S.P.O.T. Messenger or PLB

[jeremiason]

There are a couple of things you need to know about the Sea of Cortez....

It is big and it is very isolated.

In the summer of 2011, we went 30 days without seeing another boat between Santa Rosalia and Bahia de Los Angles.

Even if you need help in the Sea of Cortez and they know where you are, it will be hours away. There is virtually no commercial traffic north of Santa Rosalia.

VHF radio for emergencies is also pretty much worthless, since and most of the Mexican Fisherman do not carry any radios on their boats. The large shrimp boats do carry radios, but don't answer them, even when called by the Mexican Navy.

During that same summer, I was a Net Controller for the Sonrisa Net and worked the grounding of a sailboat, basically in the middle of no where, about 70 miles south of Bay of LA and about 35 miles from the nearest road. It took us about 5 hours to get a rescue helicopter to divert from another search and head to the grounded single-handed sailboat and it's 85 year old owner. To find him, we had him activate his EPIRB at the direction of the USCG, who was coordinating with the Mexican Navy. They rscue helicoper also used the EPIRB to home in on him.

So in my opnion, I believe that the SPOT Messenger is a neat toy to allow friends and family a chance to view your progress, but it is not and should not be considered a primry emergency alert device for sailors.

The 406 MHz EPIRBs are designed for a marine environment and work well.

While we were in the Sea of Cortez, we used our Iridium Sat Phone a lot to stay in touch with elderly family.... North of La Paz there is basically no cell phone coverage or internet, except for Santa Rosalia.

We discovered the Iridium phone dropped calls frequently, even while swinging on the hook. Any change of direction usually disconnected the call, which became frustrating. Appearantly it depends on the angle to the Satilite and the farther you good south the worst it gets. Iridium is a good phone, but not good enough to be consider as primary emergency alert device.

So if I were you, I would definetly carry an EPRIB and if you can afford it a Sat Phone as a back up.

[Captain Jeffry]

Tom, SPOT on about the EPIRB. Most captains I know make an EPIRB a go/no go requirement.

[Aussie_Sequoia]

Tom, completely agree about the importance of EPIRB over something smaller like SPOT (and I've made my negative position on SPOT clear) but I do think that there is now better internet access in the Sea of Cortez than you had. The TelCel banda ache 3G service is good in almost any town and even some of the offshore islands (on the Western shoreline) and even parts of Bay of LA and we also got WiFi in Ensenada Blanca (formerly Candeleros) as well as Puerto Escondido, Loreto, Bahia Concepcion, Punta Chivato and Santa Rosalia.

I never felt out of touch (to the point where it was a bit annoying since we went cruising to get away from it all

[jeremiason]

Wow things have changed in just a year...

You are right about Puerto Escondito and Laredo, we did get slow internet WiFi and Cell phones there. Nothing on the Islands though.

When we were in Bay of LA there was no cell phone service at all... Something to due with the town Mayor pissing off Carlos Slim's CFO who owns a beach around the corner. The only internet in town was satillite connections at the hotel or the internet cafe. Both were slow as hell...

Same with Conception, except for Satallite Internet, which is what Gerry from the Sonrisa Net was using because there was no internet or cell phones in Conception.

Its good to hear somethings are changing in the Baja...

[solarbri]

I decided to buy a PLB. The Spot will go on eBay when I get home next spring.
Thanks for the informative discussion!