Surf...Ditto on the cockpit use!
Jug...Actually I think a well bagged and standard laptop makes a lot more sense than a ruggedized one given the price differential and standard laptop life cycle. Small and light...why? If most of your use is going to be on the boat...this is not an advantage and the occasional use on shore doesn't really call for a lightweight unit as most of the trip is in the dinghy.
I would encourage you to think more about power usage and bettery life...focusing on units which can be charged from a 12V system and use relatively few amps unless you are gonna have a generator on board. If you are gonna have a generator...get the biggest screen and hard drive you can and make sure the unit has a mobile processor and make sure the unit can be upgraded to Windows Vista once that OS becomes operable and stable. Get yourself a well padded computer case AND a big ziplock bag with some of those silica packets thrown in and keep the laptop in there whenever it is not being used. Leaving it out in the salt air is the worst thing you can do to it.
As to internet access at sea...there is NONE unless you are in a position to spend 4-5K on a dish and pay by the byte for data. Not in my budget...but if in your budget see the
KVH site
So...assuming you are not going to be accessing the internet at sea...you will be using the laptop on wifi in the more civilized harbors your enter and in internet cafe's in the less populated areas. There are several good threads on the SSCA.org site on wifi antenna systems for boats to help extend your wifi range.
If you need E-MAIL access at sea...this is doable through our SSB radio or satellite phone system and in the South Pacific I assume you will have an SSB so you should consider getting a
Pactor Modem for it and
Sailmail service which runs about $250/year and works great.
You have to decide what particular set of laptop features you need but since they are not "upgradable" I would encourage you not to focus too much on price...but prices have come way down for nice units. I just got a great BIG honkin HP for about $700 bucks that would have cost me $2k a couple of years ago. I recommend Toshiba for standard size and HP for large size displays. I would avoid other brands today no matter what their reputation in the past. I am speaking here of major brands...you may find the need to get a specialized model from a small company and my remarks are not intended to cover those.
Hope this helps!