Day 48 of the expedition. Some good sights over the past few days on the way to waypoint 6. Of highlight was definitely the Garden’s of Shanghai-la.

By my reckoning (the ship’s computer) I am about 30 jumps from waypoint 6.

The low jump range of the Type9 means that whereas other commanders have been able to get to waypoint7, I am still rolling along.

The good news is that the fleet expect to say at waypoint 7 for two weeks, completing a mining CG to complete the station outfitting that was commissioned after the WP2 CG. The should be sufficient for me to close the gap.

It’s been almost two weeks since my last logbook entry. Real-life events have limited my time in the cockpit and what time I had, I have put into catching the fleet up. I also didn’t want to skip the POI that the organisers have given us so I was torn between a straight line jump to the next waypoint and following the deviated route via the POI.

Last nights that I finally made it to Waypoint 5 - Polo Harbour. This was going to be the last official outpost on the expedition before everyone headed into the black and onto Beagle point. I say was because the success of the community goal at waypoint 2 has enabled a new station to be constructed near Sag A.

The existence of this new station was revealed this week. STUEMEAE FG-Y D7561.

The station is still being built. It is a shell at the moment so no outfitting or any of the extra station functions but Frontier have confirmed that station services will be rolled out over the next few weeks. The expedition organisers have confirmed that we’ll be stopping at waypoint 7 for an extended period to complete a further CG. This should give me enough time to complete my catch-up.

It may be tempting fate, but my flight to Polo harbour was reasonably good. I was able to get into a good rhythm when jumping. My type 9 is not the most agile ship so I need to look to avoid the main star in a system as soon as I jump into it. In all, I can only remember one jump where my ship faceplanted the star. A success considering the amount of jumping.

There were a noticeably higher number of neutron stars on the leg between waypoint 4 and waypoint 5. I don’t know if that was because of the route that I took or because of the extra density of stars but it definitely kept me on my toes.

This evening, I expect to depart from Polo harbour for waypoint 6 - the Dryau Awesome. The published route recommended that we headed towards Ocularis Coelum but I am going to head straight towards The Gardens of Shangri-La. Early shots from there look beautiful. It’s more than 2300ly from Polo Harbour (70 jumps) so about two days travel.

Onwards to Beagle Point.

So I shut down operations at the end of day 25 camped up on Quantum World. (Flyiedgiae QN-T d3-17 - Planet : AB1b).

I had heard reports of how small it was (radius: 177km) but I hadn’t appreciated quite how small.

Approaching Quantum world was an interesting experience. I couldn’t fly directly at it as the HUD indicated a crash so I had to perform a flyby and then drop into Quantum world at the last minute.

Hopefully tomorrow I will make it to WP3 - Conflux Delta site. By my reckoning, I have seen all the recommended POIs en route, made it to the penultimate stop on this leg and gained two days on the main fleet.

I won’t make it to WP4 before Commanders depart for WP5 but I expect to be very close to the fleet by WP6. From there, as we get beyond occupied space, I hope to stay pace with the expedition and can start to travel more leisurely.

I am concerned that my hull integrity is dropping because of all the jumping. Module health is good. Most modules are still showing at 100% although a couple have dropped to 99% after I tried one jump from too close to a white dwarf. I was trying to rush and didn’t clear the star’s corona sufficiently before engaging the jump drive.

I am not taking the direct route to waypoint 3.

I will be going by the advertised POIs. First up NGC 6565 (aka CD-28 14266) - 33 jumps from Omega.

WP2 - Omega Mining Operation

No major issues on the way to Omega. The route looks well trod. Lots of the systems are already discovered. I took the opportunity to drop below the galactic plane. There should be a higher likelihood of undiscovered systems.

Omega Mining Operation is a hollowed-out asteroid base. A bit confusing for some Commanders but finding the base entrance wasn’t too difficult for me as I had been to an asteroid base before.

As I came into the system, there were one or two other players flying around. Understandably I wasn’t the first and was wary of gankers waiting in ambush as the explorers came together again. Luckily it wasn’t the case and I landed in the station without an issue.

I cashed in my exploration data (25Mil of credits) and settled in for night. The following day I would be looking to outfit the Type-9 for the upcoming mining CG.

Mining didn’t go too well.

Although being kitted out correctly and putting my hired crew(wo)man to pilot the slf, I found that I wasn’t able to really start mining due to the constant stream of npc ships looking to see what cargo I was carrying. (My rares).

So I sold my Mining set-up and headed out into the black. We would be spending two weeks here as an expedition so plenty of time to do a circuit of the local cosmos and possibly snag a few more undiscovered systems.

First target - the Traikeou AA-A H2 nebula. Some great sights Next target - as I was only a ‘few’ jumps away from the Temple region of space, the Prai Hypoo AA-A H60 nebula. This had the added advantage that it contained a Guardian ruins site. A days stopover in Prai Hypoo GF-E c10 B4 meant that I was able to restock (and increase) the volume of rares I was holding. Then back to Omega mining, via the Flyiedgal AA-A H50 nebula.

Unfortunately I got my timings wrong. I hoped I would be back to WP2 before details of WP3 were published.

As I suspected, it would be along the Colonia highway. Pru Aescis NC-M d7-192 (aka Conflux Delta site).

I would be a little behind the main expedition but hopefully I will be able to catch up before they jump to WP4.

Day 21 - back to Omega, back to the expedition.

A quick pit stop to carry out repairs and grab a bite to eat then back onto the expedition route. I have decided against cashing in my exploration data at this time. The squadron is three days away from winning the opening season. My data isn’t currently needed. I will hold off until the second season and then cash in. It’ll give the squadron a good initial boost.

I am currently one week behind the main expedition but hopeful that if I don’t completely catch up over the next week I will be close.

So I decided very early on that I wanted to take part in the second Distant Worlds expedition. Although I was already explorer Elite, having been out to both Colonia and Sag A, I had never been out to Beagle point. It was on my bucket list and the expedition was an ideal opportunity.

The expedition organisers identified a number of roles that they would like participants to fulfil.

• Geology,
• Science Project,
• Trans-Galactic Metallicity Survey,
• MediCorp, and
• Fleet Logistics.

Fleet logistics seemed like a ideal role, carrying rare goods out to Beagle point and onward to undiscovered Worlds. Why??? Because I could...

Prepation

So I started working on my expedition ship.

First problem, which ship to choose. There were three obvious choices I could go with. Anaconda, Imperial Cutter or Type-9. The ’Conda was the explorers ship, lots of people will be flying them The Cutter had potentially the largest cargo hold but I find it very spongey. The Type-9, the truckers truck. Turning circle of an oil tanker, terrible jump range and a paper thin hull.

It had to be the Type-9.

With a bit of engineering I was able get the jump range over the minimum 34ly jump distance needed to get to Beagle point so I was all set.

Another bit of luck. There was a good number of PS4 truckers so I wouldn’t need to completely fill the 256t hold with rares. About 100t of rares, 1 slf (if I need a change of ship whilst I am out in the black), two SRVs (for planetary exploration) and a 40ly jump range. All ready for the expedition.

Day 1 - Pallaeni (site of the original DW start).

Looking to join up for the initial mass jump.

It didn’t go well.

Between gankers and NPCs (not sure which) 100t of rares in a Type-9 was a juicy target that they couldn’t resist. I was repeatedly being shot at by lasers and hatch-breaker limpets so had to often jump to super cruise. I was in the process of carrying out a jump-circle-drop when the mass jump occurred so wasn’t able to join the fun.

At least I was still alive to continue on the expedition and my rares were still intact. From a quick check of the hold, the hatch breakers had only been able to take a total of 2t.

A quick detour to Hill Dock in Tsakhmet for repairs and I was off to WP2 - the Omega Mining Operation in Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15.