Starlink at Sea: Setup Guide for Mediterranean Cruising
Starlink Maritime in the Med: What to Expect
Starlink Maritime has transformed yacht connectivity in the western Mediterranean. Where VSAT systems delivered 2-5 Mbps at €3,000/month, Starlink routinely delivers 50-200 Mbps at a fraction of the cost. But it's not plug-and-play — proper installation and network integration are critical for reliable performance at sea.
Dish Placement and Obstruction
The Starlink Maritime dish needs the clearest possible view of the sky. Mount it at the highest point that doesn't create radar interference — typically above the sun deck hardtop. The dish is sensitive to even partial obstruction from masts, radar arches, and satellite domes. Use the Starlink app's obstruction checker during sea trials to identify any blocked sky sectors. Even a 5% obstruction zone in a frequently used heading direction can cause 30-second dropout events that feel far worse than the percentage suggests.
Peplink Integration
The single most important piece of infrastructure alongside Starlink is a Peplink router with SpeedFusion. We typically deploy a Peplink Balance 310X or MAX BR2 Pro. Configure Starlink as WAN 1 with VSAT as WAN 2, using SpeedFusion bonding in hot failover mode. Set health checks to ping 1.1.1.1 every 5 seconds — when Starlink drops (and it will occasionally during heading changes or obstruction events), the Peplink switches to VSAT within 10-15 seconds. Users experience a brief pause, not a disconnection.
Failover Configuration
Don't rely on simple failover — configure outbound policies per VLAN. Guest streaming traffic should prefer Starlink but fall back to VSAT. AV control and CCTV traffic should always use Starlink for latency reasons but bond across both WANs. VoIP traffic needs the lowest-latency path with jitter buffering. VPN connections for the owner's business use should use SpeedFusion bonding with Forward Error Correction (FEC) enabled to mask packet loss during transitions.
CGNAT and Port Forwarding
Starlink uses Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT), which means you cannot port-forward or host services directly on a Starlink connection. If the vessel needs inbound access — remote CCTV monitoring, VPN server, or remote AV management — you'll need a VPN tunnel (WireGuard or SpeedFusion Cloud) to a public IP relay. We typically set up a FusionHub Solo instance on Vultr or AWS that provides a static public IP routed back to the vessel through SpeedFusion.
MTU and DNS Configuration
Starlink has a lower-than-standard MTU — typically 1400 bytes versus the standard 1500. If you don't clamp MSS to 1360 on your Peplink WAN interface, you'll see mysterious timeouts on HTTPS sites and VPN connections that partially work. Set MTU to 1400 and MSS clamping to 1360 on the Starlink WAN. For DNS, use Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8) — Starlink's built-in DNS can be slow and occasionally unreliable.
Performance Expectations
In Palma harbour: 100-250 Mbps down, 10-30 Mbps up. Cruising the Balearics: 50-150 Mbps down with occasional 10-30 second dropouts during heading changes. Open water between Mallorca and Sardinia: 30-80 Mbps with more frequent dropouts. South of 36°N latitude (approaching North Africa): performance degrades significantly as you leave the dense European satellite coverage. Always set expectations with the owner — Starlink is transformative but it's not fibre broadband.
Our Setup Process
We install and configure Starlink Maritime systems with full Peplink integration, including VLAN-aware outbound policies, SpeedFusion bonding, CGNAT workaround tunnels, and proper MTU configuration. The complete setup takes one full day and includes sea trial testing to verify failover and obstruction performance. We document everything in an as-built network document for your vessel's records.