Sailing and Working

For the last couple of weeks, we've been out showing off our beautiful neighbourhood around the Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast to a friend visiting from Australia.  This has also meant that I had to figure out how I was going to continue working now that I'm on a consulting contract.  

 Looking North up Trincomali Channel

Technology has come a long way since we first ventured out sailing.  It started with cellphones  (we've had one for over 30 years, perks of working in the industry 😎) and then WiFi started to be available at marinas (if you could get it to work....).  With recent improvements in cellular data with LTE and 5G, we're now at a point where using cellular data is giving us the freedom to work in more remote places.  It's not all smooth sailing however (pun intended!).  First there's the cost of cellular data in Canada, in a word, OUTRAGEOUS.   

Late last year, before we cut the wired connection to the boat, I sat down and looked at just how much data we were using in a given month for remote work, Netflix, etc.  We were stunned that it worked out to over 300 gig a month.  How the hell were we going to replace that with cellular data?  We've got a great cell phone plan that gives us 60 Gig of sharable data a month, so that was part of it, but I needed more for work.  Zoom calls take a LOT of data.  We cut out watching Netflix and other streaming services unless we were on WiFi (one Netflix movie uses about 10 Gig of data btw), and have cut back on screen time in general but I still needed more data.  I finally found a high usage data plan that gave me 50 Gig of high speed data with the ability to go over in 10 Gig increments for a not unreasonable amount.  Over the past 6 months, I've averaged about 90 Gig of data per month on this plan plus we use most of the 60 Gig on our cell phone plan.  It's not cheap but it works and it's the cost of being able to be out here and not tied to the dock.  

Getting the data plans has only been part of the of the solution however.  While we expect, and generally get, great cell phone coverage where most people live, we don't sail where most people live.  So more money spent on technology and we now have a cellular booster on board.  I have the external antenna temporarily mounted about 2.5 meters off the deck and the internal antenna at the nav station (or as I like to call it, my office)  The plan is to mount the external antenna at the top of the mast as soon as the weather permits.  I have the cable, connectors etc, just need it to warm up a bit.  Regardless, it works pretty well now and has extended our cruising area and my ability to continue working.  I am still holding out hope for StarLink mobile.  It was promised late last year and I do know that StarLink has made progress so hopefully not too much longer.  When it does finally come to market, we'll be able to better manage costs and have the connectivity we'll need to venture further afield and still be able to earn a bit of an income.

With all of this we've been able to have a pretty nice tour around.  So far we've been  to Winter Cove, Port Browning, Montague Harbour, Wallace Island, Bowen Island, and Gibsons.  We're heading to Nanaimo in a few days and then back to Sidney.  It's been an adjustment, being in all these beautiful places and spending a few days a week working but it seems to be working itself out.  When I get on Zoom calls now, one of the first questions people ask is "where are you today?" so my colleagues are adjusting as well!

Princess Harbour Wallace Island in the Rain

Home Again (Briefly)

Home again is actually wrong, we're always home, it's just that we move our home around with us, kind of like a lot of other sea creatures!  We are however back in our marina for a little over a week.  I have a work contract to sort out and we have a friend joining us from Australia at the end of the week for a few weeks adventure with us on the west coast (more on that later).

When we left Nanaimo, we sailed to Wallace Island once we were through Dodds Narrows.  It was a nice sail in 10-15 knots.  10 tacks and we were anchored!   Spent the night there and then headed further south to Winter Cove.  There was nobody anchored there when we arrived so and for the next couple of days there were only a few boats coming and going.  Had some nice walks on shore and finally left to head back to Sidney Friday.  We had hoped to sail all the way home but as usual, the winds were not cooperating.  We did have a great sail down Plumper Sound to the bottom of Pender Island but then the wind died so motored the rest of the way home.  We did have current with us so we made really good time!

Wallace Island

Winter Cove

Strait of Georgia