Another Way to Track Us

As we moved around the San Blas Islands, we really missed the internet. We enjoyed the beaches and the Kunas, but being more than a month away from news and emails was more than an inconvenience. Several friends and family members were worried about so long a time without word. And we also missed a property tax bill that was sent to our Florida address and could not be paid until I found out the bill numbers and the amount due. We got that all sorted out, but it got us thinking about a better way.

The device that seems to work pretty good is our Single Side Band (SSB) radio. We turn it on almost every day to get weather or talk to other cruisers and it can also send and receive e-mails. We keep that address closely, because it takes about 15 to 20 minutes just to download the weather. We sure don't need any junk mail!

But I've been experimenting with a feature of the SSB that lets me upload my current position each time I connect to get my e-mail and weather. We have been leaving position reports since we left Trinidad and it seems to work pretty good. We found a website where anyone can just type in our HAM radio call sign (which is K1MMY) and get a nice plot of our track and last reported position. It gives neat little red dots where we have been and a nice big water drop where we were the last time we checked in. It looks just like this:


The website can be found here http://www.shiptrak.org/

You just need to type in our call sign which is k1mmy (note the i in k1mmy is the number 1) and either click the VIEW button or hit the ENTER key on the computer. The website starts putting in the little red dots in the order we traveled. You can zoom in or move the map around to look closer.

Try it out and let me know if you have any problems. It will allow any of our Dear Readers to at least see that we are making our way across the Pacific even if we don't have the ability to call or e-mail.

And thanks to all of you readers that tuned in and watched us go through the Panama Canal. The winner for best picture captured goes to John Swiatek. John was at the "Penny Factory" on my first day of work back in 1980, the day I retired, and for some reason is still working.

Here's the winning shot of Emily Grace going through the Miraflores Lock and just about to enter the Pacific Ocean.

Many thanks John,

Another nice shot from our friends aboard Pickles and Better Days

Tom