While Mike is still working, he generally sets up shop right in the main salon. Pictured are tools of the trade – laptop, phone, mobile hotspot, and headset for phone or skype calls. And, of course, coffee!
One of the big challenges with working from the boat is finding reliable internet. Every once in awhile, an anchorage will have an open WiFi network – in that case, connections are easy. If that doesn’t work, the first fallback is to setup a mobile hotspot using the mobile phone. That usually works well for anchorages that are not too far off the beaten path, and also happen to be located in the US. While our mobile operator offers free data in Canada, it is throttled back to roughly dialup speed – that’s OK for casual email, but not so good for work.
Our solution is a local SIM card for the mobile hotspot. It always takes some explaining at the mobile phone store – we need more data than most people, we don’t have a local address, we only need service for a month or two, etc. But we’ve always been successful at making it work.
At least so far!
