Email and/or phone access on a LOB

[tkaelin]

I would love to take a week long lob trip in the Caribbean but the demands of work are such that during the week I would need about an hour each day to access email. From all my research it does not look like this is possible. Does anyone know whether this is possible? Thanks in advance for your replies.

PS A response telling me that I should not go on a LOB if I have to check email is not really that helpful. Thanks. TAK

 

[fisheater]

If you find such a vessel, DON'T LET OUR BOSSES FIND OUT. If you do, you'll be keel-hauled.

Work and diving don't mix! (Unless your work IS diving.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Quero]

You may very well be able to get access quite a lot of the time, as long as there is a cell tower within range. I go on liveaboards several times a year and am able to get data roaming for email for part of every trip. There are dead zones, though, especially far from the coast/inhabited islands where there are no towers, or in places where there are towers but the carrier they belong to is not the one I use. (My work is diving, and I like to be there, if only virtually, for my divers :blinking: )

 

[znolan]

What Quero said, and...Satellite phones may be rented Just for your trip and/or some ops will sell you time on their dish.

 

[Wookie]

I'm spending a month in the USVI and Puerto Rico and have very happily had access by cell phone for all but 2 days (in Mona). However, we have a sat phone for those times when the cell phone just doesn't work. Be careful with the sat phone. Talk time is usually on the order of $2 to @3 bucks a minute, and 56k service can be $15 a megabyte. 256k streaming is $50 a minute, regardless of data transfer.

 

[Byte Me]

Spent a week on the Belize Aggressor III in March. They have a computer in the salon, you can sign up and buy bytes on a sat account, however you cannot access the internet or your "own" email accounts, this creates a new one for you. You pay by the byte of what you send and receive so tell whomever you're corresponding with to strip the original out of any replies otherwise you're paying twice for your original message.

I went through a $25 package in about 4 days sending one and receiving one email per day (approx.).

We had no cell service unless docked and then it was roam so no data. If you were staying at the Radisson (or if you know someone staying at there ) you could get their wireless WEP password and use their network for free.

 

[drbill]

Work and diving don't mix! (Unless your work IS diving.)

Thank goodness mine is. The unfortunate thing is my boss follows me wherever I go!

I worked on LOBs for several years. E-mail was very expensive on the one I worked on. Many of our guests didn't care so much, but for the staff it was an issue.

 

[Shasta_man]

In Indo, from the moment we left the harbor until the time we came back to the harbor ten days later, no more phone. It was great.

We did have phone service in St Croix on the now defunct Nekton, and even in parts of Komodo.

 

[diversteve]

I've often heard the Kona Aggressor being referred to as the "cellular" liveaboard. Which makes sense when you look at their itinerary. Maybe the only place you would lose contact is the far south end of the island.

 

[BigJimDiver]

It seems this is itinerary dependant, when you would be in range of cell towers. On trips I took on the Aquacat the past couple of years while we were relatively isolated in the Exumas but there was a cell tower around the Marine park headquarters so whenever we passed my blackberry would pick up my email and send out emails I had waiting, and if it was betweeen dives I would make a quick call in. While I wasn't assured of "on demand" calling, the occasional connection was enough for me to run my business; I believe they had a Sat phone which you can use for a (steep) fee. On a trip this years on Cayman Aggressor we pretty much had service 24x7, except for the out and back journeys between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman. It is nice to get away, but since it's my business I do "need" to be able to touch base even if just once every day (or 2), or I wouldn't be able to go. Someday when I retire it will be sweet to just leave the phone off for the week!