Start here: going off-grid

We’re Captain Rick, Maddy and Ricci, a family living aboard Sophisticated Lady, a 51-foot Jeanneau, in the Caribbean. If you live off-grid already, or you’re thinking about it, this is where we’d start you: five videos from our channel, in the order we’d watch them, plus the pages that show what we actually run aboard.

None of this needs a big boat. The same questions come up in a van, a cabin or a tiny home: where the power comes from, where you store it, and how you stay connected.

1. Power: can a Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus run our whole boat and AC? (SSL782)

A real whole-boat test: we plugged everything aboard, air conditioning included, into a portable power station and let it run until it ran out.

2. Solar: why we cut 250 lbs off our array (SSL759)

Panel choice and weight matter on a boat. This is how we chose the BougeRV TopCon flexible panels for our new hardtops.

3. Solar in real life: a shade test from dawn to noon (SSL767)

Real numbers from our panels through a morning of shade and sun, useful if you are sizing solar for your own boat, van or cabin.

4. Staying connected: our SeaView radar and Starlink tower (SSL758)

Internet and radar up high and out of the way. Connectivity is what makes remote work and family life possible far from shore.

5. Storage: batteries, the game changer for boat life (SSL691)

How battery storage changes off-grid living, aimed at boats, RVs and tiny homes alike.

See what we run