WIFI connections in the VI and Caribbean

Hi everyone.

I am doing some research about the wifi topic in regard to the long term charters program that is being put in place by Dream Yacht.

The boats in the program will be equipped very differently than typical boats for 1-week charters. That includes communication equipment which will be essential of course.

Could you guys share any experience, recommendations etc. with the best way/carrier/system to achieve constant internet communication in each Caribbean region...

Thank you very much in advance.

Cheers,
Michel Benarrosh
Sailonline.com

2 years ago I sailed a DYC charter cat for a bit over 2 months with my family from BVI - Guadeloupe and return (1k miles, 10 countries, 40 islands). I provided more detail on this board and others before and after the trip.

It was necessary for us to stay somewhat connected. I spent the better part of 4-6 months prepping for the trip including considering connectivity. In the end, I felt the best way to do so was simply to use my Verizon cell phone as hotspot, in addition to WIFI onshore/nearshore when/where available. This was a reasonably good solution for that area considering both connectivity and cost. I considered buying and installing a directional antenna to pull WIFI from shore, but after much research figured this was not worth the trouble/effort.

Kevin

Hi Michel... For long term charters in the Caribbean I would think a cell phone based system would be better. Something like this TP-Link M7350 4G LTE MiFi and two sim cards, one from Digicel from the ex-Brit islands and one from Orange for the French islands would cover it. Might even be possible to use just one sim if there is a company with a decent roaming plan.

Personally I'd had enough of trying to deal with WiFi boosters and scrambling around anchorages trying to find an acceptable signal.

Michel,
I recently did a charter with Conch. I was surprised to find wifi aboard, rather expensive, but we were on vacation and I wanted to stay in touch with family and home. I didn't root around to find out the origin of the system, it was fairly reliable, though I did have to reset the switch fairly often and sign back in.

I suspect that if you want to find out what they use you could contact them.