I wanted to call attention to the disapperance/deaths of a crew of 7 (6 Americans) on a sail from New Zealand to Australia last summer: http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=111589&refre=y&ntid=0&rid=4

They were de-sailed and adrift due to a storm at sea. Their Iridium text message was evidently stalled on Iridium's server (?) and never delivered. New Zealand rescue was not informed of the text for some 25 DAYS!, and was only able to retrieve the actual text some 30 days after it was sent!

The ship's SPOT and non-automatic EPIRB evidently did not activate, suggesting a sudden capsize or other traumatic event.

Good argument for EPIRB that automatically activates on submersion (see also the experience of the 3 crew saved in the tragic capsize of the race crew off of San Francisco in a race in April 2012 around the Fallones Islands: http://media.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=18654 , where a stuck "talk" button on one of the witnessing boat's VHF radio screwed up VHF reports to Coast Guard!