Personal EPIRBS are also a good option, but this means you are always handing responsibility for the rescue to the Coast Guard - which may be appropriate for really serious situtations (such as one of the sailors separating from the boat), but may be over kill if you have just dismasted and drifted in to a shore with no cell phone reception. The safest option is to carry both (one satellite phone on the boat and a personal EPIRB each).
EPIRBs are fine but if you've got line of sight, VHF should be the primary method to call for assistance. The State of Hawaii now requires that all boats have either a VHF or EPIRB. The problem here with EPIRB is any response will come from Barber's Point on Oahu. That's 80 miles from Maui. As the local Coasties seem to be from Midwestern states, they have a hard time translating the local names into a location.
My wife spotted a boat in distress and called the local Coasties. They thought she was trying to report a problem on Oahu. She finally gave up and called the Fire Dept. who showed up in five minutes.
