You may not need as much ac power as you think...although my boats were
"all electric" and had 6.5 kw gensets, there were times when I didn't
want to listen to the damn thing.

We're not looking to run a small city, just make some coffee and toast in
the morning,

Easily done without power. The toast--and even eggs and bacon--can be
cooked on a marine propane grill--which you'll want anyway. Coffee can
be made over a propane camp stove--either in a percolator, or by
boiling water and using a Melita or a fresh press. Grill and stove
properly mounted to meet safety standards in the cockpit, of course.

possibly run a bit of stove or microwave at lunch or dinner...

Again, use the grill for your meat, corn on the cob, baked potatoes
etc...you can even steam veggies in foil packets on the grill. Salads
and sandwiches for lunch if you don't want to grill burgers and dogs.

A little advance prep at home, and you can eat like kings aboard with
almost no effort and very little cleanup, without electricity.

maybe watch a movie in the evening.

Buy a DC powered TV. Or read a good book instead.

If I'm working then I'll probably want
to either charge my laptop or run it on ships power for a while.

I ran mine off a small inverter for use in cars--about $50 at any
computer retailor or Radio Shack...installed a "cigarette lighter"
receptacle in my dinette for it.

This of course on top of regular DC usage for water, fridge, lights, etc.

The fridge is the biggest battery drain on most boats. The more often
the door is opened, the more the compressor has to run....conversely,
the less often it's opened, the less it runs and the less power it
needs. Conserve battery power by keeping your drinks in a cooler and
reserving the fridge for food (may not be necessary when only the two of
you are aboard, but almost essential if you have kids and/or when you
have guests aboard). Last thing before you turn in for the night--after
you're sure the door won't be opened again, turn it off at the
breaker...it'll stay cold enough even to keep ice cream till morning.
Just don't forget to turn it back on again when you get up!

Just some suggestions that worked for me for nearly 20 years.

Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://www.seaworthy.com/html/get_ri...oat_odors.html


It doesn't have air although if we go hardcore into the later fall season
and early spring we'll want to bring a little heater with us.

My thinking is this. It will be hooked up to shore power all week with the 3
stage charger making sure my house bank is topped up. If we run down below
the threshold while were at anchor I can run the engine (I know, it's a very
expensive generator) to get us back up to about 80% charge.

That's assuming we anchor the entire time and not go for a mid-day cruise
which will have the benefit of charging us back up. And also assuming that
we don't go for a visit to somewhere with dockage and shorepower -- which we
would most definitely do for a day or so during the weeklongs, and probably
do during some of the weekends.

It also seems to me like I could configure for this and try it out to see
how it works. If I find I'm running the engine too much I could then buy a
little generator since the rest of the setup as described above would be
required anyway.

Do this sound like a reasonable approach?