I received an expected notification from Google Fi, our cell phone service. They’ve decided to enforce their international policy for subscribers who travel extensively abroad. No United States? Then no Internet for you! Put a fork in my email; I’m done. Now what?

Yeah, we had a few options to consider. Fortunately, in part to our good friends, we now have an alternative speedway to and from the Internet. More commonly known as Starlink, we cheekily personify as Elon. (Thanks to Tom and Sue who generously toted Elon in their checked baggage to St. Maarten :-).

A relatively minuscule piece of kit, Elon is comprised of two pieces: an antenna – about 12 by 18 inches with a post sticking out from its middle/bottom, and a router/controller box, connected by a special cable; (more about that later). Elon’s obelisk router box can be mounted anywhere you’d have an ordinary WiFi hot spot.

How well does Elon really work?

In a few words, yes, functionality is truly amazing. Elon gives us high-speed internet access, almost as good as cable speeds, anywhere we’ve been in the Caribbean. Exceptions have been only when moored at the cliff side of Saba, and in very congested St. Maarten, where presumably so many boats, including copious megayachts, are sucking up gobs of bandwidth. Twenty miles east from Saba, our reception improved significantly, enough to allow streaming Paramount+ videos – while underway, bobbing across the high seas.

Issues?

Elon’s elephant “ear” requests a clear view of the sky – with tiny internal motors buzzing and whirling around each time you power-up. Evidently, he must phone home constantly. Finding an ideal spot for Elon aboard Fayaway remains a challenge, as we already have five (yes, five) exterior satellite antennae looking for their own personal pieces of sky.

Techie stuff: Five exterior satellite antennae include: GPS1/compass (primary/dedicated for NMEA network), GPS2 (independent/dedicated to AIS transceiver), GPS3: (helm chart plotter), IridiumGo and Garmin InReach. These don’t include more below: Fayaway has a second chart plotter at the navigation station (note: two networked plotters and NMEA devices default to the superior GPS1; plotters each with internal antenna, are backups). IridiumGo and VHF each use their own independent/ GPS. 

Fortunately most other devices aren’t so sky-hungry and just need a glimpse. Not Elon; he wants more and more. His biggest competitor is the solar array, which he loves to shade, reducing our power supply, which he also gobbles hungrily at an average of 50 watts.

More about finding a location later after we touch upon other issues.

Hey, what about that cable you mentioned??

I was hoping that you’d forget to ask.

Elon’s ear came with a basic four-legged stand, which I initially strapped (with a sail-tie!) to various locations on deck. Of course he relentlessly complained about the “obstructed views” but still mostly fed us Amazon Prime well-enough. I was a bit concerned about theft at the time, as Elon could easily be kidnapped in the night. So, I routinely unplugged the cable at night at tucked him away down below. Then reversing the process the in the morning. Unfortunately, perhaps due in part to frequent rain squalls, a drop of water got in one day, and consequently shorted out at the connection point.

I carefully cleaned the microscopic termination, hoping to revitalize the charred remnants. Unfortunately, the tiny molded-in wires were beyond renewable and I failed to revive the patient. I then attempted to order this proprietary cable from Elon’s mother ship in California. But since our device was originally shipped to the United States, they would not allow it to be shipped to St. Maarten. So we began to cry. And then we cried some more.

After copious tears had dried, we drowned our sorrows with sundowners at a jam session aboard Kaloonamoo. One of our sympathizer friends said his “Elon” was originally shipped to St. Maarten, and would be happy to order us a new cable. Very cool! So we ordered two right away!

Where did you eventually mount Elon’s Ear?

After frying our cable, a more permanent mounting solution became essential. Adapting to Elon’s rotating post was the bigger challenge. A local rigging and machine shop quoted more than $300 for making an adapter. Sorry, no way.

I found a $6.99 pvc pipe repair coupler from Ace Hardware which seemed to fit almost perfectly, along with a few leftover bimini parts.

Any Other Issues?

Elon (the rich guy) is filthy rich for a reason – probably for a few reasons. He wants to go to Mars, and needs to pay for that somehow. He’s already twice changed the subscription plans and announced monthly fee increases (since we signed up four months ago). We’ve been given short notice of these changes, albeit with a not-so-generous offer to purchase back the hardware at half our cost. Gee thanks, Elon. Presently, we have yet to receive these increased invoice costs, but assume they’re coming. What else can we expect? Lots of social speculation, but nobody knows.

In Conclusion…

… we’re going to keep Elon for a while, at least until we can’t afford him anymore. It’ll be tough to go back to reality.

Alternatives? Yes, we still have IridiumGo!, which still offers the a comically sluggish connection, at speeds considered slow thirty years ago. We’ll go back to taking twenty minutes or more to download a simple email or essential weather GRIB files. No more Zoom calls with friends or WiFi calling for businesses in remote areas. Near a marina or city? Maybe you can use a cell phone?

We live happily ever after at anchor, unless… Elon raises his prices again!