Into Elon’s World
Connectivity is pretty much taken for granted these days, especially on the mainland, but it does get a bit trickier once you head out onto the water. Part of our journey is to escape the daily inundation of news feed and bollocks that is drowning us in our daily lives, primarily through our phones. However, you also need connectivity if you are going to do banking, stay in touch with friends and family, and also use the many forecasting and navigation tools that we rely on as cruisers.
We had been sitting on the fence for a while in regards to Starlink, a satellite internet option created by Elon Musk and designed for all of the places in the world outside of cities. Part of us wanted to stay a little disconnected, with just enough phone connectivity to stay in touch, read some emails and the odd news item, but, with our impending journey to the Kimberley, we knew that there would be no phone coverage and therefore no internet.
So, we bit the bullet and ordered the Generation 3 Starlink, which, after being held up on the Nullarbor somewhere by the recent floods, arrived the day before we were due to leave. It promptly got put in the cupboard and left to its own devices, with a plan to install it once we were up the coast a bit.
To be completely honest I had some trepidation about setting it up, as these things tend to be messy with connectivity and compatibility issues – you know what its like when you change internet provider and go through the wringer with modem changes, reconnection blues etc.
Once at the Abrolhos, it was time to get it up and working. I can happily report that upon opening the box we had Starlink running at 300mps in less than ten minutes! Wow! Simply connect the aerial to the router, plug the router into the power and use the Starlink app to turn it on. What a game changer!
I also ordered a mount for the dish (aka aerial) which would allow us to mount it in a fishing rod holder, but needed some pipe to make it work. So, whilst in Carnarvon, I enlisted Drew’s help and he was soon on the phone and down to a mate’s yard where we found a couple of old sections of aluminium tubing, which I telescoped together.
With time on our hands at Serrurier Island, I was able to finish off our mount – which involved finding a piece of driftwood which I could sit the mounting tube on and then spray paint with some anti-rust primer!
We have been using it for a few hours a day to finally try and get up-to-date with our blog, as well as other bits and pieces like downloading a movie to watch after dinner. It has certainly made any internet based things that we do way more efficient. It also means we can no longer use the lack of internet as an excuse for slacking off on our blog updates.
What does it cost? $600 for the hardware and then an on-going cost of $174 per month – which we can turn on or off as required. For example, when we get to Darwin there is probably no point so we will turn it off until we need it next. Our monthly charge will go on hold.
Great technology which is being embraced by caravaners and cruisers, and I think it will be something that will be installed on all cruising boats in the future – although many are already on it now…