We report on the status of large volume simulations with 2+1 dynamical fermions which are being performed by the CLS initiative. The algorithmic details include: open boundary conditions, twisted mass reweighting and RHMC, whereas the main feature of the simulation strategy is the approach to the physical point along a trajectory of constant trace of the mass matrix. We comment on the practical side of the above issues using as examples some of the newly generated ensembles, which presently cover lattice spacings between 0.05 fm and 0.11 fm and pion masses between 150 MeV and 415 MeV.