Merry Christmas to you and your family, too.
Did you ever install the solar panel, if so how did it work out? I have yet put my true battery power to the test. Even during my 3 week cruise I was under a schedule whereby I traveled every day which meant on the light wind days I did some motor-sailing. The most I went was 2.5 days without the engine or being ”plugged in”. My “house” batteries were sufficient, my engine battery was held in reserve, and as mentioned previously I also had a “Lithium Ion” jumper backup on board - which I did not use as there was no need to. I’m not one to “Leave Lights on” and I’m conscience of power consumption all the time, but my Anchor Watch was on all night as was the VHF, AIS and anchor light when called for.
I was also very pleased with the Rocna anchor, 40’ of chain and 7:1 rode that according to my anchor watch map never moved even in rough weather (one night so rough it was hard to sleep). Setting and retrieving that anchor, single handed without a windless was “a challenge” to say the least. That dance I had to perform must have looked pretty funny to anyone who was watching. Remember I had to set the anchor watch which was at the helm as I dropped the anchor. Then the one rough weather night caused the anchor to set so deep I had to use the engine to “unset” it. - Always fun. Great exercise but I think there’s a Windless in my future. One drawback is that I can muscle it faster than most windlass‘ can retrieve it, and speed is important while single handed, unless I could trust it from the helm.
Still sailing with just the Main and 130 Genoa, my downwind performance is poor but upwind I can out-perform most cruisers my size. Still no whisker pole either so I almost never go directly down-wind. My VMG is to take the wind at my aft quarter. I feel that any kind of spinniker would require crew to handle safely on Lake Michigan.. However I did add a second fore-sail halyard this past winter - just in case I want to try it. - not yet.
Hope to sail Lake Huron’s many islands next season.