How do you keep in touch?

T

Tollos

New Member
Joined
13 May 2007
Messages
19
Location
Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa.
Visit site
How do you keep in touch with your family at home while you are cruising around the world? We are absalute novices and are planning to start our cruise through the Med. We know how to use a cellphone and a laptop. Would we be able to use that to receive and to send E-mail and photo's home? Would you experienced yachties out their please help with some further options in this regard?
 
We use Sailmail tied in to our SSB radio.That allows us to send and receive emails from family and friends. It will not take attachments such as photos though.
Wifi is now widespread throughout a lot of the sailing areas of both the Med and the wider world from these you can access an email account which will usually allow photos etc to be sent.
Recently I have started a blog, www.gerryantics.blogspot.com which I hope will allow friends and relatives to see what we are up to without me sending out a huge stream of emails. It is possible to update this, text only, vis the Sailmail link too.
We have rarely found it difficult to stay in touch, sometimes you just fantasize about being out of touch!!
 
>sometimes you just fantasize about being out of touch!!

Exactly. We update our web site once a quarter, so family and friends can see what we've been up to. Other than that:
- we have a quad phone that works in any country, we buy a local Sim card and time, then call home occasionally.
- we use WiFi internet for email (to educate people that they won't get a fast response).

The last thing you want to do when cruising is be blitzed with emails and phone calls on the boat, anyone needing that should stay at work. In fact we went out of our way to make it slightly difficult and sometimes we 'disappear' for a month i.e. go somewhere where the is no phone signal, no nothing.
 
When we have been sailing in the med I have found a Blackberry is a fantastic way to keep in touch with my business. It costs nothing and there seems to be access everywhere. The biggest problem was that people CAN get in touch with you...I would recommend that you just use internet cafes...often in bars, mostly cheap and if you want some peace you always can say that you could not find one!
 
Depends where you are:

I have a data card for the laptop which takes a sim card.

In Spain, Yoigo allow unlimited data at GPRS speed for 1.39 euros per day.

In Italy, I have a TIM SIM which allows 9GB per month for 25 euros, (not for use between 9am and 5pm week days). I also have a WIND sim which allows 5Gb per month anytime for 30 euros. There are lots of other combinations depending on your expected usage. I use it to watch UK TV via a Slingbox in Janets' house.

I also have a USB wifi adapeter, (next purchase will be a Senao with detachable aerial), so I can use wifi where it is available.

with wifi, or a 3G mobile signal, I use Skype to make phone calls at about a penny a minute to landlines, (including UK).

In the absence of the above being available, I would use internet cafes.
 
The other thing I use is a global roaming sim where calls to UK landlines cost 26p per minute, receiving calls is free, and calls to the phone are the same as calls to a UK mobile, (it's actually a Manx number ... 07624 xxxxxx, so you can hand it out and people have no problem calling it just like any other UK mobile).

this is a great forum for finding out about the latest offers in a variety of countries, asking questions about mobile data, and global roaming sims:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/
 
Hi - not so fantastically varied as RichardsEye, but agree that a combination of wifi, local sims, possibly a global roaming sim and cafes is the way to go. We have also just got the vodafone plug in mobile broadband (which works on both apple and PC, which matters to us) and is a pretty good deal, especially as we are off to NZ (by air this time) in January, which tends to be an expensive place for comms).

RichardsEye - does the Senao work on an Apple do you know. And do you have to be Manx to have one of their sims?
 
[ QUOTE ]
RichardsEye - does the Senao work on an Apple do you know. And do you have to be Manx to have one of their sims?

[/ QUOTE ]

RichardsEye????

All I know is that the Senao is a USB wifi adapter

http://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-sub-862.htm

you can d/l the manual, but they only mention drivers for windows, so not sure about Apple.

I'll be buying the one with a detachable aerial so I can connect an extension with another aerial which goes up the mast.

You dont have to be manx to get their sims ... in fact I dont think you buy them from the IOM, mine is a GT-SIM

http://www.gt-sim.com/

and seems to be managed from Hong Kong and billed in USD.

In fact, I dont think it is a "Manx" sim, it merely uses a Manx network to route the calls.

I try to use Skype on a wifi, or 3G data network, wherever possible.

Hope this helps

Richard
 
[ QUOTE ]
Richardseye

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like some virtual matchmaking going on between Richard_Faulkner and Kellyseye /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Is there something you two wish to share with the rest of us??

Jonny
 
[quoteIs there something you two wish to share with the rest of us??

[/ QUOTE ]

This has got bugger all to do with me and kelly - it was cooked up by Sarah and/or Pip, so make what you will of that!!
 
/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif <span style="color:green"> </span>
Before you all get carried away I still need all the info that you expierience yachties take for granted. I don't know half off the things you so easally spit out.
What is "Senao, RichardsEye, Manx".
I do know what a PC or Apple is though. That brought another question forward however. Do you ghuro's think I should buy a PC ( and which make/'type and size ) or a Apple for our laptop needs? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif <span style="color:green"> </span>
What is "Senao, RichardsEye, Manx".


[/ QUOTE ]

Senao is a brand

and this is the thing I am going to buy:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-sub-862.htm

the one with the removeable aerial - NET-EL-SUB-862EXT

so that I can plug an extension cable and another aerial which will be hauled up the mast.

It's a USB WiFi adapter which you plug into a USB port, run the software, and it picks up any wifi signals it finds. Sometimes you can piggy back on someone elses unsecure wifi, (i have never been able to do this), but mostly you connect to services which charge for connection to the internet.

Richards Eye was a mix up of my name, and KellysEye, so nothing to do with communicating, and Manx is someone, or something from the Isle of Man.
 
Thank you so much Richard for that mouthful. And I even understood almost all off it. Just the "piggy back ride" thing!
Do you mean that you can, sort of, take a "hitch ride" on someone elses connection. Which I understood to be a free connection for you then. Is that legal or do I understand it wrongly?
/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Just the "piggy back ride" thing!
Do you mean that you can, sort of, take a "hitch ride" on someone elses connection. Which I understood to be a free connection for you then. Is that legal or do I understand it wrongly?

[/ QUOTE ]

You understand correctly, and would see what i mean when you get a connection and see the various wifi points it identifies. Almost certainly not legal and, as i said, I havent been able to do it. However, if I could do it, it was the only available option, and I wanted to send and receive some quick emails, or find out something important off the web, I would probably do it.

Usually, if you are somewhere where there is a PAYG connection, when you try to connect to any web page via the connection, the connection automatically takes you to it's home page where it will tell you how to pay and logon.
 
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Thanks Abigail.

I was thinking in the same direction. The problem is that we can only work with Vodacom in SA if you take out a contract for 24 months. Someone else suggested that I should use my cellphone conected to my PC as a modem and then connect to the internet. You then buy bundels of units from Vodacom same as pay as you go.
I will have to get much more info on this however. I am sort off IT disadvantaged at this stage.
What about the PC/Apple laptop? We plan to travel trough the Med for a couple of years and then circumnavigate the Globe.
 
I have never used an Apple, so can only talk about PC Laptops.

People say that software and hardware loads with much less difficulty on Apples, and that they crash less often - I wouldnt know.

I do know that my PC laptop seems to be able to do everything I want it to, occasionally I have a problem with an installation, but am usually able to get around them with some intuition, or some help from here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top