Speaking of which, how far does a marine radio work? I have never used mine

That depends on two things .
The wattage of the radio (transmitter) and the height of the antenna off the waterline .
Somewhat surprisingly at best it'll vary between 5 and 15 miles on small , lower profile boats but could be as high as 60 miles or so for ships with very high radio masts.
Out here cell phones are deemed inappropriate for use as communication safety devices because of diminishing coverage when beyond land based antenna range.

I used to do that all the time until 1 of my friends said "are you crazy, there's sharks in there"

I had never given it any thought, so now i still do it but usually when I'm not alone on the boat.

We had a 52' Hatteras 8-92's with the side exhausts, used to shut the engines down to drift but one time in some snotty seas we didn't know water got up through the risers when it was rolling side to side. One engine started fine the other bent 2 rods cause the cylinders filled with water. Never shut them down again!

Silence is golden. Except when you hear the words, "Fish on!"

What an odd question, I thought at first. I guess I can understand the fear of not being able to re-fire the engines but...wow.

Like I tell the pimple face kids at West Marine when I need something in an emergency. "What's finishing, I'm just burning fuel!"

When it`s calm it`s very relaxing.
Plus no creepers out there .