After many years of cruising from Maine to Grenada with paper charts
and our trusty handheld Magellan 5000DX, it's time to enter the
electronic age. While I do have a good nav station down below; having
access to data in cockpit, which at times can be wet, is of primary
importance. We still intend to cruise from Maine to the Bahamas, but
now we will be following the magenta line.

I'd like to hear some recommendations for either a cockpit chart
plotter, or a combo using my laptop below and some sort of handheld
above. Keeping in mind our cruising areas, and our limited fixed
income: If a chart plotter/GPS, which one? Or does a GPS attachment
to the laptop, some navigation software, and some sort of handheld
seems to make more sense? If so, what equipment, what software?

For you snowbirds with sailboats out there, what is your set up?