WIFI - and Shout Out to Nick at Leverick

Hello,

I am following up on our WIFI decisions from our trip in December.
Here is what we found out. No shocker here, but spoiler alert, you get what you pay for...

We were with Sunsail, not TMM this trip so we were on the hunt for WIFI at better than $40/day. A Mom Dad, 18 and 20 year old sons, (judge away but we all like a bit if connected time, weather, vids, et cetera. As long as it isn't work related)

Our findings:
1) No doubt the easiest thing: is spend the money at Sunsail and you can buy unlimited wifi $40 a day.

2) Hardest thing: travel all over Toronto for weeks before the trip looking for an unlocked mifi that I can use with a local Digicel sim card. Finally get to the infamous mall where all electronics of various shades of grey are available, negotiate away, and come up away with an $85 dollar MIFI that "is definitely unlocked for anywhere in the world"
Show up at digicel in Road Town, buy a 7gig card for $70 and ... NO JOY

3) Middle of the Road Option; (what we ended up with) at digicel in Road Town they sold us, on the spot, a MIFI for $80US and it worked with their card.
(That is what I had wanted to do in the first place but when I originally called down to digicel they said they don't stock them and you had to have a local address to order one. That was not true )

I now own a digicel mifi, that next time I can just get the SIM card loaded with the time we need.

I am curious. What are other wifi solutions are out there?

Also but unrelated, I need to give a big shoutout and thanks to Nick at Leverick Bay. Not only did he book us a rental jeep and keep that all sorted for us, we had an "almost boat hook tragedy" (the rivets gave way and the hook came of the handle so we had and separate handle and hook,) note bien: a boat hook without the hook is not nearly as useful a tool. But he was able to make us whole again. Many thanks Nick!

Take care,

Normally, with just the two of us we do not worry about wifi. But two years ago we had children and grandchildren on a Moorings 54.5. We went with the most expensive option, wifi from the office on Moorings/Sunsail dock. It was fabulously expensive, and worth every penny. With a boat full of teens, tweens, and adults who never did figure out what the word "vacation" really means, we had no problems at all. It was really really really expensive, but even one of the adults who was overseeing a software upgrade in Chicago from our boat admitted it was worth the money.

And one more thing, about that boathook. Didn't they tell you that the
long handled brush was your spare boathook?

"Hardest thing: travel all over Toronto for weeks before the trip looking for an unlocked mifi that I can use with a local Digicel sim card."


Do they have Amazon or eBay in Canada? Why run around? We bought our mifi for $30 and have used it for years. They actually mail it right to your house.

Hi,

We are amazon and kijiji users but the Canadian mifis are locked to their proprietary distributors (Bell, Rogers Telus) and won't work on other companies networks.
I did look US ones, but I could not discern which ones would actually work in the BVIs, I just didn't know enough about verizon versus sprint et cetera.
I would have gladly paid the duty and border tax if I knew it would work in the BVIs.

Which one did you buy that worked down there?

That is brilliant, so simple.
Most great ideas are I suppose.
I had not heard of that fix.

One time sailing we did get a halyard wrapped around a spreader and it was a boat hook the saved the day, but I will remember the brush for boat hook substitution in the future.

Thanks.

The two options I prefer are to either buy an unlocked 4G router on amazon or just buy an unlocked phone and use the mobile sharing option. I've done both and they've both worked well. I prefer the phone method since I can then use it as a phone as well.

You could also do the same with an unlocked tablet.

Sim cards can just be bought ahead of time from mrsimcard.com - little more expensive then doing it there, but saves you time.

Then buy an american router, why do you need a Canadian router for BVI

Yes I would use a US MiFi. I just didn't know if it would work in the BVIs.

We are planning a trip w/TMM - its my understanding they provide free wi-fi inclusive in their charter package. Do any TMM charters have any comments or suggestions?

That is correct Marrianeg ... all TMM vessels have a free Internet enable wifi hotspot. Have a great trip! - Mark

1. Spare iPhone 4s+digicell SIM card+hotspot = Wifi for all and local calling as well. Before that used cheap android phone for same purpose.

2. For $10/day with Verizon using my current phone internationally is the same as using it at home including data. Hotspot means wife and the boy can log on also.

Oh how I remember and covet the 80's sailing the BVIs. No WiFi, no cellular, rarely a landline. In a pinch you might connect with the St Thomas Marine Operator. Now that's something most of the younger sailers have never heard of.

I remember the first TV appearing in the bars along CGB. All down hill after that <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I hope it is not too late to ask this: I saw many nice info maps on www.BVIMariner.com but nothing showing where all the Wi Fi sites are located. Maybe I missed this. Just knowing this and being able to grab a Wi Fi at a bar, marina or mooring is a great help.

Is there a map or listing of Wi Fi sites?

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Dave ... We recently updated the Marina pages on BVI Mariner to show Wifi availability based on a request from another TTOL'er ... look under the "Amenities" heading. Nothing currently in the works to provide a Wifi Map, but will add this to the feature request list. My concern with this type of data is keeping it up-to-date (i.e. accurate) as it can be very dynamic and we want to avoid stale data. After users become more accustomed to posting their observations, this type of feature will by more feasible. Thanks for the suggestion. - Mark

Voyage has wifi built into the boats. That's another option.

TMM has unlimited wifi on their boats.