I agree with everything you said (pretty easy as we're not talking
politics, guns or the mental state of some posters), but in my "inland
waters" case of Lake Ontario, I consider a 406 EPIRB overkill.

Hi R.,

I was not referring to the Great Lakes (or any other inland lake for
that matter), but rather offshore, bluewater cruising. I must profess
that I haven't sailed the Great Lakes since I was a kid, so I don't have
any recent experience to draw on.

Generally speaking though, a cell phone is better than nothing at all,
but has several shortcomings for emergency communications, in
particular: the CG cannot take RDF bearings of your signal, so no
position can be found from your signal alone. There have been several
cases of sailors and fishermen here (Hawaiian Islands) who have run into
trouble, had only enough power or signal for a brief call on their cell
phone to the USCG, but the CG was unable to assist. Because the CG
wasn't able to take bearings of the signal, no position or even rough
idea of the distress caller's position was known, so CG assets weren't
deployed.

A marine VHF would have probably been better, but is still limited to
line-of-sight distances (which because the CG antennas are on top of
mountains equates to about 24 - 30 miles). In these particular
situations a 406 EPRIB would have been many times more effective in
summoning help.

It may be overkill, but I'd still give it serious consideration on the
Great Lakes.

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