GL: setting up an office on your boat

[Charles and Pat Culotta]

> I'm not ready to go cold turkey into  retirement and extended cursing. I 
> have
> a small space on my boat I would like to use to be able to stay in contact
> with my office. I will need phone support, note book, fax and print  and 
> an
> antenna for starters.
> If you have done this successfully, would you please share with me what 
> you
> learned.
> Thanks
> John
>
John,

I did what you intend and I practiced law for 37 yrs.
My experience in easing into retirement was to start with  trips of two to 3 
months and work up over several years.

I , like others, use a Verizon air card in a laptop. Started with a cell ph 
modem but found that unsatisfactory. We have a roof mounted cell ph antenna,
that cost abt $60 and use it all the time for both the cell ph and the 
aircard. Just requires a short connector wire for each. It really has helped 
our reception.
We are doing the Grt Circle so are or were mostly on the East Coast. Verizon 
now has a contract for ph service in Canada that was not in place this yr. 
So we used
 a tel  pre paid card in Canada at pay phones---- which are still around 
there. Verizon charges extra to use the aircard in Canada, and  will again 
next yr. so we only use it if we must and DO NOT surf the net.
Sending documents and e mails is not too bad but we do use wifi when we can 
using caution!!!!!!!

We do without a fax and have found this to not be an issue. Our experience.
I prepare documents and e mail them and have documents e mailed to me. If I 
know that we will be out of cell cov. I sometime  have people call my home 
ph no and leave a message on my ans machine.We try to call in and get the 
messages once a day.
This while we were in Canada this yr.
A wireless link between the laptop and the printer would be nice.  This 
depends on the physical setup that you have.You will need to be able to plug 
the computer and the printer into the inverter----- we anchor most of the 
time and seldom run the gen set.

This has worked for us for the past few years and enabled us to cruise( not 
curse) much earlier.  GO FOR IT AND DON'T LOOK BACK. Life is much too short.

In fact we started serious cruising in 2000 and began the Circle March 1 of 
06. Now  waiting on snow to melt in NY to board in April.

Be sure to take your office stationery,various size envelopes, stamps, Fed 
Ex envelopes and way bills,etc.

If you have any questions get back to me.

One more important thing, I thought I could get away with one computer for 
navigation AND e mail, work and the like. NO.
We ended up purr one on the road, so to speak. In our case the charting and 
Verizon software/hardware simply would not play well together. Besides one 
should have a backup.
CCC
CHARLES C., JR. & PAT CULOTTA
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
M/V CCRIDER
PATTERSON, LA.
http://geocities.com/charlesculotta