Welcome to this edition of Southern Cross E-News.
How the world has changed in only a few short weeks. Back in February (seems like a lifetime ago now) us older types were still struggling to turn off predictive text, include an emoji in an email or summon up Siri, but now, thanks to the ‘c’ word, we are mastering Skype, using zoom and crashing House parties. Communications and new technologies have never been grasped at such a rapid rate. Truly a game changer for our generation. This staying at home thing has forced us all to adapt to new concepts and my efforts are bringing some much needed humour to the Job household. Take the other day as an example. While setting up a ‘mygov’ account on my phone I got to a part where they told me to scan my passport. Naturally enough I thought that they had created some white man’s magic that turned my phone into one of those machines they use at the airport to save us having to line up and wait at immigration. Now we just line up and wait for the machine which in many of the countries I have recently visited, makes us sitting ducks for some masked person to walk up and shoot you in the forehead with some kind of temperature gun. ‘Tis a very strange world. So there I was holding my passport against my IPhone screen when my oldest walks into the room and, barely suppressing his mirth, asks ‘What are you up to dad?’. ‘Scanning my passport’ I said ‘and it doesn’t seem to be working’. I must say he did very well holding it together while he politely showed me that I just use it like a camera to record the image. Hugging himself with delight he saved it for after dinner when his telling the tale had the whole family crying with laughter at my expense. I am a ‘Boomer’ apparently.
Any way all this new technology now allows me to teach some older tech in a new way and I am pleased to announce that we are running our first ‘Live’ on-line Marine radio course and exam on the 1st of May. I promise to not just inform, but entertain you, as you use this down time to complete your radio licence. The past few weeks have shown how many things we thought were important are now useless and completely unnecessary in this new world – shaving and professional Rugby league players to name but two examples. But the correct use and understanding of the marine radio remains the primary source of comms, and search and rescue to this day. And it is a lot less complicated to use than an IPhone. The course will commence online at 9am and will run for approximately 4 hours before each person is examined individually using Skype, zoom or face time. The exam can take place either after the course or at a time suitable for you.
The cost of the course is $350 per person and numbers are limited. So knock over that Radio Licence that, like cleaning the garage, you have been putting off doing for years. For more information or to make a booking, drop us an email – sailing@southerncrossyachting.com.au, call on 33964100 or contact us via our Facebook page.
Until next time stay safe and stay at home!
Cheers
Mike Job.