Communication Solution

Our latest learning came courtesy of our neighbor and good friend, Mark Williams. Mark stopped by Saturday morning to compare notes on our cruising preparations. Mark is planning to begin a circumnaviation aboard Empirical, his Hallberg-Rassy 43, beginning in July 2011.

The first topic of discussion concerned accessing weather information, a top priority communication issue when cruising. John Neal, Mahina Tiare III skipper, taught me the easiest way to get user-friendly weather reports over the Internet -- GRIB files -- during my training cruise with him last year. So I was already a bit familiar with going online to download and view GRIB files. The trick appears to be coming up with redundant means of getting GRIB files while cruising.

Our initial plan is to access wifi Internet networks when near shore and to receive GRIB files via emails from sailmail.com over our SSB radio when at sea. Mark helped us by letting us know about WaveRV as a good source for a wifi antennae so we can access the wifi networks from our boat when anchored or moored near shore rather than toting our laptop closer to the network server. He uses one of the WaveRV antennae aboard Empirical, his HR43, and says it works like a charm.

Using the SSB to access email appears a bit more dicey. We won't know how that will work until we get a little experience working with our Icom SSB radio we're ordered for Windleblo.

We also talked at length about using the MacBook Pro laptop as a cruising tool. He has recently bought and set up a new MacBook Pro, and we plan to use the one I bought Jocelyn a year or so ago to support our cruise.

We continue to climb the learning curve.