The Tropical Office

By John Martin

Imagine sitting on your boat in a tropical bay with the trade winds blowing and the palm trees swaying, you’ve just sent a file back to the office 1500 miles away, cleared your emails and dealt with a new client enquiry, all in a days work. Now it's time for a swim or perhaps kick back with a good book. Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

Twenty years ago no one had heard of the internet, sailing to the pacific islands required a knowledge of celestial navigation and ALL your charts were paper. Hard to imagine isn’t it? The landscape of cruising has changed so much. We now navigate by GPS, use chart plotters as well as paper charts, and communicate on a daily basis with the rest of the world.

So is it possible to run an office on your boat while you are off sailing the seven seas? The answer is simply yes, and it’s getting easier every year. The good part is it’s not as expensive as many people think either. Of coarse if you are a squillionare with a bank balance the size of your phone number you can have a system that’s as good any corporate headquarters in the world, with a price tag to match. But if you are a simple soul on modest means there are several ways you can get out there and live the dream and work at the same time.
There are two parts to this equation, the method of communication and how you organise yourself at your home base.

If you already have a working office with staff then you’re set, but if you don’t you will need someone to act as a conduit back home. For most cruisers this means someone to handle mail, the occasional bill and forward parts etc. to wherever you are, most likely a family member or friend. From a business perspective it's much the same except the enquiry level will be higher and there may be information that needs to be kept private. For this situation a shore based service is an option. There are numerous in the States and Island Cruising offer “Shore Assist” in New Zealand.

The other side is the method you choose to communicate, clear emails and get information and the portal to give you access.

The choices for affordable communications are essentially: Ham, HF radio or Satellite phone. If you are a Ham operator you are probably an enthusiast who will stick with their Ham band HF radios forever, in which case Sky Sweep Technologies provide a good portal. Ham radio uses a higher frequency range with more power than a standard HF transceiver allowing the user to get a clearer signal and therefore a faster download but to use Ham you must have a licence to operate the set, the exam for which includes a working knowledge of Morse Code.

HF or high frequency radio, better known as SSB or single side band radio, is widely used on cruising yachts as their primary method of keeping in touch. From New Zealand, Maritime Radio ZLM and other shore based stations like Russell Offshore Communisations are a point of contact for position reports and TR’s (Trip reports) and the SSB, for cruisers, is used for boat to boat comms. There are a multitude of cruiser “Nets” around the world for keeping in contact, passing on information and listening in to hear what’s going on, a King of “Coronation Street” in real life but without the pictures.

Because most cruisers have an SSB it's logical to use this as your means of sending and receiving emails, weather data etc. Through a modem such as a “Pactor”, which is now in its third generation with the Pactor 111, and a laptop computer you have your portal. Connecting via providers like “Sailmail” and “Winlink” gives you your access. Transfer speed via HF is slow, less than dial up, so both these providers have developed software to compress the information, package it and send it.

HF has a number of drawbacks, it’s slow, it’s effected by poor propagation (signal clarity) and because of the numbers of people using what is effectively a limited resource, access and the amount of information you can download is limited. The principal advantage is that after you have purchased your modem to get your portal and paid your provider's fee for access your HF air time is free.
Satellite is the next option.

At the top of the range are the geo-synchronous orbit satellites used by providers like “Imarsat” who offer a range of products down to and including their ‘Mini M” service. The entry level for satellite is “Iridium” a hand held device not much bigger than the old, brick type, mobile phones. Iridium uses a constellation of low earth orbit satellites for connection which use less power to transmit and have little or no lag time in your conversation.

With a data kit for your Iridium phone and a loptop computer you have your portal. You can then choose to connect direct with your existing ISP, for example xtra, using an access program like “Apollo Emulator” or choose a provider such as “UUPlus” that is set up for Iridium. As with HF, Iridium download speeds are slow, usually around 4800bps and unlike HF radio with Iridium you are paying for your air time so you will want to keep your connection times as short as possible.

Like Sailmail and Winlink, service provider UUPlus have developed software to compress and speed up data flow. At home when you set up your email account on your computer you will be asked for your providers POP3 and SMTP settings, these are the protocols used for sending and receiving email.
These protocols work very hard to make sure there are no mistakes in the transmission of information and constantly check backwards and forwards between computer and server to make sure all of the file has been sent and received. This has the effect of multiplying the original file size, fine when you are on broadband but when your download speeds are limited and you are paying for the connection time, not so good. Hence the compression software.

Whether it’s Iridium or HF, the better the software the better speeds are obtained with the least drop off. Iridium does , however, have a couple of advantages. You are not limited to text only, attachments can be sent and received, using a provider like UUPlus you also have the ability to filter your incoming emails by size, if you know the URL of a given web site you can also request the program to fetch a compressed version when you download your emails, great for weather maps. Mail can be forwarded from other IP’s (xtra, hotmail etc.) any larger emails remain on your home email server until you clear them at an internet cafe.

The second advantage is your Iridium is also a phone, it’s quite a buzz to be sitting in Minerve Reef, 250 miles from anywhere and phone your mum to wish her a happy Mothers day. At around $1.40US a minute it’s also cheaper to use around the pacific than using Global Roaming on you GSM cell phone. Data call are cheaper, depending on your provider about half the cost of voice.

Internet access in the Pacific Islands has improved out of sight over the last few years with even the out of the way places offering access. Speeds range from broadband in the main centres right on down to donkey driven in the out of the way places, New Zealand based company Pacific Wifi also have plans to provide wireless internet to cruisers at main centres around the pacific.
So what’s next. Access speeds on Iridium are on the improve as are the services provided in the islands. Telecom are set to extend the coverage of their dual, cell/ satellite phones and GSM G3 in the islands is not far away, in fact rumour has it that Telecom will be entering the GSM platform by Christmas this year. All of this means faster download speeds and better coverage and running your office is easier.

When you’re on the other end of a phone, who’s to tell if you are in your office, mid winter, with the rain pelting on the windows or bobbing gently at anchor in your “Tropical office”. It’s up to you, but as the Nike man says, Just Do It.

Pros, cons and costs.

HF:

• An SSB will set you back about $5,000 with a tuner, installed.
• Pactor III modem, $2,800 Sailmail $250US per year Air time, free
• Download speeds, less than dial up.
• Mainly text only.
• Air time may be limited by your provider.
• Signal strength and reception can be problematic.

Iridium:

• Iridium 9505A with a data kit and external aerial, $3,500 UUPlus, $35US per month (you only pay while you use.)
• Air time $1.40 US per minute, voice. $0.70 US per minute data
• Download speeds Dial up or less.
• Text, attachments and web capable.
• Unlimited airtime, you pay as you use.
• Reception in the South Pacific is good.
• The down side: keep an eye on your use or the cost may just jump up and bite you.

Do’s and Don'ts: Iridium

• Use an external aerial.
• Use a provider like UUPlus and have your emails forwarded rather than connecting direct with your current email provider, it will save you a fortune in call costs (your current provider may not rate as a data call).
• Don’t go on a monthly contract, go prepay. Be aware that prepaid minutes expire after a time but there is no monthly access fee, you can always sell any unused minutes on Trade Me.
• You can purchase the phone and the time separately to get the best deal.