About the Omarsea Crew

We are the Trefethens. After 10 years of planning we decided to sell our home and buy a sailboat. In November 2007 we departed Portland Oregon for the Virgin Islands and our 50 foot sloop the OMARSEA. Our three children Ben, Juli and Steve are enjoying the benefits of being homeschooled. Join us on our continuing adventures as we explore the East coast of America on the way to New Zealand.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Long Distance Communications

Omarsea At Sea Communications:  Some of you have been asking about how we communicate with Jean back in the states. It is pretty simple really. We use a service called SAILMAIL that employs the high frequency radio we have on board the boat to send small text messages to Jeans email. While at sea we often send and receive quick hello's to each other as well as position information. We used this service the last time we were out. It can have a drawback when the radio propagation in the atmosphere is not good. Several times Jean has been without information for a couple of days and this caused her to worry.

So this trip I got her a  Delorme Inreach satellite transponder.  It allows me to easily send a pre-scripted message and our location to Jean via email. If you contact Jean she can give you the internet link to the webpage that shows our updated position on a slick map interface.

It's pretty cool. I just push one button to turn the device on. Then hold the other button until it flashes once for the first message"Everything is going really well, we are ahead of schedule", twice for the second message "We are doing great, but weather has delayed us a bit"and three times for"Help the kids are driving me crazy!!!!"   Yes #3 really says that.

It also has an SOS button that will transmit an SOS message to search and rescue with our names and location.

Jean really likes it . We are never completely out of touch with this device.


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