My wife is currently in the middle of the English channel swimming as part of a relay crossing for Diabetes UK. No space on the boat (only passenger place went to a medic because of all the diabetics onboard which is fair enough) but with the wonders of modern technology I can track whilst sitting in a cafe in harbour supping a cappuccino. Rather than chucking my guts up (again!).

The boat has a Spot GPS Messenger so she can be tracked at – here. Am thinking I need one of these for back country adventures – being able to send messages to home every day to say you are still alive and alert emergency services (and have a log of your movements on line though not so fussed about that) without being reliant on a phone signal seems to be worth the outlay.

She seems to be doing quite well – hopefully not too well as I'm feeling a snooze coming on!

Not the most direct route is it!

she's brave! esp as they are crossing 8 lanes!

typical woman, completely lost!* 🙄
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*i suspect it's something to do with tides

Google Latitude does the same thing for free 🙂

This is a ploy.
She's really lashed the GPS to a dolphin & gone shopping.

Yea the SPOT trackers are ace. I'm considering getting one for the same reason. The colorado trail race competitors all had SPOTs on so you could watch the race in 'real' time.

Google Latitude does the same thing for free

But then you've got to have a smart phone type device which is likely fragile and will run out of battery in a day (or two max). Latitude is good, but its entirely different from the SPOT

She's really lashed the GPS to a dolphin & gone shopping.

Obviously chosen a one flippered dolphin 😉

Skipper's tactics are have not quite worked tonight – they were well ahead of the other boats at 3am (its an informal race) but his course in the first hour and not quite altering course soon enough at the bottom of the tide (or her getting tired, which is obviously a possibility, she was complaining of a sore shoulder earlier this week) means they are going to be faffing around at Cap Gris-Nez for another hour or so. Spring tides make it tough for the pilot though.

but its entirely different from the SPOT

Not really and my Xperia last for a couple of days… Linked to a solar charger would be ideal for long days out.

It is very different to Google latitude, Google latitude requires a network connection. The SPOT sends location information via a satellite so will genuinely work out in the middle of nowhere (provided a sky view).

Rich – not sure how you could compare the two – latitude relies upon a phone signal. Admittedly it looks great when in that sort of environment, but I'm talking about when you are tens or even hundreds of miles from a mobile signal. If you live, ride and never go beyond the confines of Surrey its going to work most of the time, but for half the wilderness areas in the highlands on your bike or kayaking between Hebredian islands you will be shit out of luck!