For my Atlantic crossings in 2015 and 2016, I installed the pricey Iridium Satellite communication system together with special equipment to compress Emails to limit the colossal expense of communicating using Iridium. This was all justified, at the time, so I could keep on top of weather forecasts on passage by importing ‘Grib files’ and for publishing accounts of the ocean adventures on my web site in regular blogs. Unfortunately, user error resulted in a whopping £6K bill resulting from my ineptitude in one calamitous afternoon. I had removed the firewall to send a picture (of an exceptionally large omelette made by Ollie) attached to a blog and I had forgotten to put the firewall back on – a very expensive omelette! The connected equipment on board had a ‘field day’ updating, downloading and doing whatever it wanted with gay abandon (can we still say that?). Thoroughly disillusioned with everything Iridium, the whole expensive installation has barely been used since.
This year when we were out of mobile phone coverage on our adventures over the top of Scotland, we craved weather updates as the weather was persistently capricious, nearly all of the summer. I had various conversations with other cruising yachts from the USA and Scandinavia and they all sang the praises of the Starlink system that they had installed. A Norwegian skipper enthused about how he had watched Netflix in the middle of the Indian Ocean! From their accounts, Starlink seemed worthy of further investigation. I am certainly not a fan of Mr. Musk but he seems to have ‘cracked it’ with this system and, in collaboration with Phil, aka ‘Gandalf’, the company ‘tekky’, it became clear that it was a ‘no brainer’. We opted for the Starlink Mini which is self-contained and only needs a power supply, all communication with it being by wifi.
The whole system cost less than £500 although, to run it from the 12v onboard system, a supplementary voltage converter was also required.
I now have download speeds of 100megabits which is twice as fast as my broadband at home. The subscription is £50 a month for 50GB when using it, but the contract can be paused whenever it is not being used – I still have my mobile data sim wifi router. I believe that Starlink does require an enhanced subscription when over 12 miles offshore which I understand can also be paused at will.
So, on the face of it, my communication dilemma seems to have been sorted. No doubt time will tell when I embark on another offshore adventure. Be prepared to be plagued with numerous blog notifications!
Hi Nick, I fully understand the functional safety needs of using starlink… I would however rather throw messages in bottles overboard than sponsor that slimy bastard Musk. His cash go towards Trumps reelection. Just a thought.🤪
I thoroughly agree with you, Andrew but, regrettably, there is no other option that gets close…
More numerous blog updates and notifications? And I thought Mr Musk already had enough to answer for! Ta, Carl.
Starlink is thoroughly worthwhile addition. I installed ours back in February and as they say it has been a game changer from communications, forecasting and navigation to access to the www. I source power for it via its own dedicated 250w 12v inverter which saves converting to 12v or running the boat inverter. Being a Victron fan I like your charger approach too.
Starling does have an edge! On our cruise in the Chilean Fjords in March 2024, the ship’s Starlink enabled Veronica to FaceTime her grandson every morning!