Satellite broadband internet, now and in the near future...

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

You need to be within 5 miles or so of land, but in most parts of the world you do not by any means need to be near a city or certainly not in a marina.

When you get to Vanuatu, send me some ASCII art.

[accomplice]

You can get reasonably quick satellite broadband, but you're going to pay for it -- unlimited data on our Fleet Broadband would be over $4500/month on top of the equipment cost ($10k+?). But, realistically, how many days a year do you expect to be out of sight of land? There is 3G/4G in much of the world -- if you buy local data plans thereit can be quite reasonable. Also, talk to your home mobile service provider -- they might have programs to fit you (we use Verizon travelpass which allows us to use our big dataplan internationally for $10/day). Depending on where you're cruising, mobile data is likely to be the best option.

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

I can tell by your thinking process...

Nice comeback, I think I like you

[Beausoleil]

David,

What kind of work do you do? That has a significant impact on working remotely from the boat.

My wife and I cruised extensively up and down the East coast from 2008 til 2011, then cruised the Bahamas and Caribbean from 2011 til mid 2013. She worked as an IT project manager for large database software applications which were sometimes customer-hosted, sometimes cloud-based. She worked 40-50 hour weeks, mostly via WiFi, sometimes via 3G wireless (4G was just being implemented in the Caribbean when we were there).

As long as you choose your crossings wisely, it's certainly doable. Satcom is definitely not needed for the type of cruising we did. Since she's more software oriented, I handled the network issues as they came up (I'm a networking guy).

A potential problem I foresee is if you're the mechanic of the crew as well as the bread-winner. Mechanical problems seem to crop right during work hours. So if your remote work is regular 9-to-5 and you're pulling double duty as ship's engineer, then you might have to call on outside help more often than you'd like. If your mate is the mechanic, then you won't have too many problems.

4G service in the islands is relatively cheap and getting more reliable as submarine optical capacity has grown the last 10 years down there. A SIM card and minutes purchased from Digicel in the French islands is good in any of the French islands. Digicel in others is typically per island. We didn't get service from Lime (formerly Cable and Wireless), but they're usually the incumbent carrier on most of the non-French islands and a little more expensive.

Most islands have ISPs or marinas which offer WiFi to cruisers - normally a high-gain antenna coupled with a WiFi router or Access Point is all you need. If you're a geek like me, then you'll firewall your high-gain WiFi AP using good WiFi router for distribution within the boat, segment your navigation WiFi net from your entertainment net and possibly even your work net using VLANs...

It works and plenty of people are out there doing it. We're not cruising at the moment - I'm back designing large network infrastructures for my company, and my wife's doing project management. For a few years, at least - before we retire and head back out again!

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by accomplice

You can get reasonably quick satellite broadband, but you're going to pay for it -- unlimited data on our Fleet Broadband would be over $4500/month on top of the equipment cost ($10k+?). But, realistically, how many days a year do you expect to be out of sight of land? There is 3G/4G in much of the world -- if you buy local data plans thereit can be quite reasonable. Also, talk to your home mobile service provider -- they might have programs to fit you (we use Verizon travelpass which allows us to use our big dataplan internationally for $10/day). Depending on where you're cruising, mobile data is likely to be the best option.

Aye but wouldn't it be so cool to have Fleet BB?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

When you get to Vanuatu, send me some ASCII art.

There are probably places in the world which don't have LTE (actually I think the U.S. may be one), but Vanuatu is actually not one of them:

http://www.digicelvanuatu.com/en/abo...ved-in-vanuatu

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by Beausoleil

What kind of work do you do? That has a significant impact on working remotely from the boat.

I'm a software developer for mobile systems (iOS and Android). I have the opportunity to switch to a team that is more maintenance oriented, where I would be working, largely independently, on one or two issues at a time. That seems, at least to my thinking, a reasonably good fit for what I hope to do.

Originally Posted by Beausoleil

A potential problem I foresee is if you're the mechanic of the crew as well as the bread-winner. Mechanical problems seem to crop right during work hours. So if your remote work is regular 9-to-5 and you're pulling double duty as ship's engineer, then you might have to call on outside help more often than you'd like. If your mate is the mechanic, then you won't have too many problems.

Fortunately, my job - especially if I move to this new team - is not 9-to-5. It is much more results-oriented, so taking a break to fix a mechanical issue should not be a problem. The only time-based issue I might run into is a conference call every now and then.

-David

[SaltyMonkey]

[QUOTE=Davidhoy;2202040]I'm a software developer for mobile systems (iOS and Android). I have the opportunity to switch to a team that is more maintenance oriented, where I would be working, largely independently, on one or two issues at a time. That seems, at least to my thinking, a reasonably good fit for what I hope to do./QUOTE]

Except when you need to test across multiple carriers quickly or in a controlled QA Env.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Aye but wouldn't it be so cool to have Fleet BB?

I agree. If you were earning say $200K or more you could write your sat costs off as a business expense. Could be an interesting exercise to do the calculations and see how you could use tax dollars to fund this. Even an income of just $150k could be cost effective.

Not a solution for sailing on a budget but is less than the cost of a good assistant.

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

I agree. If you were earning say $200K or more you could write your sat costs off as a business expense. Could be an interesting exercise to do the calculations and see how you could use tax dollars to fund this. Even an income of just $150k could be cost effective.

Not a solution for sailing on a budget but is less than the cost of a good assistant.

Not after taxes. BUT, close if you consider typical $$$ spent on hw and other crap in your life. Then again, the $$$$ could be used for other things, like an IRA or investing. Make you money work

[SaltyMonkey]

Then I say just DO IT GO Get the hello of here. Be rid of you all together so we don't have to hear these silly questions. Just scram.

We'll use you as an experiment to see if it can be done. If it works, we may follow.

if not. You'll be fired and we can fill in the req with our own job

[ShaktiGurl]

I have been working remotely from the boat for nearly 4 years. Technical work but basically 9-5, M-F with lots of customer contact. Have only tried cruising and working at the same time a few times along the coast in FL. I find it somewhat distracting and reading can sometimes make me nauseated. Husband would handle the boat during those times I am working. I found it easier to travel on my off-hours and anchor when working. LTE hotspot works excellent and I am a heavy data user. Rest of the time I spend in a marina (spent 2 years on a mooring) where I have wifi or LTE. I disagree about "might as well live in a condo" if you are at a marina. I like going out in the evening and weekends for a sail when I am staying in one place. My home is always with me 😄. It is certainly possible to do coastal travel and work and then plan your passages until you get to your next cell location. Unfortunately, my job does not allow me to take my computer out of the states or I could be working around the Caribbean. I just returned from week visit to the office and it seems I've become a bit of a legend. Although they have many remote employees, they all know me as "the woman who works from a boat 😎".

[did-g]

Originally Posted by Davidhoy

I'm a software developer for mobile systems (iOS and Android). I have the opportunity to switch to a team that is more maintenance oriented, where I would be working, largely independently, on one or two issues at a time. That seems, at least to my thinking, a reasonably good fit for what I hope to do.

-David

yes for you usage it could work.

the problem is not only the tech but people, many will freak out if you explain what you're going to do.

I looked and tried it.

- broadband fleet isn't good enough on a small boat if you have to do interactive work (ssh/telnet, whatever) and in your case it's likely too expensive.

- LTE/3G is ok, sending a phone in AP mode up in the mast may help with poor signal. Of course you need some signal.

- a sat phone with SMS only is cheap and works well as pager if your boss/customers can deal with a one/two days latency ie you don't sail too far away from LTE. Otherwise it's ok for light mail but forget it for data, too slow.

- forget wifi, too unreliable.

I gave up on passages, we have hard deadlines and it was too stressful for my associate, even with a working broadband fleet (for my usage it wasn't).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by did-g

. . .- a sat phone with SMS only is cheap and works well as pager . . .

A Yellow Brick or Delorme device will send and receive SMS messages (can be concatenated and sent/received on email addresses). Unlimited plans are surprisingly affordable. You can't do actual work over this kind of connection, but you can have basic comms, anywhere. You can tell your clients when you'll make landfall, and you can ask and answer questions, with zero latency.

[SaltyMonkey]

You might as well get an Iri0-GO!