Over the past year I have had a few people ask how we get our internet while cruising. It’s definitely an evolving topic with the advancement of several technologies over the past few years. So, what I will go over is what we had when we got the boat, what I added after we got the boat and then what my plans are in the future. I am somewhat of a home theater nut, and I do like to stream movies and such so I will go over that in a future post.
What it Had
When we bought Utopia, it had two items on board the previous owner had on board to get internet.
The first item is what is called a Wi-Fi Extender. The brand that was on the boat was called (I think this name is silly) a Bad Boy Extreme. What it basically does is take an open or secured wi-fi signal that you could pick up at a hotspot (like a marina or restaurant) and then there was a very rudimentary router that you could use and connect up your laptop, smart Tv, Chart plotter etc. to do what you need to do.
The pros are that it could reach out a very long way and pick up a wi-fi signal (like up to 2 miles) and if you had the wi-fi password you would be in business. I tested this out when we were in Shell Point, and I could easily see people’s networks on the other side of the community. The Cons of this is that it took a normally pretty slow Wi-Fi connection (like at a marina) and made it a whole bunch slower. It couldn’t pick up 5g signals and was just basically pretty old tech. Since we are not actively moving now, and we have close Wi-Fi in our marinas we have not been using the “Bad Boy”. For now, I am keeping it connected since I think it will come in handy in the short term when we are moving around, and we can snag a Wi-Fi password near a restaurant. I will go into a bit on what I replaced the “rudimentary” router in the “what I added section”
The seconds item that came with the boat was a SSB (Single Side Band) radio and a “Pactor” modem. A SSB radio is basically a HAM radio that can transmit (if you know how to use it) over thousands of miles.
I went ahead and I got my License so I can legally use it. The Pactor modem is tied into to the SSB and with it allows me to send and receive very small emails with attachments. The bandwidth is incredibly slow (like 20kbs) and you can only send and receive tiny files. So, with this there is absolutely no internet surfing and downloading of any movies. What it is good for is downloading weather files (like GRIBS, weather forecasts, etc.), So you know what is happening with the weather when you are really off the grid. Also, you can send emails and communicate with people thousands of miles of way. This is defiantly something we will keep as a main way of downloading weather when we don’t have any other connections and to act as backup once I finally get my ultimate set up (see below).
What we have now
Once we were settled on Utopia it became clear that our internet solution was somewhat lacking. So, the first thing I bought was a proper router that could do a few things. What I ended up getting was a travel router (GL. iNet Beryl) to network the entire boat. This particular router can easily switch between Wi-Fi Hotspot (like marinas), Cell Phone Hotspot or any normal modem that could be plugged into it. You can even put a sim card in it if you have another data plan.
The Antenna provided really does a good job at 1) picking up a relatively strong wi-fi signal and 2) transmitting our boat Wi-Fi around the boat to all our devices at full strength. So far it works well at streaming (video and audio), updating software and other devices and doing day to day work on the boat. I have not had an issue with any of this and this includes Teams or Zoom meetings.
When we don’t have access to Wi-Fi, but we have a cell signal the router smoothly transitions into a normal phone hotspot. One of our phones has an unlimited hot spot plan so that is nice.
We don’t have a high-speed internet solution when we don’t have a cell Signal, but I think that solution is on our horizon (see below).
Other items we have networked up into our protected wi-fi network are Laptops, Fusion boat stereo, iPad, Sono’s sound system and our TV.
One other item we purchased recently was a Garmin Inreach. This is a little communication device that uses the Iridium satellite network, so it pretty much works any where on the globe. We use it for tracking and for texting when we are offshore. There is a link on our web page that allows you to see where we are at any time. There is a monthly subscription cost so right now we have it disabled since we are not moving. Having said that we will turn it back on when we start moving. In addition to text, you can also download weather for an additional cost.
So far this has been pretty good but once we start traveling far afield and out of the Country, I don’t think we will keep our Verizon account due to it being so much more expensive for data. So that brings us to what we plan on getting.
Future Plans
So, I have a few things that are on the list of upgrades. They can be a bit pricy, so we are waiting a bit to see if the equipment comes down in price.
The biggest item on the list is Starlink. This is real high speed low latency internet that you can use almost anywhere on the planet. The plan is once we leave the states, we will get this and probably drop our cell phone plans to offset some of the cost. This will connect to our router so we will have high speed internet throughout the boat at all times. Being in the St. Pete area I have seen many sailboats and trawlers with the little dishy on it, so it has become kind of a game changer regarding internet. We will be able to download weather quickly and do other computer-related items wherever we go (as long as you have the right subscription). We won’t entirely rely on this. With our SSB and Garmin Inreach as back up, we should be able to get our weather information (which is really the most important reason to have it). At the cost of $2000 for the HS equipment at $250/month it is a pretty good chunk of change but if our budget can take it, we will get this.
One additional, stop gap item that I am thinking of is a Cell phone signal booster and a mi-fi hotspot. The boat can block out a weak cell signal and instead of tethering the phone and setting the phone outside I was thinking of getting this. This would allow 1) to keep using my phone and 2) have a system that would boost a weak signal. We will wait for a bit to see how the internet is once we are moving around but that is a solution I have waiting in the wings.
Well that's it. The next topic will be Communication so I will go into more depth of some of the items I touched on here and add a few additional ones.
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