Cruising

Satellite Communications
Safety at Sea - Insurance for Blue Water Cruisers

The high seas can be an unpredictable and dangerous environment where reliable communications for assistance and information are indispensable. Today, access to highly reliable, easy to use and economical satellite communications links with built in safety at sea and distress alerting capability are available for all size vessels, from cargo and passenger carriers and commercial fishing, to recreational sailing craft as small as 30 feet. Satellite systems (Satcoms) designed for the marine environment have seen significant advances since their inception twenty years ago, providing the same ease of communications that you have on shore, even allowing the mariner to operate a commercial business office from sea.

One system, Inmarsat C, is especially suitable to blue water sailors. It was developed as a low cost satcom suitable for fitting on a vessel of any size, large or small. However, Its size and weight, slightly larger than a car radio with a small omnidirectional antenna of about five pounds, makes it especially suitable for yachts too small for the former large and expensive Inmarsat antenna installation. This system, economical to purchase and operate as compared with the maritime satellite telephone systems, now costs under $4,000. While not providing voice service, but having the means for sending text messages (fax/telex/e-mail), in a very short time, it is unparalleled in its communications and safety at sea capability. This system allows the user on the vessel to prepare a text message on their computer terminal (PC) and transmit it via the Inmarsat global network. A shore based recipient would receive the message after a delay of a few minutes, and then respond by returning a message addressed to the Inmarsat C over the public switched network. Any person familiar with electronic mail systems, including Internet e-mail, will readily understand how Inmarsat C functions to deliver, view, print and/or store a message. Shore-based service providers offer Internet e-mail connection and regularly updated weather reports, medical information, and news.

Inmarsat “C” also makes possible a range of services such as data reporting, position reporting, and polling. Vessel operators can program their C satcom to transmit regular data reports, including GPS coordinates, on the condition of their vessel and other operational information to shore-based managers and families. Alternatively, managers and families of the vessel operator can ''poll'' or interrogate the vessel for receiving the same type of information. Coupled with its Enhanced Group Call (EGC) capabilities, vessels are able to automatically receive a category of messages known as SafetyNET^TM and FleetNET^TM. SafetyNET^TM is a free broadcast service the same as NAVTEX directed to vessels in or approaching specific geographic regions such as the area around a storm, hazard to navigation, or a ship in distress. The vessel only receives these safety at sea messages and weather information for the area the vessel is operating in. FleetNET^TM is a subscribed service that can be used to broadcast private messages to a group of its vessels, for instance by global race officials. In addition, Inmarsat C’s automatic two-way distress calling feature, with fast and reliable alert calling to the Rescue Coordination Centers (RCC) in closest proximity to the vessel in distress, cannot be compare by any other marine communications system capable of being fitted on a yacht. Because of its robust omnidirectional transmission signal capability in L band (1-5 to 1.6 Ghz) and global coverage from 76 north to 76 south latitude, there is practically no weather and sea conditions under which it can’t operate globally.

In December, Inmarsat announced the commissioning and activation of the 100,000^th Inmarsat C of all classes (land mobile, aeronautical and marine) since the inception of this digital communication device earlier in the ‘90s. Of these, 25,450 “Cs” are onboard sea-going vessels of various types. Although the vast majority of these installations are primarily for compliance of large vessels to the IMO GMDSS regulations, because of its size and safety at sea features, more and more are being installed on blue water yachts and fishing vessels which voyage great distances on the seven seas, or circumnavigate the globe.

For the reader to obtain a first-hand account on the value of the Inmarsat “C” to the global cruiser, a visit to Karen Thorndikes web page will be informative <http://www.goals.com/amelia/karen.htm>. Karen is on the last third of her effort to be the first US woman to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. Her vessel, Amelia, a Rival 36 is equipped with a Trimble Galaxy/GPS Inmarsat C. You can read about how her vessel is tracked on its journey, daily reports of events at sea, and an example of its distress calling feature, all using the “C”. Karen found herself in a situation off the Falklands last year that exercised all the capabilities of this unique communications system. If her reports do not convince you of the “Cs” utility to the mariner, nothing else will.


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