Couple of thoughts. Sounds like there isn't a prayer that
any kind of boat can do it alone. If too small, it will sink
first big wave. If too big, someone will see it from their
fishing boat, and pick it out of the water. Else an oil
tanker will run it over.

So how's about a "PICinaBottle Contest". PIC, solar battery,
tiny GPS receiver, small 20M band morse code xmtr, little
whip antenna sticking out the top, waterproofed in plastic.
$10USD for the whole thing. Toss the bottle in the ocean,
see where it goes. Winner is longest running, longest distance
traveled.

More to reality - some guy named Jim Clark [SGI, Netscape,
Healtheon] built a $30,000,000 automated sailboat with 24
SGI workstations on board. He can sit in his office in silicone
vallee and steer the boat realtime in the south pacific.
Uses icebergs for slalom courses. You might check what he
uses for a comm link.

http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/11/24/clark/index.html
http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/lewis_m.htm

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