SIM Card Controversy
In an NPR interview last Sunday, offshore rescue survivor Eric Kaufman of Rebel Heart explained that when his sat phone stopped functioning correctly while roughly 900 miles offshore, he and his wife Charlotte lost the ability to consult with US Coast Guard personnel about their emergency situation. Thus, their options were narrowed substantially: 1) to continue on for three weeks before making landfall in the Marquesas, hoping that their one-year-old daughter’s medical condition would improve; or 2) to activate their EPIRB and initiate a rescue. As was widely reported, they chose the latter, and were safely rescued via a multi-agency response. But they had to scuttle their Hans Christian 38 in the process, sending it to the bottom of the Pacific with all their possessions.
Eric explained that he found out later that the phone stopped working because the service provider had mailed out new SIM cards, and shut off the old ones shortly thereafter. This week we were alerted that the San Diego-based Alden 64 Nirvana, which is currently crossing to the Marquesas, also lost phone functionality, apparently for a similar reason. In that case, co-owner Julie Mitchell, acting as shoreside support for her husband Gary, was able to work out a solution with the sat phone provider, SatellitePhoneStore.com, and Gary’s phone is fully functional again as he continues west.
We contacted the company’s manager, Phil Sexton, for a comment on the SIM card controversy. He was adamant that his staff would never discontinue service without first getting voice or email confirmation from a customer that they had received a new SIM card to use. "We would never do that," he says. "These phones are used for emergency purposes by 80% of our customers. Legally, I could not do that" — even if the account were in arrears.
Needless to say, there are always at least two sides to every story. The bottom line, though, for users of sat phones, transponder devices, EPIRBs or other critical safety gear is this: Before heading offshore, always check with service providers about any planned upgrades or changes in service, and be sure to update your EPIRB and PLB (personal locater beacon) info in the official database. Especially when heading offshore, it’s wise to update the "comments" section there with your trip plan and crew info.