Many of the charts & tables found on this site are PDFs.

Along shore, you're good to go with a VHF plus Net-ready cell phone. Offshore, keep the SSB, and for heavier use include an Inmarsat system or sat phone. The Globalstar/OCENS package is pretty swift.

The simple PocketMail Communicator which ûcan send and receive e-mail through any kind ûof phone, may end up playing second fiddle ûto e-mail-capable PDA/cell phones.

As much as we like to get away from it all, there's never been a time when we haven't wished at least for the option of keeping in touch with the shore. It's important for safety, for business, for news of family and friends. What if Odysseus had been able to phone home once in a while on his way back from Troy? ("Hi Penny, ran into a one-eyed monster today...") It might have saved quite a bit of trouble back in Ithaca. …