WIRED magazine ran an article that was a real surprise to me: It was about a sextant, and a very good looking sextant at that! This old school navigational device has some sexy styling that any nautical buff would be proud to get their hands on. Take a look at the story and the picture of this excellent piece of retro nautical tech. Read More
Note: This is not our gear or our ship. <-click for photographer details.
Working “day jobs” aboard ship gCaptain’s crew has three separate offices; home, work and mobile. As chief blogger I get to carry the most stuff so I wanted to show you what it takes to blog when I’m away from gCaptain HQ. Here’s the gear I use at home and thousands of miles from the nearest shore:
While gCaptain has a very nice office in downtown San Luis Obispo, maritime news breaks at all hours of the day and night. So while I’m at home my office consists of a Mac Pro connected to both my 23inch Cinema Display and my 42″ Plasma Television. Since I don’t work and watch TV at the same time the setup works well. I use it with a Logitech Sidewinder mouse and an ultra sleek Apple Slim Keyboard. The Mac Pro is probably overkill but it was inherited from a failed start-up and I had no takers on Craigslist. I also have an inexpensive dell monitor I rotate 90degrees for dual monitor goodness (a trick I learned from Jason Calcanis at Mahalo -image-).
While traveling to destinations around the world my setup is a black macbook and my iPhone. I tend towards lengthy email replies when using the Macbook so I much prefer the iPhone to make them short and quick.
On the ship my primary computer is a windows box which I need for my day job. Because of restricted permissions I rely heavily on a Portable Application Suite I launch from my waterproof USB drive and VNC to access my office computer. Outside my office the environment is unfriendly to electronics. I rely on my Pelican Flashlight at night, Rite in the Rain notepad and Fisher Space Pen. If I need a camera I put my Waterproof Xacti Digital Camcorder in a Micro Pelican Case. If I am outside on the ship’s deck for extended periods of time I catch up on the days news with a custom RSS reader; printed paper. To keep from killing too many trees I use a duplex enabled printer set at 2-pages per side.
I work a schedule of 3 weeks at work and 3 weeks home so I get 6 months vacation per year. To facilitate this each position on the ship is filled by two people, the person on and the person off. This is nice because while at home my relief answers all emails, phone calls, ect., leaving me 100% disconnected from work. But regardless of where in the world my ship is located on the globe I must fly to it every 3 weeks. Staying connected on the road is important. To accomplish this I have set-up a custom SSH tunnel solution that I use with Apple Remote Desktop to connect back to my office network. I also have setup automatic back-ups with the Amazon S3 based app JungleDisk and use Transmit to retrieve my files. Storage is important while traveling so I cloned my MacBook‚ hard drive using SuperDuper and replaced it with a 250gb laptop hard drive.
The folks from “Rite in the Rain” were at the Pacific Marine Expo, and I picked up a brochure, an all-weather pen, and another pocket-sized spiral notebook…thanks guys!
See, I use these products every day. Into my pockets each morning go my keys, wallet, coin purse, cell phone, and my little Weems & Plath-branded Rite in the Rain 3″ x 5″ all-weather spiral notebook.
I have been using these products for many years in fairly harsh environments aboard ship and highly recommend them for use on deck.
After my last Fire Team meeting the 2nd Mate said: “you must own stock in the Halligan Tool Company”. Well I don’t (such a company doesn’t even exist) but I am a big fan of the Halligan and insist that it’s carried on each vessel I work on.
Invented by Deputy Chief Hugh Halligan of the FDNY, it is the multipurpose tool of choice for firefighters around the globe and is used for tasks ranging from forced entry to overhaul. It also has some ISPS uses not disclosed by any manufacturer.
To give you a better idea about how it’s used watch the video below then view our pdf slideshow for the shipboard uses of the tool.
We recently brought you an indestructible USB drive but with a price tag of $99 and up, we imagine few of you actually bought one. This video from our friends at Systm will show you how to make your USB thumb drive waterproof.
If you want something truly indestructible just bring your drive (plus an extra for the A/E) back to the ship’s machine shop and have the engineers work their magic. If your at home try THIS or THIS.
We are happy to announce a partnership with amazon.com to bring you gCaptain’s gear shop.
What is it?
We have basically searched through Amazon’s offerings and added the items that we used aboard ship or have been recommended by readers in our comments.
Why shop with gCaptain?
A Ships Captain has added each item by hand so you know you will be getting quality gear and books we enjoy like Captain Kelly Sweeney’s From the Bridge: Authentic Modern Sea Stories. By using amazon as our delivery method you will have the online safety and low prices this retailer is know for.
Why not shop at Amazon directly
No cost is added to the order meaning you will get the same low prices as if you went to Amazon.com directly.
Amazon gives us a small referral fee (between 4 and 7%) for each item you order and that money goes towards adding new features to gCaptain.
What about non-maritime Amazon orders
Simply use the following link and gCaptain will benefit on all orders you place through Amazon.com:
Have an Iridium, VHF or SSB handheld radio aboard? What about a portable GPS? Create an Abandon ship electronics grab bag that is waterproof, floats and will survive a fire.
Standard Horizon HX850S VHF/GPS DSC Floating RadioNot that I spend a lot of waking OR sleeping hours dreaming about handheld VHF radios, mind you. Still, this thing is pretty dang cool.
Behold the Standard Horizon HX850S VHF/GPS DSC Floating Submersible Radio. I’d link to the manufacturer’s site, but there isn’t any info about this model up there yet?!
Apparently, there’s actually a good reason for this. After berating Standard-Horizon for their lack of a press release about this new product, Panbo learned that Standard-Horizon is still awaiting final FCC certification for the product. Oh golly, not another cool product in limbo because of the FCC!!
gCaptain readers know we are big fans of Pelican Cases and Flashlights and may also know that we have destroyed memory cards in the past. This is why we are excited about a simple new product from our favorite tough guys; Pelican’s Memory Card Cases.
First a note. This is not a substitute for the most important safety item aboard ship an EPIRB. If you are looking for the best personal emergency solution we recommend the ACR - ResQFix 406 GPS Personal Locater Beacon (PLB) . (EPIRBS are know as PLB’s when used for personal use and ELT’s in aviation).
So what can the SPOT do? Basically it is a unit that updates your position on a google map which your friends can log into and track your position. It also has extensive emergency locating features at a fraction of the price of a PLB or EPIRB. Panbo tells us;
The just announced Spot is a waterproof Globalstar messenger and GPS combo that will purportedly let you alert the authorities (at least the U.S. ones) [we know it uses GEOS SAR but doesn't have global coverage) with your position, or ask for help from your friends or just notify them of where you are, or build an online track of your travels. It will be available in November for $149 with an annual service contract ranging from $99 upwards depending on what features you want to use. There’s not much detail on the Spot site yet, except for some pretty extreme fear marketing, but I’d guess that this product will get some real attention, even from some boaters. And I’m glad that, unlike TracMe, Spot is not confusing the market place by using the term Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).
For $149 at Amazon this seems like a bargain to give your family some extra peace of mind and let your kids track your position at sea from your home computer (check with your ISPS DP for your company's policy). [Continue Reading →]
and my 42″ 
I rely on my 
After my last Fire Team meeting the 2nd Mate said: “you must own stock in the Halligan Tool Company”. Well I don’t (such a company doesn’t even exist) but I am a big fan of the Halligan and insist that it’s carried on each vessel I work on.
Standard Horizon HX850S VHF/GPS DSC Floating RadioNot that I spend a lot of waking OR sleeping hours dreaming about handheld VHF radios, mind you. Still, this thing is pretty dang cool.
Our plan; purchase 
