Satphone choices...

[geem]

One of the benefits of the Inreach and other such devices is the ability to track you on the website. Friends and family can see your position, course and speed 24hrs a day.
I have weather routed several boats across the Atlantic and one across the Pacific. As a weather router it is super easy to do this when the boat has an Inreach. I can see exactly where they are and their speed so providing good weather information in real time really works.

I have routed a boat with a sat phone. They provided me with a position twice a day but not being able to see how they were doing was like being blind. Its wasnt so easy as they were working on a different time zone so by the time I got their positions it was sometimes a few hours out. A couple of friends who have had an Inreach and sat phone have since sold their sat phones and kept their Inreach.

On the Salty Dog rally the organisers demand either Sat phone, Inreach or Iridium Go. Reliability problems with the Go meant one year at least, the organisers requested that boats also carried an Inreach as back up. I am not sure what the current situation is with the Go. We have a couple of friends that have them that have had technical difficulties and failures.

 

[Laser310]

One of the benefits of the Inreach and other such devices is the ability to track you on the website.

I am pretty sure both the Go and the 9575 handset offer automated tracking viewable on a website, like the inreach

i have never used those features though - i have an inreach

They also both have SOS -like the inreach.., but of course that should only be a backup to the EPIRB

I think if you really want tracking.., you operate both devices.

Relying on InReach for weather is, in my view, not adequate in the present environment.

 

[geem]

I am pretty sure both the Go and the 9575 handset offer automated tracking viewable on a website, like the inreach

i have never used those features though - i have an inreach

They also both have SOS -like the inreach.., but of course that should only be a backup to the EPIRB

I think if you really want tracking.., you operate both devices.

Relying on InReach for weather is, in my view, not adequate in the present environment.

I think you view is probably in the minority. Of the dozens of people that I know that have crossed oceans recently, most use a simple device like an Inreach or similar.

My ocean sailing started in a time when satellite devices were prohibitively expensive. We crossed the Atlantic with no comms the first time and an SSB the second time. Herb Hillinger weather routed us on the SSB?

The reality is that once you are out there you deal with whatever weather comes your way. Sure you can slow down or speed up to miss a LP system or you can turn left a bit or right a bit. Otherwise you just carry on. Sailing outside hurricane season reduces risk of terrible weather. Trying to get more information about weather than you need to make basic decisions, is in my view, a waste of time. I have no desire to micro manage my route across an ocean.

 

[Roberto]

Also, before having the whole system ready try and get a feel about the difference between the land "Windy experience" and "the offshore email grib experience": use a normal grib viewer to vary the area size, grid interval, number of variables, etc of your requests to get about 30-40-50kb (yes, kb) files; try also 5-10kb ones, just in case. The actual size you'll manage to get depends upon the type of system you install, most download systems will give you an estimate of the final size before sending the request; with files this size you won't be very far off from what you'll see while looking ad the average grib while onboard.
It is also important to "play" and see what happens with variables: for a given file size, at times you will prefer having forecasts with higher temporal density (say +12 +18 +24 +27 etc etc) and tighter grid but a smaller area coverage, other times you might prefer a wider area coverage with coarser data, etc etc.
A number of people get to the other side of the Atlantic frustrated by not having been able to download a single grib, you then discover they queried for 500kb-1Mb files covering the whole Atlantic for 15 days...

 

[Laser310]

I think you view is probably in the minority. Of the dozens of people that I know that have crossed oceans recently, most use a simple device like an Inreach or similar.

My ocean sailing started in a time when satellite devices were prohibitively expensive. We crossed the Atlantic with no comms the first time and an SSB the second time. Herb Hillinger weather routed us on the SSB?

The reality is that once you are out there you deal with whatever weather comes your way. Sure you can slow down or speed up to miss a LP system or you can turn left a bit or right a bit. Otherwise you just carry on. Sailing outside hurricane season reduces risk of terrible weather. Trying to get more information about weather than you need to make basic decisions, is in my view, a waste of time. I have no desire to micro manage my route across an ocean.

the capabilities of the inreach are far less than those of the SSB - they shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath.

Anyway, i'm not saying you can't cross the ocean with just an inreach , and without a sat phone- of course you can.., you can also do it without a life raft, without an EPIRB...

I guess what I am saying is that regardless of whether you think you need a phone, or not.., your duty of care to your crew means that on a 15-20 day passage, you should probably have one. The standard of what's expected is not static - it moves with the times.

 

[geem]

the capabilities of the inreach are far less than those of the SSB - they shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath.

Anyway, i'm not saying you can't cross the ocean with just an inreach , and without a sat phone- of course you can.., you can also do it without a life raft, without an EPIRB...

I guess what I am saying is that regardless of whether you think you need a phone, or not.., your duty of care to your crew means that on a 15-20 day passage, you should probably have one. The standard of what's expected is not static - it moves with the times.

We have two Epirbs, two plbs, a liferaft, an SSB, an Inreach. Whats expected varies from person to person. The point I am making is that currently most people cruising find a small portable sat comms device without voice more than satisfactory for ocean crossings. Those that have converted to these devices often go on to sell their sat phone in my experience.