Ian Rogers wrote:

Hi All –
The Go and a Laptop can connect, but you need an approved app to open an internet connection.  So one such approved app is SailMail, I have an account and have used this in the past, but Sail Mail only opens and internet connection long enough to send and receive its own e-mail.    So the work around or easier method is to open the internet connection with the smart phone app and then use the weather functions in Expedition.   Once the connection is open the Go! acts as an advertised hot spot (with a 28.8K connection). 
Step by Step process on Mas! Our Moore 24
[list=1]
[*] Raise Go! antenna
[*]Open Iridium Mail & Wed app
[*]Connect app to Go! if not already connected
[*]Tap Connections within the App
[*]Tap “press here for connections state”
[*]Tap “Open connection”
[*]Wait about 20 seconds for the internet connection to established, a green dot will replace the red dot
[*]Put phone down
[*]Connect the laptop wifi to the Go! if not already connected, my laptop connect to this know network automatically
[*]Pull in weather info/YB info in Expedition like I was sitting at home on by deck connected to the internet. Remember the download speed is still slow, so large area files might need to be broken up in to two or three sections to be downloaded.   I have been able to pull in SF to Hawaii, but it took some time.  
[*]Once done, close the internet connection in the app
[*]Lower antenna to turn off Go!
[/list]
One thing to remember is once the internet connection is open your laptop will try and update everything it can,  the control panel you can turn off automatic updates do this before you go offshore.   

Words do not describe how excited I am to give this a try when I get to Newport. If it works as expected, this could make several things works much smoother during the N2B. We have the process down, but it is a longer workaround. Being able to pull race schedules directly into Expedition will be a huge benefit, not to mention gribs.

crc1965 wrote:

I'm  pretty sure with Predict Wind offshore app loaded on PC.  You select area and time for grib files, select download and pick iridium Go as the source....  after downloads one just needs to point Expedition to the Predict Wind download folder......  with phone or tablet the interface was through iridium mail app...
C

Agreed. That works for CMC and GFS gribs, but doesn't cover other gribs like RTOFS, etc. It also doesn't work for things like YB race schedules and updates. I can work the PW process for CMC and GFS. I can use mail based requests for other gribs, and I can use xgate to pull the boat-id and expedition files for YB.

But, being able to use one method greatly simplifies the process, which is why I am enthused that this might work. We have an existing process, but any improvements to that process are always welcome.

crc1965 wrote:

I'm  pretty sure with Predict Wind offshore app loaded on PC.  You select area and time for grib files, select download and pick iridium Go as the source....  after downloads one just needs to point Expedition to the Predict Wind download folder......  with phone or tablet the interface was through iridium mail app...
C

Also some races don't allow Predict Wind as its a paid service.   I know that for Pac Cup you can only access free sources of weather data, so that eliminates PW for us on the left coast.   We find that any method to simplify things offshore helps when you are tired.  We still use sailmail for 96 hr forecast and other weather data that is not available in Expedition.  

Ian Rogers wrote:

crc1965 wrote:

I'm  pretty sure with Predict Wind offshore app loaded on PC.  You select area and time for grib files, select download and pick iridium Go as the source....  after downloads one just needs to point Expedition to the Predict Wind download folder......  with phone or tablet the interface was through iridium mail app...
C

Also some races don't allow Predict Wind as its a paid service.   I know that for Pac Cup you can only access free sources of weather data, so that eliminates PW for us on the left coast.   We find that any method to simplify things offshore helps when you are tired.  We still use sailmail for 96 hr forecast and other weather data that is not available in Expedition.  

For those races that limit access to freely available data, you can still use PredictWind to download the GFS and CMC models. You just can't use the PWG and PWC files. That was the clarification we got last year. The model data is freely available. PW is just the download mechanism.

Did this process work in the nice summary of steps described above?  I agree that the fatigue factor plus race stress puts a premium on simple and quick!  And there are certainly more steps here which makes it prone to failure.