Virtual Reporting From My Boat

I just completed interviewing a remarkable couple who live and cruise on a 25-foot Ranger tugboat for three months out of a year. It was for a yachting magazine and I met with the intrepid seafarers via video with What’sApp as their boat was anchored in a creek at Cat Cay, in 20-knot winds in the Bahamas. Sheltered from high seas, approximately 10 miles south of Bimini, they had dropped a second anchor off the stern of their boat to brave the sea swells.

They used StarLink for our interview. They charge it up each morning and get unlimited data for $200/month. The video was some of the clearest I have viewed on WhatsApp. “It’s a real game changer” they say.

I linked my iPhone to my new Apple Airbook and used my phone’s What’sApp app to conduct the video interview via my iPhone with the couple. My MacBook Pro and iPhone were stolen a few weeks back from my car so it took some time to figure out . In fact, I’m getting used to my new Apple Air Book so syncing everything is driving me crazy. On my AirBook I turned on Apple’s Voice memo and began recording our hour-long conversation that I put on speaker from my phone. Later I will transcribe it using Voice Memo’s new functionality. I’m sure there’s a way to recording the audio directly from my laptop’s What’sApp, synced from my phone, but haven’t figured it out yet. I also took good ol’ fashioned notes using a pen and a note book. ( read my previous post on taking notes)

I still marvel at the immediacy that a video chat gives. I was able to view the azure Bahamian waters in the background. After three days of endless torrents of rain and huge gusts of wind here in the Berkeley Marina where I live on my boat, I was jealous.

One of their posts features a visit to Pigs Beach on Big Major Cay in Exuma. Pig Beach is a beach on an uninhabited island located in Exuma, the Bahamas.

You can read an interview on Passagemaker Magzine Online I wrote about being a live aboard, by clicking the link above. I just figured out how to link images in Substack to URL’s, which I believe is a new feature of Substack. Or perhaps it has always been there but I just figured it out. Too much technology to decode, too little time!

Now, endowed with WTMI ( way too much information ) and wonderful stories from the adventurous couple, I have to finish writing the story, paring everything down to fit a 1000-word assignment. That will prove the most daunting.