Taking Starlink Offshore: What the Gen 2 and Mini Can Really Do

From Pacific crossings to remote anchorages, we look at how Starlink's Gen 2 and Mini stack up for cruisers weighing power consumption, connectivity and cost.

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Cariba's Starlink Mini installed. (Photo/ Sue Peck)

Sailing used to mean disconnecting from the everyday—for some, it still does. Days were spent watching the waves roll by, adjusting sails, reading books, and sharing happy hours with fellow cruisers. Anchorages were social places, with sailors zipping around in dinghies searching for weather updates, swapping information, or simply making social calls. Getting online often meant heading ashore in search of Wi-Fi or holding a cellphone at strange angles in hopes of catching a signal.

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Jaclyn Jeffrey didn't grow up sailing but took it up on a whim during the pandemic. She and her husband bought a boat to learn to sail on, then promptly bought a second and decided to go cruising. After living aboard in the chilly Pacific Northwest for two years, she's cruising Mexico with her husband and dog onboard their 1979 Fast Passage 39, Raicilla. When not sailing and surfing, she works as a freelance writer or on the endless boat projects that come with full-time cruising.