July 27, 2017
Communication with home
Today started out not so good, with strong winds and quite a lot of waves. So it was not possible to deploy the ROV in the morning so we did some grabs and CTD here and there. Later in the day there was less wind so we tried to do a ROV and that gave some good results. But OK, enough about ROVs, grabs and CTDs. I’d like to talk about another subject what is aswell important on board. And that is comunication with home on board a ship. When I started sailing, about 30 years ago now, there was no internet, no mobile phones, no wifi, no satelitte communication. All we had was a middle and longwave-radio with which we could try contact a port station by findng the right frequency and hoping to make contact with them. If we had contact we would give the telephone number we wanted to call and they would call the number for us. This was quite complicated and most of all quite expensive. Nowadays, it’s easier. You have mobile phones and internet so you can call home whenever you want (if the internet is working that is).
On board a ship like the Neptune, there’s a saying that goes “If the cook is good (and we have a good cook, Micha) then everybody is happy”. And in these modern times I would say, if the internet connection is good, and the cook is good, then everybody is happy!