Dave Sitler, Waterloo, CAN asks:
Great Story. What communication do you carry and what are the manufacturers? To Egret and her crew: Fair winds, calm seas , and great times! Have a safe trip.

Scott Flanders from Egret responds:
Dave, we have two Standard Horizon VHF radios, both with remote power mikes. One VHF is mounted on the flybridge with the remote in the pilothouse, the second is mounted in the pilothouse with the remote in the master stateroom. We have a poorly installed ICOM M710 SSB. I believe the issue is the antenna but am not sure. This particular piece of equipment has been a dissapointment with considerable RF affecting the autopilot when transmitting underway in addition to poor reception/transmission. We have a Motorola Iridium phone (plus a spare with back up batteries) we use for voice communication in emergencies, e-mail and weather. We use OCENS e-mail and weather software (www.ocens.com) (Note: it is important to use a remote Iridium antenna vs the built in antenna...much better reception.)

Thanks for the good weather wishes. We can use them on the next leg.