Hello!  It’s been a while since our last video or post but we’re back.  At least we hope.  We’ve just spent 24.5 days at sea and have made landfall in Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia.  Don’t know where it is?  It’s a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean.  Check it out on Google Earth, it’s a spectacularly lush and rugged island.

Or, get a sneak peek of it in this short update and we’ll fill you in on what’s next.

Now that we’re here, we have a ton of catching up to do and it’s going to take us some time to get in the groove.  So, please be patient with us.

If you are bandwidth poor like us, here are the highlights of what we covered in the video.

Fun Sea Stats

• Hours At Sea: 585 Hours at Sea
• Days At Sea: 24.5
• Nautical Miles Sailed: 3588
• Average Speed: 6.14 Nautical Miles Per Hour
• Best 24 Hours: 182 Nautical Miles
• Worst 24 Hours: 101 Nautical Miles
• Hours Motored: 42 (or about 7%) engines were mostly used during picking up anchor, dropping anchor and sail changes.

What’s Next

Our plan is to get back on the editing bandwagon and get the videos flowing again.  Sadly, we didn’t get much editing done at sea.  Jason’s focus was on the daily sail checks, his watch time at the helm and not getting sea sick.  I focused on feeding us, keeping the boat tidy, my watch time at the helm and thwarting the cats plans for mutiny (although, I think the cats have the best sea legs of us all, they did amazing).

We desperately wanted to get caught up on videos and have them all scheduled to post while we were at sea, but it didn’t happen.  There were simply too many logistics, boat projects and preparations that took priority.  So, here we are, further behind than ever.  Yikes!  We’re going to work around the clock to get back in the publishing groove.  So please send us your caffeinated, creative, workhorse vibes!

What About Internet?

The internet here on Hiva Oa is a new level of intermittent and slow.  All the more motivation to get ahead so we can upload when we do find a half-decent connection.

What About Satellite Internet?

We do have an Iridium Go which is the most affordable satellite connection we can afford ($145 a month).  It provides us basic communication and weather.  We love it, but it is not a typical internet connection.

We can’t load regular web pages, access our regular email accounts or send anything larger than a small, compressed photo.  We have to use special Iridium apps to send emails or make a social post.  We were able to email low resolution photos (less than 200kb) to Kate while we were at sea to post to Instagram for us (each photo took 3-5 min to send).  That is about the extent of our satellite bandwidth capabilities.

The Iridium Go is a form of communication and it works with the Predict Wind Offshore app to bring us the most accurate and up to date weather information (our primary reason for wanting this gadget).  Being able to send a small photo, send a text message or make a phone call from the middle of an ocean is spectacular.  But, it’s still a very long way off from real internet use, much less uploading a YouTube video.

There are very expensive satellite internet options available.  It requires large, expensive and complicated equipment and the data plans are enough to send most sailors into cardiac arrest.  We met the chef of a super yacht chef in Ft. Lauderdale who said they could stream a YouTube video on their satellite connection.  He also said the data was so expensive the crew wasn’t allowed to use it and on average they paid well over $4,000 a month for data alone.  It’s way, way out of our league.

One person recently commented “why so long since your last video, even S/V Delos uploads videos from the middle of the ocean”.  We love us some Delos too but, even they aren’t uploading videos from the middle of the ocean.  They use the same Iridium set up we have.  However, they are a group of superhumans who have managed to get ahead on their editing enough to schedule videos to post while they are at sea.  We’re hoping one day we can get ahead too.

Speaking of getting ahead, we better get back to it.  Hope to see you soon!

Curious about our camera set up?

See a full review of all our camera gear here: gonewiththewynns.com/camera-gear-review-2017