It's been a long while since we posted on our blog and we blame Facebook for that as it's so easy to post updates there. Ironically it's also Facebook who brings us back here because they have blocked satellite users from posting updates on Facebook while our blog provider still accommodates this as usual. While we can post updates on this blog, we can not read any comments, questions etc. as our link is just not fast enough for that. We do have satellite email and telephone but keep the address and number secret to limit it's use to something we can manage while underway. We will not monitor regular email nor will our cellphones work.
It has been a while since our last passage so we need to get used to everything again. Many things have changed like how we can do navigation, weather forecasting, and communications. We'll be using iPads with special apps rather than chart plotters, use computer weather models for route- and departure planning instead of dusty books and we have a new Iridium Go satellite communicator aboard.
I just activated one of the new features which is a GPS tracker. You can find a button that looks like a colorful map in the left margin. If you click that, you get a page that shows where we are, what kind of weather we have and the messages we're sending out, like this:
Here is a direct link to that page (or click on the button in the left margin): https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Jedi In the upper right corner is the GPS tracker box, listing our position, course and speed and the date and time of the last update (we currently send updates every hour). Below that are messages that we send out. When you move around the map you see a popup with the weather conditions at that spot. This is much how we receive our weather forecasts for days ahead, which projects our boat onto the future locations as estimated by the computer routing module. All this is offered by PredictWind and delivered to us over the satellite link. We can include low resolution pictures in those messages as well.
Aboard we're now tying up the last loose ends and prepping for sea. We will do a short shakedown cruise to Portobelo first and stop there for some last minute fixes, shopping and completing formalities with immigration, customs and port captain.
Recent Comments