One of the best things I’ve purchased for the sailboat has been the Jackery Portable Power Station. This little self contained lithium ion battery with a 200W inverter built in and it’s companion 60W solar panel has been simply amazing.

I’m quite sure that experienced sailors may be rolling their eyes since a proper system permanently mounted on the boat would of course be much better. And it is. I have 300 watts of solar that flows nicely into the boat’s AGM batteries and keeps us pretty much topped off all the time.

So why am I so excited about the Jackery? One word. Kids.

I am living on the boat full time with my two boys and out of the many things these days my boys seem to be addicted to electricity. Bickering was indeed a problem since we are still working with limited capacity on the boat. The Jackery was the perfect solution allowing them to to have a completely separate and independent system to use as they see fit. The simple display panel helps them manage their consumption and the solar panel is portable enough to help them learn about placement and alignment.

I couldn’t be happier. We no longer even discuss electricity unless its the children bragging about how much they are bringing in with their panel.

They use the battery to charge their iPhones, run their laptops, and most importantly run the small media server we have with a collection of movies and TV shows on it. All on their own and all independent.

So yeah, I’m bullish on the Jackery. It both reduces conflict and fosters learning for the kids on board.