Here is the family that lives on Chichime. They are here for three months to tend the Island and harvest the coconuts. The coconuts are the property of the family and they have other relations that are here for the rest of the year. They rotate through for 3 month stints. They also sell their molas and leg beads to cruisers.

I just wanted to point out how impressed I am by our ability to communicate, even in a remote place like Chichime.

Here is how it goes. I type this message into a windows program that I can run on my MAC, using a program called Parallels. The software now puts the message in a format that I used to have to key in that told the receiving station how to route the message.

Next turn on the SSB, which is a High Frequency Radio, similar to a HAM radio. I plug the Pactor Modem modem, that is connected to the SSB, into the computer with a USB cable. Then, I look at the propogation tables and choose a station and a frequency to use. From here I have found that Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Corpus Chisti is 1504 miles away on a bearing of 319 degrees. 22881.4 mHz appears to have the greatest probability of connecting.

So, this morning I received a message from Uncle Readie who lives in Australia... we had asked for help figuring out how to connect to the internet via a cell phone. He is very good a that kind of stuff and he helped us out... and he started his explanation with:

"So, from the other side of the planet, you want me to help you connect a device I've never used before in a way I've never done before on a service I've never heard of before. No pressure. :)" Of course he gave us very good detailed instructions.

As a note, using the SSB, we could speak to a station in Australia. This is same technology that was developed by Marconni . The SSB bounces a radio signal off the Ionispere. Now, with Uncle Readie, like others on land, he would have to have a very tall radio antenna to receive our call. A boat at sea, uses the ocean's surface as part of the antenna, so a boat only requires an antenna that is 23 feet long, approximately. Also note that, although I use this technology, I know only enough to use it and wish that I new more.