Live aboard questions...getting Internet off coast....handling waves

[Carltonb]

So I recently started getting a lot of twitter followers and I'm going to start monetizing it. I should make anywhere between 500 and 3000 dollars a month. I've always wanted to live aboard a boat. Like not at a marina but off the coast and just dock once or twice a week. Anyways. I'm gonna need Internet so I can keep tweeting and making money to pay to dock. Is there any satellite Internet providers that have mobile devices that I could use. I found one site that had a 1000$ mobile Hotspot and plans as low as 50$ a month but I can't seem to find it again as its been months. Also how do you handle waves out in the ocean. Like is it dangerous to get in tall waves on a small boat. Say 35 feet. I mainly plan to stay off the coast. Maybe go out every now and then to go deep sea fishing. But I don't plan on going from like California to hawaii.

[Badsanta]

Lots of info here. Do a search and read alot.

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[skipmac]

Not quite sure what you mean by staying off the coast. Do you mean you will be out in the open ocean, not near land, not in a harbor?

If that is your plan then how long do you intend staying out there and how will you keep in position? Yes the waves can get big and they can be dangerous.

Based on the questions you're asking I suggest you need a lot of study and experience before attempting staying in the ocean on a boat.

[cheoah]

Most sailors spend much of their time at the dock or swinging on an anchor or mooring, with access to either wifi, or a cell signal for Internet. There are some products that allow you to extend your wifi reach in anchorages.

While on passage, you can move small amounts of data with a sat phone. I don't know enough about Twitter to know how much data. The satellite systems with some bandwidth like this cost a fortune:

http://www.kvh.com/Leisure/Marine-Sy...ium-Pilot.aspx

There is a lot to learn to safely pilot a boat on coastal passages. I'm gonna assume you don't have ocean passages in mind since you say no CA-HI. I'm also gonna assume you're west coast. Take a class or two, read a $hit ton of books, get some bay sailing experience, and then be careful and ask people who sail your local waters what the salient points are for each coastal passage you intend to make. Baby steps.

Waves come in 31,000 flavors, combined with winds, currents, other waves, various boat speeds and courses through a seaway. Skipmac is right, start studying and find a way to sail a boat in protected waters. "Handling waves" is long term learning; seamanship doesn't come easy or fast in my experience. In general, waves can be huge and no problem, or 6-8' and treacherous. Steep waves in places like the Columbia river, Gulf Stream, or Cape Fear can be wicked hard on a boat and green captain. A few hours in these conditions and you might need a rescue, a recovery, or perhaps give up sailing at the least. Avoid dangerous seas until the day when you understand the risk and have the knowledge and confidence to sail in heavier weather.

Good luck-


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[SV THIRD DAY]

My sister makes $3000/week part time from her house in pajamas....

Really....its true...no boat of joke on the CF readers required....

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

My sister makes $3000/week part time from her house in pajamas....

Really....its true...no boat of joke on the CF readers required....

You sure she has pajamas on?


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[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Carltonb.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

You sure she has pajamas on?

Guess someone had to take the bait. Personally I wasn't going to touch that line with a 10' spinnaker pole.

[Sid at SailAway]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

You sure she has pajamas on?


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Ok, that just made my day!

[Carltonb]

Originally Posted by cheoah

Most sailors spend much of their time at the dock or swinging on an anchor or mooring, with access to either wifi, or a cell signal for Internet. There are some products that allow you to extend your wifi reach in anchorages.

While on passage, you can move small amounts of data with a sat phone. I don't know enough about Twitter to know how much data. The satellite systems with some bandwidth like this cost a fortune:

TracPhone® V3-IP/Iridium Pilot® System Bundle

There is a lot to learn to safely pilot a boat on coastal passages. I'm gonna assume you don't have ocean passages in mind since you say no CA-HI. I'm also gonna assume you're west coast. Take a class or two, read a $hit ton of books, get some bay sailing experience, and then be careful and ask people who sail your local waters what the salient points are for each coastal passage you intend to make. Baby steps.

Waves come in 31,000 flavors, combined with winds, currents, other waves, various boat speeds and courses through a seaway. Skipmac is right, start studying and find a way to sail a boat in protected waters. "Handling waves" is long term learning; seamanship doesn't come easy or fast in my experience. In general, waves can be huge and no problem, or 6-8' and treacherous. Steep waves in places like the Columbia river, Gulf Stream, or Cape Fear can be wicked hard on a boat and green captain. A few hours in these conditions and you might need a rescue, a recovery, or perhaps give up sailing at the least. Avoid dangerous seas until the day when you understand the risk and have the knowledge and confidence to sail in heavier weather.

Good luck-


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I did a search for long range boat wifi and found quite a bit of products. One has a range of 7 miles. I didn't know they had products that could reach that far. The waves are what scares me the most. I looked on Craigslist and found a guy who does pacific crossings. But I'm sure it costs a fortune cause you have to fly him back. And to the person above you. Like oft the coast maybe a few miles. I may travel up a few states or around a few states but I'm too scared to even think about tryING to cross an ocean after the videos I've seen on youtube.

[laika]

Cheoah gave a good primer. Your only practical options for getting "work" done aboard a small, shorthanded boat is working on the hook or at a marina and taking daysails/passages in between. A good data plan will go a long way.

In my case, been liveaboard/cruising on the east coast for a couple years, developing websites by means of a Verizon data connection. Buy a cellular extender if you need it, but I've found a reasonably good data connection is easy to come by these days even in most rural areas. It's usually faster than marina wi-fi.

Despite my best efforts, there's a "work/live mode" and a "passage mode" that the boat oscillates through..the former entails clutter slowly building up while the boat is stationary. Passage mode means the myriad pairs of pajamas are cleaned, folded and securely stowed out of the way.

[Greenhand]

It is not practical to expect to live a few miles off the coast. It is too deep to anchor and a boat with positioning systems is out of your price range. I suppose you could stay on the move, but that doesn't seem practical, either.

[Red Herring]

How are you making money on twitter? Not that I want anything to do with it, but I tweet, and have yet to see any commercial activity aside from bot tweets... are you a bot?

[Howelllee]

Check out freedompop.com.

[hellosailor]

The great thing about getting internet service for Twitter is that a "tweet" is JUST ONE DATA PACKET, the same as one 1998 SMS message, the smallest and tightest email burst the networks can send.


So even the cheapest, slowest, most outdated access should be able to handle a hundred tweets a day without breaking, or even waking, the bank.


[Twitter: an email service for people who need a receptionist to open their emails.]


More power to ya. Sweet money if you can make it that way.