Absolutely you can follow your preferred weather - from Key west to Nova
Scotia and back. Hurricanes are a matter of picking out your holes well in
advance and aggressively tracking any storm systems, IMHO.
Lydia really wants to get on with the Caribbean, or we'd be doing the
Bahamas in the winter, and the East Coast during the summer. I have a high
affinity to being able to get parts (that's what I'm doing mostly this month
ashore) at a reasonable cost and challenge level, and having Boat US or the
like available doesn't hurt, either.
But, we're moving on, so other than the very few places we saw on our two
dashes up and down the coast will go unexplored.
I have to say, though, the gin-clear water surely is nicer than anywhere we
went further north than, say, Marathon, and next to never wearing more than
a speedo type suit (let alone jeans and sweatshirts) appeals to both of us.
My refrigeration would be happier in the northern waters, but it's
manageable, even with the umpteen pieces of gear we have, not to mention,
frequently, two computers running, with no genny - just solar panels and
wind, plus frequent use when the computer use is high, of the Honda 2KW
portable, put on the swim platform. Can't hear it running at full blast
when we're coming up in the dink, and if there's any wind noise, not much
anywhere else, either. At idle, I have to check the ammeter to see if it's
running unless I'm at the back of the boat...
There were only a couple of places where we didn't have free internet, but
that's because of our killer system; a laptop would be paying for it in most
places, if it was visible at all. If you're dependent on connectivity for
working, something like we have from www.islandtimepc.com is pretty
critical. See my 2009 refit pix for our bullet installation; if you're not
a geek, you'll play hell trying to make it as transparent as Bob at ITPC
does; plug and play for one computer is well under 250 bux and a household
router will make it available to however many people you care to let on -
encrypt to keep it to yourself. Suffice to say that in the Bahamas, I was
using a site 10 miles away, and will again when I get back. Other places
there didn't need the range, but I easily out-saw the Marsh Harbour
mostly-subscription sites (the bulk of the rest encrypted), using ones on
other islands. When we did the East Coast, we largely had our choice of
many available sites, even with the predecessor to what we have now (less
power to reach out and be heard, the rest is the same as what we have now).
So, if you'd like year-round cruising, and don't mind paying attention to
the storm forecasts for the occasional one which will reach north (you are
going to be there in the summer, after all), you'll be happy, IMHO. OTOH,
WRT our system, if I were doing only coastal and interior cruising, likely
I'd get the cell-based system I mentioned in a recent post of my seminars I
did in Georgetown last winter. Not nearly as inexpensive, but very fast,
and not many places at all you'll not have broadband speeds.
I use Vonage for my telephony; if you have a cell-based system, you can
bundle it all with a voice cell program, or feed a VoIP router off the same
router, if you prefer. I like Vonage in that it's not metered other than to
some foreign countries; Canada, US and 5 European countries are free, so
Lydia calls her mother and sister in England free, and my grandkids were on
the phone to their parents twice a day, e.g.. Not bad, under way, 6 miles
out :{))
HTH...
L8R
Skip, ashore buying parts...
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
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and couth. We are gruntled and consolate that you have the ertia and
eptitude to choose such putably pensible tithesis, which we parage.
>>Stamp out Sesquipedalianism<<
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