Scotty we need more power

Seems like we are hitting some walls when it comes to power on the boat. We have 520 watts of solar panel capacity, and on good sunny days we can get over 2kwh to the batteries. We can only produce electricity for our batteries from the solar panels or by running the engine. Running the motor at the dock for power is undesirable. We prefer not to turn diesel into electricity unless we are motoring somewhere spectacular. We used to have a charger that would power up batteries from shore power, but that went away when we upgraded to lithium house batteries.

Well it turns out that sunny La Paz has cloudy afternoons during the summer. It cuts into our solar power generation more than expected. We’ve had nothing but sunny days until recently. Now with thunderstorms and afternoon cloud cover we are now being very conscious of power use. We are only running our fridge – no freezer and no icy cold rum drinks – and the solar panels seem to be keeping up with our reduced usage. It’s not a horrible sacrifice. If we need icy cold beverages the local establishments serve us well.

Anyone have some spare dilithium crystals?