Have you ever thought of sailing round the Horn the wrong way?

Have you ever considered risking the Roaring Forties? Well now you can, without leaving the comfort of your living room.

Today we’re sharing an experience report from Moira, one of our dedicated MarineVerse community members, who has been sailing in MarineVerse Globe Beta for the past 10 months. Moira’s journey showcases the incredible potential of virtual reality ocean sailing and what awaits adventurous sailors in our expanding virtual world.

Moira’s experience report:

MarineVerse Globe Sailing

The Globe sailing experience in MarineVerse Sailing Club is about as near to the real thing as you are ever going to get without getting your feet wet. OK, so the app is in the early stages of development but it is getting better and better.

After 10 months of sailing a globe which consisted only of ocean, we now have land barriers beyond which we cannot pass (I know, this sounds logical, but for months we were able to sail all across the continents - but no more!). We can sail in company with other boats, even if the other boats are only represented by floating flagpoles and a name. We can see ports, again with a floating flagpole. Most importantly for me, we can race across the oceans against our friends.

Dev note: floating flagpoles for boats and ports, are temporary placeholders.

To get from Port A to Port B requires navigation. Now, you could just set a direct course and let your boat sail into whatever wind it encounters – or you can plot a course dependent upon the forecast weather along the route.

You can use OpenCPN mapping with MarineVerse Globe to assist in planning and there is the ability to import the boat position into the map so that it is possible to see the position update every 10 minutes or so.

Within OpenCPN there is the possibility to plan a weather dependent route. In order to do this one has to download a GRIB weather forecast file. I use Xygrib app for this. Once this is imported into OpenCPN it is possible to mark the boat position as a Weather Position and then ask the weather routing to plot a course based on that weather forecast.

While this gives a good guide it is by no means infallible, and therefore one needs to keep an eye on the actual weather reports in apps like windy.com and adjust the course plot accordingly.

Cruising

Whether you like racing or just cruising, MarineVerse Globe is a great way to get some experience of ocean sailing. When I started out last October, in my second boat I sailed from the eastern Mediterranean through the Gibraltar Straits to my home port of Cork, Ireland. Then I circumnavigated Ireland, then Great Britain, then across the Atlantic to New York. After New York I headed for the Panama Canal (requiring a relocation to the Pacific side) and then followed the Mini Globe Race down to Fiji, though never actually catching the fleet. I then decided that I would like to join up with my first boat on its way to Anchorage.

My first boat started in the South Pacific off South America and I sailed in company with Don to the Falklands, then to Cape Town. We then met up with three other boats to race to Rio de Janeiro. Two of those boats fell by the wayside due to real life pressures, but the remaining three then raced around the horn the “wrong” way – against the prevailing weather, all the way to Sydney, then Fremantle, then Darwin, then Singapore and finally we are not so far from Anchorage, after which we race to San Francisco.

All in all, it has been a great experience and as the app improves with better physics, more sail options and maybe ocean current data, the experience will become nearer to reality. Just watch this space!

Dev note: And upvote ideas and feature requests here: https://www.marineverse.com/feedback/marineverse-sailing-club?search=globe.

MarineVerse Globe Beta is currently available for Meta Quest 3 and SteamVR users. To request beta access, join our Discord community and visit the #globe-beta channel.

Ready to set sail? Download MarineVerse Sailing Club and join thousands of VR sailors sailing in virtual reality.

Stay tuned for more updates about MarineVerse Globe as we continue developing this exciting virtual sailing experience!