At the London Boat Show I asked around for packages and the cheapest option seemed to be to hire it. In the end I've got it for 2 months from these guys which was a bit longer than need be but it gave time to get used to it.
As explained in the previous post we're using it to download GRIBs onto an iPad. As the USB connection doesn't work with iThings we had to get an Iridium Axcess point wifi node together with Apps for the iPhone and iPad to drive it.
The Apps give email and web browsing tools that optimise use of the limited data rates available.
In addition you can send and receive texts which is useful so don't have to have the phone on all the time. There's even a web site to send texts which is very useful:
http://messaging.iridium.com/
All these boxes require power, so it was important to get car charging adapters for all of them.
However now, fingers crossed, should be able to download GRIBs and find out what sort of weather we can expect to receive.
Full review on return.
2 comments:
How did Robin Knox-Johnston manage to sail round the world without all this technology?
He was without any kind of radio for eight and a half months, and his only weather forecasting aid was a barometer he removed from a pub.
Probably as accurate as the NOAA GRIBs
I don't think that yachts sailing to the arctic circle are a priority for them, given a "10 kn NE" turned out to be gusting 32 kn easterly
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