SV NEW MOON sails with PACTOR

Time and again discussion between long term cruisers turns to the question if it is not the loss of ones last freedom to have E-Mail on board during a long journey. The problem is clear: On the one hand, one would like to enjoy the solitude of the most beautiful island of the world, but on the other hand, naturally one doesn't want to renounce the contact with others for weeks or months at the time.

Leonie Wald, skipper and owner of the Australian yacht NEW MOON, also faced the same question.  The ICOM Transceiver M710, the antenna tuning and the installation were already a hefty snatch from her cruising kitty. Naturally, one deliberates on such things a bit longer. „What convinced me are actually the experiences of other sailors,“ admits Wald. „I was especially impressed with the free weather forecast system from SAILDOCS, www.saildocs.com, to which I have access via PACTOR and through which I can receive my individual daily weather report. There are only a few active radio operators in the marine radio networks and we, the sailors, often ask ourselves what happens in case of an accident. Somewhere on the way, far out there, hundreds of miles from the next coast no one sends out help, if one doesn't sail in a flotilla together with other boats. In the case of need, however, it is the greatest feeling to be able to send an E-Mail and to know that it will arrive at its destination.“

Wald uses a PTC-IIex modem with PACTOR-III and a transceiver-controller for her SSB's via direct COM port connection. „SCS has installed the mailing system once for me. However soon afterwards I got a new notebook and I had a small task of installing all the software and properly arranging the settings. But the support CD contained all the necessary things for the reinstallation. At the first installation I had also made notes about the settings so it was easy to apply them to my new notebook. From my first attempt everything ran seamlessly exactly like on my old notebook, which now lays in a locker as a reserve.“

Leoie Wald, Skipper of SV NEW MOON

Wald tells only positive things about her Pactor Service Provider SAILMAIL, www.sailmail.com „Rarely do I get no direct connection to the Sailmail server, at present in Brunei. I really never have to wait, because of so many transceivers on multiple frequencies with thorough call scans.“

The NEW MOON started sailing about one year ago from Darwin, Australia and she sailed through Indonesia to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Leonie Wald in interview with Michael Wnuk, KD7SVU March 2005, Island Penang Malaysia