This give us a few new capabilities such as easier comms through email and the ability to send and receive text messages at sea. We will continue to use Sailmail for our emails so that we have redundancy (we can use the HF radio, the Go or internet to connect through Sailmail) and as the Iridium Mail app is not user friendly. For people sending us emails a reminder that we are still operating at 2.4 kb/s or about 1/20th the speed of old 56 k dialup (or 1/800th the speed of broadband).
A new capability is automatic tracking: you can use this link to see where we have been. It works automatically as long as I have the unit turned on.
Various programs work with the Go and one of the ones we are most keen to trial is the Predictwind Offshore app. More to follow as we gain experience with this tool.
We will continue to use the Yachts in Transit site on an occasional basis as we can add comments and weather data as well as because the authors of the site provide weather advice to the cruising fleet. David and Patricia provide an amazing service to the fleet with their daily weather discussion.
As in previous years, a reminder that if you notice that the tracking is not working to do not revert to "panic stations". There are all sorts of technical and operator issues that could cause the systems to not work. If we do have an actual emergency we will activate the EPIRB or PLB(s), use the SOS buttons on the Go or Iridium Satphone and/or call RCC directly.
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| A screeenshot of the Predictwind site. Not a lot of exciting sailing the last few days. |
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| A screenshot of the YIT page |
Fab can't wait to see what you think of it and the Predict Wind app. We have been interested in this too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Vikki. Lots written about the Go and Predictwind. Some positive and some negative but for us (lot of time off the internet with homeschooling and a fair amount of passagemaking the upcoming 18 months) it seems to make sense. Relatively easy to install except for the insanely stiff antenna cable with a huge coax connector but the plethora of Iridium and PW apps. A lot of perception of success also depends on the expectations - for us coming from being dependent on the SSB it should be an improvment. If people are expecting broadband speeds they will be disappointed. Max
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