Is Being "Connected" a Must These Days?

[thomm225]

So, when I got interested in possibly sailing the world or at least cruising to the Caribbean, there was no internet.

These days we are so used to it sailing/cruising without something like Starlink would really be a big change for many of us.

I was considering a 4 day cruise this weekend, but then the big game is on Friday Night and what if I can't get a good internet connection?!!

That's just a crazy example of what many of us have gotten used to.

So I may sail out on Saturday Morning. The wind will be better anyway is my rationalization, but of course, I won't be able to sail as far.

I don't have Starling so must rely on my phone for a hotspot while sailing up the Chesapeake Bay and must avoid getting too far off the grid.

I might also miss the next big "discussion" on CF.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by thomm225

So, when I got interested in possibly sailing the world or at least cruising to the Caribbean, there was no internet.

The earliest posts I made on the Internet that I can still find were made in 1983. But then I used to have an email address with ihnp4!ihnss in it. Most authorities date the existence of the 'net to January of that year. Perhaps your sailing aspirations predate that, or perhaps you date the arrival of the Internet to somewhat later milestones, such as the September that Never Ended in 1993, or the publication of Marc Andresson's multimedia web browser that could display text and images together in January 23 of that same year, or the arrival of Windows 95 on August 24, 1995.


Prior to television, yachties who wished to tune out could avail themselves of television (variously dated to milestones in the 1930s and 1940s) , VHS tapes (starting in 1976), or reel-to-reel audio tapes (used on yachts from roughly 1950). The reel-to-reel tapes were particularly popular on yachts back in the day as, unlike vinyl LP records, they were not affected much by sea state.


During the age of sail, cards, dice, and board games like chess were used to pass the time, when the passage itself was uninspiring.