The Second Life Coast Guard

By Wesley Regenbogen

The waters around Second Life are guarded and maintained by the Second Life Coast Guard, also known as the SLCG for short. They were founded in 2005 by Sanstrom Laxness, and have a number of stations and substations created and designed by various SLCG personnel. The SLCG’s first goal is to teach all who are interested and give real life safe boating courses from within the virtual world of Second Life. Their second goal is to assist any land owner that has water access in the setting up, education and maintaining of a proper “Aids To Navigation” system.

They communicate with their members through group chat and the groups associated with SLCG. They also have a grid wide grid talkie channels through which they communicate with each other.

Their monthly graduation ceremonies are held at the last Saturday of every month for new recruits, along with promotions of other active duty guardians. They have daily patrols. They also have SAR, dive, sailing, aviation, medical activities on an ongoing basis. Their ultimate goal is to one day have proper ATON systems in place throughout the virtual worlds.

The SLCG divides Second Life waters up into 4 districts. Here’s a listing of the different districts :

District 1 :

SLCG - RTC (Sector 6)

SLCG - Station Abbotts Field (Sector 8)

SLCG - Station Kania (Sector 7)

SLCG - Station Smugglers Cove (Sector 3)

SLCG - Substation Anton (Sector 7)

SLCG - Substation Bay City (the building is NW of landing point) (Sector 1)

SLCG - Substation Cranberry (Sector 5)

SLCG - Substation Indigo (Sector 2)

SLCG - Substation Poliahu (Sector 3)

District 2 :

SLCG - Station Cleora (Sector 4)

SLCG - Station Sarcee (no Sector yet)

SLCG - Substation Jadu (down the hall on the right) (no Sector yet)

SLCG - Substation Thryis (Sector 5)

SLCG - Substation Timandra (Sector 4)

District 3 :

SLCG - HQ (Sector 3)

SLCG - Station Bull Rock (Sector 1)

SLCG - Station Danshire (Sector 3)

SLCG - Station New Horizons (Sector 6)

SLCG - Station Santa Catalina (Sector 1)

SLCG - Substation Brook Hill Canal (Sector 1)

SLCG - Substation Dex (Sector 3)

SLCG - Substation Oleg (Sector 5)

SLCG - Substation Forkbeard (Sector 5)

SLCG - Substation Phoenix (Sector 9)

SLCG - Substation Starfish Cove (Sector 3)

SLCG - Substation Sunrise (Sector 2)

District 4 :

SLCG - Station Baitoushan (Sector 7)

SLCG - Station Terranova (Sector Eden)

SLCG - Substation BitBatBot (Sector 12)

SLCG - Substation Balloch (Sector Scotland)

SLCG - Substation Lowndean (Sector 12)

SLCG - Substation Sheershank (Sector 11)

As you can see each district has its own substation(s). These are all maintained by the SLCG.

Whether sailing, personal water craft or motor boating is your thing, knowledge of safe boating practices is an important thing to have in real life.

If someone has an interest in joining the SLCG, they can do that, but they won’t be able to stay permanently. First there will be an interview. To join SLCG permanently, you need to have a certificate of an online boat course ( which is free, by the way ), which can be found on this website : http://www.boatus.org/courses/ . Depending on your time, it could take up to 2 weeks to fully complete the course.

Personally, I think the SLCG is doing a very good job at keeping the waters of Second Life safe and sound. The fact that an organization like the SLCG teaches everyone the basics about boating and sailing, is a remarkable effort.

 More information about the Second Life Coast Guard can be read at their website at: http://www.slcoastguard.org/index.php .

Wesley Regenbogen