WE'VE GOT THE POWER!

Electricity is one of those things I just took for granted. Yeah, I know what electricity is... you flip a switch and the light comes on, right? Not anymore! Electricity is a valuable commodity to me now... VERY valuable. Being hooked up at a marina slip is one thing; being anchored out is another thing completely. How do we watch movies in the evening, listen to our XM Radio, run our refrigeration, make water, or use our computers, work the blender, coffee grinder, and handy-vac when we're out in the middle of nowhere????

Simple... SOLAR PANELS! We purchased (3) 130 watt solar panels before we cast off allowing us 390 watts of pure electronic bliss!!! Jim positioned them on top of the bimini for maximum sun exposure. We run our watermaker, our fridge, our new Engel freezer, and all the "little" gadgets off 100% solar power when we anchor out.

The little gadgets I mentioned only get used a little of the time. The refrigerator and freezer are the two biggies, as they run more or less constantly and very hard the warmer the weather becomes. Our XM radio is on a majority of the time, too. We are extremely conservative with cabin lights. We exchanged (4) of our seven interior lights with tiny LED's that cost $40 each. They are, however, bright and very efficient... and they supposedly have a very long life. They really better at that price!

Usually by 12 noon, we are fully charged... not so when it is a cloudy day and we have to be a little more careful about how badly do we really need to use that handy-vac? No problem... there's always mañana!