Adventurers scrambling all over the planet have discovered various ways of cleverly communicating their antics and whereabouts to the world. To me this wizardry is all still somewhat baffling but having the ability to communicate is a mandatory requirement for a safe and successful adventure, especially in remote areas. Welcome to my office!
Some days I feel a little like James Bond with all these flashy gadgets out in the middle of nowhere, although I can't imagine they will ever cast a dreadlocked hippy in a sarong into Fleming's leading role. So as I lounge in my reclining camp chair on a coral beach in the sun it seems appropriate that I do my best to explain what I am up to, how I can actually make these blog posts appear on the very distant world wide web.
Basically it all relies on lots of gadgets and clever toys that all need power, and there isn't a power socket for miles. There is however, plenty of sunshine (yes, notice the bronzed Aussie in this picture) which I can capture with two flexible solar panels. These 14 watt panels roll up and are stored in a PVC tube with a screw cap made from an old piece of drainage pipe from a mate's house renovation (cheers Simo). A regulator plugs into the panels which feeds the charge into two 12V, 7.2Ah batteries that are heavy but do the job. Charging the batteries will take more than a full day in the sun but I cannot use this to justify too many rest days.
When charged I can connect a female cigarette lighter connection to the batteries to charge up all the other goodies. This may be pretty basic technology but I tried some fancy battery options before leaving home and was pretty happy to stick to the basics, especially in case I need to source repairs or replacements along the way.
My trusty and very tiny MacBook Air (11 inch) is the brains behind this operation. I have tried to kill it once by dropping the wafer thin computer from waist height onto the shiny tiled floor of a Surabayan hotel room, but it bounced back with little more than a good buckle at one corner of the lid. Using solid state memory, this little tacker uses much less power than many other small computers which suits my purposes perfectly. I run it as lean as possible, making sure that any power hungry processes are switched off, and running the screen on the lowest possible brightness setting.
When I write a blog post it is set up as an email, that is delivered directly into the workings of the Archipaddlo website so that I do not have to actually be on the web to edit the site. As I am extremely limited with upload speeds I use some very clever compression software (XGate) that converts the information making up my email into the smallest package possible. I also have some software (iResize) that very easily converts images into tiny file sizes that I am able to upload. For instance the picture on this page has been shrunk from a 7MB file down to 7KB for more efficient uploading. The position updates on Google Earth work similarly, I send an email in a certain format to some clever software (cheers Rob) so that the red line forms on the map automatically.
Next in the list is a sat phone (Iridium 9555). In theory this will allow me to plug in from anywhere at any time, but the coverage is usually pretty patchy, allowing for a few minutes of coverage before dropping out. The phone connects to the computer and in some magical way connects the computer to the world. I use a mob in the States (Global Marine Networks) for my prepaid plan so that when I upload data or make calls the info is sent to Florida by satellite, then beamed into the web. The connection speed is claimed to be 19200 bits per minute but this never happens. It usually takes around four minutes to upload a couple of position reports and a blog update, and at $1.50 a minute it costs more to update the blog that it costs us to eat here for several days.
For photos we have four cameras that we juggle around at different times for different uses. Four cameras mean four batteries that need charging, three chargers, plugs for AC and DC, spare batteries, spare memory cards and cords for connecting up to the computer. The two GPSs (and our head-torches) that we are using run on AA batteries so I have rechargeable batteries and a recharger for those as well. The iPhone contains the better navigation software and is a convenient way of accessing the web in WiFi spots in bigger towns, and it only needs one cord to charge up from the computer. We also have a cheap mobile phone that we bought in Indonesia for use over here but it doesn't draw much power and I don't have a DC charger for it meaning we can only charge it up when we get to a town.
Just in case it all goes pear shaped I am backing up all our valuable data - already nearly 10,000 photos - on two separate 1TB hard drives. There is one drive hidden in each of our kayaks in case somebody decides to rummage in there one of these nights. On that note, I have already caught one would be thief in the act, but he got away empty handed.
Keeping all this gear dry inside salty, sweaty, hot kayaks that are occasionally swamped with sandy water in dumping surf landings has proven to be a challenge. Most of the electronics are stored in Pelican cases that are then wrapped in dry bags. Bags of silicone absorb whatever humidity gets into the boxes and so far we haven't had any major issues.
All of this just to make sure that I don't feel too far disconnected from the real world, or perhaps to remind me that I am!
Photo: Juz, hard at work in the office.
Sounds like a lot of work! But it's priceless to make us dream (as for me, I'm in France, so you see, you reach a worldwide audience)! Keep up the good work...
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