to buy a small ACER type computer to do your SKYPE and Internet work with. We leave the big laptop on the boat and just carry the small ACER to shore. They are only 3 or 4 hundred dollars and very small. It gives you a backup to the big computer if it goes south on you also. I bought a small carrying bag for it and it's easy when you can't get a signal to just carry it ashore. The guys are right, getting an unsecured signal can sometimes be a real problem which makes it frustrating when you had a great connection at your last anchorage. In Mexico and I understand they do this in the Bahamas sometimes as well, a lot of the restaurants beam the signal out into the anchorage to attract business. That's when you need the system. Down here most of them do it for free all though that's not always the case. We buy it from a guy who donated the proceeds to a school in Bara. In Z-town we use to be able to get it at Ricks but he closed last year. The cruising community switched to a place on the beach called the Sunset Bar and Grill. She has Internet but last year it didn't reach the anchorage so the ACER would have to be used. So, yeah, it a PITA sometimes to need to be connected. The upside is that 20 years ago you didn't have a clue about what was going on at home and now you do. Come to think about it, that might be a down side.