Updates

A cold rainy day dawned Tuesday back at Adrian’s workshop and there we were again aboard GANNET2. Adrián got to work which pleased us as we are living with fear of yet more delays. Apparently Victron recommends twin positive cables from the batteries to overcome the low voltage messages from the inverter so that’s what he installed.

I have no idea what this is all about do I say bundled up fingers crossed and open for the best. 

This whole set up is grind my ability to comprehend. 

He did some updating with the laptop and peered at whatever it is one peers at. It’s all very mystical. 

Rusty takes it all in stride. 

And now we have another hassle afflicting travelers on land and at sea. Without warning Starlink has changed its terms of service for travelers. Instead of offering unlimited service within continents on a “residential roam” plan. We started it in Colombia in February 2024 until they stopped ours a month ago. We tested the new travelers plan and it is awful. I posted this on the PanAmerican Traveler’s Forum: 

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“Starlink Global Priority Roam 

We entered South America in February 2024 and as was the habit we sold our Starlink to ourselves using a fake Colombian DNI (National ID number) using the address of our Air BnB in Cartagena de las Indias. We used the residential roam plan across South America until last July.  The cost went up of course from US$60 to $115 a month this year with unlimited Giga Bytes. 

We were advised in July we had to reregister our account and our fake ID failed the test. So we decided to try the Global plan. US$150 a month for access and $100 for 50GB. It looked bogus from the start but we decided to try it and see what happened when we burned through the priority 50GB. 

The loss of priority service resulted in a service reminiscent of dial up access (remember that?). Essentially useless so we have ended the experiment. We may try a residential plan in Chile as we want to revisit remote Patagonia on both sides of the Andes. By judicious use of time in Argentina we may be able to sustain service for several months in a cell phone wilderness. 

I mention this for those wondering what happens on the global plan which is decidedly priced too high but also fails to deliver service even at that price.$650 for 500 GB is a ludicrous offering.  For us this Starlink drama is merely annoying as we don’t earn money online but for those that do, you have my sympathy for what it’s worth. Perhaps slow travel with constant address changes may work but when a country requires the use of an ID number (DNI, DIN,CPF,RUT or cédula) I don’t know what to do.  

My own observation is that this situation highlights the unreliability of Starlink not as technical innovation but as social tool so we shall see if Starlink cares about the revulsion of a few thousand travelers on land and sea let down by sudden changes in user plans. 

Furthermore I was idly thinking about GPS, a satellite service brought to the world free of charge by the US government so smoothly no one thinks about it or questions it and yet upon which we rely in so many ways known and not known. Too bad satellite internet access can’t be equally reliable. Best wishes to all and may you each find an answer to suit your needs.”

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So as far as my page goes I haven’t a clue what’s going to happen. We’re hoping Starlink wakes up to the unreasonable service offering but we are so few I doubt they will notice us travelers dropping off so we will be relying as best we can on cell phone service and campground, gas station and restaurant WiFi  which typically aren’t that reliable.

I am totally well aware of how traveled in the good old days, I did it before the days of Google Maps, video streaming and kindle books  and I enjoy living aboard GANNET2 with the commodities of modern life. Losing Starlink is annoying but not fatal to the enterprise and we will be out of touch from time to time. In the Amazon we’d have been offline for a week at a time…and Patagonia may be the same later this year. We shall see. Now we are back on our way north toward Paraguay and I hope with no more messing about with electronics. The conversion of our van to modern electronics has taken its toll but the payoff should be greater autonomy on the road. Too bad we may no longer have Starlink.