With spring almost here, it won't be long until the boat comes out of
its cocoon for its April shake down cruise.

The subject of taking the boat along with us to a family vacation out
in the Wisconsin Dells area came up, and that got me to thinking about
the battery situation.

Its just a small bowrider, so either I'll pull it out each night and
park it by the house, or I'd rent a slip for $15 a night and leave it in
the water for the three days we'd be up there.

Without an alternator, though, I'm worried about leaving it at a slip.
I have an accessory battery, so I'm not worried about getting
stranded, but running lights and a stereo take up juice.

Has anybody here ever used solar charging stations? I see them on
Amazon for between $40 and $200, at least for power levels I might
require. I want something that's easy to stow, so a 5w or 8w flex panel
(roughly 1' x 1') is probably the largest I could go.

I know those are more maintenance charge levels, but I'm thinking that
might be enough to compensate for the 4-5 hours of use the stereo would
get, assuming it has a good portion of the morning in full sun to charge.

Thoughts?