But it does bring a smile to my face when I realize the Maine-iac with the 40yr old half wood traditional boat is so much further into the future than the tech kid and city girl are in their newer catamaran with no wood on it at all!

Seriously, it was your arguments and self-examination in this issue that started me down that path.

Yes, Michele bugs me all the time to get an iPad. And I know our computers are similar to CRT radars now, but we spend most of our time currently out of internet range where an iPad would be more useful, and the area we are cruising in have such poor charts, and they are a bit expensive (if we get one we are going all the way), that I keep holding off until it makes more sense for us. I almost succumbed when we were home recently, and probably will buckle soon. Will probably end up with two, since we already failed at the one Kindle thing, and there is no way we could survive with one computer.

For primary navigation, we use a very small netbook with an external wireless display. Both use very little power when running - less than our chartplotter. They are hooked into the DC system, but can run 8hrs on their batteries. Our Macbook Pros are way to power-hungary for primary navigation, although they make great backups! Luckily, we have 480W of solar and cruise in sunny climes.

Mark