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I am currently fitting out my Prout Snowgoose 37 for a life afloat when I retire in 3 years time.
I would be interested to know how you floaters access this site. Is it from your boat through Imarsat, SSB or visiting internet cafes. What are the pros and cons.
Love reading some of the blogs
 
I use WiFi, when it's available in marinas or anchored near to towns/marinas, but also internet cafe's. Mobile phone can be used, when close enough, with GPRS etc. but expensive.

Most cruising liveaboards I know, use WiFi, when in a marina, if available and internet cafes when not.
 
hI,

I use SSB for sending and receiving mail and weather information. WiFi is great for internet when in marina or near trasmitter (if unsecured it is free /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif). In some areas anly option is internet caffe. Mobile phone GPRS not used due to price.

Slavko
 
Any of you guys use Skymate ??
I am thinking to buy one of this system for my boat .
So far I think it is the cheapest way to communicate up to 1500 miles from the coast !!
They use that quite a lot in the USA and I think there is coverage in Europe !!
Anybody know more about this ??
 
I looked at it back in 2003 when it had just come out. I was in Washington on business so I called into their offices in Arlington. My inpression was yes, it's OK but given that the sub only included a limited number of characters per month, it was actually quite expensive to run. I ended up getting a Globalstar phone which was been great for data and during my transat, not overly expensive (£200 for phone, £20 month + 50p per min) and handy for voice calls too.
 
Sorry, 200 for the phone, 20 a month and 0.5 a minute, not overly expensive??? Thats way out of a hell of a olot of peoples cruising budgets!
Where did you get a globalstar phone for 200 anyway!!??
 
OK, make a quick search on various systems !!
Best of all is Iridium !! Global coverage ...
But extremely expensive !! Around GBL 1 /mn for acessing the net!!
Think how many hours you guys are lurking on these forums !!
Globalstar is about the same thing !!
Immarsat ?? Don't even think about it !!
Except if you have family relations in the oil industry !!!!!
Thuraya is a bit cheaper but coverage is not global !!
Actually it is quite good if you stay in Europe/med/indian ocean/india ..No coverage around Americas.
I have seen Thuraya phones for sale in various airport dutyfree ,cheapest Dubai $600 !!
So I still think Skymate is more on my budget !!
They have various service plans !
Cheapest cost $ 15.99/month with 8000 caracters + 2 free automatic position daily !! direct on your website !!
Quite handy for your friends to know where you are !!
But that smell of Big Brother also !!
Additional cost is $ 2 for extra 1000 caracters !!
One of their good plan is the drydock one for $ 4.99/Month when you leave your boat in a marina !!
You can check your bilge pump from home !!
At the moment ,as I am rebuilding my boat in Napa Valley Marina and they do not have WiFi (I am trying to sweet talk them to install a system !!??) I just get a contract with T-Mobile and check my Emails in a local Starbucks Coffee !!

Visit my website if you have time !! Thanks :
www.mavourneen-mary.com
 
Whats absolutely certain is, any system you might consider now will be obsolete in 3 years time.

With wifi, the new standard 802.11n is set to be introduced in the next two years (Up to 10x faster) and the range is being increased gradually all the time.

Service suppliers prices and packages of phone cards are dropping all the time too. (I use Vodaphone at the moment from a laptop and find it works well even on remote islands in Greece. Cost is £10 a month for 15meg,)

I'd watch the developments closely over the next few years and purchase just before leaving!
 
ccscott - the point I was trying to make was that if you're gonna send anything more than a few very short emails, the route I chose was cheaper than the Skymate. Also, I thought 50p per min was pretty good for a sat phone, much cheaper than using a regular mobile phone abroad.

Where: £200 Globalstar phone - Ebay, (quite a bit less than £200).

I'm not advocating using GStar on shore, marina etc, as Wifi or Internet cafe is surely best for that. Just I was really impressed with the setup I had during a transat - worked well every day, great for waether, lots of emails and very easy to use.
 
If you are going to be in one marina or yard for much of the fitting out time you might consider getting BT to install a phone line and subscribing to broadband! It will cost you about £75 for a 'new location', which might involve some serious cable runs) and then they leave you with a wire with an external box on the end. You plug in an extension lead and run it to the boat.

As we run a business on the boat, we have calculated that if in oone place for more than 6 months it pays us, given the outrageous rices of most wifi and the slowness and cost of GPRS - and that satellite is not even in the game financially.

This of course does not apply if you are wandering around.
 
Thanks for the info. I guess I will wait a couple of years to see how the technology and systems develop and hope the costs come down.
My general conclusions are that SSB is good for net communications ,weather information and slow emails but for ultimate safety a sat phone is useful. Other wise internet access is only viable whilst attached to a civilized location.
 
From what ive seen most spend far longer tied up in harbours than at sea,so you ought to find a wi-fi connection!!

If your on a buget as small as mine then you will have to anchor a lot then you will need a very directional yaggi type anntenna for wi-fi otherwise portable phone

You will find you wont want to be online that offten sitting in a cafe of below emailing or chating in summers when its hot!
Youll want to be exploring cool places or swiming if the waters clean,then reading the paper/book or rowing accros to have an aperative or getting the same ready on your boat waiting for others to arrive!

The last thing youll want is to be on a phone or at yout laptop or PDA!!
 
Quite right Trouville!
Internet browsing is for the non sailing months.
I haven't found internet cafe wx fcsts that reliable either, too general for local use
usually. Automatic reception of Navtex and RTTY is much more informative.
Use mobile texts for cheap contact with friends. Although phones big enough for sailors
fat fingers are hard to find. Easyroam may be worth investigating.
 
Totally agree! WiFi for winter, SMS for summer. Plus lots of bars have internet now!! No need to seak out a Cafe!
 
In principal I agree with the above sentiments. However, I depend on the Internet for my business. Thus with the advent of Wifi, this means I can head off sailing for a year and also manage to keep up to date with work. Of course I'd prefer not to work............
 
when its for work then you could easly justify a sat phone for when you have no other connection.

For SMS there really isent a chose, i use what is now a museum piece thats a Erricson A1018s (indestructable) with a "chat board" --attachable key board to send SMSs.and receive on whatever phone i have with me.

Last year i used as GPRS/Bluetooth phone a sony erricson 630 super phone by now really inexpensive but has a very very small memory so SMSs have soon to be deleated befor new can be read, I also found the camera very useful--more so when my laptop deleated almost my whole years images from my camera!!

This year i will take a Nokia 6020 (ithink it was) again bluetooth/gprs but can send extended SMSs this time i want to try a bluetooth key board!! (the Nokias far less costly than a sony erricson k750i)

Problem is the bluetooth keyboards sold for between £10 and£30 are bigger than my cabin!! Small ones cost well over$100 and only found in the USA???

On the subject of SMS many providers give free SMSs (i have 60 PM) sent by internet) I use those when im with my PDA and have a wi-fi connection.
 
You got there before me - but wait 2.9 years. I am doing this on a 3G phone - expensive, but reasonable when it works - just about does Google Earth.

Try to remember how poor things were 2.9 years ago. This is a fast changing technology. There is somethiing supposed to be coming called WiMax. Wait as long as you can - it can only get faster and cheaper.

When I read detective books I have to remind myself that it used to be normal to have to go to a phone box :-)
 
A Prout Snowgoose 37.

Wow.... why are you in the least bit concerned about access to this or any internet web sites??? Unless its your buisiness of course!

Yes I could justify a phone for emergency or the odd call back to family, a Nasa Navtex for weather & an EPIRB for help. but an internet connection...please! where are we going with all this crap??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

poter
 
Just be careful using a mobile to get your email if using outlook- I once set mine off to download a couple of messages and then disconnect while in port in Malta and went off to dinner without further thought. Came back 45mins later and found it had hung up on one message. It turned out to be a VERY expensive call. I think it was about 85 pounds. Gulp.
With all the yah flats being built around Ipswich docks now, I hope some loose signals will become present soon.
 
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Wow.... why are you in the least bit concerned about access to this or any internet web sites??? Unless its your buisiness of course!


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I think you misread the question Poter. He asked how people access the internet, not whether you would give him permission to or not.

Clearly you access the internet, and this site, so why on earth shouldn't he want to? What's the difference accessing the internet from home or from a boat?

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please! where are we going with all this crap???

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If he intends living on a boat, then hopefully to a place where people don't try and ram their ideas of how others should live down each others throats. You do your thing, and let others do theirs.
 
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