Digital photography for offshore sailing

Taking pictures at sea often involves a frustrating delay in processing the film and then mailing the prints. A digital camera, however, eliminates the wait because the images can be sent over the air waves while the vessel is still at sea.

The digital photograph below, taken by Chris Oldham while en route to Bermuda in the Caribbean 1500 Rally, was transmitted via the vessel’s SSB radio. Oldham downloaded pictures from a digital camera into his laptop where they were converted into ASCII text files. Files were then broadcast to Pin Oak’s station in Gladstone, N.J. From there the photographs were distributed over the Internet to Oldham’s friends and family.

By Ocean Navigator