I was thinking the other day about my first trip down the West coast of Florida 22 years ago. I was on a 5 ton, 30′ sailboat with worn out Dacron sails and getting excited at doing 4 knots. We had a loran for telling us where we were, a RDF ( Radio Direction Finder) for homing in on radio towers and plotting them on a chart and practiced dead reckoning for the whole trip.  By comparison the Everglades challenge will be done on a 18′, 400 pound trimaran with mylar sails and speeds of 12+ knots ( we hope). This years trip will have a set of tools/toys not ever thought about back then. A cell phone, a Droid with full access to the Internet, text, weather forecasts tide tables, Facebook and email; 2 handheld GPS’s ( one with a built in chart plotter) that tell us where we are, how fast we are moving, tides, average speeds, max speeds etc.  A SPOT ( uses GPS ) for tracking us, telling anyone with a computer where we are and how fast ( or slow) we are going. Then throw in some of the other improvements like a hand held, waterproof, floating VHF.  And Dry Suits, so the wetness of the boat does not matter.  Our Tri uses LED lights that are twice as bright as the old Nav. lights and seem to last for ever. We use inflatable PDF’s instead of the bulky PDF of the past that no one ever wore. I bring along a Leatherman that replaces many of the tools that used to be in my tool box. Waterproof charts have replaced paper charts. It used to be cameras on boats were like rolling the dice because of moisture, now we have waterproof cameras like the GOPro’s to take pictures or video of all the fun we are having. We have all kinds of cool clothes like water wicking shirts that make life on a small boat easier. It really makes one wonder how we managed on boats back then. And maybe, just maybe it really was not the “Good Old Days”