ZTC Fone home
A coupe of weeks ago, when we first cleared into the US via video phone, the biggest concern of the immigration officer I spoke with was that we didn’t have a telephone. She just couldn’t get her head around that and especially because I didn’t have a Canadian land line number to give her (we haven’t had a land line phone at our residence in years).
Now, although we didn’t have a phone at that very minute, we had very much intended on acquiring one. Sadly the iPhones that we each had prior to leaving were on Canadian contracts so we had to give them up (find someone to assume the contract) or pay a stupid cancellation fee to break the contract ($#^% you Rogers). Having a phone is a necessity for us though which is why we were so happy to get a tip from our marina friends Marilyn and Neil about Tracfone.
At their suggestion, we went to the nearest drugstore and found a Tracfone for… get this… $9.95! We then purchased a prepaid minute card for the phone (There are various cards available. We bought 200 minutes for 39 bucks). That phone now lets us call all over the US with no long distance charges. Not only that but we can call Canada with no long distance. NOT ONLY THAT but our friends in Canada can call an Ottawa number (we had to pick a city) and get us with no international charges!!! How can you beat that?
Still on the communications topic, we have managed to acquire a nice fast Wi-fi connection while moored in Great Kills Harbour, courtesy of Staten Island Yacht Sales (in this case “courtesy” does mean free). This was after the Richmond County Yacht Club refused to give us the password to their network (they don’t give it to guests apparently). When will people learn… the internet is cheap and (bad) press is expensive! Anyway, with said fast connection, I was able to upload a hundred or so pics to the Zero To Cruising Facebook Page and also upload the following video of us in New York Harbor. Enjoy. 🙂
Hey guys, just wanted to let you know following your blog daily and enjoying it a lot. Looking forward to meet up with you somewhere out in the big world! 🙂
Thanks Christian. We too are looking forward to meeting up with you. Someplace tropical preferably!
Get the double minutes card, that way it will double all the minutes you ever buy. Also we have trackphone but we have found there are many places down here NC & SC where it does not work, we are currently sitting at Dowry Creek with no service!!!!! Will be leaving here hopefully last week Sept or first week Oct, & heading straight down to Palm Coast Marina in Fl. Enjoy the ride past NJ, it was a great ride for us. Did we tell you we switched to a Trawler!!!
Hi guys
Of course we know you sold Ruth and switched to a trawler. We have been keeping up to date!
I did see the double minutes card and that likely would make sense. We’ll probably only be able to use the phone until we leave the US though which hopefully will be around the end of the year.
jennifer & Al
May want to check out Matthews Point Marina just across from Oriental near Adams Creek (ICW). We keep our 32′ Downeaster Sailboat there. Great facilities, wonderful dock master (Paul), etc. They also have a hurricane hole for anchoring when we get a storm. Pete uses our Macbook for checking emails, etc.
Mac people are the coolest. 🙂
I want a cellphone with those rates….. Rogers and TelusBell, take note!
It may be worth noting that I’ve seen Inmarsat IsatPhonePro airtime on sale for as little as 60 cents a minute (if you use a lot of it- 70 to 80 cents a minute for 250 to 1000 minute blocks). Satellite phones aren’t for everyone, but those who are heading well clear of civilization might be interested- especially since they’re about the same price per minute as Canadian prepaid cellular.
I just looked at that phone yesterday after reading the review online. It sounds like a good deal for occasional usage.
http://www.satphonestore.com/
Jean and I find that Skype on our “his” and “hers” MacBook Pro computers keeps our phone calling manageable no matter where we are.
For those you call that are bothered by the fact that Skype, as usually set up, gives an unfamiliar area code and number to those receiving it, you, as the Skype account holder can opt for the Skype caller ID feature to smooth the ruffled feathers of those wanting to avoid calls from unknown folks.
Skype on our iPad 3G means that we can still make calls when there is no WiFi, but there is cell reception.
When you get further out on your cruising, a Sat Phone is wonderful to have when missing WiFi and cell reception.
John
As you may know, we are both Mac people too. In fact, I was drooling over the ipads when we visited the apple store in NYC. I think it would be great but it’s hard to justify buying one right now considering we both have laptops.
I “just” installed Skype on my Macbook pro a few days ago but have yet to use it.
Keep those photos and videos coming! Looks as though, even under power, you guys came up on Lady Liberty pretty fast! Not bad for the sloppy looking conditions.
Sloppy is one word for it!
You can use Gmail to make VoIP calls, ie make free phone calls in the US and Canada with really inexpensive foreign calls. The important thing for your particular case ids that you get your own Google voicemail access number with free voice mail and gmail voice to text email!
Check it out at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20014734-2.html
Oh yeah, one more thing, it works on both Windows and Macs.
John
Checking that out now!
Sweet! It works. I just called our cel phone:)