Iridium GO! vs cell phone in Indo

[Epicurean]

We are probably going to cruise Indonesia, starting from the Malay Peninsula before going further. One of my concerns is weather. At some point I anticipate getting something like Predict Wind with an Iridium Go! But it seems like cruising Indo is mainly short hops, being close to land, and I wonder if internet weather from a cell phone is good enough. How good is cellular coverage and is that a reasonable way to get the weather information I need for this trip?

My apologies if this is the wrong forum.

[nhschneider]

Whereas we had an Iridium 9555 aboard, we opted to not buy a SIM for it while we were in Indonesia. There’s a good Sail Mail station in Brunei and we could always connect easily and had good download speeds.

Since we were in many remote parts of Indo, our cell phone was of little use. However, I assume that if you were in more populated areas, a cell phone would work well for gathering weather information.

Good luck, fair winds and calm seas.

[Epicurean]

Thanks. That answers my question. There's not sufficient cell phone coverage outside of populated areas which is where we don't want to cruise. Since we will be there during cyclone season it would be good to have some warning so we can get out of the way, as well as information about when the winds will be good for sailing to the next destination. I guess I should buy a Pactor and set up my HAM rig.

Hope you're enjoying Central America. We did that about 20 years ago and the fishing was great.