I am pleased to announce that the Lighthouse Board of Second Life now has a location to call home. In a beautiful region known as Victoriana, a harbour lay open to the sea on the west. The creation and display of lighthouses and lighthouse keeper gear is located in a victorian warehouse here. Come visit if you love lighthouses!
Gallery: New Shop in Victoriana Harbour SL™
Gallery: Orient Point Rev. 2 (2009)
I first built Orient Point in early 2007. A simple low prim affair, it was nearly as narrow inside as to restrict movement and visibility for the avatars, and generally not as realistic as I would have preferred. It was, however, a significant light, deserving a representation in Second Life™ as a prop, to be viewed from afar, on the virtual waters of the SL Grid. This revisiting took advantage of the improvements in the SL build kit available, and the experience of building other lighthouses, most recently Montauk Point, in high detail and accuracy.
Below is a sampling of pics from the new Orient Point Lighthouse, version 2, placed in the Kiku*Craft workshop appropriately named Orient Point. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/orient%20point/120/15/22/
Gallery: Montauk in SL™ Revisited
Montauk Point Light Station is a fabulous gem of history, the oldest lighthouse in New York State, and the archetypical lighthouse in America. Stories are still told of ‘arriving’ in the United States from immigrants by spotting the steady flame on the horizon at the part of Long Island that juts out into the atlantic, and generations have loved this place since its first lighting in 1789. To recreate this light is not just an engineering project, but an act of love and preservation. The following pics are just a few snapshots taken during the second building of Montauk in Second Life™;
Gallery: St Joseph North Pier in SL™
This Great Lakes pier sticks out from St. Joseph, Michigan into what is normally a head-on wind – what that means is SPRAY! lots of it! In the cold months, a delicate sculpture of ice is formed around these brave cast iron and steel sentinels. The catwalk (raised walking bridge platform) is used to access the lights for maintenance when the weather won’t allow walking on the pier surface. This light was commissioned in Second Life™ by Keystone Bouchard, who made a film of it for a special anniversary gift to a couple who met there; here’s the link.
Gallery: Fort Jefferson in SL™
A perennial stop on the cruisers of southern latitudes is Dry Tortugas National Park, 65 miles west of Key West, Florida. On it, lies Fort Jefferson, which is a ruin of a 19th century U.S. coastal defense of the Florida pinensula. The history is there, but in this case a customer requested a *BIG* lighthouse. After a proper period of genuflection to the Google god, we came up with this peach; it also happens to be an active sailing area in Second Life, which makes the ruins of old Route 7 in Gaeta V seem like they were supposed to be that way…
Gallery: Fastnet in SL™ Update
Ok so I have been late in updating the software on this site and held up this article for a couple of weeks. Linden Lab, the creators and ‘men in black’ of the virtual world Second Life, have most agreeably put the Fastnet build in Blake Sea, an oceanic region of the grid, where many sailors will have a chance to see it, climb on it, get stuck in it, and all sorts of hijinks that can only happen on an isolated rock island in the middle of the ocean. Maybe some sea creature will find its home there, who knows? At this time, it is essentially understood that this section of the sea will not be changing imminently, and that Fastnet has a bright future ahead of it. *ahem* 
Gallery: Mystic River Highway Bridge in SL™
Built in 1923, the Mystic River Highway Bridge, or known to locals as “The Drawbridge” in the old New England village is quite a tourist attraction, and for good reason: it’s hourly raise and lower for nearly 90 years has been like a ringing of a bell, or more properly, the blowing of a horn from a bygone era.
The bridge gives the place a sense of charm. I wanted to celebrate this truly marvelous technology and translate it for visitors to SL to experience. Youtube Video here.
Video: Freefall – Exploring Second Life Sculpture
DC Spensley who is DanCoyote Antonelli in SL, is the artist in 3D who created this interactive peice. I truly admire the work and vision that goes into this.
This was shot in 0.1% Gravity free falling from 4096m. Speed +3x for upload.
Gallery: Golding Pearl 1893 Printing Press
Pooky Amsterdam from the SLCN TV Show “The First Question” is modeling the update to the beta, version 0.7. Newly added is the creation of temporary ‘paper’ from the press imprinted with a lighthouse image. YouTube video.
Here is a movie of the beta version of the Press. This will be placed in the SL Museum of Printing – requested by Kat2 Kit