Prior to launching on this latest little passage (4-5 days) we lurked Taiohae Bay at Nuku Hiva for a bit over 2 weeks. About 50 cruising boats in the bay, with new arrivals from Panama, and folks departing for wherever. People coming, people going. That part and the social aspect of hanging out with folks from all over the world is a real upside to the bay.
One can purchase high speed internet access from Kevin at Yacht Services. He wants 600 CFP or $7.00 US for a 24-hour period, but if you buy on Friday it's good all weekend. His rule is 1 person, 1 device for that price. Feels a bit steep.
There's a yacht service at Hiva Oa that operates out of a space called "Semaphore". It's up on the hill above the small bay with a spectacular view of the area. Sandra runs the place, and for 100 CFP one can purchase 24 hours of internet (same weekend deal) and also help oneself to a cup of instant coffee or tea. There's a lovely veranda to sit and enjoy it all, and it also works on the boat in much of the bay due to her strategically placed antenna. Sandra won't give you the access code, but she will type it into any device you bring, no limit to devices. Pretty good deal.
Two different business models and motivations. Kinds of reminds me of the 55 mph speed limit we had in the US after the 70's oil embargo. Everybody blew that off and went at least 60 mph, because a mile a minute is something one work with. Now speed limits are set based upon the environment and a bit more common sense, and of course oil is once again plentiful. Driving on an interstate highway posted at 75 mph, I rarely exceed that by much because, well, that's just fast enough, and car wrecks that happen at that speed involve an amazing amount of energy. Somebody's gonna die, plus the 75 mph limit seems reasonable. Kind of the difference in approach between Kevin and Sandra. They're both nice folks, but each has different ideas about how to conduct this aspect of their business. They also achieve results similar to the speed limit thing.
Internet access is important to conducting our lives. Banking, renewing health or boat insurance, the occasional Facebook look, whatever. However, that access comes with a penalty - all the news services and pundits that are screaming bloody murder at each other, politicians from all realms that are either outright liars or seem to live in their own ridiculous fantasy bubble, and thieves that want to sell you something you don't need.
Ultimately it's a bunch of noise and doesn't contribute anything positive to our lives or well-being. Somehow it does seem to suck us in, and we lose hours of our lives sorting through the noise for tidbits of real actionable intelligence. We'd have been better off taking a walk or having a nap.
Just before we departed the local cell system enabled 4G data access through their towers. Another way to access the noise without even paying Kevin for the privilege. Pay Google Fi $10/gigabyte instead.
We've left that 139 nm behind us and where we're going we won't have access to that "information". With any luck we'll be able to forget about corona virus, Russians and OPEC fighting over oil production limits and pricing, politicians telling lies (you can tell because their lips are moving), and the uncivil behavior that seems to be part of the populist political movement. I'm not talking about "politically correct language" here, I'm talking about people in a position of political leadership being absolutely nasty.
Our best leaders in the business community, those that run large companies or inspiring start-ups are setting positive examples of behavior that none of our politicians seem to be able to match. For me, it's better to read The Economist or the business news and listen to podcasts such as Planet Money that break it all down. Gotta delete all that noise from my life.
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