumnavigation waypoint pair?

Would two circumnavigations be permitted to overlap like this? Points 9-13 constitute a massive detour for the land trip (as these points comprise all the maritime trip, minus the final waypoint at 14), but the diversion is only for the purposes of a second circumnavigation, and it still ends up at the start point, even though you leave the start point a second time to continue to the maritime start point at point 8.

Does this make sense? Would it be a valid double attempt? I ask this, because I'd start, not at the runway, but at the shore in front of the KSC. The reason is explained with the vessel i'd use. I want to drop my primary wheels after the land trip, to gain a drop in drag for the maritime trip.

Basically, if I try this again, it'll be in a rebuilt and reengineered variant of the rover below.

I present to you, Gilly Vanilli
Much like the Challenger Titanic Fitzgerald I, II, III, and IV, and my Columbia Gasburgers refueling station (and diner)...
This rover stays true to a long and proud tradition of naming all my major vessels after complete and utter disasters. 


I should have kept on driving... I'd already made it 1/3 of the way around Minmus. I wasn't even trying to circumnavigate... Never even crossed my mind then.
Billy Bobdan and Alley Kerman were just doin' it for the science! 

My rover's design has a nicely compliant double rocker bogey suspension constructed out of docking ports. It's big, but if the last leg is water only, I could presumably ditch the suspension altogether by just undocking them and letting them sink into the ocean (or float, I dunno). That'll leave a long, streamlined vessel that would presumably be ideally suited for water, I hope. My Gilly Vanilli rover is around 44 tons, and has 32 wheels on 4 independent springy suspensions, and a main vessel basically suspended from the center of the suspension. I always play mods. Tweak scale is a Godsend. The ability to make parts however you need is way better than blowing your part count on lots of little bits to do the same. I'd like to do a new revision of Gilly Vanilli designed just for circumnavigations. Ditch the science lab for a large LF tank. Add Jets for incline boosting (the NERV is HEAVY), add runway wheel leaders (that can hopefully be either fixed, or be reliably manually deployable before unexpectedly large jumps land, to protect the drive wheels). It had built in jacks to raise the vehicle so wheels can be repaired. I've also never had a fatality in the vehicle, even when reduced to a scattering of parts. I actually observed the mechanism by which high velocities are contained rapidly when the suspension shreds. It's like skidding to a stop on 4 spring pegs!

The only thing Gilly VanillI lacked was AN ENGINEER WHO CAN CHANGE A TIRE, ALLEY KERMAN... Yeah Alley, I'm looking at you! 

Funny story. I actually set out on my first circumnavigation, after getting an Engineer to whatever level the wiki said was required to change tires... Except with the new jobs feature, that entry was actually wrong for a short time, and so I never knew... So yeah... Went out on a circumnavigation run (in 0.90) with an "Engineer who said she could change tires"... She lied (Alley was deemed a nice "girly" name, and so I arbitrarily defined some of my Kerbals, her included) as ladies, before the official female kerbals were added. Alley is now a real woman (oh my) in my 1.1.x save. 

I shipped Alley off to Duna to get trained on tire changing, and then KSP updated to 1.0.x, and I got hardcore into building an Arduino based "cockpit" to build into my desk. Still a work in progress. I've actually played very little KSP in the mean time. I was primarily waiting for 1.1, and native 64 bit support (so I can enjoy my glorious 32 GB RAM). After 1.1 came out, I was just more invested in the project. It's slow going, but it is going. There were a few snags last year, with bad parts being ordered, and some design problems for controlling my Navball, but most of that's now been solved. I've moved on to working on the enclosure, and getting my meters, navball, readouts, and controls all mounted. I think once things are mounted and wired, and I can switch to programming, I'll be able to start getting parts of it up and running. The navball and the "DSKY" styled digital readouts... Those in particular... The first, cause it's just cool, and the second, cause I really look forward to having that kind of data without needing a MechJeb window open, or switching to Map or IVA views. 

One of my first goals upon returning to actively playing (using my "cockpit" controller, I would hope), will be this challenge. I had already tried to start a circumnavigation, and I REALLY wanna finish what I started. Billy Bobdan and Alley will take exactly one step back from their starting point, the LOOONG way around!   I should probably roll back from the 40-50 m/s speeds when the terrain gets too hilly though! There's popping your tires... And then there's hoping your suspension! 

[Martian Emigrant]

Good morning ElCanonites.

The last few days were busy. For me and for my team. Teams?

http://imgur.com/a/gnMgQ

They have resumed their trek. Toward the bay once more.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Scientific observations were made and recorded.

Quote

Nedbur: Hey! Look! Minmus! Oh. And the Mun too.

Let me write that down...There! Science for the day is done! Diggidone-Done!

Have you ever read "The Mun Is a Harsh Mistress"?

....

How about "Have Space Suit—Will Travel"?

....

R is for Rocket? Podkayne of Duna?

.....

Wanna sing "Rocket Man"?

Vallina: OK!

Chorus: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight"....

 

Spoiler

 

 

They made it to the bay and crossed.

Spoiler

 

 

Bad terrain did not stop them.

Spoiler

 

 

But sundown did.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

While they went to sleep and dreamed of "New car smells".

A little further West it was still daylight and the Heavy lifter team was taking off in "Conker" the best ship of the fleet (One Way and Galactic Glamour were damaged during testing) to deliver a brand new 40 mt rover to them.

Unfortunately the roster was putting the same two scientist, as last time, in charge. IE Fromin and Kergard. Goof Good Scientist. Poor pilots.

Quote

Fromin: You fly this time. I flew last time. It's my turn to talk and yell on the radio while you sweat.

Kergard: Who died and made you the boss of me?

Fromin: The Flight Director....But he is not dead.

Kergard: -Wet and noisy Raspberry-

Fromin: I am not whipping the console.

Kergard: Well then you can fly. I don't care if I touch it.

Together: When will they hire pilots again?

Spoiler

 

 

The delivery was a success.

The drop is at: 2:33

The splashdown at: 4:32

Spoiler

 

 

The landing....Not so much....

Spoiler

 

 

No Kerbals were armed in the making of this landing.

Spoiler

 

When Vallina and Nedbur wakeup the will head directly to the MarkII (They are still inland....Due to an early sundown....) and start across the sea toward home.

More to come.

 

ME

Edited September 3, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[HazelPine]

Hey everyone! Kinda late, but I didn't have the time to write it up last week. So far been it's been fun!

 

Here's the update!

 

[Martian Emigrant]

Good day Elcanites.

Things are moving for my team.

http://imgur.com/a/oGsjc
The morning following the delivery of the Mark2 Vallina and Nedbur started toward the coast and their new vehicle.

Spoiler

 

 

They didn't slow down much.

Spoiler

 

 

Not even to plant the customary flag on the beach.

Spoiler

 

 

Nedbur got out to supervise the docking with the Mark2.

Spoiler

 

 

There was an issue with lining up the docking port. But after a quick fuel transfer....Bingo.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Nedbur then proceeded to inspect the new ship. Secure the pyrotechnic. Pack the chutes. Then power up the systems.

Quote

Nedbur: Who the Eck chose the mascot-flag?

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Now that is what I call a "Sea-Train"!

Spoiler

 

 

Vallina shutdown the Vadnea and rejoined Nedbur on the Mark2.

At sea Nedbur is the captain.

Permission to board was easily granted.
They left The Mark2 full steam ahead. The Vadnea in Full reverse.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Eventually, it's fuel exausted, the Vadnea was abandoned.

Quote

Nedbur: Goodby Vadnea. You were a good ship.

Spoiler

 

 

Quote

Vallinda: Hew!! Everytime I look toward Nedbur I see a "Rodent"!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

After Sundown, having met the pre-set coordinates, they stopped to wait for fuel under the watchful eye of the Big-Kerbal-in-the-sky.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

At the KFC, as soon as they got the word, Lelie and Jonsby left with the "Galactic Glamour" the second best transport plane of the fleet.

Spoiler

 

 

Lelie thought that the Big-Kerbal-In-The-Sky was a good omen.

Spoiler

Not to Jonsby.

Spoiler

 

As it makes him think of.....Him.

 

Good drop, good return.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Vallina and Nedbur left at first light for an easy pickup.

Spoiler

 

 

Experiment showed that they made better speed with the tank than without. So they kept it till they got sight of the coast.

Spoiler

 

 

They got to shore at the same time as darkness. The shore was steep and dark but nothing a seasoned crew with a good ship could not handle.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Good night guys.

Glad you are back on the Continent of Origin.

Tomorrow they will cross the peninsula and wade back in the ocean for 2 more fuel drops and a safe return home.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Martian Emigrant