Testimony : Transquadra and Navigation Mac

After Jean Debèze, avid supporter of Navigation Mac, made me the pleasure of a detailed tutorial about installing a multiplexer aboard his sailboat, here's a ticket by Jacques Vermeulen, who testifies in a very didactic way to his experience during the recent Transquadra, on board "Bluestairs", with the owner and friend Marc Bolla.

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Placed at the Transquadra 2011/2012, We met, during the first stage of the Mediterranean Barcelona-Porto Santo (Madeira), problems receiving and sending GRIB and data files via the Iridium network. Email was impossible to use with the Iridium Airtime cards we used. All we were left with was the possibility of calling with the Iridium.

Back after this first stage, I decided to deepen the subject and educate myself with Francis Fustier whom I had knowledge, Until now, than through his blog, really comprehensive.

An email to get in touch followed by a phone call to precisely define my needs. Francis' prerequisite for any training : equip yourself with a Mac and abandon the "PC attitude". Following his advice, I opt for a MacBook Air, paired with a 64GB Wifi+3G iPad (that I already owned). A tele-training is scheduled for the following days and with Francis' expertise everything becomes simple.

In the meantime, I had the opportunity to meet some "sailors" registered for the Transquadra and to discuss the problems they had encountered on the reception of the GRIB files and data. I was surprised and reassured by the fact that all of them had encountered similar problems on PC, none of them are on Mac :

Whew ! I may have been null,
but I'm not the only one !

There are a few apps that are essential to be able to work on Mac and iPad, listed below :

With IPad :

• iNavX
• Weather4D PRO
• Files Connect
• AyeTidesXL

With a Mac :

• Restrict
• Mailasail
• iResize
• Thunderbird
• Zygrib Mac

For messaging, Francis and I chose Apple Mail software 5.2 and MailaSail, English paid satellite communications provider (140£ / year) but with an excellent rate of data compression and especially spam filter and attachments filtering very effective. For example : Navimail's email address was not referenced as a reliable source by MailaSail. We have therefore asked him to authorize this source, This was done in a few hours.

We also bought the Iridium prepaid card at Mailasail and during the second step we had to reload units without any problems and that in few minutes. The price, without being particularly attractive, Complies with other vendors (497.56£ for 500 minutes). But the service is there and it is possible to, in the middle of the Atlantic, purchase more units is much appreciated, without the intervention of a third-party.

Before the second stage of the Transquadra, I've tested the package iPad / Mac aboard "La Louise", Thierry Dubois's schooner, while crossing from Newfoundland to Etel River. Emailing worked fine and queries and receiving GRIB files too. Only problem for me at this stage : transfer GRIB and data to my iPad. I hadn't fully assimilated the establishment of an affair Ad-Hoc Mac to iPad for exchanging data over WiFi between two units. Back home, Francis quickly identified the causes of my misunderstanding and it was definitively resolved.

During this crossing, very committed, since we have crossed paths with two tropical Lows (¹) with winds of more than 65 knots and waves of 12m, I could familiarize myself with the application iNavX and Navionics charting associated. Thanks to Thierry Dubois, we also understood that it was essential to have an overview of weather phenomena and that we had to detach ourselves from the GRIB. Weather training with Sébastien Fabre, Meteorologist and router, has only confirmed this attitude.

In the autumn 2011, was added application Weather4D PRO by Olivier Bouyssou, which has really "boosted" the use of the iPad while browsing. This application provides a reading weather maps very intuitive with the capacity of a route and estimated course with progress of weather situation both with the progress of the boat. The only thing missing from this software is a small distance scale. The export of GRIB from W4D PRO to iNavX is a single click. Very significant also the 3D view of the High and Low Pressures that allows an excellent understanding of ridges and troughs areas and isobaric contours. This made it possible to choose the best route to avoid two areas of "calm". But the benefits of W4D PRO don't stop there. Olivier also added a map of Iridium satellite network constellation in real time which allows for Iridium connections at the most opportune and thus saving your prepaid card units. This feature obviously requires a good synchronization of the internal clock of your iPhone with the application and a forced updating the hours before your departure at sea.

So we crossed the Atlantic only thanks to these two applications W4D PRO and iNavX ! Our weather requests were made at saildocs.com and Navimail. Thus we could compare GFS (²) U.S. data and IFS (²) from Meteo France, very similar in all cases. With Navimail, We can appreciate the very high speed of response that arrives in the same connection, and also an area covered by West Indies GRIB files consist of a very fine grid, useful when approaching to Martinique.

Other applications, such as Restrict (³) and iResize, provided by MailaSail, we used, for the first secure communications and the second to resize the photos we wanted to send to our weblog and our loved ones.

We have sent News once or twice a day by email that my wife Laurence, from your iPad, could put them online immediately. Our friends were invited to support us via SMS on Iridium. It is reminded that this function is free of charge ! up to 160 Characters, This is so as not to clutter our mailbox. The connection time when sending and receiving request and data are highly variable from 1mn30 to 9mn, with transfer rates sometimes exceed the 2400 BPS announced. The best transfers were obtained at night between 02h00 and 06h00 UTC. We have transferred more than 20 emails a day with no problem but the card 500 units is essential for a crossing time of 18 days, with the possibility of re-crediting of units if the Airtime expiration is more than 90 days for great talkers like Mark and Jacques aboard the Dufour 38 Classic "Bluestairs".

Our Iridium was an old model 9505a with a recent "bullet" antenna on 10m shielded cable and antenna adapter, but it gave us complete satisfaction. The latest Iridium devices offer the possibility of a direct connection with the iPad (cf. The article on the subject Iridium AxcessPoint : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea). Also, Iridium now provides the free ability to access the messaging app Iridium Mail & Web app.

However, you still have to do your accounts ! If you already own an Iridium phone, The adaptations we have made allow a saving of some 2000€.

Ease of navigation on the iPad should not be a substitute for conducting paper charting surveys which remain essential ! Because let's never lose sight of the fact that all computer equipment is likely to break down !

The landing to Le Marin in Martinique was done at night, the iPad tablet and Navionics chart associated with iNavX allowed us a nightly approach without any worries. You place your tablet in front of you at the helm. However, there are a few obvious precautions that should be taken :

• Charge 100% completed.
• Properly secured tablet.
• "Auto Lock" option in the "Never" position in the General menu.
• iNavX in "Night View" version in the Map View Settings.

You have in front of you the most convenient chartplotter, and you can tack in the cove of Le Marin with its sandbars and rocks without any tricky problem. Navionics also incorporates changes buoys color code to U.S. standards (green on port and red on starboard).

The results of this trip across the Atlantic from Madeira to Martinique is very positive. We had 17 days, 9 hours up to 50 Real-time minutes. Our final ranking in corrected time over the whole event places us in 14th place, which means that, given our boat, fully satisfies us. If we had to make this crossing again, We would use the same computer equipment, that after further thoughts is the best proof of our satisfaction.

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(¹) When Katia meets Louise
(²) See Forecasting Models in the Glossary
(³) Restrict app prevents all automatic updates that might want to set up when connecting Iridium.
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