People around here seem to like using Commander Weather. They may have an area bias too; I don't know. Sailing from Bermuda to New York last summer, we found good weather discussion via
radio. Boats en route provided info on their situation & conditions at a set time each evening, and an amateur (retired professional?) volunteer provided insight and coordinated the communications. He was quite helpful in helping us avoid conditions that had three other boats call for helicopters that winched off injured crew. Ask around for a similar network in your area.
We had poor results from a rented satphone: broken, static-covered, garbled conversations, no connection, etc. Don't know if it was due to spotty coverage, equipment, or operator error
. Use yours first to see how (if) it works.
