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Nothing on this website or in direct communications received from us, or in our articles in the media, should be construed to mean or imply that offshore voyaging is anything other than potentially hazardous. Dangers such as, but not limited to, extreme weather, cold, ice, lack of help or assistance, gear failure, grounding, and falling overboard could injure or kill you and wreck your boat. Decisions such as, but not limited to, heading offshore, where you go, and how you equip your boat, are yours and yours alone. The information on this web site is based on what has worked for the authors in the past, but that does not mean it will work for you, or that it is the best, or even a good way for you to do things.
Another simple alternative for monitoring a shore-based email account while at sea is Sailmail’s Shadowmail feature. I’ve used it with a 9555 Iridium handset/laptop with good success and it’s easy to set up. It doesn’t do attachments, but, you can monitor your email and choose which messages to download. You can also respond to email to look like it’s from your shore-based address as well.
Hi Ann,
Thanks for the tip.
I have not tried Shadowmail, but just read up on it. One issue for others to keep in mind is that Shadowmail seems to only work on Gmail and with the POP protocol, whereas the similar feature on UUPlus works with all email accounts and supports IMAP as well as POP protocols.
For an inexpensive mount for the Iridium 9555, I used the Auxiliary Antenna Adapter which came with the phone and bolted it to a Ram B-101U mount ($25) using a thin insert nut (so the back of the phone rests flush against the cradle). The mount works fine and was a lot cheaper than store bought options (it is similar to the Ocens Ramdock which lists for $190).
Hi Max,
What a great idea, much better than my velcro based kluge.
Hi John,
do you have any experience with satphone.me sold by satphonestore? This looks promising and is much cheaper than sailmail.com.
Hi Ukrich,
No I have not tried SatPhone.me, so no first hand experience. Having said that, I don’t like their marketing much: a lot of extravagant claims, many of which aren’t true or are misleading. For example “Only SatPhone.Me eliminates the back and forth of Email protocols before using precious airtime.” Both sailmail and UUPlus do that, and in addition UUPlus supports RUDICS.
Also, take a look at their pricing. To get file transfer you need to go Pro $200/year and then mail fetch is another $60.00, so more expensive that Sailmail for a practical package and not that much less than UUPlus.
Also see the fine print that if you are not buying airtime from them the costs go even higher.
I have to say that kind of marketing: extravagant claims coupled with a graduated price model make me a bit sceptical, but I could be wrong.
Does anyone have first hand experience with Satphone.ME?
Thanks John. Great timing as we are just starting the install of our new Go in prep for our NZ to Fiji to Marshalls cruising intentions (rather low latitude cruising as we go back across the Equator again).
Max
SV Fluenta
Hi Max,
Thanks for the encouragement. This kind of post is a lot of work, so it’s really nice to know that it’s useful.
I got the litedock for my Iridium extreme. This doc comes with a RAM mount. I got a few RAM extensions, it makes for a solid installation. It’s much less expensive that the other ones. I am finishing up the installation of the external antenna. I plan to use it with Sailmail to compliment my SSB/Pactor.
Bob
Hi Bob,
That looks like a great piece of kit, and at $300 certainly the best value for money in docks that I have seen. Thanks for the tip.
I also learned something else I didn’t know that that is that the Iridium extreme can be used with an external GPS antenna so that the emergency function will work below.
John,
The litedock also came with a small GPS antenna. It’s not mean to be mounted outside, but it seems to work well enough inside of my boat to see enough satellites to get a position.
Bob