SPOT on

[Trawlercap]

Greetings from 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle!


This is a tool, but I am not sure this is the right place to post this. I am currently anchored outside Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic Sea. I am running a research boat for 6 weeks. My wife is cook (for 20!) We did this last year at this time also. It is a great break from the fishing routine, and I get to learn about a whole new part of the world.
We haul around scientist and do every kind of study you can think of. It is all great fun (till the ice comes down) We get to tag walrus, listen to whales, pull up mud, on and on.......
My main reason to post is that we use a very inexpensive tracking device we use. It may have been covered here on the board already. SPOT is the device, and I believe it is $150 a year to operate, plus batteries (3 AAA every 3 days in below freezing conditions) I can guess a handy person could hard wire it in. If you check out this URL you can see how detailed it gets. We have been on anchor for a week, and our swinging is not more than 300'.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...W6HstqplTr9Hzv

May be something that the family would like to have to keep track of the nomads in the group!

[Ernest Ekberg]

Ummm- what does it do?

[Patric]

We use these at my work. We are often visiting remote sites around the word with no cell phone coverage. With the Spot we can push the button each day that sends a message that we are alive and well.

Pushing another button sends a message to call out the cavalry. It is satellite based so it does not require a cell phone.

The only trouble with the system is that if you agree to push the button once per day sending the OK message you must do it consistently. If you forget then what do the folks at home do? Do you send the cavalry? There is no 2-way communication (on ours) so you can't send a message to them asking if they are OK.

We have had this happen and we did nothing but wait to hear from them when they got back into cell coverage. This kinda negates the whole system since the next guy not sending the daily message might really be in trouble and not physically able to send the message??

My brother and I also tried to use them when he did the Baja 500 on a motorcycle. It didn't work well. I think you have to stop and let it get a fix on your position and send the message. It did nothing when you hit the button while at speed.

[Ernest Ekberg]

Thanks Patric, that explains it. Don't think I will use it. I get upset when I don't have tv~

[SallySummerlin]

Jack, your pictures are always awesome! How much longer can you stay up through the Bering Strait before the ice will freeze you in?
Be Safe
Bruce

[Trawlercap]

The spot we use sends out a position every few minutes. I do not have the skinny on the service, if you go to the URL I posted you can see the times it shows a position.

As far as SPOT maiking family feeling better, well I agree it is a two edged sword. The minute it stops working then you give the worriers something to really really worry about...:-) We have so many different ways to communicate on board, as well as send out a distress signal, that the SPOT is pretty low on the list, except maybe it shows the last known position.

Bruce.....this is a pretty ice free year so far. Last year at this time we were dealing with a lot of ice. This year may equal 2007 for the most ice free.

Right now our concern is close to land freezing. The rivers dump so much fresh water out all summer, and it lays on the surface of the salt water. Now we have steady NE winds, and when the temp get below about 28 we will start freezing from the land outward.

The Bering Strait is a long time open. The trick for us is to be able to get around Pt. Barrow before it gets froze up. We have to go NW to get out of here, not a great directing. We want to stay to get the work done, but do not want to stay too long.

A big chunk of North slope is shut down right now due to an oil rig that broke down on a main road......like major hold up....:-)