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An eye in the sky

New Year was for me, as for so many, a moment when I felt the need to
make firm decisions. Sea Fox (S115) has been based in Kemps Quay on the
Itchen in Southampton since 2013, and since then, we’ve taken numerous
local trips, also many trips across Channel and to the West as far as Pad-
stow. But I had been talking about Scotland for ages. This seemed the year
to stop just talking but make it happen.
I might have had to leave the
So the plan was hatched to take the
boat on a mooring buoy, in a boat slowly around the UK (Irish Sea,
harbour or estuary, so I then possibly Hebrides, Orkney, or pos-
sibly chicken out and the canal in-
wanted to be able to check
stead). It was going to be done over 2
the boat’s exact location seasons, with the aim of making it to
using my phone Oban for winter 2020/21. As we also
lead ‘normal’ lives, a crucial part of the
plan was splitting the voyage into legs, which would necessitate leaving the
boat in various remote locations and travelling back home to carry on with
real life and work.

So I wanted to ease my worries on leaving the boat in remote locations un-
attended for possibly some weeks at a time, and wondered to what extent I
could keep an eye on the boat from a far, but without spending £800 or
more on a boat sentry system. I felt sure that I could come up with similar
systems using a more piecemeal approach.

Now, sadly, the trip is off this year of course, but as luck would have it, I fin-
ished the installations just before lockdown, so I find myself uncharacteristi-
cally well prepared for long periods away from my pride and joy!

Challenges and Solutions

1) A very remote anchor watch!
I might have had to leave the boat on a mooring buoy, in a harbour or estu-
ary, so I wanted to be able to check the boat’s exact location using my
phone – but I didn’t want any of these systems to be wifi based as some
locations wouldn’t offer this. It needed to be completely independent, only
needing a phone signal.

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