We’re hoping to ditch the diesel and go 100% solar electric this winter. And that is an interesting objective since that will also require us to have enough solar and sunlight.

It wasn’t too long ago that we added an additional 900 watts of solar to the boat. Anbd then we added even more. Today we have 900 watts of bifacial solar up on an arch, 300 watts of flexible on the dodger, and 300 watts on each side on the lifelines that stay vertical.

1,800 watts of solar. So we’ve grown complacent. Running Starlink all the time, running the Icemaker all the time, and at times cooking three different breakfasts and three different lunches using electric.

And this summer at least with all the sun we’ve had, not a problem. The house batteries are sized for our “typical and healthy” needs and our solar is sized for our future 20KW engine’s bank which will be about 30kWh.. It’s allowed us to be wasteful with our electricity.

This week has tested us a bit. Several days in a row of rain and I let us drop a bit too low by not remembering to turn off the ice maker and Starlink. We used to be so careful and prudent.

We’re going to need to get back in the habit, to handle both less sunlight in the winter and when we divert that 900watt bank of solar to be “engine first” which is likely to pull it out of service to the house for days at a time.

An important reminder that even when it feels like “unlimited electricity” it’s important to be mindful when living on a sailboat.