Wi-Fi reception in Guadalupe Island GWS live aboard?

[Midu]

Hey,

I am going on a GWS live aboard trip this September on the Solmar V. I read the info and it says that there will not be any reception or wifi signal at all and to be prepared to be off the grid/offline for about 4 days.

I work through my phone and need to stay connected at all times. Do you guys know of any way to get a wifi signal out there?

I researched marine sattelite wifi systems but they are all huge and need to be installed on the boat etc. I am looking for something smaller like a satellite mobile hot spot. I don't mind spending up to $1000.00 as they run in that range but some even go up to $12K LOL.

Anyway, if you have any info or tips on how I can get service out there, let me know.

 

[Hoag]

Sorry @Midu , but I think that you will be the first 3 letters of your boat - SOL. You will be off the grid pretty much from the time the Solmar V leaves the dock until you return. The owners/operators of the boat will not likely take too kindly to you trying to install new comms gear on their vessel.

 

[diversteve]

Not clear, do you want to buy one or rent one?

Because they rent for about $100 wk. plus fees, a per minute cost,shipping, insurance etc. I'm sure this is not the first time Solmar has seen a satellite terminal on their boat. You do have to plan for the terminal to be located so it can see the sky clearly - I wouldn't think a belowdeck cabin on a steel boat would work so you may have to figure out how to power it on deck. Also I doubt there's much wi-fi range on a steel-walled boat.

Satellite Terminals | SatellitePhoneStore

It's pretty slow, I think all you can do is text-based things like e-mail for the most part. And there's latency - takes time for that signal to bounce from your boat to the satellite 26,000 miles away and back to Earth. I'd guess that limits you to No bandwidth intensive things like video streaming, Skype, Facetime etc..

I've used a sat phone and there's a discernible delay just while talking. My buddy does oil work all over the world and lives with one but he's never mentioned anything but making calls on it.

 

[Nirvana]

I made a trip some time ago (about July 2015, if I'm not mistaken) with the Nautilus Explorer to the Revillagigedo islands. On that trip, we were off the grid, so to speak, for the whole week.

However, the boat had an internet satellite connection that it used to communicate with its land office. We were able to send and receive emails once a day, through the boat connection. It was not cheap, though, and if I remember correctly the content of the message was open to the captain.

Maybe the Solmar V also has a connection you may use.

 

[azstinger11]

Isn't the point of a vacation to not be reachable by work?

 

[Marie13]

I'm rather curious about you choosing such a trip when you need to have a constant connection. If that was a requirement I needed, I'd have been researching it before I booked.

 

[Midu]

I'm rather curious about you choosing such a trip when you need to have a constant connection. If that was a requirement I needed, I'd have been researching it before I booked.

Isn't the point of a vacation to not be reachable by work?

I don't have a "regular" full time job, meaning that I am independent and conduct most of my work via internet. I'm basically always free but also always at "work" so that's why I was looking for a way to be online between or after the dives. I am sure I'll survive and will not have to cancel the trip in case I won't have reception but I'd be much more convenient to have it. I simply want to have reception if I can.

By the way I didn't know you could rent them but from what it sounds like, it won't even be strong enough of a signal for internet service.

 

[AmorForTheOcean]

I was just on the Solmar V this week. Correct - no comms at all - wifi or phone. But...if you need to make an emergency phone call, we were told that it's $5 a minute (in cash) to the captain to use the satellite phone.

Some of the crew have cell phone reception pretty far out (at least couple of hours out of Ensenada) it seemed but that's their personal cell phones.

 

[AmorForTheOcean]

Isn't the point of a vacation to not be reachable by work?

Not everyone wants to be off the grid. My mother had emergency surgery this past week and it would have been better to have the ability to communicate vs not. Everyone's different.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<Isn't the point of a vacation to not be reachable by work?>> It'd also shockingly result in people talking to each other rather than spending the whole time with their head in their phone reading irrelevant drivel like back home.