Like others, I carry SPOT and send "I'm OK" every evening. Son can figure out where I am, but wife -- not so much. And she does not check e-mail everyday and sometimes wonders why I sent several messages all saying the same thing. In such a case SOS would be lots more effective.

Never had any broken bones on one of my crews. Wind blew the canoe away once and Bill Toole swam across the lake with a paddle and brought it back. My plan was to walk around the lake and recover the canoe, but Bill said he could get it and be back before I was half way there. And he was right.