Remote tech work on the Great Lakes

[Michigan_Eric]

I work from home full-time doing my tech writer job. It only requires a reliable broadband internet connection, and those seem to be everywhere these days, at least on land.

Like everything else designated as "marine", marine internet is expensive, though the price is coming down. But I don't need access while offshore, as satellite would provide. I plan to do Great Lakes cruising, and to put in to a marina at night. I don't want to do actual work while underway, because my chief occupation will be navigating, and if I try to focus on writing while underway, even when offline, I'll get seasick.

Although satellite would allow me to work while at many a remote and beautiful anchorage in the North Channel... ah, to make a living while anchored in Covered Portage Cove, or the Pool, at the end of Baie Fine. Maybe in a couple more years, if my current plan works out.

My present vision is to harbor-hop, using marina wifi to connect to my workplace, staying for two or three day stints while I get my work done, then moving on when the weather favors doing so.

This will not be as simple as it may seem, of course. The quality of wifi service will be fast and reliable at some, while spotty at others, making it difficult to get anything done, especially when working with cloud-based applications.

There will also be the frustration of having to work when the weather is perfect to sail to the next destination, but I don't suppose I will garner much sympathy for such a plight. I am working full time, after all, and I must be available when my peers and especially when my boss need me.

I am also considering just using G5 cellular to connect, but G5 is not everywhere yet, and while it has huge bandwidth it does not have the range of G4, at least that is my understanding.

Does anyone else here have experience with doing tech work from a sailboat, and needing a reliable broadband internet connection from it, especially on the Great Lakes?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

[Tetepare]

Marina wifi tends to be poor and unreliable.

I use my phone for a hotspot with LTE, which is ubiquitous at least in USA.

If your phone plan doesn't have a good unlimited data plan available, check various carriers to see who has the best plan and a USB hub. My wife used to use one from one of the pay-by-month Walmart card carriers, they had the lowest price. So you have to shop around because the best value changes constantly.

As far as work vs. sail, you have 3+ hours between ports, often running along LTE enabled shore. Can't help you with seasickness though. In summer you can work from 8am till noon, then catch the lake breeze in the afternoon.

[steffan]

I do it on Superior. Our home marina has decent Wifi, but I often don't bother with it. Unless the weather is perfect every child on every powerboat at the dock is streaming Disney+ all day and it gets bogged down.

I rely on either my 5G phone or 4G hotspot, and a unidirectional RV-style booster. It works perfectly fine for my somewhat limited bandwidth needs, with a couple of video/voip calls a day and the occasional remote desktop being the highest use. If I can see the mainland I am going to get signal. I have to pick my anchorages carefully when in the Apostle Islands and their blocking terrain. I use the 'Network Cell Info' Android app to show me how much signal I am getting, how much it's being boosted, and exactly which tower I am connected to.

Once we go full-time in a couple of years we'll pony up for Starlink. It should be a no-brainer before then. There on threads on here and FB showing how well it's working already.

[KimSails]

What kind of bandwidth to you think you will need? 10-15 mbps is adequate for basic office work (file uploading/ downloading) for me. As others have said hotspots devices will generally be better than marina wi-fi.

you might consider checking out these folks:
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/

[skalashn]

I also work remotely in IT and have been working from my boat extensively around Georgian Bay and North Channel, and previously on Lake Ontario and a bit of Superior. I use 4G/LTE hot spot from my phone on Telus network (which is mostly using Bell towers in that area). Most of the open lake has good coverage but in the anchorages it gets tricky due to terrain. I have LTE antenna on the backstay about 20 feet up, connected to Wilson cradle booster. Sometime this makes a big difference, sometimes not at all. A few years back I started keeping the spreadsheet rating connectivity in many popular anchorages. BTW you can forget about Baie Fine as there is no signal at all. Even with good LTE signal the speed rarely goes above 5 mpbs, not sure why, but quality is usually fine for IP voice calls.

[Rumrace]

I’ve seen a wifi booster you run up your back stay. Increases your range on free wifi sites

[Michigan_Eric]

Thanks everyone for your input.

It looks like a good 5G phone and data plan would be both the cheapest, most reliable, and offer the most bandwidth. I won't be able to work from Baie Fine, but then I suppose when you're there the last thing on your mind is work...