Communications - Keeping in Touch

Introduction

Wherever you cruise, one of the major considerations is how to keep in touch with the world you leave behind. You also need to be able to get the information you need along the way, notably weather forecasts. In this section we try to provide pointers to the various channels available, based on members' experience.

The solutions you decide to adopt will depend very much on the pattern of your cruising. Will you be cruising in home waters, keeping your boat abroad, or will you only be away from the UK for short periods? Are you 'selling up and sailing away'? Where do you plan to cruise? Will you be staying close to civilisation, or do you plan to cross oceans? Will you use marinas often, or as little as possible? What commitments do you have to family or business requiring you to keep in touch? Will you live on your boat, take extended holidays on it, or use it for weekends and annual leave? How much can you afford to spend for the sake of simplicity and convenience?

Because people's requirements vary so much, there is no one right answer, but you should find some useful pointers within the following sections.

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Communications Methods Overview

What methods do we use to communicate?

  • Land lines: If you are retaining your home, then you might still keep on your telephone service, perhaps using an answering machine
  • Mobile phone: Many cruising people rely heavily on mobile phones, but rarely use them abroad to ring people up! 'Roaming' can be very expensive, but costs can be contained by using local SIM cards. Text messages are relatively cheap. Another option is to use one of the International Pre-paid cards.
  • Mail: You will need to be able to receive paper-based (snail) mail from time to time. Consider how to do this, and what forwarding arrangements you might be able to make.
  • Internet: The internet is now increasingly important and relied upon as their major communication resource by most cruisers. Access to it may be via internet cafe, wireless internet (wifi), or via the mobile phone network. We list some of the uses made of it.
  • Radio: Radio remains a significant resource, and is relied upon as part of the GMDSS system, although ship to shore voice telephone services with the outside world are now all but dead. VHF and Navtex allow you to receive short term weather and safety traffic. Further afield SSB MF/HF radio can contribute to safety, as well as access to weather and e-mail. Many cruisers place considerable reliance on SSB, as well as for keeping in touch with others.
  • Satellite services: Inmarsat operate sattelite services as part of the GMDSS system, and might be considered for the larger yacht
  • Satellite telephone: Satellite phones (such as Iridium) now provide the ability for voice traffic when distant from land, as well as sending and receiving data, and may be viewed as an additional safety resource. While the hardware is still relatively costly, some people maintain a sattelite contract at 'reasonable' rates for this reason.

Choosing the right approach for you may seem to be difficult. By briefly covering each of these methods in turn we hope to make the choice simpler. We have drawn on the experiences of CA members and those gleaned from elsewhere. In particular, we will look at the ways in which people are accessing the internet via the mobile phone networks and through wifi.

We will list mobile phone networks by country, and some of the equipment being used. This is a rapidly changing field, both in the services and tariffs provided by the network companies, and in the development of the technology used. 

The 16-page paper produced by Ivan Andrews with and for Baltic cruisers also gives a lot of useful general  information as well as specifcally for that area, and can be downloaded here. 

The Internet

In a little over 10 years (for most people) the Internet has transformed the way people do business, obtain information, and keep in touch with each other. Cruising sailors are no exception, and it is now rare to find a cruising boat that does not have at least one computer on board. In the next section, we review the major uses made by cruisers of the internet.

It follows that the ability to access the internet economically has become an increasingly important consideration for cruisers. There are still many internet cafes around, mostly serving those who do not have their own computers, and some of these will allow customers' laptops to be directly connected to their network, or via wifi.

Internet cafes may not be easy to find, and are often noisy and so not conducive to the sustained constructive thought necessary when operating under time constraints.

Wifi

Increasingly, wherever there are tourists, some bars and hotels provide wifi access to their patrons. These are not difficult to find. Some marinas now provide internet access, either directly or via wifi. In 2009 many ports in Greece were offering 'municipal' wifi provision, either freely accessible or by password from the library, some sponsored by the EU.

While the number of wifi outlets is increasing, their performance can often be disappointing. The number of 'open' networks is diminishing as people become more security aware. In some large marinas with live aboard populations there are simply too many people trying to do too much over the wifi network. Wifi may be relatively low cost, even free, at the point of delivery, but may not always be relied upon.

The convenience of being able to use your computer on board your boat leads to an interest in the more sophisticated equipment for wifi. The laptop may itself be adequate in one part of a marina, near the antenna, but useless elsewhere when it may be screened by rigging. While widely available, these toys can vary considerably in price for performance, set up and operating convenience. We will try to encapsulate people's experience with different equipment. While directional antennae can work in a static environment, they are rarely so useful at anchor.

Mobile network connections

Since the advent of the GPRS and 3G mobile phone networks, many people have used their phones to connect their computers to the internet. Devices such as the Blackberry and Iphone have made it more practicable to connect to the internet directly, while the phone itself or a 'dongle' will act as a 'data modem' to connect a computer to the internet.

Reliable internet connections can then be obtained anywhere where there is a reasonable phone connection. We will look both at the equipment and methods you can use, and at the network providers around our European cruising waters whose business practices and charging rates differ considerably, and are constantly in a state of change.

If your style of cruising is such that you prefer to anchor or use mooring buoys, rather than stay in marinas, or to visit more remote areas, an internet connection over the mobile phone network (using GPRS/3G) may be your best option. You may need to keep in touch for business reasons, or may have come to rely on the internet as your main source of weather forecasts and other vital information.

At present the charges for 'roaming data' are extremely high, and if you are not very careful you can spend a great deal of usually unnecessary money using your home mobile when abroad. Some people are prepared to pay for convenience, and if you are prepared to restrict your usage, costs can be contained. There are some ideas for doing this at the foot of the next page.

Many cruisers choose to use a local service provider in the country they are visiting, usually on a pre-paid (pay as you go) basis. A local SIM card is purchased and used in an unlocked phone for both voice and data, or in a 'dongle'. If you are careful to choose the right network, and take advantage of the data packages on offer, costs can compare favourably with those incurred in the odd visit to a wifi bar, while at the same time being much more widely accessable and convenient.

We also consider the possibilty to use the phone as an old fashioned data modem. You simply dial up the service provider of your choice who may offer a local access number. Otherwise, when abroad, if you were to use your home network, you would incur an international call. 

Wifi or Mobile Data, then?

Wifi may be free, or limited in cost. The volume of data is not usually restricted, but time may be. However, it is usually only available in high population areas, and may not be effective and reliable. There is usually some preliminary set up (to pay for or obtain the password) which differs everywhere you go.

Mobile data, with the right deal, need not cost more than wifi, (particularly if you take into account the collateral drinks and food), but data volumes may be limited depending on the package. It is more convenient, and immediately available almost everywhere, and no special equipment is required other than a suitable mobile and laptop connection.

The answer, perhaps, is to set yourself up with both.

Marine Radio

Sometimes the question is asked: 'Why bother with Marine Radio when cell phones are so prevalent?'. Certainly, while coastal cruising, cell phones (and even sattelite phones) are one way of alerting the authorities to your situation in an emergency. However, you are communicating with someone who may not even be in the same country as you are at the time. 

Marine radio, VHF and HF, has the advantage that you are dealing directly with the nearby coastal rescue authorities.  Your position is immediately known also to surrounding shipping, and you are able to communicate with the rescue resources, lifeboat or helicopter.

Leaving such questions aside, VHF is prevalent and used for communicating with harbour authorities, and other shipping when necessary under way (AIS is a wonderful asset in this respect), and for keeping in touch with nearby sailors. 

Marine HF (SSB) radios are still in use by cruising people for keeping in touch with each other, and may be used as part of the GMDSS system in case of difficulty when further offshore. Their former role for connection to telephone services has been superceded by sattelite services, and in the UK the public services have been discontinued. If going offshore, see the Blue Water Communications page.

However, many cruising sailors do still use HF radio to access e-mail and weather forecasts.  Sailmail  (www.sailmail.com) offer a commercial service for e-mail. Many long distance sailors become amateur radio operators (HAMs) thus being able to use Winlink (www.winlink.org) to send or receive emails at no cost. E-mails, of course can include the requesting and delivery of all-important weather information using Grib files, or other delivery systems (e.g. Buoyweather).

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