Communication Evolution on Brick House : Iridium GO! Predictwind!

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Communication Evolution on Brick House : Iridium GO! Predictwind!

My latest article in Ocean Navigator Magazine reprinted below. See the  Original Article at Ocean Navigator..  

Communication on our Valiant 40, Brick House, was once limited to a few methods. The most basic was the very high frequency (VHF) radio used for short-range communications to other boats and shoreside facilities. Single sideband (SSB) radio chat nets were used while underway and from remote anchorages to talk to cruisers at distances over the horizon.

The SSB radio, coupled with a device called a Pactor modem gave us the ability to send and receive text email messages through the software services SailMail and Winlink when the atmospheric propagation was agreeable. We had to train friends and family to keep messages short and without attachments that could easily overwhelm the delicate pipeline of radio waves. Sometimes in port, a hotel or yacht club would offer Wi-Fi, which would be usable on board if we could anchor close enough to the signal. Eventually we installed a Redport Long Distance Wi-Fi Extender on the stern arch so we didn’t have to anchor nearly on the beach.

The SSB was once the primary long-range communications device. Life on board was dictated by propagation tables that spelled out optimum connection times, calculated by the state of the ionosphere, and the distance between stations. Happy hours and barbecues were abruptly interrupted as cruisers raced back to not miss checking into SSB nets or for their turn at being net controller, while others jockeyed for their turn at modem connections.

To make sure both SSB/Pactor and voice communications worked reliably, monthly maintenance demanded copious cleaning of corrosion between the antenna, ground connections, tuner, radio and modem. But in those not-so-primitive times, it was our only option.

Brick House’s radio gear: an HF SSB, a PACTOR radio modem and a VHF.

Growth of cellular
Over time, cellphone connectivity became more accessible because a forest of cell towers went up everywhere, even in the remote islands of Fiji. Competition drove prices down. Natives who lived in thatch huts would row up in rough carved canoes, handing their phones over, asking for a battery charge. At times, we had adventures hiking to a high pinnacle to get a signal from a tower on the next distant island.

In cruising Southeast Asia, we found cellular Internet had become even easier and less expensive. Communication between cruisers, businesses and those half a world away took a big leap forward. Our smartphone became a Wi-Fi hot spot for connectivity on board and the Internet handled all communications. The VHF, SSB and Pactor began collecting dust and rust.

Though Internet had become more accessible, there was often a learning curve to understanding the system in each country. Smartphones in the U.S. are often sold as “locked,” but cellphones internationally are mostly sold as “unlocked” and can use SIM cards from any country, costing only a dollar or two. Now upon arrival to a new country, it has become top priority to visit a cellphone store with phone and required passport so that we can leave with connectivity pronto.

We needed then, to learn how to put more “load” or “credit” on the phone — usually with scratch cards or by visiting almost any store — and then learn how to buy an Internet plan, usually by punching a series of numbers and pound signs into the phone. Every country has slightly different procedures and little gotchas to learn so as to preserve your data. In the past year, in almost every country we visit now, they have even come out with apps to automate the whole process.

The Childresses’ boat is also equipped with an Iridium GO!

For more information and to Buy  the Iridium GO,  Click here…

For the external antenna I recommend for the Iridium GO, Click here
The Weather Program we recommend:Weather

From an energized cellphone, the beeps and dings of Messenger, WhatsApp and email notifications fill the air on board. The notifications are usually from other cruisers, so leaving the annoying VHF turned on and listening to endless impertinent VHF chatter is a thing of the past. SSB nets began their decline in Southeast Asia simply because everyone was connected by cellular, and SSB radios faded away for all but the most dedicated operators. Cellular remains the number-one most utilized communication method in port and for coastal sailing.

But when the Indian Ocean loomed on the horizon, it was time to get suited back up for long-distance remote connectivity. First, I should say, for a while in the remote Pacific, we did have an Inmarsat satphone on board in case of an emergency. It was such an expensive communication device to operate, full of billing surprises, so we hardly used it. We knew this would not be an ideal way to cross the Indian Ocean, being reluctant to use it to get weather reports for extended intervals. We then made the single most drastic change that we have ever made to how Brick House communicates: We sold the Inmarsat satphone to help pay for our new communication system, an Iridium GO Marine Package from PredictWind. This is robust satellite communications.

Switching to satcom
We no longer use the SSB radio/Pactor setup for email or weather — ever. It has nearly gone the way of the cassette player or radio direction finder. We still maintain the SSB, however, just in case. If I were to put money into a backup system now, it would be to have a second Iridium GO. A cruising friend did exactly that but sold it three years later because the original one just never skipped a beat.

The installation of the Iridium GO was like any other electronic device: a 12-volt power source and an antenna on the stern arch. We mounted the antenna as high on the arch as possible to have a clear view to the Iridium satellites, and above the radar dome more than 6 feet from the wind generator to avoid physical and electronic interference. We had to empty lockers to clear the way to snake a rather monstrous cable through small holes without bending it. We permanently mounted the Iridium GO’s gray box near the chart table in a position that would not be in direct sunlight, not incur accidental splashes or bumps, and most importantly would receive a steady GPS position. The small hinged antenna on the unit not only turns the unit on but gets the GPS position as well — just not the Iridium satellites when the external antenna is attached. Many cruisers who don’t have the external antenna have to take the gray box outside and hope it doesn’t fall in order to get a semi-acceptable transmission.

The Childresses use Xgate to manage their email usage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GO ships with a common automotive 12-volt plug for power. Since the GO is powered via a common USB mini-B five-pin connector, I took the automotive plug side off and hardwired it in to a Wagan smart USB charger. This device is powered via 12V, and then steps down and autosenses the amperage needed to safely charge each device that is plugged in to its four USB outlets, providing up to 9.6 amps. I installed a manual one-hour timer in the circuit so I can wind it up to charge, and then it automatically shuts down to prevent constant powering of the sensitive batteries.

It’s very important to update the firmware upon receiving the unit and watch for subsequent updates, as well as obtain updates for the GO software used on the devices. There appears to be nothing more to maintain aside from keeping the electrical connections tight and corrosion free.

With the Iridium GO and PredictWind’s no-contract unlimited data plan, we have easy access to impressively accurate forecasts using Predictwind Offshore. We are able to send and receive our emails as many times a day as we wish, at any time, in any weather, along with texts to our friends and other Iridium users. We have 150 minutes a month of actual phone calls. So now we can communicate anywhere in the world, anytime, whether it be with family or businesses here, or in the next country for marina reservations, to order needed parts or for technical support to keep our boat operating. We can even get a webpage if we don’t mind waiting. The system is somewhat expensive at $139 per month with an initial setup cost of approximately $1,000, but for someone with business interests, the system could quickly pay for itself by nipping a problem in the bud. And, of course, this is a tremendous emergency communication device.

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Email considerations
Our email setup with the Iridium GO software is a little more complex than many users’ setup due to the volume of emails that we get, which is easily in the hundreds every day. Some people have an “at sea” address and an “on land” address, but we have just one primary email address that covers land and sea so we never miss an email.

The Redport Long Distance WiFi Optimizer (The inside unit) This is then connected to an antenna that sits on the stern arch, which is included with the unit.

First, I will tell you the two requirements that led to having the complexity (yet the simplicity) of just one email address.

  1. I could not afford to miss a single email, large or small, because of having two email addresses, and I needed to have full capabilities on both my tablet and laptop whether at sea or on land.

  2. I planned to shut off the GO service when I was in port, yet I needed to access/send/receive all emails that I had access to while at sea and continue to have that access on land — and vice versa. I needed one application on all devices to send and receive email from anywhere.

The solution? XGate software was installed on my iPad, smartphone and laptop. XGate does it all: connecting to the Iridium GO, the SSB/Pactor or to regular Internet, accessing all of my email and keeping it synced between devices. I can access both new and old emails on any of the devices in the same application with any kind of connection, on land or at sea.

I have all of my email forwarded to my XGate account  — not my Iridium Mail account — and XGate then automatically transmits the short emails. It then sends a list of “large” emails to a folder called “BigMail” (in my case, I chose “large” to be larger than 30kb). I can then decide from that folder which emails I want to receive. I can do this from any device with any connection. I also set up a number of keyword filters to eliminate email that I don’t want at sea, such as Facebook notifications or Dell computer sales.

XGate email management options allow Childress to set the inbound email cutoff size and to mass delete emails.

Note: Some systems, like Yahoo, do not allow forwarding of all emails, and fetching is not recommended in most situations. I will provide a more technical explanation and solution to this scenario on my blog at www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com.

Unless you plan to leave the Iridium GO activated for long stays in port and use it regularly, you cannot access email in the Iridium Mail app or online since it’s only accessible by satellite. XGate not only makes my mail accessible by satellite or Internet, but it does it all in the same application. If two months of email are allowed to get backed up in an Iridium Mail address that can only be retrieved by satellite, there will be a problem. Iridium Mail offers no tools to remedy this case or any other problem, and Iridium offers no technical support, help line or contact information. Using XGate, however, I can simply boot up the laptop where heavy-duty XGate tools reside, and many of the problems are resolved. Reparation at sea becomes quite plausible. There is even a human being on the other end of the phone or email to help since GMN, the makers of XGate, are actual human beings standing by to help. And, of course,  support is second to none, though your Iridium Mailbox is not accessible to them either.

There was something salty about the old days of anticipating a chat session with other cruisers on a schedule over the SSB and having little, if any, email at sea — just simple solitude. Sadly, everyone now seems to be glued to their cellphones, on the boat and on land. Cruisers sit at the yacht club, sipping wine, overlooking the anchorage, and all of them are staring at a screen. Maybe they are in a trance, gazing at my husband Patrick’s YouTube Channel.

Rebecca Childress and her husband Patrick Childress, have a long history of sailing behind them, but most recently they have been cruising the world for 12 years and are in Tanzania en route to South Africa, on their 1976 Valiant 40 Brick House. In addition to their long-standing blog at www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com, Patrick has started a new YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/PatrickChildress.

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Ocean Navigator

 

Indian Ocean Crossing, The Preparation

 

What I did to make my SSB Radio and Pactor Modem work properly…more than 11 years ago…

Magazine Articles by Patrick Childress/Rebecca Childress in Sailing Publications

 

 

Rudder Lost Mid Pacific- FLASHBACK to Avatar 2009

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Rudder Lost Mid Pacific

We began our approach from seaward to the infamous pass at Mopelia, otherwise known as Maupihha, about 130 miles west of Bora Bora, still part of French Polynesia, somewhat nervously. Well 50% nervously….Rebecca being the nervous half. The channel into Mopilia is the narrowest, about 45′ wide, and can have the highest velocity of outflow of any pass in the South Pacific. All the ocean waves washing over the barrier reefs of the atoll have no where to go but out this single channel.

The wind had shifted out of the traditional south east and now blew from the north. Waves rolled towards the pass then raised up and tripped when hit by the out flowing current. The conditions would quickly become more turbulent the longer the wind blew from the north. This was serious eyeball navigation. Reefs on port and starboard, a turbulent river of water in between. There is one white post at the seaward edge of the pass and another further into the lagoon. We had set the stay sail and sheeted it in tight to help slow the roll of the boat in the rough water ahead. The sail would give some effort to overcome the strong current. With the engine in gear, we had to approach from just the right angle, through breaking waves. Just as we started in to the waves, I smelled rubber burning, and Patrick concurred. At the last possible moment to turn out of or approach we quickly turned the boat around to be slapped broadside by rolling waves and we worked our back to open water. Climbing into the egine compartment, as Patrick suspected, the alternator belt had worn through. We installed a new PowerMax alternator from Hamilton Ferris which has exceeded the output of our previous 150 amp alternator, but at the expense of having to over tighten the belts. To get a higher alternator output at a slower engine RPM they use a smaller pulley which puts a larger load on the engine and the single fan belt. So he removed the belt and installed and tightened a new one as I sailed the boat back and forth in front of the pass. We spent a good half hour motoring around outside the pass to break in the belt and make sure it wouldn’t loosen up and cause problems through this pass. The guide book to Mopelia says the pass can have up to a 9 knot current. It would be impossible to turn around in pass once you are in it and not to enter it in a northwest wind- we had a north wind with an increasingly western tilt to it, so we were on the edge of not being able to go in. Every minute we spent breaking in the new belt brought more turmoil to the pass putting us closer to impassible conditions. .

When Patrick felt the new belt was OK, we made another approach to the pass.. with staysail up, engine gauge needles on their green settings, we were committed. Patrick could not take his eyes off of the washing machine waters in front of him for even a second to look at the engine RPMs. It took continual and hard twists of the wheel to keep us on course. I read the numbers to him when he needed it. A wave picked us up and surfed Brick House towards the narrow slot in the reef. More throttle, more RPMs more noise from the engine and commotion surrounding us. We needed even more power to fight the four knot current, let the staysail out to catch the following wind. I ran back and forth to the Link 2000 monitor to make sure the alternator was still pumping in amps, signifying that the belt was remaining intact. Whenever I stopped to look ahead or to the side of Brick House, tears welled up in my eyes, with complete fear of what I saw. Coral on both sides of the boat, close enough to touch with a boat pole, current rushing by, speed over ground 2 knots as the engine roared louder than we have ever pushed it, and a big wave slapped into the cockpit. Yikes! Before we knew it, we were out of the ocean torrent and struggling in flat water against the current. Quick decisions had to be made to go around a number of coral patches and heads. It all looked incredibly shallow, although 10 feet was the smallest number flashed on the depth sounder. Slowly we escaped the grip of the current and the water became much deeper. We motored a few miles to the northern part of the atoll to get the best protection from the wind and waves. Three other boats congratulated us on our arrival. It was hours before my stomach settled down from that one! The other boats had arrived only an hour ahead of us but in that hour the conditions at the pass had greatly deteriorated.

Later that afternoon we took a dinghy ride around to see what the snorkeling was like. We didn’t find a lot of life inside the lagoon unfortunately….which was why we came here in the first place. The next day, we joined Nick and Marlene on the yacht Content to dinghy out to the pass and do a drift snorkel through it. When I saw the pass again, even though it had calmed down some, I chickened out…I wasn’t ready to face it again. I stayed in one of the dinghys, anchored in the lagoon and waited for the others to do their death drift. Even inside the lagoon the current rushed by so feverishly that one of the snorkelers almost got hurt when swept going from one dinghy to the other dinghy. I prayed the anchor would hold while I waited for them. Within seconds they had drifted through the pass and were out at the breaking waves. I feared for their lives as I watched. If the dinghy was not aimed into the waves as they held onto the sides, the dinghy could easily be flipped over. But they spent a lot of time out there, diving on the outside reef…I began to regret that maybe I was missing something fantastic that Id regret. I was relieved when they came back and said that there was very little to see.

On shore, the only inhabitants were pigs, lots of them. They were not friendly but did keep a distance even when we tossed opened coconuts to them. A hurricane had hit this atoll in 2000 leaving only shells of a few houses standing.

A few days later the 20 knot wind shifted to the south east. We picked up anchor and moved down to the southeast corner of the atoll to take up protection behind the long island. The yachts Bravado, Content and one other sailed out the atoll with the wind shift. We found 2 more boats in the southeast corner, both of whom are French citizens who cruise here in French Polynesia for 6 months every year. They were here in Mopelia for several weeks and had been here in previous years. They were waiting for a favorable wind to blow them in the direction of Raitea where they would be hauled out till their next season of sailing.

Landing our dinghy on the sand beach, we met an older man, Taputu Kalami, and a younger man who seemed to be a hired helper. On this day 5 people live on this atoll- so we met 40% of the population!

Listening to the morning cruisers Coconut Net on the single side band radio, we had learned that the 37′ Swiss flagged yacht, Avatar drifting 200 miles west of Mopelia had lost its rudder and was hoping that someone could deliver 6 two by fours so they could build an emergency rudder system. Looking up each word in the French dictionary, we wrote a not explaining the disabled yachts problem and the wood they needed. Taputu was very concerned and took apart the roof of his copra shed to supply the wood! From the bottom of an old bucket they even dug out nails for us to bring to the yacht Avatar! We spent the rest of the day hanging out with them on their island. We asked about the pigs that we had seen on the north part of the island. They explained that there is more for the pigs to eat up on the north part of the island so they let them roam up there rather than trying to keep them near their home in the south. Twice a week they go up to split open fallen coconuts for them, and they were going soon up the narrow coral trail; would we like to come? SO we rode in their pickup truck with them, with all the windows down – the exhaust pipe was broken! We bumped our way past blown over homes and other obvious hurricane destruction. We passed the one other family living on the island, husband, wife and a child. When it started raining everyone rolled up the windows and held our breaths!

After feeding the pigs, they took us to a great windswept, waveswept beach, on the east side, filled with polished rocks and shells. I found a beautiful shiny cowry shell and when I showed my enthusiasm about it, one of the men presented me with an even nicer bigger one as a present. It was very endearing to see these 2 grown men combing for polished rocks and being so enthusiastic when they found a nice addition to their collection. Then that night, they invited us to their home for dinner, I brought salad, and crackers with dip. They made unbelievable chicken curry and coconut crabs, along with white sticky rice. It was a feast. They also loved the TANG I brought. Dining at their simple wooden table, with cement floor and single exposed light bulb hanging from the wiring from the solar charged battery was pretty amazing. They don’t have refrigeration, so the chicken must have been just recently butchered…I hope. Some gifts were exchanged and we signed their thick visitor book, and said our goodbyes and thank yous. We left in the dark that night, as they explained that they wouldn’t be here the next day before we departed- they were going to work the coconut trees at on the north of the island at 5am.

At 8am the next morning, with Avatar’s repair lumber strapped to the side deck of Brick House, we picked up anchor and made our way around the abandoned pearl farm buoys, out to the pass. That terrible pass awaited us in strong south easterly winds of about 20 -25 knots. Surprisingly, with the wind from the south east, the pass was completely benign with no standing waves at all outside of it, and about a 2 knot current to help move us through. We laughed as we went out, talking about how we really probably shouldn’t have come in during those north winds…that this was such a pleasant departure!

SO destination from Mopelia is the moving target Avatar – 237 miles to our west. The winds were 20 -25 but the GRIBS weather reports showed that the wind would be decreasing as we got closer to Avatar. The wind actually died a little sooner, and we motored quite a bit to get to them before the wind would pick up again and make the transfer of materials too difficult. When we were about 40 miles away, we stopped motoring and sailed slowly to meet up with them at sunrise.

Sunrise found us with huge swells but no waves and little wind. We circled around Avatar trailing the first piece of lumber on a long rope as though towing a water skier. When they had the first piece of lumber in hand, we then kept the boats a safe distance from each other and quickly transferred piece by piece the 7 pieces of lumber. Then we edged the boats a little bit closer to pass over the bag of nails. Mistake. The bag nicked something on Avatar and landed in the water and slowly sunk. Patrick dove in, but without fins he could not swim fast enough to catch up with the bag and it was lost to the great depths.

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Patrick and Beat swam back and forth between the boats with additional parts that may help with the repair, and to discuss the options. Beat had put a lot of thought in to the design and was fairly set on how he would make and attach this rudder. The one flaw we both saw with the system was that he had made the rudder out of a spinnaker pole and a tabletop. Running poles are made for compression loading not side loading.

We drifted for hours near Avatar while Beat and his wife Lola assembled their new rudder. We also rummaged through our boat looking for anything which might be useful to Avatars situation. But Beat had a definite thought out plan on how to strap his makeshift rudder to the starboard quarter of Avatar. By afternoon the assembly was finished and ready for testing. We agreed to sail along side of him until he felt it was going to work for him. After a few hours of sailing with him slowly, and both Beat and Lola taking turns getting to know their new steering system, they encouraged us to leave them be, it was working well. They had even figured out a way to make it so they could steer from the cockpit instead of leaning over the gunwale to steer. They were pretty happy when we left them, as well as having plenty of water and food for the long slow voyage ahead of them to American Samoa- more than 800 miles to their west. If nothing else, Drifting would get them there. If the wind was more than 15, their plan was to dismantle and take the rudder up in to the cockpit, because they didn’t feel that the rudder would take weather any heavier than about 15 knots. It was blowing 10 when we left them.

Later than evening, the wind picked up to 15, maybe even 20. We heard the next morning that they did not disassemble the rudder when the wind picked up, and that the running pole had folded inwards under the hull. Beat made a wooden dowel to repair the pole t and was confidant that it was stronger now. He was waiting for lower winds to deploy it again. He drifted for many days waiting, while we made good time to Palmerston Atoll in the Cook Islands.

We stayed in Palmerston a grand total of 5 hours since the wind and swell was making it a very uncomfortable anchorage on top of them wanting $70 to check in to this unofficial check in point. Patrick became greatly annoyed when the “official”, who could not stamp or passport, said that we had to pay any way because we were passing through Cook Island waters! Another yacht had departed Palmerston an hour before us when he was greatly annoyed by the “officials” and their fees. That yacht had hauled auto parts and medicine from Raratonga free of charge for the locals and now was greeted with fees. We sailed on to the very desolate Beveridge Reef , another couple days away, and entered the pass there and anchored near a wrecked steel fishing boat. The wreck is the only thing at the atoll above water. There is no land at all.

Patrick immediately scoped out the wreck hoping to find something to bring to Avatar which was now 350 miles to our north. He found 2 great stainless steel posts and other fitting that may fit Avatars needs for a newer better rudder system which could fit up into the broken off rudder post. We spoke with Beat on the SSB the next night explaining the plan. Beat was appreciative but he wanted to stay with his current design.

So we turned our attention the fishing and snorkeling on Beveridge Reef.

 

 

Communication Evolution on Brick House : Iridium GO! Predictwind!

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