(note, I added the above photo of Amy and her friend Miya because it's a cool photo that has nothing to do with this post)

Many of our friends and family have been asking how they can contact us while we are out at sea. There are basically 5 ways, with some being preferred for cost and convenience:

1. You can send us an email to svthirdday "at" yahoo.com and we will be able to receive and respond once we get into an area with internet service.

2. You can send an email to our boat Ham radio address W6GKY "at" winlink.org, BUT you must first notify me with your email address so I can add you to our "safe senders" list. The Ham radio email transmits at a fast 300 baud rate. For you folks that can remember the 14.4k or 14,400 dial up modem that translates to 300! So we can send NO photos and receive NO attachments. In fact, you need to delete the original message if you are replying to us because every word takes up bandwidth and I'm only allowed a limited time to connect to the base stations per month.

3. You can talk to us with your Ham Radio. We typically schedule a nightly contact with Vern a 5PM PST on frequency 3.866+/- depending on propagation and are just starting a contact at 530PM PST on frequency 7.238+/- also depending on propagation. M y call sign is "XE2/W6GKY Maritime Mobile" and I would be happy to talk to you. (Just as a FYI, the "XE2" prefix of the call sign denotes that I am operating from within the territory boundaries of Mexico, while the "W6GKY" is my US Ham call sign, which once belonged to Lori's grandfather Vernon C. Gwinn and it's an honor to be carrying on his sign)

4. If we have your local phone number (661 area code) we can talk to you by Vern (W6NXV) running a phone patch over the Ham radio and we talk one at a time like over a walkie-talkie. We do with with my folks every few days and it's a great way to stay in touch. Special thanks to Vern for taking his time run the phone patches, and for all of the other support they are giving us while we are out cruising, we are really appreciative.

5. I list this option only because it is something we have, but at $1.35/minute for outgoing calls we don't use our Sat Phone to just talk about the great weather or fish we landed here in Mexico. We can receive calls to the phone at no charge to us (or the prepaid phone card), but YOU will be charged $1.35/min and will have to activate your phone to allow for international calls. I can't think of many things we can talk about at $1.35/min, but in a pinch or emergency it is an option.

We typically try to update our blog daily and in that process send/receive email over our ham radio. The way we update the blog is to send an email over the ham radio to the blog and it then automatically posts for your viewing pleasure. Now, we can't see the blog without internet access, so we are unable to see your comments from sea or see if the blog post made it successfully. That is something we do when we have real internet along with updating the blog posts with photos. We would love to hear form you or answer any questions about this crazy adventure, so ask away.