I too have read Milt Baker's travels aboard Bluewater with keen interest. He's a great writer, and we're all fortunate he takes so much time to really impart the essence of passagemaking. It's been a few years since I used a weather router (Walt Hack, who passed away last year - also of Omni Marine, the company Milt is using), and the cost was indeed reasonable - about $80/leg. I used Walt on a trip from Southern California to Port Everglades Florida. We made 2 stops (Acapulco and Panama) so the cost was under $250 for the trip. Not bad considering we covered 4500 miles, received at least one email daily, and had peace of mind. The reason for using a weather router was the boat I was delivering had no onboard weather capabilities beyond an Iridium phone. Also of great help was my friend Paul Goyette, an amateur wx prognosticator and on/off cruiser, who also forwarded wx info - he proved to be as accurate as Walt. It was a good time of year to make the trip, weather was generally benign for 2/3's of the trip (headseas in the Atlantic were uncomfortable), so it wasn't a problem. Pesonally, I really don't like having to depend on a weather router to interpret data for me. I'm a visual person and while I can plot the center of a wx system, I just can't visualize what its doing - all the subtlties of crooks in the isobars are invisible. To me, it feels like I'm blindfolded in a dark room with someone telling me how to move - I can't anticipate, I can't make a good decision given my circumstances (crew, boat, gear, etc). Weather forecasting capabilities are an integral part of both a boat and the cruisers aboard (note Milt has multiple wx sources - he just happens to prefer using a router). Professional delivery captains sometimes use routers when moving boats during hurricane season. I have to say, I've found no successful way to learn wx forecasting except trial and error. Sure, books and seminars speed the process, but until I actually had to live with the result of my forecast, it was hard to really learn wx. Amongst cruisers, weather is topic #1 of discussion. Not gear, not engines, not provisioning, not boats. But weather. There is often a herd of cruisers in Hualtulco Mexico awaiting a wx window to cross Teuhentepec, and I suspect the herd waits until the most timid cruiser says its okay to depart (and sometimes missing the window - the bad stuff is 20 hours out of Hualtulco). By learning wx and having some tools aboard beyond VHF (wx fax for example), the door to exploration is opened. Its part of good seamanship skills. Otherwise, no matter how sound your boat is, no matter how extensive your spare parts inventory is, your cruising itinerary will be dependent upon someone else - usually other cruisers who's knowledge may not be as accurate as they lead you to believe. Peter