FAQ - Keeping in Touch and Websites/Blogs

How and how often are you getting your mail (post office mail that is)?

We actually don’t receive our “snail-mail”. All our mail is sent to either KT's sister or Chris’ dad; who open everything and pay all of our bills (although there isn’t usually much to pay because we use cash via ATM cards and both of our credit cards actually draw from our bank accounts). Before leaving we provided them with all of our account information (logins, account numbers, passwords, and so on). We also created simple “Durable Power of Attorney’s for Financial Management” (you can download a basic one online), so that should a problem ever arise they have the legal proof to act on our behalf. Note – this legal document is NOT in case of illness/death/etc, it is a power of attorney that is active while we are still alive and able – it gives them permission to our accounts; using our credit cards, paying bills (writing checks), receiving & depositing money, and so on.

If they come across something important they email us. Also we’ve found enough internet cafes along the way to keep on eye on our accounts. Probably the biggest pain in the ass is boat documentation. The United States documentation is only good for one year at a time – and of course you need non-expired boat documentation to check into a country. So at least once a year we have to find a way to receive mail to get this documentation. Chris’ dad scans it for us and emails it to us and we print it, so we at least have something, but you really do need the original. Other cruisers use mail forwarding services – try a Google search to see what’s out there if you don’t want to burden a family member.

Do you have internet and/or email aboard? How do you update your website logs?

For full-blown internet (i.e. websites and such) we aren’t real sure, but believe it’s probably not cheap, and at the speeds you are likely to get, probably not worth it. Email is completely doable and just about everyone has some type of email access. We went our first year without but joined the bandwagon our second year. Three onboard email options (that we know of):

• Winlink via SSB modem. Winlink is free (no annual/monthly fees) but requires a ham license and people complain about connection times and speeds.
• Sailmail via SSB modem. $250/year, also gets some complaints about speed and connection issues.
• Satellite phone. Using prepaid minutes costs about $1.10 a minute if you buy 500 minutes for the year – unused minutes roll over to the next year if you buy addt’l minutes. Sat phone can be used [for email] with a free service called skyfile or with a paid service uuplus (about $30/month). In our opinion, UUPLUS is better then SKYFILE but one if free and one isn’t.

You can use the satellite phone for “full” internet but it is ridiculously slow and at a $1/minute very expensive. There are also utilities available that convert web pages to text and then email them to you. We don’t really miss “full blown” internet access ... there are enough internet cafes between various ports to keep us feeling connected and to keep our websites updated.

The pros and cons (as we see it): A modem (SSB radio modem) costs roughly $800 (and you need to ensure that the SSB radio supports a modem, otherwise you might also have to purchase a new SSB radio). We bought our used satellite phone for $500. The satellite phone has the added benefit of safety –if something goes south you can call for help, and in the very worst case scenario, should you have to abandon ship, you can take the phone with you (keep it charged of course). We don’t often make phone calls on the sat phone (too pricey at a buck a minute), but we do occasionally if we've accumulated a lot of extra minutes. We connect about once a day – sending and receiving at the same time, including weather forecasts – and it takes about 1 minute, so we are paying about $30 bucks a month. Connecting via the sat phone is really easy, and we’ve had more than one cruiser comment that it seems like a good way to go.

We do not use the Satellite phone to update our websites, but do use it to update our Blog  and to update our “Where’s Billabong” page – including sending a small photograph.

For our website I keep it updated “offline” then upload it when we are at a port with decent internet cafes. You can find more information about our recommendations for website maintenance on our Creative Cruising Concepts website.  There is also a little bit more information on email & internet here.

In some parts of the world you can get wi-fi onboard for a small fee and sometimes free. For these connections an external USB wi-fi adapter tends to get a stronger signal than an internal wi-fi card in your laptop. Also for 99 cents you can create a wi-fi antennae out of a pasta strainer – we’ve actually gotten signal 6 miles away with this!

What program do you use to pre-write your email?

Both Skyfile and UUPlus allow you to type emails prior to sending.  They are added to the queue and sent at your next connection.  For internet cafes, we save and pre-write emails using Microsoft notepad - simple copy-paste.

How many minutes do you purchase with Iridium?

Now you can only get them with a minimum of 500 minute blocks which is more than enough per year.

Do you use Skyfile or UUPlus?

Our first few years we used Skyfile.  Around Singapore we switched to UUPlus.  UUPlus seems to work better, but it is a paid service versus Skyfile which is free.

Do you have an external antenna for your sat phone?

We don't have an external antenna for the sat phone ... sometimes we have to hold the phone up through the companion way as it gets a better signal there, but most the time it does work down below. We believe the antennas are really expensive.

"Creative Cruising - What Works", is this stuff really free?  I got a few really good tips from there, and it is much better than the average cruising book you pay plenty of money for.

Yes, our Creative Cruising Concepts website is indeed free! We started this website for a few friends of ours that were getting ready to cruise.  It started as just a long list of stuff that we liked and didn't like.  Before we knew it other people were contacting us about the site with additional questions and asking for more details.  So, during our extended stay in Singapore we gave the CCC website a complete make-over; adding some organization, updating the information, adding additional details, and including links to the products we were writing about.  Although you can purchase the products via these links - the cost is the same as if a user went to that website directly - we do get a small commission (usually 3-7%), which we put towards the cost of website hosting. [More information regarding these affiliates can be found in the next answer, under "Why do you have ads on your website?"]

Why do you have ads on your website? What's up with the stores and affiliates?

When we setup affiliates and ads on our website some people thought we were getting a bit too "commercial".  That was not our intention.  OK, sure the ads are just that - ads, and yes we make money if you click them.  But we have tried to place them "out of the way", and we do NOT use or believe in pop-up ads.  Google Ads are simple text ads that really should not inhibit the reading and using of our website.  Any money we make goes toward the website hosting fees (and we still haven't broken even yet on the hosting - and that doesn't even figure in the hundred of hours of our time!).
As for the affiliates that started because we were getting so many questions about the products we were using.  First we thought "we should link to examples".  Then we figured if we were already linking to an example or photo, why not link to a good website where someone could purchase the product; saving them from searching around.  Next it seemed natural that if we were going to link to a product on a website where you could purchase a product, why not join up with that website (as an affiliate) and make a little something?  There is no additional costs to the buyer - so what's the harm?

Initially we wanted one spot where you could view & buy all the things we talk about, but, of course, no such store exists.  So we ended up joining a number of affiliate programs - you can view all the affiliates here.  Amazon has an amazing range of products, so we also took the extra time to setup a special store, Gadgets that make a Difference - here we've created a "store" full of gear that we love and use all the time, from iPods to hiking shoes to Black & Decker 12-volt tools.  We've also taken the extra step and written in a few short comments about each product and why we think it works for travel & cruising.

Finally, mostly for fun, we created a bunch of apparel designs.  They include sailing/cruising slogans, travel inspiration, and go-green slogans.

The important thing to remember about all this stuff and our websites is that the websites are still FREE - all the information is there for your perusal without obligation to buy a thing; use the links as references and do NOT feel pressured.  Secondly IF you do purchase something realize that you are paying the same price as you would if you went to that site on your own - there is no markup just because you came from our site.  Finally, if you like our sites and find them useful or entertaining and need to buy something anyway, know that if you do choose to use our link then you are helping us to pay the website hosting fees - and we THANK YOU!

Just how many websites do you "host"? And why?

We currently have two websites [Sail Billabong & Creative Cruising Concepts] and three BLOGS [Billabong Blog, Snaps360, and From the Galley].  Following is a description of each site and how they came to be...

Sail Billabong was our first website.  We started it before departing, and our goal was to use it to stay in touch with our friends and families.  It also helps to keep us organized and caught up on our own journal writing and photograph sorting.  With the years we have received quite a bit of feedback and have tried to change the site accordingly.  The Sail Billabong site is our main travel website; providing journals, maps, photographs, and videos.

Creative Cruising Concepts came along next.  CCC started as two pages; What Works and What didn't work.  It used to be just a long 'ol list of things we liked and didn't like.  We posted this web mainly for a few friends who were leaving to cruise a few years after us and had a bunch of questions.  A few years later we were receiving questions and comments from strangers and realized that this site could be useful for ANYONE looking to travel and/or cruise.  So, we gave the site a huge make-over; re-organizing, updating information, adding photographs and details, and even linking to the products themselves - both for example purposes and to make it easier if someone wanted to purchase a product.

Next came the Billabong Blog.  The Sail Billabong website is great, but it requires a decent internet connection to update, so we were only adding new content every couple of months.  With a BLOG we can email journals and small photographs from the boat.  The BLOG allows us to write some short entries and keep people updated in between the larger, less frequent web updates.

We just recently started Snaps360 (June 2008).  Photography has always been a delight for us, and with each year we purchased new photography 'toys', and hopefully improved our techniques.  In the last few months we have been participating in photo forums and contests - further trying to improve.  Also we figured that some people aren't into reading - they just want to look at pretty pictures.  So this site is for them.  It's 95% photographs and 5% text.  We are posting one photograph or slide show per week and are trying to pick those photos that mean the most to us.

Finally we have the From the Galley BLOG.  This blog will "open" by the end of August 2008 (so be sure to check back if nothing is there yet).  Besides photography, KTs other obsession is food; anything at all related.  From farmer's markets to kitchen stores to cookbooks she can't get enough.  From the Galley will be all about cuisine, recipes, kitchen ('er galley) utensils & methods, and more.
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