I agree with Mark, the more sailing the better... we also love fishing ...successful or not...projects... challenging like Iridium "NO-GO" or whatever comes!
Great education about the need for connectivity in an ocean passage! Discussing the concerns of love ones on shore was enlightening. I haven't been sailing long but I continue to be impressed by the sailing community's willingness to help each other. The lengths they will go to is amazing!
Sailors are the best!!! Our main concern wasn't our lack of connectivity, but more the fact that our friends and family would worry. We told everyone that in case our track would stop, the most likely scenario would be that we had lost our satcoms, but when a person you love is in the middle of the ocean and you have no news, the mind WILL explore the worst case scenarios. It all went well in the end :)
They drill into you as part of ASA courses that it is YOUR DUTY to aid another vessel if they request help. Seas are treacherous, so we all must help each other.
It is a tradition as old as sailors going to sea. If someone needs help you render aid or share whatever you have. The sea does not care about you, so we must care for each other.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to extend a massive THANK YOU to Torm Thimothy for their help out at sea, and to all of you who had a thought for us when our live tracker went extinct. The sailing community and seamen in general are truly amazing people 🙂 (PS: the autopilot beeping is just an alarm warning us of a wind shift. It did not disengage and did a great job the entire crossing 😉)
Yrs ago I worked in the Bolivian Amazon. It took me 2 days with a motor powered canoe to reach the indigenous village where I stayed for nearly 3 months without any communication with the outside world. My gf and parents had no clue how I did, but when I was finally back home and asking them how they had been I understood everything had been reasonably OK. Even though this trip had been far more risky than crossing an ocean. This happened when the internet, and not least satellite communication, was in its premature stage. Ok, the year before I had sendt my first email from the jungle in Costa Rica (as part of communication btw universities, which was how it all started), but it was still the era of fax machines, and sporadic ones at best. This year my son, also he studying abroad, is complaining he has to be in contact with his gf 24/7. If not all hell breaks out. When I tell how it was when I was his age he agrees some things were better before. Point is: sometimes it's 100% necessary to completely log off the grid. It's best for all parties - at home and away - as I'm sure it can rejuvenate needed simplicity and tranquility in both soul, mind and body.
"Two is one and one is none" is a mantra to live by. Easy for me to say sitting in the comfort of my home with a coffee next to me. Have had avionics failures multiple times, once a complete panel failure in the dark in the middle of Lake Michigan (one loose wire.. no kidding). When XM aviation weather first arrived it became the go-to source. Practicing failures sets your mind up for when the inevitable happens. Lugged around bulky backup equipment but it was worth it.
Jamie on Jupiter (a commercial airline pilot) gave a VERY good video about backup systems for everything. That is one of the reasons that HE has a catamaran. So much can and does go wrong so having a plan for that is MOST essential.
towards the end of your call it sounds like the auto squelch was cutting in.. it always useful to know how to turn it off it can hep with faint signals. but imguessing it was stressful and easy to forget these options when i first started to use vhf every call included messing with the squelch dial. well done..
Across the pacific in the 1980’s several times without such flash gadgets. Such sad faces over luxuries…. Oh well, still nice to watch the routine. Tks
You guys are always my favorites because you are funny, genuine, and you SAIL! I was super stressed out for y'all, watching this video. So so glad it worked out!
My best times on the water were before all the electronic gadgets, when you tune into your environment and take whatever comes, which is what you have to do anyway, more of an adventure. I like GPS though.
losing satcom is tough on the trackers and very frustrating on board. I was wondering if you folks log the weather (wind speed/direction, barometric/temp, cloud/sea state and currents both upper atmosphere (not easy) and sea? A quick tip.... with your back to the wind a look over your left shoulder points to the center of a low press sys. A look over your right points to the high. With a bit of basic weather knowledge and well kept logs can have you predicting real time local like a pro. Love the channel.
Lower the squelch when the vhf recepyion is poor. Also, a $500 Yeasu Ft-981 HF radio is a great option for communicating and retrieving free emails via SSB amateur radio
yes, having HF radio is nice, but getting the ham license is quite a lot of work. Even though I have a ham license, I would say its not worth it nowadays if you only want to communicate and dont do it as a hobby. The LRC license is quite a bit easier, but then sending emails is not free anymore afaik and the marine HF radios are not so flexible.
@@BM-fi1hi I got a ham license recently mainly for HF coms and emails. It was not much work, I just read through the exam problems and correct answers. Took the Tech and Gen exams in one sitting. The low cost of a high quality ham radio makes it a no brainer. I think one issue is perception, ham radio has evolved and those with old ham experience don't realize the advances. Simple digital modes like JS8Call let one send txt messages to cell phones, send stored messages for other to later retrieve, and spot one coordinates automatically via the APRS mapping systems. My point is that it is another tool and going the ham route make it affordable and more capable than the traditional marine ssb.
This is a great story. But Im not sure why so much amazement at "randomness", it is your duty as a mariner to come to aid of all other mariners in need. They drill this into you as part of ASA 101 courses. There are even laws in place to protect you if you accidentally make the situation worse. Although world is full of A holes, it is great to see Torm Timothy doing everything they can to help. Good on them.
It looks so easy from afar, but when you are in the middle of the ocean and you haven't seen any ship for days, finding one feels VERY lucky (on our first crossing we only saw one ship in 17 days) . And it is less the fact that a ship would help us that felt random, than all the things that needed to fall in place to get our InReach going again :) Hope this clarifies!
Hallo -Ryan & Sophie looks pretty broken. But anette is beaming as always ;-) it is very interesting to listen to the radio traffic ! I'm currently studying for the radio test . I'm looking forward to the next video !! best regards from Bavaria - Frank
I've carried a back up sat phone (w/data capability) on numerous trips to places I didn't want to be "lost" in... after buying the device getting a plan that lets you use it in emergencies is not expensive. Sounds like you needed a better back up plan...
Excellent as usual Sophie. Have you seen Emily and Clarkes YT episode (also excellent) on the choice of VHF antennae cable type and how this can maximize your VHF Radio range?
During first contact with Torm Thimothy the quality was good enough. Should have asked for their position and the latest forecast for 24 or 48 hrs ahead of your route. I am sure Thimothy is equipped with up to date Navtex, Inmarsat and other weather forecast services. Great Seamanship Thimothy. Ryan & Sophie, I think a Hydrovane will be a good backup for your electric autopilot. it doesn't use electricity and you will have a spare rudder. Fair winds and thanks for the vlog.
Shoulda coulda woulda. This is what we chose to do at that time, with the data that we had. For us getting access to our InReach was more important, as our weather forecast was still good at that time. Also, our autopilot works great! The wind shift alarm did not disengage the autopilot, just warned us of the wind shift. A hydro and does not have that function 😉
PS to below Post. Learning to read the horizon is also important re the weather, which helps during the day, but a backup system at night, is Radar, and a 48 miles over the horizon minimum range is good for weather System watching Day and night. 👍🙂
As a guy who spent 40 years on call for work, keep my phone OFF for months at a time - that feels like a vacation to me. Pretty sure back in the 70's our weather FAX worked threw the radio?
@@RyanSophieSailing Don't need a fax machine - just an HF receiver and a computer. Can also do it with an HF receiver and a cell phone running a weather fax app. Here's a 2013 vid that shows the results: th-cam.com/video/hTgo9KXnQqY/w-d-xo.html
Allways check you subscription . You can do test message from the Garmin for crying out loud ! Best wishes and remember to check daily that your gear is working
Also... what’s the point of buying an iridium go if you have to buy a second one? 🥴 redundancy is smart, but there is a limit to how much you can carry onboard...
Excellent video. I'm glad you apparently made it to the Azores. I can vividly imagine how unsettling the lack of communication must have been. I seem to recall that I have watched two other sailing channels (one of them being Delos) which also had irrecoverable Iridium Go failures. It does raise the question wheter the Iridium Go is a sufficiently rugged device for ocean crossings. I used an Iridium handset (Iridium 9555). It is more expensive than the Iridium Go and it is more cumbersome to use as a modem, but it does seem like a more rugged device (although I would recommend bringing spare USB cables for connection between the handset and the laptop). Also, the handset has the advantage that one can take it along on a life raft, if need be.
True! We’ve been thinking about an actual sat phone for our next crossing, but in terms of the function, nothing really beats the Go... I think that as long as you have a solid backup in case of a failure, (which we clearly did not have enough of) you’re probably good to go. We have a new iridium unit, and I still wouldn’t want to cross an ocean without one!
The USCoast Guard has a voice weather system for the high seas that is transmitted via HF radio constantly. In the future you might add an HF (HAM) radio as your backup to SAT.
@Tom K The good news is that one can receive the HF weather broadcasts (as well as MF NAVTEX messages) with just a receiver - as these are receive-only modes, no license is required. For MF/HF voice or data transmission (like using the USCG voice system), one can't use an amateur radio license - that's a maritime license pair. Someone needs a restricted radiotelephone operator license, and the ship needs a station license. Yes, there are comms options if one has a license for the amateur service as well - including requesting and receiving updated weather info in the form of GRIB via WINLINK. Options are good!
If you have redundancy, you either experience a double fault or something non-redundant breaks. There is no such thing as absolute safety. That said, HF weather fax can be a little bit tricky to operate with all the electronic stuff onboard disturbing it, but the service is free and does not require expensive hardware. Better a bad backup than none.
Dear Santa: Please send my friends a marine SSB radio and a weatherfax, even a used one, so they have some reliable weatherfax equipment. Or perhaps a ham radio.
@@RyanSophieSailing yes, generally squelch cannot fix a range issue. But in the video it seemed that the voice was still well above noise level and very readable when the squelch already started cutting out some pieces which then made it unreadable.
When you are sailing on wind vane mode and the Raymarine wind shift alarm goes off, and goes off, and goes off. Do you guys no longer have a sat phone? Are you unable to adjust the squelch on your VHF ?
@@RyanSophieSailing (1) the wind vane alarm is fixed at something like 15 degrees and the wind regularly oscillates by 20 degrees setting the alarm off with boring repetition. Maybe that doesn't happen in the atlantic (2) When Sophie burnt herself with the coffee pot, you called for help using a sat phone, is that not available? (3) When Ryan was trying to talk to the ship and it kept cutting out, that was because the signal strength dropped just below that of the squelch control on the radio - do you understand this? why did you not adjust it? (P75 of the manual)
Right?! That’s what I thought about when the Go pooped on us. I always thought we were going to be fine, we just needed to be smart about navigating “in the dark” ☺️
Better than Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon Saturday serials in the movie theater when I was just a squirt. Add a couple sea monsters and an alien vessel and you'll have the whole tomato! More! More!
The iridium go has a bad reputation for reliability. In fact on the salty dog rally a few years ago they insisted that those using a Go also carry an active Inreach as back up. We know of several cruisers who have had a faulty a Go. May be they should be called No Go. Worth activating you Inreach in the future
Absolutely! We will now always make sure that we have an activated backup. After over two years of trusty services, we were very sad to see our Go fail!
@@RyanSophieSailing Ryan, AND look for an SSB-Radio plus the Radio-Amateurlicense ;-) i know, a SSB/FM Transceiver (incl. Antenna) cost also money, but u can also load Weathercharts on Faximile from the DWD (Germany) or Halifax (Canadian) Stations via the Soundcard(!) .... and there also many RadioAmateurs they Standby on 14.313_MHz - SSB SailorNet ... also from Germany. maybe something like that is an alternative for you too Ryan. i know, this disaster war in july - actual i can see you in a warmer area - enjoy the island (s) my best regards from Austria
A true sailor .... Could have been worse , WE COULD HAVE LOST THE AUTO-PILOT ... True . Iv had the Iridium go several times , Gave up in the end with them .
At the end of the day, what you TRULY need from sat coms are: an updated weather forecast and a way to communicate with land in case of an emergency. Even in the absence of the Go, we had both. It just isn't as convenient without it and we couldn't do as much. But overall, we were a lot more worried about the people worrying about us than we were worried about our situation.
If Iridium Go is #1 on "wouldn't cross an ocean without" maybe (particularly with their spotty equipment reliability record) the saying "one is none and two is one" may be relevant for future crossings.
Lowering the squelch would have allowed you to hear them with static. Instead they completely cut out and it limited your ability to completely hear the transmission. Also I believe you should definitely learn more about how radios work. You seem like a intelligent person and some more knowledge of how radio communications work would benefit you alot. Especially when you have other people's lives in your hands. You were also limited in your knowledge about SSB propagation. HF NVIS has a range of up to 600 miles reliable everyday. Which increases your chances of communication with someone. Please research more you'll thank yourself for it. I say all this with kind and warm regards and not to be confrontational but helping and caring manner.
We didn't see you lower the squelch in the video. And the audio completely cut out during the transmission. I am not familiar with that radio to be honest. Dropping the squelch all together during the communication would have allowed you to hear more of the transmission even if it had white noise on it. Being not familiar with that radio it may not have allowed that I'm not sure. Also some radios have a monitor button that would allow that. Point being the transmission we could hear the audio from the transmission was cutting in and out. This could have been avoided by lowering or turning off the squelch if possible. I'm a amateur radio operator for many years and fully understand what I'm talking about. I say what I say in order to help not criticise. I'm sure this was a difficult matter mentally at the time.
This is about the time I figured you all turned pirate and were sinking all vessels and drinking rum and doing other pirate things with all electronics turned off or in stealth mode....Arrrr !!!
I love your resourcefulness. (That a random steamship passing by was willing to help was a bit of a pleasant surprise.) It reminds me that some things about blue water cruising will always be true: One must always be prepared to come up with a "what do we do now?" plan, because *something* is always going to deviate from even the best plan. I'm very glad everything worked out... (I mean, that you're posting videos is a bit of a spoiler, right?)
Our autopilot worked just fine! I did not realize how much that poor thing would take when I included the alarm in the video 😅 the autopilot never disengaged. At the time the clip was filmed, it was on hydrovane mode and steered to a specific wind angle. The alarm just warned us that the wind had shifted, but it was still very much steering. A hydrovane wouldn’t warn you! 😉 (also, we have a backup for our autopilot. It’s another autopilot)
@@RyanSophieSailing OK so you got a new GO. What is the backup plan for weather access/PW routing if you have a repeat and again the GO is down? I guess I'm asking what now is your entire sat comms kit. Cheers
I just saw on another channel: you need a working battery in your IridiumGo, otherwise it will not connect to satellite! It will startup, especially when connected to wall power, but no satellite connection. I am guessing your battery is broke.
Great illustration of the need for backups and the ability to be creative. On High Note, we have an Iridium Go, an Iridium extreme sat phone, Navtex, Sirius xm weather module, An older SSB not capable of using a modem but good for voice communications, and a battery operated short wave radio receiver along with 2 VHFs. Plus 2 barometers. I don't feel over prepared.
I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to come up with an alternative - nothing more that thinking your EPIRB was in operating condition but would be used only as a last resort when in physical danger, which was not the case. So now I assume you are going to gear up with a device that will serve as a reliable backup. Why have one backup you can't use? But, in the end, Eleven Bells and All Is Well! :¬) Webhead USA
^Losing :) Weird that electronics loss, was it you who already lost one of these or was it someone else? I guess all sailors will be first in line getting the starlink once it's in general availability
Yeah it was super weird indeed... we actually met a couple of people who suffered the same issue, one of them (spoiler alert), in the middle of the ocean too. Lessons learned, we'll have an activated backup next time!
Well, what can I say. Great video. No satellite isn't a big deal, not worth stressing about. The in reach mini is only a backup if it's activated before you go 😁. Sophie, if Ryan doesn't marry you, will you marry me? X
Well done to the tanker. Fortunately you are a sail boat with the antenna up on top of the mast (i am guessing) so your range is considerable compared to a power boat. I am however surprised you couldn't turn the squelch down or off so he wouldn't have broken up so bad. Oh well. While we know you made it safe and sound it was still exciting and tense on my end. Thank you and be safe.
Sophie and Ryan y’all need 2 back up Garmin inreach minis t be able to stay In touch with family . Y’all need to budget the $350$ and get the Garmin in reach mini and set up with safety plan !!! Best wishes
@@RyanSophieSailing awesome save travels . I see y’all have original inreach . Maybe when y’all make state side you can upgrade to inreach mini . . Best wishes and I hope 🤞🏽 one day to sail myself !
When a company charges 300 dollars for 12m meters of co-ax, a couple of cheap brackets and a twig, then there ethics are questionable to say the least. I can't say that it surprises me therefore, that your Irridium GO packed up mid-Atlantic.
I similarly have an Iridium GO with 2 InReach units as back-ups. One InReach is always activated, the second isn't. Receiving weather forecast via InReach without a weather plan is tricky as the information is related via text messages (140 character max) therefore sender must place sequential numbers every 140 characters in case the text arrive out of sequence. This happened to us returning from Bermuda (pre-Iridium GO). We received a weather report from our contracted weather service. It sounded dire, yet we couldn't truly understand given the jumbled arrival of the texts
What!? No bikinis on beaches? Sarcasm ended. I continue to lose confidence in and respect for the Iridium Go system. Their engineers seem to have no concept of what a marine environment can do to electronics. I'm a landlubber so have no first hand knowledge, but the number of TH-camrs left in the lurch by equipment failure is not encouraging. Since I viewed this I know you arrived safe and sound. I continue to wish you fair winds and following seas.
Aren't you guys depending too much on the Iridium communication with the people on land? Things can go wrong, but you are perfectly safe still. It seems annoying that you worried about the people that are worried about you. Why not enjoy the trip in stead of getting stress on a not very important piece of equipment? The passing ship could have given you the weather forecast, right?
Ryan actually considered an SSB radio, but it’s some money, and an Installation. Also, it’s not more reliable than satellite com... it can fail too, and propagation isn’t equal everywhere. At the end of the day, all that matters is to have a solid backup in place. We had backup, but it wasn’t that solid 😅
Hi guys - I just watched this - it looks like Nick O'Kelly is experiencing a similar symptom that you experienced with your Iridium Go - if you haven't fixed the Go yet, it might be worth trying out a new battery (start watching at around 11:43) th-cam.com/video/8jQFArGAQ2Y/w-d-xo.html
So many other channels seem to do everything but sail - I really like that you show extended footage of your passages, good times and not so good!
Thanks so much Mark! It means a lot to hear that ☺️
I agree with Mark, the more sailing the better... we also love fishing ...successful or not...projects... challenging like Iridium "NO-GO" or whatever comes!
Great education about the need for connectivity in an ocean passage! Discussing the concerns of love ones on shore was enlightening. I haven't been sailing long but I continue to be impressed by the sailing community's willingness to help each other. The lengths they will go to is amazing!
Sailors are the best!!! Our main concern wasn't our lack of connectivity, but more the fact that our friends and family would worry. We told everyone that in case our track would stop, the most likely scenario would be that we had lost our satcoms, but when a person you love is in the middle of the ocean and you have no news, the mind WILL explore the worst case scenarios. It all went well in the end :)
A friend in need, is a friend indeed…It seems sailors/cruisers don’t seem to think twice about helping out others👍 Stay Safe & Enjoy😎
The sailing community is the best!!!
They drill into you as part of ASA courses that it is YOUR DUTY to aid another vessel if they request help. Seas are treacherous, so we all must help each other.
It is a tradition as old as sailors going to sea. If someone needs help you render aid or share whatever you have. The sea does not care about you, so we must care for each other.
God Bless you Ryan 🙌🏼
Just wanted to take this opportunity to extend a massive THANK YOU to Torm Thimothy for their help out at sea, and to all of you who had a thought for us when our live tracker went extinct. The sailing community and seamen in general are truly amazing people 🙂
(PS: the autopilot beeping is just an alarm warning us of a wind shift. It did not disengage and did a great job the entire crossing 😉)
The Thom Timothy is an absolute hero in this. How awesome of them to help you.
👍
Yrs ago I worked in the Bolivian Amazon. It took me 2 days with a motor powered canoe to reach the indigenous village where I stayed for nearly 3 months without any communication with the outside world. My gf and parents had no clue how I did, but when I was finally back home and asking them how they had been I understood everything had been reasonably OK. Even though this trip had been far more risky than crossing an ocean.
This happened when the internet, and not least satellite communication, was in its premature stage. Ok, the year before I had sendt my first email from the jungle in Costa Rica (as part of communication btw universities, which was how it all started), but it was still the era of fax machines, and sporadic ones at best. This year my son, also he studying abroad, is complaining he has to be in contact with his gf 24/7. If not all hell breaks out. When I tell how it was when I was his age he agrees some things were better before.
Point is: sometimes it's 100% necessary to completely log off the grid. It's best for all parties - at home and away - as I'm sure it can rejuvenate needed simplicity and tranquility in both soul, mind and body.
All this while I was thinking name of the ship was Storm Thimothy.
Turn off the squelch on your VHF when reception is poor so that you can hear the messages in the noise. . . Love the videos! Good job Sophie!
Same wanted to tell them 👍
"Two is one and one is none" is a mantra to live by. Easy for me to say sitting in the comfort of my home with a coffee next to me. Have had avionics failures multiple times, once a complete panel failure in the dark in the middle of Lake Michigan (one loose wire.. no kidding). When XM aviation weather first arrived it became the go-to source. Practicing failures sets your mind up for when the inevitable happens.
Lugged around bulky backup equipment but it was worth it.
Jamie on Jupiter (a commercial airline pilot) gave a VERY good video about backup systems for everything. That is one of the reasons that HE has a catamaran. So much can and does go wrong so having a plan for that is MOST essential.
Nice to see the community on the seas are willing to another boaters.
It's been an absolute highlight of our crossing!
towards the end of your call it sounds like the auto squelch was cutting in.. it always useful to know how to turn it off it can hep with faint signals. but imguessing it was stressful and easy to forget these options when i first started to use vhf every call included messing with the squelch dial. well done..
Y’all show the good, bad and ugly of sailing. Really enjoy your videos.
If Sophie did boat recipe (or really any recipe) mini-videos, I'd totally watch them.. that food looks better than the stuff I cook on land!!
@Popeye I saw one where she did some cooking but it wasn't proper recipes. If you have a better link, let me know.
I would like to see a vid on what she has equipped the galley with appliance wise
I said that before
Sophie should do cooking episodes
Across the pacific in the 1980’s several times without such flash gadgets. Such sad faces over luxuries…. Oh well, still nice to watch the routine. Tks
You guys are always my favorites because you are funny, genuine, and you SAIL! I was super stressed out for y'all, watching this video. So so glad it worked out!
🥰🥰🥰 thanks guys!
My best times on the water were before all the electronic gadgets, when you tune into your environment and take whatever comes, which is what you have to do anyway, more of an adventure. I like GPS though.
losing satcom is tough on the trackers and very frustrating on board. I was wondering if you folks log the weather (wind speed/direction, barometric/temp, cloud/sea state and currents both upper atmosphere (not easy) and sea? A quick tip.... with your back to the wind a look over your left shoulder points to the center of a low press sys. A look over your right points to the high. With a bit of basic weather knowledge and well kept logs can have you predicting real time local like a pro. Love the channel.
Good old HF radio would save lots of worries
Lower the squelch when the vhf recepyion is poor. Also, a $500 Yeasu Ft-981 HF radio is a great option for communicating and retrieving free emails via SSB amateur radio
yes, having HF radio is nice, but getting the ham license is quite a lot of work. Even though I have a ham license, I would say its not worth it nowadays if you only want to communicate and dont do it as a hobby. The LRC license is quite a bit easier, but then sending emails is not free anymore afaik and the marine HF radios are not so flexible.
@@BM-fi1hi I got a ham license recently mainly for HF coms and emails. It was not much work, I just read through the exam problems and correct answers. Took the Tech and Gen exams in one sitting. The low cost of a high quality ham radio makes it a no brainer. I think one issue is perception, ham radio has evolved and those with old ham experience don't realize the advances. Simple digital modes like JS8Call let one send txt messages to cell phones, send stored messages for other to later retrieve, and spot one coordinates automatically via the APRS mapping systems. My point is that it is another tool and going the ham route make it affordable and more capable than the traditional marine ssb.
I think it must take a lot of strength to live your sailing life, it could get really scary out there in times like that. Respect!!
That's a stressing but very interesting video great thinking
Bravo Zulu to crew and vessel Torm Tmothy!
The barometer will not let you down.
One hell of a boat. One hell of a Skipper. H. F. F. The Perfect Storm.
Have you ever addressed why you don't have a wind-vane steering system on Polar Seal? Talk about two autopilots!
This is a great story. But Im not sure why so much amazement at "randomness", it is your duty as a mariner to come to aid of all other mariners in need. They drill this into you as part of ASA 101 courses. There are even laws in place to protect you if you accidentally make the situation worse. Although world is full of A holes, it is great to see Torm Timothy doing everything they can to help. Good on them.
I felt the same, radio communication with a passing ship isn't really random.
It looks so easy from afar, but when you are in the middle of the ocean and you haven't seen any ship for days, finding one feels VERY lucky (on our first crossing we only saw one ship in 17 days) . And it is less the fact that a ship would help us that felt random, than all the things that needed to fall in place to get our InReach going again :) Hope this clarifies!
@@RyanSophieSailing agreed, lucky, not random.
Ah for the days when it was just sightings and charts. How did anyone ever survive….
Oh, it definitely sent this friend into a panic! Was so glad people were able to track you on AIS cause I was freaking!
Hallo -Ryan & Sophie looks pretty broken. But anette is beaming as always ;-) it is very interesting to listen to the radio traffic ! I'm currently studying for the radio test . I'm looking forward to the next video !! best regards from Bavaria - Frank
I've carried a back up sat phone (w/data capability) on numerous trips to places I didn't want to be "lost" in... after buying the device getting a plan that lets you use it in emergencies is not expensive.
Sounds like you needed a better back up plan...
Indeed they should have to Garmin inreach mini as back up . The safety plan is like 12 $ a month if they don’t use it too much
AT LAST. A communication! I was SOOOOO Worried.
Excellent as usual Sophie. Have you seen Emily and Clarkes YT episode (also excellent) on the choice of VHF antennae cable type and how this can maximize your VHF Radio range?
Good you did not choose Vasa for a boat name! LOL
Wow! what a nail-biting, tense, and serious vlog. I'm guessing you have already upgraded your equipment.
Stay safe and I can't wait for next week.
Yes, we have reviewed how we do our sat coms back up this time around ;)
During first contact with Torm Thimothy the quality was good enough. Should have asked for their position and the latest forecast for 24 or 48 hrs ahead of your route. I am sure Thimothy is equipped with up to date Navtex, Inmarsat and other weather forecast services. Great Seamanship Thimothy. Ryan & Sophie, I think a Hydrovane will be a good backup for your electric autopilot. it doesn't use electricity and you will have a spare rudder. Fair winds and thanks for the vlog.
Shoulda coulda woulda. This is what we chose to do at that time, with the data that we had. For us getting access to our InReach was more important, as our weather forecast was still good at that time. Also, our autopilot works great! The wind shift alarm did not disengage the autopilot, just warned us of the wind shift. A hydro and does not have that function 😉
How the HELL was Ryan so calm on the VHF talking to the tanker?????
Hahaha :D That's typical Ryan :p
I think Ryan is a former fighter pilot. In that profession, maintaining calm helps! :¬) Webhead USA
PS to below Post. Learning to read the horizon is also important re the weather, which helps during the day, but a backup system at night, is Radar, and a 48 miles over the horizon minimum range is good for weather System watching Day and night. 👍🙂
As a guy who spent 40 years on call for work, keep my phone OFF for months at a time - that feels like a vacation to me. Pretty sure back in the 70's our weather FAX worked threw the radio?
Yep. Unfortunately, we do not have a fax machine onboard 😂
@@RyanSophieSailing Don't need a fax machine - just an HF receiver and a computer. Can also do it with an HF receiver and a cell phone running a weather fax app. Here's a 2013 vid that shows the results: th-cam.com/video/hTgo9KXnQqY/w-d-xo.html
Having the same setup with a Iridium Go and a old inreach, and doing our first crossing in January, I will note down to check our subscription 🙂👍
Yep! We would recommend getting a subscription for your InReach beforehand 😉
Allways check you subscription . You can do test message from the Garmin for crying out loud ! Best wishes and remember to check daily that your gear is working
@@RyanSophieSailing 🙂 I believe we have, just feel inspired to double check 👍
Love your channel, you make great content.
Thanks! 🥰
Hehehehe I will never forget the first time I heard the expression “they will do the needful”😂
Susan & Tony here, LMAO last photo
Lekker man lekker
Susan & Tony here, nice matching French navy shirts , again LMAO
Cool, calm and colleted. YEAH, thats my team. Yall did good, really good. BÄST helt enkelt. /Catta
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️☺️
Blessings
Seems like having a backup IridiumGo might not be a bad idea
But they are really expensive.
Had solar storm hit the earth a few days ago. Maybe that is the cause of problem
Also... what’s the point of buying an iridium go if you have to buy a second one? 🥴 redundancy is smart, but there is a limit to how much you can carry onboard...
At what price peace of mind?
@@RyanSophieSailing you need 2 Garmin inreach mini
Been waiting to see how this panned out for you guys
Excellent video. I'm glad you apparently made it to the Azores. I can vividly imagine how unsettling the lack of communication must have been. I seem to recall that I have watched two other sailing channels (one of them being Delos) which also had irrecoverable Iridium Go failures. It does raise the question wheter the Iridium Go is a sufficiently rugged device for ocean crossings. I used an Iridium handset (Iridium 9555). It is more expensive than the Iridium Go and it is more cumbersome to use as a modem, but it does seem like a more rugged device (although I would recommend bringing spare USB cables for connection between the handset and the laptop). Also, the handset has the advantage that one can take it along on a life raft, if need be.
True! We’ve been thinking about an actual sat phone for our next crossing, but in terms of the function, nothing really beats the Go... I think that as long as you have a solid backup in case of a failure, (which we clearly did not have enough of) you’re probably good to go. We have a new iridium unit, and I still wouldn’t want to cross an ocean without one!
The USCoast Guard has a voice weather system for the high seas that is transmitted via HF radio constantly. In the future you might add an HF (HAM) radio as your backup to SAT.
@Tom K The good news is that one can receive the HF weather broadcasts (as well as MF NAVTEX messages) with just a receiver - as these are receive-only modes, no license is required. For MF/HF voice or data transmission (like using the USCG voice system), one can't use an amateur radio license - that's a maritime license pair. Someone needs a restricted radiotelephone operator license, and the ship needs a station license. Yes, there are comms options if one has a license for the amateur service as well - including requesting and receiving updated weather info in the form of GRIB via WINLINK. Options are good!
Damn, wonder what they did prior to Sputnik? Capt Cook must be laughing his ass off at the modern day sailor.
Good reason to keep HF radio around, just in case.
Or another type of backup!
Torm Timothy is a Danish vessel, and you are from Sweden (kind off) That's amazing, right?
If you have redundancy, you either experience a double fault or something non-redundant breaks. There is no such thing as absolute safety. That said, HF weather fax can be a little bit tricky to operate with all the electronic stuff onboard disturbing it, but the service is free and does not require expensive hardware. Better a bad backup than none.
Dear Santa:
Please send my friends a marine SSB radio and a weatherfax, even a used one, so they have some reliable weatherfax equipment. Or perhaps a ham radio.
guys you needed to lower the squelch on the VHF radio to hear all
you had a good signal. Even on a video you can see that, it the the squelch that is set too high.
I recommend a SSB radio 📻 with packtor and sailmail. It's always good to have a backup.
I agree! Having a backup is the way to go, but it does not need to be an SSB radio, those can fail as well! 😉
Mine hasn't failed it 15 years of operation. Just a thought.
u need to reduce the squelch on the VHF if reception is bad
The squelch won’t fix the range issue... that boat was about 35 miles away 🥴
@@RyanSophieSailing yes, generally squelch cannot fix a range issue. But in the video it seemed that the voice was still well above noise level and very readable when the squelch already started cutting out some pieces which then made it unreadable.
@@BM-fi1hi absolutely right!
When you are sailing on wind vane mode and the Raymarine wind shift alarm goes off, and goes off, and goes off. Do you guys no longer have a sat phone? Are you unable to adjust the squelch on your VHF ?
I do not understand this comment.
@@RyanSophieSailing (1) the wind vane alarm is fixed at something like 15 degrees and the wind regularly oscillates by 20 degrees setting the alarm off with boring repetition. Maybe that doesn't happen in the atlantic (2) When Sophie burnt herself with the coffee pot, you called for help using a sat phone, is that not available? (3) When Ryan was trying to talk to the ship and it kept cutting out, that was because the signal strength dropped just below that of the squelch control on the radio - do you understand this? why did you not adjust it? (P75 of the manual)
All would have been very stressful. It is amazing to think what people did without electronics.
Right?! That’s what I thought about when the Go pooped on us. I always thought we were going to be fine, we just needed to be smart about navigating “in the dark” ☺️
Better than Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon Saturday serials in the movie theater when I was just a squirt. Add a couple sea monsters and an alien vessel and you'll have the whole tomato! More! More!
Next, we are fighting the kraken 😂
Always had problems with the iridium the in reach is more reliable
Very frustrating! How expensive are the hardware parts of Iridium gos? Could you have 2 incase one breaks?
The iridium go has a bad reputation for reliability. In fact on the salty dog rally a few years ago they insisted that those using a Go also carry an active Inreach as back up. We know of several cruisers who have had a faulty a Go. May be they should be called No Go. Worth activating you Inreach in the future
Absolutely! We will now always make sure that we have an activated backup. After over two years of trusty services, we were very sad to see our Go fail!
@@RyanSophieSailing Ryan, AND look for an SSB-Radio plus the Radio-Amateurlicense ;-)
i know, a SSB/FM Transceiver (incl. Antenna) cost also money, but u can also load Weathercharts on Faximile from the DWD (Germany) or Halifax (Canadian) Stations via the Soundcard(!)
.... and there also many RadioAmateurs they Standby on 14.313_MHz - SSB SailorNet ... also from Germany.
maybe something like that is an alternative for you too Ryan.
i know, this disaster war in july - actual i can see you in a warmer area - enjoy the island (s)
my best regards from Austria
A true sailor .... Could have been worse , WE COULD HAVE LOST THE AUTO-PILOT ... True . Iv had the Iridium go several times , Gave up in the end with them .
At the end of the day, what you TRULY need from sat coms are: an updated weather forecast and a way to communicate with land in case of an emergency. Even in the absence of the Go, we had both. It just isn't as convenient without it and we couldn't do as much. But overall, we were a lot more worried about the people worrying about us than we were worried about our situation.
What was your backup for weather? It wasnt the in reach.
If Iridium Go is #1 on "wouldn't cross an ocean without" maybe (particularly with their spotty equipment reliability record) the saying "one is none and two is one" may be relevant for future crossings.
So a no Single side band receiver or transceiver onboard?
Turn squelch down and rf gain up to hear farther out
Aren't there a squelch function on the VHF?
Squelch cannot fix a range issue... that ship was 35 miles away from us!
Lowering the squelch would have allowed you to hear them with static. Instead they completely cut out and it limited your ability to completely hear the transmission. Also I believe you should definitely learn more about how radios work. You seem like a intelligent person and some more knowledge of how radio communications work would benefit you alot. Especially when you have other people's lives in your hands. You were also limited in your knowledge about SSB propagation. HF NVIS has a range of up to 600 miles reliable everyday. Which increases your chances of communication with someone. Please research more you'll thank yourself for it. I say all this with kind and warm regards and not to be confrontational but helping and caring manner.
@@TonyZanoska so what makes you believe we didn’t lower the squelch?
We didn't see you lower the squelch in the video. And the audio completely cut out during the transmission. I am not familiar with that radio to be honest. Dropping the squelch all together during the communication would have allowed you to hear more of the transmission even if it had white noise on it. Being not familiar with that radio it may not have allowed that I'm not sure. Also some radios have a monitor button that would allow that. Point being the transmission we could hear the audio from the transmission was cutting in and out. This could have been avoided by lowering or turning off the squelch if possible. I'm a amateur radio operator for many years and fully understand what I'm talking about. I say what I say in order to help not criticise. I'm sure this was a difficult matter mentally at the time.
@@TonyZanoska It's right!
This is about the time I figured you all turned pirate and were sinking all vessels and drinking rum and doing other pirate things with all electronics turned off or in stealth mode....Arrrr !!!
Hehehehe 🏴☠️
You need to feed the GO with quarters.
Hahaha :D pretty sure we tried that! :p
The reason I still have my SSB and Pactor. High tech is great until it isn't. Lucky TomTimothy was there to help you.
I love your resourcefulness. (That a random steamship passing by was willing to help was a bit of a pleasant surprise.) It reminds me that some things about blue water cruising will always be true: One must always be prepared to come up with a "what do we do now?" plan, because *something* is always going to deviate from even the best plan. I'm very glad everything worked out... (I mean, that you're posting videos is a bit of a spoiler, right?)
The ocean has a way to make its visitors resourceful! And yes, clearly we made it out OK ;)
The laws of the seas is to assist all vessels. Connecting via communication is the 'lucky' part.
You need a Hydrovane!
Yes Ryan & Sophie, you need a backup for your electric autopilot.
Our autopilot worked just fine! I did not realize how much that poor thing would take when I included the alarm in the video 😅 the autopilot never disengaged. At the time the clip was filmed, it was on hydrovane mode and steered to a specific wind angle. The alarm just warned us that the wind had shifted, but it was still very much steering. A hydrovane wouldn’t warn you! 😉 (also, we have a backup for our autopilot. It’s another autopilot)
Did you determine the cause of the GO failure and how did you resolve it? Cheers
No... best way to resolve it was to buy a new one.
@@RyanSophieSailing OK so you got a new GO. What is the backup plan for weather access/PW routing if you have a repeat and again the GO is down? I guess I'm asking what now is your entire sat comms kit. Cheers
Turn your squelch down and tanker voice won’t break up
I just saw on another channel: you need a working battery in your IridiumGo, otherwise it will not connect to satellite! It will startup, especially when connected to wall power, but no satellite connection.
I am guessing your battery is broke.
To watch him not turn down the squelch....
Great illustration of the need for backups and the ability to be creative. On High Note, we have an Iridium Go, an Iridium extreme sat phone, Navtex, Sirius xm weather module, An older SSB not capable of using a modem but good for voice communications, and a battery operated short wave radio receiver along with 2 VHFs. Plus 2 barometers. I don't feel over prepared.
I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to come up with an alternative - nothing more that thinking your EPIRB was in operating condition but would be used only as a last resort when in physical danger, which was not the case. So now I assume you are going to gear up with a device that will serve as a reliable backup. Why have one backup you can't use? But, in the end, Eleven Bells and All Is Well! :¬) Webhead USA
next time open the squelch on your radio. this allows you to hear also weaker signals.
^Losing :)
Weird that electronics loss, was it you who already lost one of these or was it someone else? I guess all sailors will be first in line getting the starlink once it's in general availability
Yeah it was super weird indeed... we actually met a couple of people who suffered the same issue, one of them (spoiler alert), in the middle of the ocean too. Lessons learned, we'll have an activated backup next time!
Starlink uses LOADS of power. Like 85W permanently or so.
Well, what can I say. Great video. No satellite isn't a big deal, not worth stressing about. The in reach mini is only a backup if it's activated before you go 😁. Sophie, if Ryan doesn't marry you, will you marry me? X
Well done to the tanker. Fortunately you are a sail boat with the antenna up on top of the mast (i am guessing) so your range is considerable compared to a power boat. I am however surprised you couldn't turn the squelch down or off so he wouldn't have broken up so bad. Oh well. While we know you made it safe and sound it was still exciting and tense on my end. Thank you and be safe.
Sophie and Ryan y’all need 2 back up Garmin inreach minis t be able to stay In touch with family . Y’all need to budget the $350$ and get the Garmin in reach mini and set up with safety plan !!! Best wishes
We’ll have the InReach activated next time (lessons learned), but at the end of the day, we can’t take twice of *everything* we have onboard 😉
@@RyanSophieSailing awesome save travels . I see y’all have original inreach . Maybe when y’all make state side you can upgrade to inreach mini . . Best wishes and I hope 🤞🏽 one day to sail myself !
Inmarsat is the way to go.
Hi Sophie :)
hello! :)
When a company charges 300 dollars for 12m meters of co-ax, a couple of cheap brackets and a twig, then there ethics are questionable to say the least. I can't say that it surprises me therefore, that your Irridium GO packed up mid-Atlantic.
I similarly have an Iridium GO with 2 InReach units as back-ups. One InReach is always activated, the second isn't. Receiving weather forecast via InReach without a weather plan is tricky as the information is related via text messages (140 character max) therefore sender must place sequential numbers every 140 characters in case the text arrive out of sequence. This happened to us returning from Bermuda (pre-Iridium GO). We received a weather report from our contracted weather service. It sounded dire, yet we couldn't truly understand given the jumbled arrival of the texts
More like…Iridium gone….noooo good.
Oh I LOVE that!!! Mind if I use it?! :D
@@RyanSophieSailing sure thing!
Oh thank you so much! It's now on the thumbnail ;)
Adjust your squelch
Just goes to prove. Electronics break /learn old school navigation
Except it's not navigation, it's coms ;)
What!? No bikinis on beaches? Sarcasm ended. I continue to lose confidence in and respect for the Iridium Go system. Their engineers seem to have no concept of what a marine environment can do to electronics. I'm a landlubber so have no first hand knowledge, but the number of TH-camrs left in the lurch by equipment failure is not encouraging. Since I viewed this I know you arrived safe and sound. I continue to wish you fair winds and following seas.
Aren't you guys depending too much on the Iridium communication with the people on land? Things can go wrong, but you are perfectly safe still. It seems annoying that you worried about the people that are worried about you. Why not enjoy the trip in stead of getting stress on a not very important piece of equipment? The passing ship could have given you the weather forecast, right?
Unnecessary redundancy...are you nuts...you should have had 2 iridium units and a sat phone too...
What about back-to-basics with an SSB radio (HAM radio) and a Pactor modem? A bit old school but reliable.👩🚀🛸 🛰 ⛵️
Ryan actually considered an SSB radio, but it’s some money, and an Installation. Also, it’s not more reliable than satellite com... it can fail too, and propagation isn’t equal everywhere. At the end of the day, all that matters is to have a solid backup in place. We had backup, but it wasn’t that solid 😅
Hi guys - I just watched this - it looks like Nick O'Kelly is experiencing a similar symptom that you experienced with your Iridium Go - if you haven't fixed the Go yet, it might be worth trying out a new battery (start watching at around 11:43) th-cam.com/video/8jQFArGAQ2Y/w-d-xo.html
Sorry for your troubles. You should always carry an SSB radio with you..
work on an even tan Ryan
The main mistake almost all YT sailors make is they talk endless boring stuff.... let the pictures speak themself! We are not blind...
CAN NOT Hear you very well🙃
Stop the filth talk... It's not doing your channel any good... Praying for your safety.
Crossing the big pond without updated/payed Iridium service.... three goofballs... unsubscribe.