It was at Shepard’s Marina in Gibraltar as a blustery easterly Levanter caused strong gusts to swirl around the rock and marina. A power boat was trying to dock on the arrivals key with a lady standing at the bow ready to heave a line to the dock hand. The owner was having great difficulty getting his boat near enough to the dock, only to be blown off and then have to try again. Tempers were clearly at a height between himself and the lady. “Get the bloody line over to him will ya,” he yelled as he tried to edge the bow nearer the dock once more. She finally heaved the line successfully, to be caught by the dock hand who hauled it in and made it fast to a cleat, but as the boat fell away again the line slipped out of the fairlead and fell limply into the water, evidently not having been tied to the boat securely. The loud verbal exchange between the two cannot be published here and after the boat was finally secured the distraught lady stormed off down the dock. I never did see her back on that boat.
Years later at the Annapolis boat show, I was intrigued by a booth advertising “The marriage saver,” which took me back to that incident. Cruising Solutions, (www.cruisingsolutions.com), was selling a sophisticated wireless headphone set that enables two or more people to talk together in normal tones and alleviate fractious situations and misheard directions on the water. The ‘set’ consists of two headphones with microphones and earpieces like you see pilots wearing, including a battery charger and spare ear foams, all in a hard zipped storage box.
The main feature that distinguishes these headsets from similar communication devices, like portable hand-held VHF and the cheap walkie-talkies we had tried previously was the two-way simultaneous conversation like on a regular telephone - technically called duplex transmission and the hands-free ability. Duplex transmission saves the “over” pause that is necessary in one-way, (simplex) systems. I immediately also saw a major benefit of these headsets being ‘hands-free’ which had been a problem with the hand-held devices we had used previously. My schooner Britannia is 52 feet overall and we always have trouble communicating on deck, especially when it’s windy, and the bigger the boat the greater the problem. After a demonstration I grabbed a set at the reduced show price.
These headphones are worn a little differently from the normal style I was familiar with. The arch is placed around the back of the head not on top, and the lightweight earphones hook over the top of the ears. They are really quite comfortable and the microphone then sits close to the mouth for speaking. This way they won’t fall off your head when you bend down, or even the upside-down contortions we sometimes get up to when working on a boat. My wife Kati also likes the way they fit under her hair and don’t flatten it like regular headphones, and can hardly be seen except for the small microphone. They also don’t impede hearing aids or sunglasses and you can wear any sort of headgear because the arches are not in the way.
I followed the instructions on how to charge the internal lithium batteries using the USB cables supplied and which can also be charged from a laptop USB plug. They are fully charged when a little red light turns blue, but it doesn’t then go green like other rechargeable equipment we have. After a full one-and-a-half hour battery charge the manufacturers claim an eight-hour continuous talk-time, with an incredible range of an 800 feet maximum, but that range has to be line of sight. The warranty is two years
A helpful introductory U-tube video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/QyNYVsdflBw
Switching the headsets on was easy by just pressing two buttons on the left earpiece and Kati and I were soon able to chat to each other in normal tones in separate rooms in our house and even with one of us upstairs. They immediately proved useful by deadening the sound of my noisy lawnmower and receiving a summons that lunch was ready.
Volume is adjusted with the + and - buttons on the earpiece control and sound comes out of both earpieces so speech is very clear with most extraneous noises subdued. It can even be tuned for music from a Bluetooth iPhone, but when someone speaks from the other headset or a cellphone it automatically overrides the music.
Up to four people can be paired into a conversation using the 2Talk system which would be useful on a larger boat with a crew when the captain wanted to talk to someone tending mooring lines forward and at the stern. If three or four people have headphones they can all hear each other speaking, but nobody else with a similar device on say, another boat can tune in.
Cruising Solutions actually also have another product that enables an infinite number of people to be ‘in the loop.’ It is called ‘My team talks’, which also allows the lead controller to switch to separate individuals in the loop, and not have everyone listening.
A problem I always had when picking up mooring buoys was aiming my 50-foot schooner right up to the buoy, so my wife could hook the tether line. It is 40 feet from the helm to the bow, and two masts and booms impede the use of hand signals. I would always lose sight of the buoy yards before coming to it and often overshoot and have to go around again. I also had to roll up the front isinglass of the Bimini to be able to hear instructions shouted from the foredeck and if it was raining the ‘rope decks’ on either would get soaked. This was often a fractious operation for everyone, but not anymore, and every time we succeed without hassle we say how marvelous 2Talk is and why hadn’t we bought this amazing helper years ago. It’s fabulous! and like having a second deckhand.
Whenever we anchor I go forward to prepare the 65 lb. CQR while Kati is at the wheel. Previously, when I was ready to let go the anchor I had to shout to ask the depth and Kati would yell the reading from the depth gauge. But not anymore, now the depth comes in quietly through the earphones and I tell her to ease the boat slowly astern as I let out more chain and finally snub the anchor in, then tell her to disengage the engine. Previously, everyone on nearby boats would hear every word of this exchange, but now it must seem that we are an amazingly synchronized professional team because not a word can be heard or a hand wave is seen and it must seem as though we are telepathic. The same thing happens when we weigh, and I tell Kati the anchor is clear and she can slowly steam away.
Another benefit became clear the first time I went up Britannia’s 57-foot mainmast with the headset on. Communicating with the people on deck had always been difficult, especially if there was a breeze and I needed to shout. Sometimes things used to get fractious as I was left swinging around in the air while Kati went to find a specific wrench or drill to do the job… Now I can evem help her locate it or an alternative tool.
These headphones are one of the best $320 worth I have bought for the boat in a long time, and maybe a set would have also saved the relationship for those two in Gibraltar.
