And somehow it happened – my birthday arrived. Happy birthday in St Maarten! We had Indian food again – so good – and shared lemon cake for dessert. It’s crazy how quickly the days, months, and years fly by.

Speaking of the days flying by, it was time for Honey & Papa to fly back to the USA. So sad to see them leave, too. Not only that, but family leaving means it’s time to return to boat work! The Nomad crew has been busy running lines, installing lithium batteries, and installing new MPPTs for the solar panels that will go on the new arch.

On Tuesday we moved back on to Two Fish. Horray! They are currently pretty busy on the starboard side so we all stayed on the port side so they could work more easily. Lots of cleaning commenced. Misken got our new arch modification tabbed on to the boat. I had a nice hour to myself with my birthday massage, and as a treat for Wren we took her to the Minecraft movie in 3D. So much laughing!

Wednesday found me doing yet more cleaning. Fenders got the rubber rubbed off from the Samaná docks. We also put up a new code zero halyard. We had a technician come to work on our radar that went out shortly before arriving in St Maarten. Trouble shooting while the boat was on the hard showed it to be a bad magnetron. Horray for Andrew being here to fix it and an easy fix!

Thursday the salon windows got resealed. Lily had an overdo nail trim (we do it monthly at the start of the month but this month we were off the boat and away from the dremel), and the solar arch was welded on. Thanks Misken!

Friday was another big day with our new, stronger alternator being installed as well as new DC-DC converters. We bought line to replace our traveler line and our Genoa furler line.

Saturday – panels installed! Holy cow. Shade. Rain protection. Sun protection. And our batteries actually get charged by the sun?!? This is the first time our batteries have had net amps going in unless on shore or generator power. We got 3 600W panels up on the new arch, and kept the 200W on our coach roof (those can be replaced later when we can source smaller panels that fit in the existing solar area – cousins get them here in St Maarten), for a total of 2,000W. The new panels replace the 2 85W original panels that were on the arch. Talk about an upgrade! And now begins the working on electrical grimlins discovered after the installs.