Email from a sailboat while offshore

In the 21st century email has become an almost universal method of communication. First off you have to gain access to the internet and the methods to do this are:

• SSB
• Satellite Phone
• Inmarsat
• Skymate

Each of these methods have varying data transmission speeds but one thing that they do share in common is that they are far far slower than the cable and DSL connections we have become used to in our land life. Because of the packet communication and high protocol overhead procedures used in email, email compression services are worth their weight in gold. The two main services out there right now are:

• Ocens
• X-Gate

Both of these systems have special servers that compress your incoming email into one large packet which then can be downloaded to your ship-board laptopand then you decompress it into your favorite email program for viewing and answering. When sending out your email the process is in reverse, the special compression software in your laptop puts you outgoing emails into one big batch and then sends to the email sever for decompression and sending.

Both of these services are also very handy for downloading special weather forecasts and GRIBS.