Hello World from a Family of Dreamers

[onefastdaddy]

@msponer: Thank you. My wife saw another family on their boat in Oyster Pond...the poor kids had this I'm so bored just kill me now look on their faces. I guess the fun stuff is all on the other side of the island. She's now playing be like Walter Mitty now and over in BVI looking at a boat that hopefully is less fixing required. But a hair outside our budget unfortunately.

@Artm: You sound pretty technical. Me too. Thanks, I'll look into those. Currently ATT is killing me in the states. I have a 15G data plan and have blown through > 1/2 of it already this Month. My problem is me trying to read everything, emails with photo attachments, eBay auctions uploading photos, watching YouTube vids to learn more...on land we are incredible consumers of multi-media which uses a lot of bandwidth. I hope there is some unlimited plans out there in the Caribbean with ATT or ?

Granted in preparation I'm using "Handbrake" to backup our DVDs to .m4v files stored on a neat little SSD raid external drive. No moving parts other than the fan. I'll setup a little NAS with a BeagleBone Black and we can all just watch our movies off the NAS.

Funny, I had all but ruled out SSB due to buy in costs but now see more and more ways if I can fix my addiction to multi-media off the Internet (like above idea) then for just email and news, weather SSB would be just fine for this...apologies to all of you trying to follow my wavering over this SSB thing...I'm studying now for the HAM license. No reason not to.

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by onefastdaddy

Currently ATT is killing me in the states. I have a 15G data plan and have blown through > 1/2 of it already this Month. My problem is me trying to read everything, emails with photo attachments, eBay auctions uploading photos, watching YouTube vids to learn more...on land we are incredible consumers of multi-media which uses a lot of bandwidth. I hope there is some unlimited plans out there in the Caribbean with ATT or ?

Handsets have unlimited plans, hotspots have limited plans.

I have these components:
- Unlimited AT&T iPhone for watching videos (with HDMI connector), and which could also be used for uploading your photo's to eBay and for viewing other high volume content. This is all legitimate usage and should be within your contract.
- 5GB T-Mobile Hotspot, no contract with t-mobile. I used this to access my EC2 server, web browsing, email, and anything else that can be done over a standard connection
- Occasional use of WiFi at restaurants to download software to my laptop when I need it. If it's a good fast WiFi without limiters, I can also download complete movies in a few hours.
- I also have a Sprint phone, so I have services from three major providers and can switch between them as needed. Hotspot service is available on all three of them if I need it, and none require a contract for the hotspot services.

For Reference (US based services):
Using a remote terminal on EC2 for hours a day uses about 5GB / month, along with regular web browsing and occasional software downloads. Using the low-bandwidth mode is not fun, but it's cheap and the desktop stays persistently connected to my external resources - very convenient, especially when in spotty service areas.

After tweaking Vuze, I found I could get very fast video downloads - much faster than the standard configuration - by using the Beta algorithms. I only wish it had a country filter

I had jailbroken my iPhone and was using it for unlimited WiFi for months, but AT&T recently sent me a letter saying they'll cut my unlimited WiFi if I keep it up, so now I use it for videos as previously described. I still have the jailbreak installed if I really get in a jam.

The T-Mobile plan is flexible and can be altered on the fly. It's technically "unlimited" as it will supposedly go to the Edge network with unlimited access after you run out of high-speed bandwidth. If you can make Edge work, you can get continuous access real, real cheap.

I've never SEEN it go to Edge (except when 4G was not available), but that's what they say.

[onefastdaddy]

I have some updates. The boat is St. Martin did not work out but we found another in the BVI and we are under contract to buy it. 2006 Lagoon 410 S2 charter version.
The blog URL changed to: ln01.ppzuav.com
Marlena was bitten by Mosquitos on her trip there and caught that scourge Chikungunya, horrible thing but passes in a couple days. I then got it and found Tylenol was a wonder drug. Very quickly the pain went away and fever. Just hoping to share that to save people some suffering.
Our timeline has changed. We now expect to be on the boat at the end of August. Then being that time of year we feel it would be far safer to just stay in the safety of BVI. Our plan will be the boat is expendable, we are not. If a storm comes we will find a good hole and do our best then ride it out on land.
More hard dates will come after the survey.

[klmmicro]

Sorry to hear about the bug! Hope she is 100% very soon.

[onefastdaddy]

Originally Posted by klmmicro

Sorry to hear about the bug! Hope she is 100% very soon.

Thank you, I'm already over it now also. The kids haven't gotten it (crossing fingers). It passes really quickly. Tylenol is the key to it being really not much to write about now in hindsight.
-David

[klmmicro]

Still stinks to be afflicted with.

[onefastdaddy]

Update: we accepted Amigo IV in the BVI on Friday June 27th. This is another Moorings ex charter but in the BVI where we have chartered before and feel more comfortable starting our live aboard dream.

We are to close on Sept 16th. We also have a buyer for the last big item we had to sell to set us free of the land here.

Looks like nothing in the way now. We will rename the boat Traveller.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by onefastdaddy

Update: we accepted Amigo IV in the BVI on Friday June 27th. This is another Moorings ex charter but in the BVI where we have chartered before and feel more comfortable starting our live aboard dream.

We are to close on Sept 16th. We also have a buyer for the last big item we had to sell to set us free of the land here.

Looks like nothing in the way now. We will rename the boat Traveller.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Congrats. Have the girls already picked out their berths?

[onefastdaddy]

Not yet. But Hayden wants Hello Kitty theme for hers

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by onefastdaddy

Update: we accepted Amigo IV in the BVI on Friday June 27th. This is another Moorings ex charter but in the BVI where we have chartered before and feel more comfortable starting our live aboard dream.

We are to close on Sept 16th. We also have a buyer for the last big item we had to sell to set us free of the land here.

Looks like nothing in the way now. We will rename the boat Traveller.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Congratulations. I've been a proponent of buying those ex-charter boats from Moorings, but a lot of people are nervous about them, and I have seen them sitting there a very, very long time. I plan to buy one myself if I ever make it back to that side of the globe (I'm currently in the Pacific). Maybe you can share your experiences.

Are you going to the BVI to start your cruising? Or will you have the boat delivered to you somewhere else?

[onefastdaddy]

Update: we are closing second week in Sept. This is really going to happen. It took about 4 years for life to nudge us enough times in the right direction but we are nearly there.

We hope to stay in the BVI initially to install some new things (watermaker, solar) then learn the boat. Looks like heading south maybe in order after.

Any families in the Caribbean mid Sept? We will be searching for family friendly anchorages.

For those of you with the dream to get out there...never give up and listen to those life choices that guide you in the right direction.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[biker6977]

Congrats!!! Hubby and I are at the start of our dream- we take our first sailing class sept 6 and we're very excited. Sounds like we will be following the same plan as you- we are currently reading every boat book we can find- learning knots etc. having huge yard sales to purge stuff and selling all toys to pay off debt. We will be totally debt free by march 2016- then we will buy the boat and take a couple years learning and refitting before heading out. At this time we are planning to keep the house for rental income and for old age retirement. Have you started a blog we can follow you on?


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum