It was time MJT Net Ltd got together for a strategy meeting with Dave Collins, the CEO of Shareware Promotions, who handle MJT’s online marketing, so on Tuesday the two companies chartered Csardas for the day:
A very productive and enjoyable session. Another great day at the office 
There’s good, reasonably priced, Wifi access at the marina, with an access point on each pontoon, and Wifi can be had at many destinations. The only problem is that the boat laptop is permanently “plumbed” into the chart table with the screen closed so it won’t get great Wifi reception unless it is removed and opened up.
I’ve seen these dedicated marine Wifi antennas for sale for about 200 quid and heard good things about them:
But 200 quid!? A bit of Googling revealed that they’re made in the USA by Radiolabs who sell them for $169.95 USD. They’ll ship to the UK by airmail for $45. So a total of just over $200 = £100 GBP. And even if one gets clobbered for VAT by the postman it’s still significantly cheaper. So of course I’ve placed an order along with a marine grade USB extension cable. Big savings.
I look forward to receiving it and mounting it on the rail. I can see the boat being used as an office more regularly
Great weekend to Alderney and back. A PYRA event - was meant to be Cherbourg but militant striking French fishermen put us all off. So Alderney it was. Cracking reach across to Alderney in 8h45m. Flew spinnaker to begin with until wind picked up and became too close.
I think we were second or third PYRA boat to arrive in Alderney to find all mooring buoys occupied. Rafted up and soon were 4 boats to a buoy. Very bumpy night, lots of creaking and snatching - hardly slept at all.
Hired bikes and rode around the island on Saturday, visited the town and enjoyed lunch overlooking the harbour.
Unfortunately wind went round to NW over Sat night, so a very close hauled sail back in a strong Easterly running tide. The fully crewed race boats were all immediately powered up and pointing much higher than us so we ended up further east than the rest. Eventually I got the boat trimmed and was pleased with how well she was pointing but it was a little too late. About 20nm SSW of the Needles the wind died and we decided we wanted to get home at a sensible hour so fired up the engine and motored the rest of the way.
Came upon Eye 2 Eye tacking against wind and tide up Poole approach channel. Turned out they had engine problems so we towed them into the harbour and up to Parkstone. Going into the harbour at full revs our SOG managed only 2.5 knots!
Superb weekend. Great sailing despite having to motor the last 4 hours. Glad to have been to Alderney for the first time. Been to Cherbourg loads so, frankly, the change of destination was welcomed.
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/marcus.tettmar/PooleAlderney68Jun2008