Communication options?

[downeast450]

My wife and I are getting close to the "jump off". We "gunkhole" the NE coast and with my Queen's retirement close are having a great time planing the next phase of this wonderful escape. Between us there are 5 siblings and 7 adult children with growing families of their own. Our lives include a calendar that has gotten quite full of family visits. We try to "engineer" only one wedding a year. Ha! Births are another story! Skype has made watching grandchildren grow possible, between visits. The connections we enjoy today are remarkable. We are trying to anticipate the coming changes in that part of our lives and make them as comfortable as possible. This must be a hurdle for many cruisers. We welcome your comments about how it is done well. The Queen assures me that she is prepared to budget for it.

Down

[sailingdog]

If you're staying in relatively civilized waters, you can probably get away with using WiFi and Skype to keep in touch with your extended family. I have written a post on setting up WiFi on a cruising boat, which you can read here.

Satellite internet access is possible, but only if you have a very big budget, as the gyro stabilized antenna and the data access fees are pretty expensive.

Cellular data access is possible in the USA, with relatively reasonable monthly fees, but much slower than WiFi generally speaking.

[marianclaire]

The cellular data card has worked well for me. From NC to Key West I only found two dead areas. The Everglades/Cape Sable and the back waters of Ga. We got ours several years ago and the unlimited minutes are grandfathered in at a reasonable cost. Dan S/V Marian Claire