I always get nervous when weather forecasts via mobile coverage on the water are no longer available – enter the inReach® Mini.
The inReach Mini provides Our Tommy with off the grid interactive SOS and satellite messaging capability and weather forecasting. Using Bluetooth, it pairs with my iPhone/iPad and the free Earthmate navigation app.
Unlike the Iridium GO!, data plans for the inReach Mini are affordable and can be suspended at any time.
Carolyn Shearlock in her excellent blog, The Boat Galley, writes:
“We love our DeLorme inReach for staying in touch with friends and family via text message to/from any text-enabled phone or an email address, and also being able to share our location via a track link. It works via Iridium satellite service, so there are no dead zones as there are with cell phone coverage…
[It] includes the ability to get a weather forecast. While I thought the inReach was fun and useful before, this seriously ups the usefulness factor. Since it uses satellite communications, you can get a forecast virtually anywhere.”
Video Review
Location Tracking
I’ll be putting our Tommy’s inReach Mini to use early next year when I plan to cruise into Bathurst and Macquarie Harbours where there is no mobile coverage. It would have been very useful early this year in the Kent Group and Flinders Island.