thing to have to keep the family appraised of your position. What with the EPIRB, SSB e-mail, SKYPE and long range Internet antenna I think i have it pretty much covered. I would be kind of cool for the kids but where do you stop. 20 years ago you took off and the family didn't hear from you for weeks and no one seemed to panic. What changed? Now, when we leave on a crossing I e-mail my son at the start and give him a twice a day e-mail with my position. All it is is an "AIW" (All is well) and my lat/lon. He's got instructions about no CG unless he gets a call from them first. I had my computer fail on a 12 day trip up the Baja coast about three days out so that took out the e-mail. A day later we was able to contact another boat via VHF that had e-mail and they sent him a message telling him not to expect any more position reports. Spot would be a nice backup for that but like I said, where do you stop?