![]() When the next delivery comes, I activate a new card. During long down times, I let my PredictWind subscription lapse. When I have an offshore delivery, I activate a card for as long as needed. There is no airtime activation or cancellation fee. Pop the card into the device and follow the activation instructions. ![]() Just like the SIM card in your cell phone, the Predict Wind/Iridium GO SIM card identifies me as a subscriber and allows me to activate my Iridium airtime plan, and then subscribe to a PredictWind forecast plan (starting at $99 for three months). I purchased four PredictWind SIM cards for $10 each. Signing up for my airtime contract with Iridium was made easy through PredictWind, a well-established provider that offers range of services aimed at sailors (more on this later). Although today’s weather products allows us to better predict the likelihood of local events such as squalls, keeping a weather eye is no less important today as it has always been (see Practical Sailor May 2017, “ Marine Weather Forecasting”). However, when a change of weather is forecast (such as frontal passage) or when making landfall, having access to more frequent reports is helpful and reassuring. On a typical long tradewind passage, once or twice daily forecasts are sufficient. Unlimited data cushions against overage fees, making the decision of getting weather updates easier. Although downloading weather data happens quick (four minutes per GRIB was the longest wait I had), I decided on Iridium’s unlimited plan. My priorities for my new Iridium GO were the following: weather updates, messaging, and then voice calls. But as with many things, executing the concept was not simple.īefore buying the Iridium GO I also researched the various data services that offered weather products that catered to sailors. These and other details are the focus of this report.Īs discussed in part one, my aim was to identify a portable system that delivered GRIB weather data files (GRIdded Binary data) and ideally, provided weather updates two or three times a day to allow for efficient routing. ![]() This might not be a priority for most sailors, but we all care about reliability of our weather data, and most of us care about cost. Because I am a delivery skipper, portability was a priority. Last month, in part one of this report on portable weather routing options, I described why I selected Iridium Go to help guide my weather routing during deliveries (see “ Getting Weather Data at Sea,” April 2020).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |