When we are at sea in the Pacific, our only means of communication will be by high seas radio (Single Sideband HF), which we use to get weather faxes, and on occasion use to phone home or in an emergency. On our first world cruise, we also used it for email, but it was extremely slow and limited. Since then, the availability of cell phone coverage and Internet cafes in most of the places we will visit, makes using the radio less necessary for email. In fact, we're finding WI-FI is available now in many harbors in the Great Lakes and the Caribbean and we're hoping that it will become more common in ports we visit in the future.
If we are within 20 miles or so of another boat or a port, we can also use our regular marine radio (VHF), and for this trip, in and around most islands, we may have cell phone coverage.
We also carry a satellite phone (Globalstar) that we can use for voice calls while we are around the Caribbean and once we get to Fiji and on to Australia, but it is expensive and we don't always get a good signal. In at least parts of the Caribbean, we can also use it for Internet access and we're hoping it will also work for the Internet when we get to New Zealand and Australia, but again, our connections are slow. Unlike Iridium and Inmarsat satellite systems, Globalstar doesn't provide coverage in the middle of the Pacific, but is faster and less expensive elsewhere.
We have set up a separate email address for friends to use to contact us, which we are more likely to be able to access in remote locations. We ask that messages be kept short, please don't include previous emails in a reply, and please don't add attachments. That email address is shown below (This is a graphic, you need to type in the address manually. We are showing it this way to avoid getting spam).
We do look forward to receiving email, including feedback on our website.
The above picture is of our nav station prior to upgrading. We now have a SEA SSB HF radio, a Uniden VHF radio with wireless remote microphone at the helm, an ICOM handheld VHF radio (plus spare ICOM and SEA VHF radios). We have two permanent Furuno GPS navigation receivers, plus a handheld Garmin GPS, two Furuno Navnet Radar/Plotter displays (one here, plus one on deck) that are networked to our other instruments. These provide boat speed, depth, postion and water temperature information color and black & white displays
Our marine instrumentation from Brooks and Gatehouse (B&G) also provides depth, boat speed, wind information, heading and other information, plus data from our GPS to five separate multifunction displays (one at nav station, one in master stateroom, three on deck). We also have a B&G autopilot.
Just because we know that all of these systems are subject to failure, we carry a large supplies of spares, including a complete backup autopilot system, displays, and even a third depth sounder. More for entertainment and education than for anything else, we also carry a sextant to use for celestial navigation.