On Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:15:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob
wrote:

and those same guys go around telling people they are not safe and
stupid to cruise with out a tx ham radio. Have your fun soldering
Heath Kits together but be realistic when it comes to reliable and
safe at-sea communication.

Almost all of the pleasure boats that I know who engage in
offshore/international cruising have a marine SSB radio aboard, and
they are not necessarily ham radio operators although some are. Many
also have a sat phone of some sort and an EPIRB. We don't have a sat
phone but do have the SSB and EPIRB. If we were crossing oceans I'd
probably get the sat phone also, for redundancy if nothing else.