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The Skipper On E-mailing...
It is not that I didn't marvel at the advances of
technology, in the past, it's just that they didn't enter into my life.
On one of the few occasions when new technology did become part of my
existence, it took the form of a mobile telephone. I put one on the boat whilst cruising the
Mediterranean, back in 1990. The first quarter's telephone bill came to an astronomical
1350 GBP! The telephone was promptly given the float test, much to my
then wife and
stepchildren's chagrin.
The other piece of 'high-tech' kit I actually enjoyed
having around was a Satnav satellite navigation system. We always name
our equipment and the Satnav was called 'Grievous', for the plaintive moan
it emitted whenever it received a signal from a satellite. It was a Magnavox and, although I only used one function,
the handbook that came with it was thick enough to suggest that, if you put two in the same room, they could
replicate. I was sorry to see the passing of Grievous.
In 1995, I took a brave leap into the modern world and mastered the mysteries of the Fax machine.
I was content in the certain knowledge that the Internet, computers, 'hard
drives', and '3.5" floppies', whatever they were, belonged to a completely different
generation. I suppose the term 'technophobe' sat comfortably on my shoulders,
until the first mate proposed the building of a web site for Leopard
Normand III. This, she assured me, would be invaluable and allow family and
friends to log on and get updates on where we were, what we were doing
and how much we would charge them to charter the old girl if the idea
appealed. Having our own web site would also give them the opportunity to update us on what they were doing,
via a message board. The idea appealed and the first mate's enthusiasm was
contagious.
The site was duly built, by an Englishman who had married a Trinidadian woman and lived near Port of
Spain. Upon being introduced, he informed me that he was a Webmaster and that he was in the process of making
out his year 2000 financial projection. By the end of the year, he would
be worth millions, he believed. He indicated that we were extremely lucky that he could fit
the building of our website into his schedule. I had my suspicions that he
might be a bit of a 'Walter Mitty', a fantasist. The site was duly put on line
and paid for and a payment made for one year's server fees in advance.
In the meantime, Linnet had agreed to collaborate with
the webmaster on the building of a site to house a magazine she had long
yearned to create, on a 50/50 basis, in terms of any income gained by
it. She was so unimpressed with the shabby site he had created and by
the fact that the webmaster forgot to put the second issue online on its
due date, that she decided to scrap the whole deal, teach herself to
build webs and get the magazine online under her own steam. This she accomplished
and the forerunner of this MarineZine was born.
In order to read it, I was obliged to learn how to do
the absolute minimum on the computer. Open the magazine and use the
mouse or up and down keys to scroll down the pages and reach other
pages. It soon became apparent to me that the first mate could
interview, take good photographs, write good articles, edit letters,
build an extraordinarily easy system to navigate the hundreds of pages with,
and much much more. She was after me to let her teach me the necessary
so that I could help and, in spite of my technophobia, I could see that,
even if she continued the twenty hour days she was putting in, there
just wouldn't be enough hours in the day to cover the creation of
regular issues single-handedly.
Heart in mouth, I suggested that, if she turned on the computer
and set me up a surface upon which to type, I would try to string a few words together on the subjects I felt I knew something
about.
Although it is still very new to me I must say that,
having stepped gingerly into it, I have discovered that the age of the personal computer is
fascinating and very exciting. I had had no idea that the basic operation of a computer,
using Windows 98 at any rate, was so simple, or how quickly one learns to 'boot up' and close down, use accessories
like the Notepad, automatically use the save process and use CDs as a
source of data, not to mention watching a movie on DVD!
The added bonus of deciding to learn to use the
computer is that I can now prepare my own letters to family and friends,
go down to the nearest Internet café and send them off, instead of
having to ask the first mate to do it for me. Interested parties can be
informed as soon as we make landfall and stop worrying and can let us
know how they're doing too, instantly.
I used to think Faxes were a perfectly adequate form of correspondence but,
since I discovered e-mail, I can't remember the last time I used a Fax
machine.
The huge amount of correspondence involved in this new
venture goes back and forth instantaneously, speeding up all transactions and
contact with others tremendously. If we were reliant on conventional mail, especially in some countries where whole truckloads of mail go
missing, we would have a big problem.
Faxes were never too reliable either. The print disappears after a
while, archiving is a problem and a proportion of faxes aren't received
(although the little docket says they have been 'delivered') because
someone forgot to replace the paper roll at the other end. Sometimes one receives a smudged mess
that's illegible. Were it not for e-mail, we would still be months from going on
line now!
From wondering how anyone could possibly be interested
in computers I have turned 180º and now sing the praises of the
Internet to anyone who will lend me an ear.
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On the subject of Post Restante, which was once almost the only way of receiving mail abroad,
Andrew Craig-Bennett
says:
"I've used this service, particularly in the Caribbean, and it does work although it's a bit burdensome. If you miss a letter (and that's very easy since they can take longer to arrive than the poster assumes) then you've lost it forever. Also a bulky envelope, containing maybe a number of letters, is liable to customs search, delay and probably confiscation if, for example, an undeclared floppy disk has been enclosed.
A solution. Buy a friend in the UK a fax machine, use them as your UK postal address, and stop by at the many fax offices along the cruising routes, to have them fax letters out to you. This worked very well for us a few years back. It weeds out all those tiresome advertising circulars. Of course, these days, you could provide a scanner instead and go entirely down an Internet route. All ports now have internet 'cafes'.
If you are staying at some place for a while, another alternative is to rent a post office box. This system works well on remoter islands, Canaries, Azores, Caribbean, where you get a physical box located at the post office, but is almost impossible in countries like the UK."
Our thanks to Andrew for sharing this advice with MarineZine
readers. Do you have a tip for those who are far from home but
need to keep up with their domestic correspondence? We'd love to hear
from you.
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