I am going to make Beagle Point this weekend. Less than 75 Jumps is a walk in the park for me. My target date of arrival was end of the week of the 14th, but due to;

• Low planet density (systems that are just stars)
• High discovery density (most systems are discovered)
• Low new discovery density (most of the systems that I am finding undiscovered have few planets in them, while a rare few are larger)

Progress has been faster than expected. Even with the woes I have had to ensure on the last part of this trip I am going to arrive well ahead of schedule as I estimated it would be next week I would be arriving in Beagle Point.

Made it.

Welcome to Beagle Point

At 1:58 AM, Galactic Time, I slipped into Beagle Point. First thing that struck me, other ships in the area. It has been a month and half since I last saw another ship. It was a wonderful sight.

I have plotted a course for the DSSA Distant Worlds and when I land, I will break down the stats for this leg of the Journey and a Final Count for the entire Journey.

I would like to thank;

• CMDR Erimus Kamzel for his support, answering some questions I had about the original Distant Suns expedition, his original Asp build and for paving the way for all that came later.
• TFN (The Fatherhood News) for honoring me by broadcasting my recreation (as much as possible) of the Distant Suns/World Expedition
• CMDR HaiderK for his tireless work and approaching me about the TFN endeavor
• _CMDR WolfAstartes, a fellow Countryman, friend and Explorer. We have been bouncing ideas such as this back and forth for a while. I believe his turn is coming up shortly.
• CMDR Corthanus, whom has had the patience to wait for my responses regarding his questions about the game while I scan systems or jump.
• To all CMDRs that brave the depths of Space and blaze their own path

Also for anyone that has been following these logs. I appreciate you taking the time to read and share my journey with me.

The journey is not over yet. I plan to stay in system for a little while and do some poking around (I am dying to get some SRVing done) along with finalizing my route for "The Longer Voyage Home".

Thanks CMDR MAD DOG MacD

And my woes continue.

Last night I was notified of a Firmware update for the ship. What could go wrong? Why wait until I am docked safely aboard the DSSA Distant Worlds? Was chatting with a few CMDR's and decided what the heck, do an install. Wow, was that a bad idea. Communications were immediately disconnected and black terminals except for the maintenance terminal.

I was locked out of my Ship, while still inside it. Thankfully the Firmware did not effect the Life Support Functions but everything else was a no go. Now what? I had to do something I have never done before, do a soft reset of all Ship  Firmware.

After a sleepless night, I woke up, had a coffee, hunkered down in front of my maintenance terminal and did a reboot. Silence. For 10 minutes peering out into the Black wondering how long before someone discovers my frozen lifeless body. Then beeps. Computers whirring back to life. Terminal displays appearing. Restored to previous version before launch in Pallaeni.

Console, controls... all working. A few minor tweaks and I replotted a different course which gets me pretty close to Beagle Point... and off I go.

Things are back into their normal routine, though I am being a bit more extra cautious about entering systems.

I managed to plot a course that is literally on Beagle Point's doorstep. Its a part of the Northwest Passage so plotting from Waypoint Y (75 Jumps to go) to Beagle Point should be easy. I am close, real close. Managed to jump into a Trinary System of three Stars which I called "The Three Sisters"

Fuel Scooping was fun, I managed to get all three Stars!

Bunking down for the night. I have had enough drama for a bit and my body is coming down from the stress levels of the past few days.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

Things are broken.

First had a control malfunction when entering into a system, thankfully I emergency stopped before slamming into a star (though, it honestly had the same effect minus the heat). Once repairing the control system (which included an entire system reboot), I had to reboot the Galaxy Route Plotter as my previous path to Beagle Point (which was fine) is returning the dreaded "Route Failed" error message.

While I can work around the route plotting issue, the sudden loss of control (funny, it always seems to happen when I enter a new system and NEVER when I am out in deep space) has me concerned.

I have to wait until I dock with the DSSA Distant Worlds to get things fixed and sorted out. A little concerned, you bet. I have done what I could for now.

Beagle Point which seemed like a short distance away, now feels it might as well be on the other side of the Galactic Core.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

Under 200 Jumps to Beagle Point. As usual, most of the systems have already been discovered (seems that I somehow was placed back onto the main path) so it has been relatively quick to jump but very boring in the lack of photo opportunities.

I will continue to keep an eye out for a great photo moment as I travel closer and closer to Beagle Point.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

282 Jumps into heading towards Waypoint A, I decided to see if I could replot to Beagle Point, and it worked. 315 Jumps, direct course.

At Jump 280 jumps to Beagle Point I decided to call it quits. It has been a busy day and exhausted mind and body makes for mistakes. Star Classes are mostly M and K, and nothing really exciting has cried out for a photo shoot. Not giving up hope, plenty of jumps to go before Beagle. Anything could happen.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

At jump 270, I officially entered The Abyss. The final region and onward to Beagle Point.

259 Jumps to go to Waypoint A. I have some supplemental waypoints handy just in case I manage to get myself stuck closer to Beagle Point. Chance favors the prepared mind.

My final journey has begun. I plotted my course to Waypoint A and started my long trek towards Beagle Point.

It became evidently clear that my progress was speedy due to the large amount of discovered systems, so I jumped 3 or 4 to the left and found "less" undiscovered" systems.

Messier is running parallel to the Galactic Core which is always on my left. I am pretty excited, my end goal is in sight (figuratively speaking). I plan on taking at least two weeks to get to Beagle.

I may even decide to celebrate Christmas on the DSSA Distant Worlds before heading back on my "Longer Journey Home" event.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

After yesterday, things seem very sedate.

Almost every system I jump into has been discovered. I did find a celebrity path, CMDR Wotherspoon. For quite a few jumps I was literally flying in his former flight path. My goal is to hit the Waypoint by this evening. The next route replot: Beagle Point.

If I need assistance the DSSA Jolly Roger and DSSA Tartarus are close by, I am literally flying in-between both.

Finally reached Waypoint 23. That was an incredible 123 Jumps today. Pretty exhausted. Why so quick? Almost all systems were discovered or single stars.

Looking back at the Galactic Core

My next and final destination is Beagle Point. Though I have ran into an issue. I cannot seem to plot a route. Beagle Point is 10,010 Ly from my current position but I am getting a lot of "route failed" error messages.

Found my way to Beagle Point, though it is a bit round about. First WAYPOINT A, which is 319 Jumps away. This is as close to Beagle I can plot to from this point. I have the other points mapped out (reviewing Erimus Kamzel Video Journal 12) so that the rest of the route should be easy.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

This precariously came close to my last journal entry/system for this trip. Let me explain how a serious of events led up to this...

I replotted my course to my next Waypoint. 200 jumps, should be easy enough. First thing I noticed that was the abundance of Y, L and T Class Stars. At one point it was literally the only star classes before I finally found a M Class to refuel at.

At Jump 184 I entered the system and for some reason I managed to get myself between a Binary L-Class Star Group. Needless to say, my heat skyrocketed and I was forcibly ejected into normal space.

Now entering this system I had 84% Hull.

After the FSD Cooldown I turned face and did the usual back into Supercruise to get away from the Stars so I can jump back into Hyperspace.

I issued the wrong command. Rather than telling my ship to go into Supercruise, I issued the Hyperspace Command. The heat started to build up, the "Align with Escape Vector" appeared only to point just underneath the star... this was a clue something was wrong.

What is happening? Oh no! I issued the wrong command. Abort! Abort! I managed to cancel the jump (not before my heat went up to 190) and then did something silly, rather than wait for a cooldown, issued the Supercruise command...

Once again, I had to realign with the escape vector, which was now behind me. The heat jumped up to 215, for sure I thought, this is it. Almost there and I am going to blow up between two stars.

Once everything calmed down (klaxons and smoke everywhere) I was at 69% Hull, what a disaster. Still manageable so I decided to check my modules. They took an absolute beating.

Three jumps later, I saw the dreaded message, "FSD MALFUNCTION" all knowing that this will only become worse.

At Jump 173 I managed to slip into the Acheron region heading towards Beagle Point. I was talking with CMDR Darion Rothgar about what had just happened and while I was more than willing to deal with the malfunctions (my sensors took a beating as well) he gave me a great piece of advice: fix it.

So I did. Powerplant is at 88%, 1 AFMU at 73% (I emptied this one entirely and started into the second one) but other than that, everything is back up to 100%, minus my hull and my pride.

I am bunking down at Jump 123 before my next Waypoint. Enough excitement for one day.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

30 Jumps this morning, putting me 14,276 Ly away from Beagle Point. For at least 20 of those jumps the system was either fully explored or just one or two Stars. So it was a quick 30 jumps.

I am expecting more of this the closer I get to Beagle Point.

Finally made it to the Roncevaux Crossing. I turned back and took this picture of how distant the Galactic Core is becoming:

Galactic Core is shrinking with each Waypoint closer to Beagle Point

There was very little for discoveries so that last leg of journey to Waypoint 22 was pretty quick.

I replotted my course to Waypoint 23, which is 200 jumps. Once I reach Waypoint 23, the next plot is to Beagle. Close, very close now.

Sol is 56K Ly Away.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD

70 jumps left until Waypoint 22. I will admit this part of the Journey across the Bleaklands has been rather arduous and a bit on the boring side.

I understand that Exploration can be filled with very few moments of excitement but the trip from Waypoint 21 to Waypoint 22 really has not produced any visual wows.

Before I bunk down for the night, I did a visual inspection of the ship. The Azure Paint Job is literally almost peeled right off.

Between Fuel Scooping and some close calls with a Black Hole, Neutron Star and a few moments of distraction entering a system it has taken not only it's toll on the paintjob but on the ship.

As you can see, almost down the non-painted, just off the production line look.

Thankfully no module malfunctions and being extra cautious.

I plan to be at Waypoint 22 by the end of Saturday night, just in time to transmit the last week's logs before starting the new batch.

CMDR MAD DOG MacD