Communication (again!)

[abraxas]

SHMBO and I will be taking our Countess 33 ketch down to the Med next year (not heading towards or making for), in six months we should get enough decent weather to be fairly confident. Plan is to leave Portmadog in early May, spend all June in southern Brittany, early July doing the Ria’s of Northern Spain and slowly heading down Portugal in August. September should see us in Gibraltar and early October laying up the boat in south west Spain.

Question 1
Does anyone see glaring great holes in the itinerary? Wrong place at wrong time etc?

Question 2
Email from the boat – I know this has been aired many times but generally only from a single country viewpoint. I have a PC on board working as a plotter (Seapro software + ARCs charts, all very good, pleased to share info if anyone interested). Back to phone problem – I could buy a UK mobile and just use a UK SIM card and phone back to UK to retrieve Emails but this seems expensive. Is it possible or practical to get a SIM cards and pay as you go deals in France then Spain, then Portugal and back to Spain + what about an ISP in the different countries? Is this all too much trouble and should I just use internet cafes?

New user, be gentle, also not particularly computer literate so basic idiot guide much appreciated..

 

[ccscott49]

Itinery looks fiene to me, going south in august fine, portugese trades from north great sailing, rias wonderful, I'd go the rias for more time than brittany. Comunications, I would tend to use the UK open phone, whilst in france spain and portugal, then when finally in spain get a local sim card. ISP, you can get one of the bigger ISP's with mutil country local access. Use the UK phone sparingly, when in the rias etc, then use internet cafes, when you can. thats what I did, IMHO

 

[vyv_cox]

We hope to be following you a year later. Our itinerary and timing is very similar to yours, if that is a recommendation! No detailed plans as yet but our preliminary reading suggests the timing to be right.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Might see you in Villagarcia in June. Itinery sounds ok met another couple in November from Portmadog who set off in may - took their time and got as far as Le Rache Bernard. They only sailed when the weather was forecast very quiet, so if this is important to SWMBO, then you may need a little longer, arriving in september. Do take SWMBO's views into account (if she is like mine) otherwise you will loose your crew!

 

[Chris_Robb]

Re: text messaging

Pilot Friend of mine (mean bugger like CCS) has a UK pay-as-you go mobile, and only send or recieves text messages. - never uses the voice side. No charge on receiving emails. This could keep you in contact very cheaply.

 

[Guest]

Re: text messaging

dont know what mobile phone server you use but i was doing the same cruise your talking of this year and on my vodaphone it cost 39 pence per text message regardless if you sent or recieved them

 

[Chris_Robb]

Re: text messaging

I'll go back to this guy and ask. He's a real skinflint so I would imagine he has found a way that works. - will come back to you.


Welcome to the forum - amongst all the drivel that gets posted - if you need to find something out, this forum usually comes up trumps
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Chris_Robb on 20/11/2002 08:39 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[brianrunyard]

Compuserve have local dial-up numbers in most countries, I don't use them myself, but my boss does when he's abroad on business (laptop + mobile). Can't help you with the Pay-as-you-go bit, but I thought you had to top-up in this country before going, obviously no good for you. (This could have changed by now).

Brian
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/brunyard

 

[zefender]

You can buy local SIMS in France, Spain & Portugal. So this should be no problem. Getting the blimmin things to work well with email is not so easy though. I found I lost lines (typically in the middle of a transfer) without warning. It's really slow and can be very expensive. If you are taking your time going down, stopping at lots of places, I would use an internet cafe. That way its all set up, quick and ready to go. Many of the marinas along the way have internet facilities in the office, as well as plenty in the towns.

Enjoy the trip.

PS I suggest keeping a watch out for long term damage to NW Spain given the recent oil spill. Very sadly, this might need to be given a wide berth.