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Birthday party on ship may have led to oil spill in Mauritius
- xenophonf 6y agoNot Wi-Fi, but mobile phone/data. From the article: “[T]he change of course is produced by indications of the captain of the boat, who gave instructions to approach about 5 miles away from the coast of Mauritius, looking for a telephone and internet signal, so that the crew members could communicate with their families,” the AMP said.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThe WiFi claim kept getting repeated even when it made no sense. WiFi doesn’t have the signal strength for miles of distance. Not to mention that if the ship were close enough to shore such that WiFi could reach, it wouldn’t be so much of a shore, but a very deep cliff.
- s_dev 6y agoWhat about Cellular data from LTE towers etc? They can reach miles and unlikely there is any out at sea. Probably all using their phones as hotspots rather than trying to connect to a Free Starbucks Router.
- colejohnson66 6y agoYes. Those can reach. My comment was saying that the claim it was for WiFi didn’t make sense, although, I figured at the time they meant cellular data.
- withinboredom 6y agoIt does. I had one when I lived on a sailboat. I’ve been able to get consumer grade routers to broadcast 3km with line of sight, ddwrt, and no physical modifications. Somewhere like an ocean (or a desert) you won’t have much, if any, interference.
- callalex 6y agoHow many bits per year was your throughput?
- withinboredom 6y agoIn the case of the router, it was going through a 1mbps satellite uplink, so it didn’t need to be fast (though it was still fast, at -50db IIRC, it’s the SNR that matters). In the case of the directional antenna on a boat, I got regular speeds just tons of dropped packets. I have no idea how far I was from the routers, but I couldn’t see the houses.
- dredmorbius 6y agoAll but certainly someone nontechnical referred to mobile data as "wifi", and press ran with quote-accuracy over factual-accuracy. "Wifi" is becoming generic for wireless data access, much as kleenex, xerox, dixie cups, champagne, asprin, dremel, jet ski, google, ping pong, rollerblade, onseie, etc., etc.
- nickik 6y agoStarlink for the rescue.
- killjoywashere 6y agoNot sure why you got downvoted. As a sailor, I'm a huge fan of any service that can get more bandwidth to the oceans. Those who have not been to sea for their employment cannot imagine how lonesome it can be.
- xenophonf 6y agoI downvoted because it wasn't a substantive comment. Starlink is indeed an interesting technical solution to the problem of connecting sailors to their families. I've only been on short cruises, and I found those to be incredibly isolating. The experience was completely unlike camping, for example. At least there, you're under your own power, and returning to civilization is a matter of walking back in the direction from which you came. At sea, on a big ship, you are stuck in the middle of nowhere, powerless to go anywhere, an empty expanse of fathomless water in every direction. I found the experience simultaneously intense and depressing, and I can't imagine how sailors manage it even in the digital age.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- _Microft 6y agoSpaceX is currently seeking permission to test Starlink on their own marine vessels: https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/itl1tk/spacex_asks_the_fcc_for_permission_to_install_10/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/itl1tk/spacex_ask...
- x87678r 6y agoIs Starlink going to cover oceans where there are just a few boats?
- 6y ago
- RadioEnForce 6y agoThe stupid reason: the celebration of the birthday of one of the crew members. Like that gender-reveal party...
- bryan0 6y agoIf this was for a gender-reveal party I would have lost it.
- jtbayly 6y agoAs terrible as this is, I think a more sympathetic headline would be, "Mauritius oil spill occurred when tanker captain sought telephone and internet signal, so that the crew members could communicate with their families." Then add the following, and it's even more understandable: > Some observers say the missteps could be linked to the stress that ship crews are under in the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 shutdowns. It has become challenging for shipping operators to make crew changes, leading many seafarers to be stranded at sea, away from their families for long periods. No less terrible. Definitely still the wrong move, but I can understand it a lot better than the original headline, which sounds truly shocking on its own.
- aetch 6y agoWell there are things called satellite phones...
- medium_burrito 6y ago"Laissez-les appeler avec un téléphone satellite" - Marie Antoinette
- mc32 6y agoNo, that’s no excuse. It would be like a cargo airliner dipping low to get signal (before in flight internet was available) for whatever reason. You don’t endanger the crew and ship, etc., out of convenience to you. It’s extremely irresponsible.
- TheNorthman 6y ago> You don’t endanger the crew and ship, etc., out of convenience to you The captain did it for the crew, not himself.
- jtbayly 6y agoI never said it was a valid excuse. In fact, I literally said it was still wrong. Having said that, your comparison would only be apt if airliners stayed in the air for months at a time.
- sevencolors 6y agoIf there's one constant in the entire world, it would be dumb accidents