I can not even begin to tell you the tangle of wires and pile of contraptions that I have accumulated on this boat trying to get useable wifi signals in the last 10 years. I’ve done better than a lot of boats, but in the past 5 years I just assumed it was the lack of maintenance of the routers ashore, and the general infrastructure that supports wifi, that was toppling to extinction. I thought the world had converted to 3G and 4G cellular devices, and wifi was just a rusty relic in my bilge.
I asked friends all over the world if they were experiencing the same thing. And guess what, wifi is still alive and well, and improving all the time, the world over. There is no good reason to stop chasing the wifi signals because they are most often your least expensive option, not to mention your only hope of a signal at all. Some countries are even starting to limit who can have a SIM card, and it may not be as easy going forward, for cruisers to even obtain SIM cards! I find that so hard to believe, but rather find out the hard way, I decided to get a good rig up, and the bad gear off the boat, once and for all.
I have a wifi hotspot with a SIM card in it. I am embarrassed to tell you how much money I lose when I go over my limit; money flies out of my wallet keeping this topped up.
What a gorgeous piece of hardware! This morning, the only signal any of my devices could see, with my best rig up, was the marina’s wifi. It could not hold the signal long enough to actually bring up a page. There were 1-2 bars of signal strength.
Eager to start saving money, and approaching another plan end…I did a temporary install of this Extender, and found it very easy to set up on our horizontal Bimini bar. Within 10 minutes, I had 25 signals showing. Now, the marina signal was not just useable, but lightening fast.
What’s nice about this device too, is that once I activate the built in firewall and service, I can be sure that my computer won’t do automatic updates, or that running background apps won’t suck down the data while I am attached to expensive wifi or 3G/4G data plans, never mind my Inmarsat satellite phone. I have all but decided to sell my Inmarsat Isatphone Pro since every time I have used that for data, I’ve run my data out before I’ve even gotten the weather or my emails while at sea.
If anyone wants a bundle of wifi devices, come’n get em…free for the taking. I will likely be replacing my Inmarsat IsatphonePro sat phone with an Iridium GO, so if anyone wants a good deal on a an Inmarsat Isatphone Pro, let me know that too. It has the latest firmware with it, and a data connection kit.
The view from the top of Koh Phi Phi, an island in north west Thailand, of course does not tell the whole story. Even at the lower elevations it is quite a nice island. I cannot believe the number of people who take ferry boats from the mainland to inundate the island each day. On Phi Phi, there are backpacker rooms and very expensive resorts to stay
Brick House is in the middle near the wall. It is normally spelled Phi Phi but pronounced pee pee. It is a long haul to the top.in. For the most part, I would say it is quite the party town. It is not my favorite place for a vacation though. My top pick would go to Playa Conchal on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is a Malia operated hotel meaning, the freestanding bungalows are very nice and very expensive. There are less expensive places, on the beach, to stay in the area. But at Playa Conchal they have the largest swimming pool in central and south America. You can swim from oasis to oasis for yet another pina colada. Plus, Mt. Arenal, an active volcano is a good day trip from Playa Conchal, horseback riding on the beach, rain forest trips and great bill fishing off the white beach. Eastern Fiji, cruising on a big old wooden tourist sailboat is another top pick. Fiji has waterfalls, clear water on the reefs, the nicest natives in all the Pacific. Paradisio in the Dominican Republic is a great spot. It is an all inclusive and very importantly they have the beach toys, wind surfers, Hobi-cats etc. on the beach at no extra charge and lots of entertainment at night. Club Me does a good job. Club Med “Columbus Isle” which is actually the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, where Columbus first landed. They have more than beach toys, SCUBA in clear water, sailboat races, entertainment in the evenings a lot of activities included in the price. Who wants to go on an expensive vacation and just lay on a beach? There needs to be options. Club Med in the Turks & Caicos, which is in the southeastern Bahamas, is another good one. If someone from the U.S. really wanted to go on vacation to Thailand, I would suggest the island of Koh Chang (Island Elephant) in the Gulf of Thailand. The ocean water is not clear for snorkeling but good for swimming. On land they have the tourist elephants, at least 4 waterfalls, one of which you will most likely have to yourself via motorcycle and trips to nearby islands, the party scene or the more quiet out of the way places to stay.
This is morning and most tourists are sleeping in with headaches. Beach buckets for the big kids. The dudes are on the prowl. Amazing, no tattoos….yet.
The chicks are on the prowl…. How great to watch a tough, inebriated, tourist dude take on the pros!
This unfortunate tourist was on a motorcycle taxi on the second day of her 2 month vacation in Thailand. The driver missed a turn. He stayed in the hospital while she has severe road rash but nothing broken or sprained. But no going in the infectious ocean for a couple of weeks.
You can imagine how poor the reef life is if a dive operation highlights the sighting of “plankton” as a reason to go into the water! The west side of Koh Phi Phi, few tourists see, as we sail away.
The boat that accosted us was like this one but much larger.
“Rebecca, QUICK, I need another flare from the hanging locker!”
The jib alone was just barely pulling Brick House southward at a pace slower than a lame lamb, but there was no hurry, we were saving diesel fuel. The south west coast of Vietnam was 100 miles to our east and the coast of Thailand, 125 miles to the west. Here at the southern edge of the Gulf of Thailand, the hundreds of traditional wood fishing boats have thinned to a very few.
From several miles away I monitored our approach to a group of three anchored, fishing boats. Depending on the type of fishing they do, some boats anchor during the day and fish at night.
With the slight wind out of the north west, I adjusted the Monitor self steering to sail a safe quarter mile off their sterns, so to pass the boats on our starboard.
As Brick house slipped by, I could see that the 65 foot long mother ship had the two smaller fishing boats tied by lines, streaming off its stern.
But soon there was a puff of black smoke from the mother ship and the boats began to move in a counter clockwise circle. This soon put them on a perfect broadside collision course with Brick House.
There were at least four fishermen on the forward deck of the mother ship who were watching closely as our tracks converged. There were no friendly smiles or hand waves. Shining my high intensity green laser at the people on deck and at the wheelhouse did nothing to persuade them to change their course.
The mother ship was straining from its tow causing it to list hard to starboard as it struggled to turn into us and narrow the distance. In the fluid maneuvering, they had now set up an approach to bring their port to come along our starboard side.
One towed boat was actually attached to a long line fastened forward of their port midship and, possibly because its rudder was turned, was being thrown out to the side like a water skier in a turn. If they continued what looked like a docking maneuver, or if Brick House slowed down, that tow line would soon rake into our backstay creating all sorts of havoc.
Quickly, I hit the starter key on our diesel and throttled up. This lamb suddenly shed its sheepish coat. Certainly these guys were out to cause us harm. It was a very serious chase in slow motion like a conch after a sea urchin.
Because of the drag of their tow, we held our slim distance, but then very slowly we pulled further ahead. This gave me time to have Rebecca hand me an expired parachute flare. With our boat on autopilot, I pressed my legs against the stern rail for support.
Aiming the parachute flare, I pulled the safety pin and let the hammer mechanism fly. Nothing; the expired flare was a total dud. I dropped it into the ocean to insure it did not decide to ignite unexpectedly.
We had one more flare close at hand. Quickly the end caps were unwrapped, I then aimed toward the boat which was following behind and pulled the trigger.
There was a loud kabang, that rung Rebecca’s ears and sent our ships cat flying to shake in a dark bunk. An eight foot diameter explosion of gray smoke obscured the stern of Brick House. The recoil was not much in my left hand but the disappointment was great. Holding the flare slightly higher than horizontal, the drop rate was so great, the flare only went 50 feet before boring into the sea. It needed to fly an additional 100 feet to hit where I hoped. But the effect put a smile on my face. The pirates on the foredeck went running to the wheelhouse and, at the same moment, all forward movement of the fishing boat stopped.
I would loved to have fired another flare landing it with greater accuracy but our supply is very limited, plus, what if they decided to ignore the warning, drop the drag of their tows and come after us again? We had to think ammo conservation.
We continued to quickly motor sail south. Rebecca kept a binocular watch on the fishing boats. It was a relief to see them circle into the wind and reanchor as they had been a short time before.
And all was back to normal.
LESSONS LEARNED
There is a superstition among fishermen in S.E. Asian countries that a fishing boat can wipe away bad fishing luck by passing close across the bow of another moving vessel. Cruising sailboats become an easy mark for this dangerous maneuver. To dissuade boats I shine a powerful green laser light at the wheelhouse. Four out of four fishing boats hit with my laser made an abrupt turn, figuring it would be better luck to pass astern of our sailboat.
Our 1,000mW laser is far more effective than a mere 5mW “pointer” . There are 5,000mW lasers that can set fire to combustibles 18 inches away.
When the pirate mother ship picked up anchor and maneuvered in our direction, it became obvious they could not reach us in time to pass across our bow so I assumed they would turn to cross our stern. All my innocent misunderstandings of their true intentions allowed the tense situation to suddenly develop. As they tried to come alongside, it was immediately more important to avoid a collision.
With that problem solved, the priority became protecting ourselves and stopping the pirates in their pursuit. If we had a gun on board, a couple of shots across their deck or into the wheelhouse would certainly have scared them away. If these pirates were able to gain a proximity so close they would then board our boat, that becomes quite a
different level of anxiety and heightened defense on our part.
The Gulf of Thailand is not known to be a “pirate” area. In hindsight, these were fishermen who became pirates of opportunity and did not appear armed. If someone in our situation decided to wound or kill these unarmed pirates, while they were still on their own boat and someone was left in condition enough to tell what happened, there could be serious consequences awaiting the cruiser in their next port.
It is not unusual for victims in many countries to then become the criminal for defending themselves with excessive force. Plus, it is highly illegal to possess firearms in many countries.
In our situation, what if I had burned their boat or harmed these pirates with my flares and they were able to claim to officials they were simply having mechanical problems with their steering, or they wanted to sell us fish? I do not want to deal with corrupt foreign court systems and predatory lawyers. Our goal was to stop the piracy without causing further problems for ourselves. We could ratchet up our defense as needed. Hopefully these pirates have gone away learning that not all sailboats are easy targets.
There are known pirate areas like the waters between the south eastern Philippines and the north east coast of Borneo. If a high speed powerboat full of men, in dark T-shirts with the word “Police” across the chest, approaches a cruising boat in this area, a cruisers best option is to immediately cut loose with rocket propelled grenades.
Waiting for clarity in these waters can prove disastrous as it has for the crew of commercial shipping and cruisers. This past November, a German couple were attacked on their sailboat. The wife was killed and the husband who was held for ransom was then beheaded. Such attacks have become a pattern. Obviously, most cruisers find it prudent to steer wide of known pirate areas.
Using a yacht’s distress signaling equipment, like flares, to ward off the bad guys, has proven effective for a number of world roaming cruisers. Twelve gauge, pistol-fired flares like the orange colored Orion flare launcher will fly 90 meters with the proper trajectory. These flares will burn underwater so if one should land on the deck of a boat, it cannot be easily extinguished.
Parachute flares launched from a tube can fly 300 meters. In a defensive situation, the first flare launched should have a trajectory of 45 degrees for ranging purposes.
The expired handheld flares used in our pirate encounter expired on February 1996. So far, we have a 50 percent failure rate with that vintage. In a tense situation, to pull the pin on a flare being gripped in your hand, only to have nothing happen, is a real “Oh sh..” moment.
What a gorgeous piece of hardware! This morning, the only signal any of my devices could see, with my best rig up, was the marina’s wifi. It could not hold the signal long enough to actually bring up a page. There were 1-2 bars of signal strength.
