Item I like most

I consider my iPad2 the most valuable item I have on board. Through its inbuilt GPS it will give me my position whereever I am on my Navionics maps. Be it in detail within a harbor entrance, or at large at sea. The iNav app from Apple offers basic navigation tools, while the X-traverse Navionics maps give me worldwide guidance even if ever I plan to visit remote areas. I keep the iPad in à plastic cover and in what I call my 'dry box', in which the bottom is covered with a thick layer of moisture absorbing crystals in bags. 
Feeding the X-traverse maps into the iPad should prefarably be done in a Wifi environment, because of its bulk. That may far exceed the costs of the iPad and charts, which as such kept me somewhere in the region of 1000 euros. However, my KPN provider allowed me three months free loading as a newcomer.  X-traverse allows for an ample period to load the charts, if direct loading would prove inconvenient.
The only drawback so far - you cannot use the iPad in direct sunlight.

Others on sailing

Having a boat that might go anywhere rouses  a lot of peculiar comments. Sometimes quite unexpectedly. While my boat is not finished to any industry standard, some passers-by say that she is beautiful. These remarks mostly come from older sailors, who apparently look at the general shape and outfit.
Other comments come from people who have not seen my boat at all, but insist that I must GO! To make sure, that I will, they also want a Date of Departure. Probably this category already thinks of sailing a boat around the world. They may have heard saucy stories by that special brand of sailors who must earn money by sailing. Colourful storytellers I assume, but not always that helpful to the common sailor.
One not unusual approach to this problem has been practiced by staging a fake port of departure and a suitable date. Especially, if there are sponsors to be dealt with. After the visit to such a goodbye port, leaving waving people behind, a proper port is used again to make final preparations, and above all to wait for suitable weather to arrive, whenever. That is, if one really has long distance plans in mind. One might also have completely other thoughts on the subject of future sailing and start pottering around.
This entire issue needs some elaboration as it is very tricky and prone to the wildest speculations. If you state that you are interested in Antarctica, for instance, the word will spread, that you are going to that southern icy continent. If you say that you looked at the Atlantic Ocean, studying the upcoming weather for the next days, people know for sure that you are ready for a crossing, while actually your mind does not stretch further than places in the vicinity.
Far more to the point are comments coming from the experienced sailing fraternity. Conversations with them will sometimes touch upon far flung destinations, and the well-known choke points of the 'milk run', such as the crossings of the Panama Canal, the Tuamotus, some archipels, the Coral Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Agulhas Current. However, conversations usually deal with daily sores, such as navigation issues, a broken piece of equipment, different ways of climbing the mast, or having work to do on the underwater body. The necessary jobs, to be faced regularly. Not to speak of seasickness, which also may be part of short or long distance sailing.
Recently, I had to go up myself to do some work on the crosstrees and rig. I tried  to develop a system that would need no outside help. What eventually proved to be successful was a sort of slide around the mast to which I connected a seat. A type of of bosun´s chair without the uneasy dangling. After several non-conclusive tries, I was winched up by reliable builder-sailor Henk in a force 5 and I still could finish the job using both hands satisfactorily within short notice. Now, I think of connecting a deck winch to the right hand side of the slide, so I might reel myself up. I.e., in theory, and only up to the crosstrees. Whether it will work remains to be seen.