Would you still live aboard?

[sailaboutvic]

Read the Hiscocks books on Wanderer. Or the Smeetons. They managed OK long distance.

We used to sail all round the Med/NW Europe in the 1980's without Internet, phones GPS, Navtex. Facebook blogs and all the other stuff. Maybe phoned relatives once every 6 weeks or sent a postcard. We were happy enough. Probably happier.

For some of us here this was very true.
Decca and RDF was a luxury , most of us couldn't afford .

 

[laika]

Mobile phones have only been commonplace for 10-15 years. I may have been lugging a ruggedised laptop around the globe for 20 years but even 10 years ago not that many people were packing one. The days of post restante, taking a year's worth of traveller's cheques (not so many as sterling went further , finding places with little booths that could patch an international phone call through to you and few people speaking english may have been last millennium but not a thousand years ago. Kept the lightweight tourists away and no annoying "gap year" kids. What was not to like?

I suspect the phone boxes in Brighton worked pretty much the same way as the ones in London did before I got a personal mobile phone so can't see it as an impediment to a living aboard

 

[ribrage]

We have been living aboard and cruising for the last 5 years but I have to say we have it easy.
Looking back at those intrepid sailors of the past who lived aboard without electronics, mobile phones, pilot books and the internet I can do nothing but admire them. They were all heroes.
Would you still live aboard and cruise without electronics or without knowing about your family back home for months on end?

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Yes absolutely - Imagine NOT having the kids on the phone every other week pleading poverty because they cant pay their £120.00 I phone 6 bill , or needing money for car insurance as they had spent all their wages on beer and spliffs, or the company calling you back early as some ones broken a nail and cant get to work - BLISS

Im happiest in a quiet little anchorage with no bloody signal !

 

[Nostrodamus]

Yes absolutely - Imagine NOT having the kids on the phone every other week pleading poverty because they cant pay their £120.00 I phone 6 bill , or needing money for car insurance as they had spent all their wages on beer and spliffs, or the company calling you back early as some ones broken a nail and cant get to work - BLISS

Im happiest in a quiet little anchorage with no bloody signal !

I am glad we are not the only ones with this problem

 

[temptress]

Yes and did so at first.

Could not afford GPS at first. So it was an Ebbco and a programmable calculator. RDF for confirmation.

Amex for letters and funds, they let you buy TCs with a personal cheque.

I did have a ham radio but used it mostly for recreational listening.

Same here except I used Diners Club - are they still around?

 

[temptress]

We left Les Aves a Venezuelan out island at night and had a total power faiure, no deck lights, no nav lights, no instruments and no engine heading to Bonaire. We could see Venus, that follows the sun, the Pole star and the Southern cross and Bonaire was due east. It is a very interestig thing do and good experience and we arrived in Bonaire and picked up a buoy under sail. I also helped deliver out boat with the new owner from Lymington to Scarboroughwithout using any GPS wapoints. It is possible to sail without any nav aids and it's fun trying it.

We sometimes do a 1 or 2 day offshore passage where we switch off all the electronics except the Depth and Log - just to make sure we can still do it. On an Ocean passage we will 'track' the passage using the sextant to keep the skills up.

 

[laika]

Same here except I used Diners Club - are they still around?

As a charge card their clientele now consists purely of pedants waiting for a shop worker to look at their proffered amex card and say "Sorry, that's the only one we don't take"