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Just because it is possible, and far less expensive
than telephone connections, many cruisers now
have arranged to receive and send email from on
board as they voyage.
A reason given for spending the money and time
to set this up is, "I can be in constant
contact with my parents and they won't be so worried
about this life we've chosen." Sounds good,
but a note from Lorraine and Bert Bramble who
cruised from New Jersey to Horta this year on
board Twist of Fate points out a problem we have
seen before with ham radio's. They write "With
on board e-mail, family become dependant on daily
position reports. Unfortunately corrosion and
poor propagation can interfere with transmission,
which happened to us. When we got to Horta, we
found out there was a boat-watch out for us. Our
family reported us missing after three days of
no reports."
An interesting note on this subject, We were
mistakenly reported as missing many years ago
in the Bay of Bengal, after a massive Cyclone
passed just to the north of our route from Sri
Lanka to Malaysia. We were contentedly cruising
through the Langkawi islands for over six weeks
while friends and family in the US, Canada and
UK read reports of searches under way for us and
six other sailors. But one friend in Britain,
Leslie Dyball, who had raced around Britain with
Larry, remembered that we did our banking with
a branch near him. He contacted the bank, showed
them the story in the papers and asked if we had
withdrawn any funds in the previous few weeks.
They told him only that "yes, there has been
action on the account originating in Malaysia."
Wish Leslie had thought to contact my Mom in California.
(We wrote about this incident in Seraffyn's Oriental
Adventure, definitely an amazing time in our sailing
lives).
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