GMDSS has a system and procedure for routing phonecalls over VHF. It’s expensive as hell, and the conversation happens over open frequencies, but it works for those times when there’s an emergency. Works all over the world where there’s maritime VHF comms and the GMDSS convention is in effect.

A coworker of mine got a scare once while we were doing a seismic survey far off the coast of Brazil. A message was passed down from the bridge that he had to come up and phone home ASAP. Cases like these rarely happens unless there’s a family emergency such as death and whatnot.

Well, we were all concerned for him, but when he came out to the backdeck, he was laughing at the entire ordeal. Turned out his dad had come across a really good offer for a quad bike, and needed to know if he should order it for him.