Freelance Medical Writer, Sarah Smith, writes in from her floating office which is (currently) in Trinidad. Live the dream for us, Sarah!

The sun has been up about an hour and my working day has just started.

Last year I checked in to A Day in the Life of MedComms from my mobile office (SY CAPE at anchor on the Caribbean island of Grenada) using a wi-fi booster to connect to the internet. This year I am still on SY CAPE and still in the Caribbean, but on a mooring ball in the busy port of Chaguaramas in Trinidad, logging on to the internet via the mobile data function on my smart phone.

Connection technology has leapt forward in the last year (well it has for me, anyway) – I now get 4G internet access using a pay-as-you-go data plan on the local mobile phone network and can use the mobile hotspot function to broadcast this around the boat office for David and the kids to log on too. This means that I can get internet wherever there is a mobile phone signal (which is many idyllic anchorages not covered by wi-fi signals, unlocked or otherwise) and keep working. Not only that, but I have a dual-SIM phone that takes two SIM cards. I no longer have to carry around two phones – one for my UK number and one for my local number (or, more importantly, remember to keep two phones charged and remember where I put the other one). Unfortunately, I think that this means that my phone is now much smarter than me…

Anyway, today I am working on an outline for a manuscript for submission to a peer-review journal for a regular client based in the Netherlands. The wet season in Trinidad is just around the corner – by lunchtime it will be 32 degrees C here in my sweat-box office. The location might be exotic, hot and steamy, but the job doesn’t change. MedComms can be a portable career if you want it to be!