A ship of 88 passengers and 77 crew members was passing through Drake Passage on its way to tour Antarctica when a horrible storm put the pricey trip to a screeching halt and allegedly rendered their means of communication unusable.
According to multiple reports, large waves caused the Clelia II to lose power and if it weren't for a nearby vessel carrying workers from National Geographic, the incident could have been a tragedy instead of a miracle.
Some passengers from the National Geographic Explorer have spoken out and said that they weren't just in the area, however, and they had been contacted by the Clelia II via radio. Documentary filmmaker Jon Bowermaster wrote that the Clelia II had run out of prepaid satellite phone minutes. After multiple attempts to contact the distressed ship again, the crew from NatGeo had to send a satphone in a rocket-propelled cannister over to the Clelia II, Bowermaster said.
At SatPhoneCity, we want to ensure that our customers don't end up stuck in similar situations. Whenever someone is interested in buying a satellite phone with us, we work with them to figure out exactly what model and service plan would work best for them.
For buyers who are looking to have a satphone in case of an emergency at home, it doesn't make sense to purchase a global annual plan. In this instance, an emergency annual plan or a standard prepaid plan would be a great fit. Fortunately for those customers, we offer the lowest prices on Iridium plans for prepaid cards and reloads.
Had the explorers in the aforementioned story shopped with SatPhoneCity, we would have recommended our global annual plan, which would have allowed them to use their satellite telephones year-round without worrying about running out of minutes.
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