Yacht Tracking for family and friends back home

[bobmcd625]

As I said earlier, Marine Traffic can provide satellite tracking for any boat with AIS but at a price. (Just looked it up. Satellite tracking of one boat is $16.50 per month or $15.00 if billed annually). Good to follow ocean crossings and then switch to free coastal tracking after the crossing.

[Screwdiver]

Have a Look at https://www.ybtracking.com/

MarineTraffic only lists AIS-Targets in Reach of uploading Stations

[bobmcd625]

Originally Posted by Screwdiver

Have a Look at https://www.ybtracking.com/

MarineTraffic only lists AIS-Targets in Reach of uploading Stations

Unless you pay for satellite tracking. I just did it! It works!

[Brendan]

I have had a Yellow Brick (ybtracking.com) for several years and use it when on longer sailing trips. You can see my tracks here for free. http://my.yb.tl/bmcinerney/ My YB lets me send and receive text emails via a Bluetooth connection to iPad or iPhone. It is waterproof and very rugged, not heavy and one charge lasts all week with hourly position reports. Activation fee is month by month, I can turn it off, toss it in my kit bag and forget about it for 6 months till I want to use it again. Credits for position reports, sending / receiving text emails never expire. It also has a panic button and best of all - you set up and authorize only those email address you want to be able to send you email (no spam). Really love it!

[Screwdiver]

And a useful Feature at ybtracking: guests can buy their own points for text messages

[jackheape]

Garmin Inreach for sure. Works great used several times for offshore. Flexible plans, which you can put on hold if you are not using. Ditto on making sure family does not call CG! I didn't check in with my wife once on a long single hand passage down the ICW and the CG called me on Channel 16 and told me to"Call your wife!". They were nice about it though.

[wannacat]

Sell the Iridium and buy a Garmin InReach as the majority have already suggested. Love mine and the plans they offer!!!

[slug]

Originally Posted by hamburking

Marinetraffic.com will show AIS data on a webpage, on any PC. So if you are transmitting AIS data, your friends (and ex wife) can follow you. And its totally free.

However, this only works in coastal regions.

www.marinetraffic.com

Satellite ais is available by subscription

[conchaway]

When you go to ship out, say "Everyone going with me, get on the boat." After that, forget about them until you return.

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by GreenWave

Am about to inherit an Iridium GO on a boat purchase. What kind of plans and rates are applicable for this type of device?

We offer a new flexible, suspend-able SIM for Iridium Go. Same $139/mo as standard Iridium Go unlimited plan, still has unlimited data and SMS, but it also includes a +1 USA phone number so your friends and family can text/call you as a domestic call, no worrying about the +8816 international number and you can suspend plan for $5/mo, maintaining the phone number for when you resume.

You can also cancel and later reactivate the SIM (if you don't want to pay the $5/mo to keep your phone number) without having to get new SIM cards or keep a bunch of SIMs on board.

Very unique offering. We will send you a SIM card for free, just pay the shipping.

Fully support PredictWind and every other Iridium service and App with this SIM.

For Tracking...

I also recommend Following Sea for Iridium Go based yacht tracking, and they also have text message based group "nets" you can join for various rallys or cruising areas to keep in contact with other cruisers.

FollowingSea is a free service.

https://followingsea.net/track

Richard Anderson
Sea-Tech Systems

SIM Card details...
https://www.sea-tech.com/product/following-sea-iridium-go-flex-sim-card/

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by wannacat

Sell the Iridium and buy a Garmin InReach as the majority have already suggested. Love mine and the plans they offer!!!

The Iridium Go is infinitely more powerful than an InReach.. Sure the InReach is very nice for Tracking and SMS, that's about it. An Iridium Go can do tracking and SMS also, as well as phone calls, and email, and real weather forecasting data, with GRIBs and WeatherFax and even text based web browsing.

[Snore]

Originally Posted by Sea-TechSystems

e offer a new flexible, suspend-able SIM for Iridium Go. Same $139/mo as standard Iridium Go unlimited plan, still has unlimited data and SMS, but it also includes a +1 USA phone number so your friends and family can text/call you as a domestic call, no worrying about the +8816 international number and you can suspend plan for $5/mo, maintaining the phone number for when you resume.
....

The Iridium Go is infinitely more powerful than an InReach.. Sure the InReach is very nice for Tracking and SMS, that's about it. An Iridium Go can do tracking and SMS also, as well as phone calls, and email, and real weather forecasting data, with GRIBs and WeatherFax and even text based web browsing.

That is a great deal! Will email you, please message me- would like to speak so I add this to a pending Practical Sailor article!

Thanks for weighing in on the issue, getting weather aboard is truly a "ya get what ya paid for" situation. inReach is good (I have one), it allows you to text weather routers to get personalized weather. But there is nothing like seeing the GRIBs and understanding what is going on. And only the GO lets you do that offshore.

Of course, guys like Chris Parker can still be reached for a second opinion. And for people just learning weather using both Chris AND getting the GRIBs is a good way to learn.

[Amapola]

Ditto for Garmin inReach. It's easy to set up so your family & friends can track your boat.

[Juanona]

Assuming you have email capability with your Iridium phone, OCENS has a “Snap Track” feature where you can email your position and they will put it on a map for folks to track you. Cost is $10/month, start/stop anytime. I haven’t used it yet, but plan to during a Transatlantic sail this spring. I’m using OCEN’s Sidekick device and their Weather App for WiFi and weather. I already have an Iridium 9555 so this seemed the simplest route for weather, email and tracking. I considered switching to the Iridium Go! but already have the phone which is arguably better than the Go! in a true emergency.

[cr180]

Anyone having problems texting from inReach to AT&T phones?