I ran my
batteries down on the trip to
Hawaii. Have 2 130 watt
Kyocera panels but they didn't keep up with my minimal usage in mostly overcast conditions. I use less than 30 amps a day and had drained the
batteries down to about 50% After 12 days. Even another 3 1/2 days of mostly sunny
weather didn't get the batteries up to full charge. Overcast cuts the production down by at least 80% and even a slight haze will halve the output. Max generation is between 10 and 2, believe that would be 11-3 with daylight savings. Before and after that, production falls off significantly. You may do better being so near the Polar Bear's perpetual daylight in summer but doubt it.
Boat heel can seriously affect, either positive and negative, output while sailing. Also
boat orientation to the sun can have an effect. On my downwind slide to
Hawaii, I was pretty much sailing into the afternoon sun so had very little production after 3pm because of shading by the
sails.
Unless you have an overwhelming desire to be PC with the 'Green' crowd, a
single panel isn't going to do you much good for the expense. There are some very large panels that put out 200 watts plus but they take up a good deal of real estate. If you are going to use 130 watt panels, would think you'd need at least 4 panels to meet your needs and two to have any significant effect.
FWIW, We've lived on
solar power for more than 10 years and my boat is normally totally soiar self sufficient. You can never have too many panels.
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