There were four of us again at the transmitter site devotions this morning — Kevin, Lionel, Ivan and I.

I spent most of the morning making final revisions on our May 2017 McGuiReport and compiling the page of listener responses to be included with the mailing of this report.   For some reason, this process seems to take longer from a remote location, than it does from Elkhart.  Everything was completed and emailed with instructions to TWR Cary by noon.

For lunch we had leftover pizza and lettuce with carrots and sunflower seeds.  We also shared a small bag of Sun chips (original style).  Virginia said that our supper tonight should be really interesting.

My nap lasted almost 20 minutes–my ‘alarm clock’ forgot to wake me up!!

Shortly after lunch, an email came announcing that enough funds had come in for the Bonaire Power Up project to allow the ordering of the new 400,000-watt AM transmitter.  Praise the LORD!!  The order was signed and sent to Nautel, the transmitter company, today.  Delivery is anticipated in about 5 months.

This afternoon, I investigated what was going to be needed to connect power and control wiring to the 600kw dummy load.  In the process, I discovered a large stack of cardboard boxes that had been packed inside the dummy load.  They appear to be mostly installation and spare parts for the dummy load.   These were removed from the dummy load and moved into the transmitter hall for Jonas or Dave to handle next week.

Virginia went to town again this afternoon to pick up some last minute items to take home with us, then picked me up at 4:30.

Today was my last day of work for this trip to Bonaire.  Tomorrow we are scheduled to fly out at 2:50 pm.  We plan to spend that night with my niece and her family in the Atlanta area, then fly to South Bend on Sunday arriving just after 8 pm.

Yes, our supper was ‘interesting’!  Virginia called it ‘self-assembled shepherds pie’ using a variety of leftovers that needed to be used up.  The first layer was mixed vegetables, with leftover hamburger pizza topping next, then pizza sauce.  The Dutch equivalent of ‘Tater Tots’ were then put on top.  Not exactly shepherd’s pie, but close!

We went to Bachelor Beach for about 1/2 hour before the sun went down.  Tonight, seemed a little clearer than last night, but there was too much haze on the horizon to see the sun set.  We did notice a ship coming in from the southeast.  As it got closer, it looked like the ship that brings about 10 containers per load.

We now need to get busy packing!!

There were four present for the transmitter site devotions this morning — Kevin, Lionel, Ivan and I.

 I continued installation of the interconnecting copper tubing in the phasor room.  Dave Pederson came a little later and assisted.  There was a 12 foot length of about 8 inch diameter coaxial feedline which was too heavy to handle by myself.  So we installed this first.  We asked Ivan to assist as it had to be carefully maneuvered into place between various coils and capacitors.

After that was done, Dave assisted with the rest of the connecting pieces.  With his help, all the connections were completed by time for lunch.

At the duplex, I had my PB&J sandwich, while Virginia had ham and cheese, plus an applesauce cup each.  We shared a small bag of Funyuns (onion flavored rings) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funyuns  This was followed by a 15 minute snooze with my feet elevated.  It really does help the swelling of my feet and ankles.

After lunch and in the air conditioned 100kw transmitter hall, I had a long discussion with Dave Pederson on a variety of technical subjects and one, not so technical subject.  There are quite a few wasps around the transmitter site and they love to build their nests in holes, especially in bolt holes.   This was also true in Swaziland.  Anyway, Dave discovered wasps were investigating the two conduits (for blower power and control wirings) that end flush with the side of the dummy load.  We haven’t wired the dummy load yet so these conduits are empty and a very inviting place for wasps.  These have temporarily been covered with tape to keep the wasps out.

Virginia used the mission pickup to do some shopping in town this afternoon.  [She has excelled in relearning to shift a manual transmission.   Maybe she will now be willing to drive our pickup at home!]  She was concerned about all the people from the cruise ship being in town, but I told here that the supermarkets away from the piers would not be a primary destination for tourists.

After the meeting with Dave, I then did some catching up with with my emails and other correspondence for the rest of the afternoon.   Virginia was waiting to take me home at 4:30 pm.

We decided to eat supper before swimming this evening.  Virginia made a pepperoni and hamburger pizza.  We only ate half of it, so it will be leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  We also had lettuce with grated carrots and sunflower seeds.

We had Bachelor Beach all to ourselves this evening.  Waves were larger than normal.  Not sure why–maybe it was from the wake of the cruise ship leaving the island?  One couple drove up to the beach to get photos of the sunset.  It was overcast today, but we got a brief glimpse of the sun as it was going down.  No ‘green flash’ this evening again, because of clouds very low on the horizon.  The rough water caused us to shorten our normal cool-down swim some.

There were three of us at site devotions this morning–Kevin, Lionel and I.

Lionel and I started connecting all the ground straps in the phasor room this morning. I trimmed and rounded the corners on the copper straps and Lionel solder-brazed the connections. While Lionel brazed the connection, I needed to hold the copper down tight. It is amazing how much copper strap warps with heat. In some places it was necessary to extend the ground strap to reach a proper ground point. Precisely at noon, all the ground connections were completed. What a hot job, even with big fans blowing on us.

Virginia made more brownies with walnuts as a snack for a meeting of translators this morning. The TWR hostess must have liked the ones that she made for yesterday’s lunch!

For lunch Virginia made toasted cheese sandwiches and we shared a small bag of Honey BBQ flavored Frito Twists. I really prefer my Fritos untwisted and plain! Took a 15 minute nap with feet elevated before heading back to work.

I spent all afternoon starting to install the connections between all the components of the phasor. To make the job easier requires some planning so that connections that cross ‘walking paths’ are put in last. About a third of the connections were installed today, so with a full day tomorrow the job might be completed, barring any complications.

When I got to the duplex after work, Virginia had left a note that we were invited to the Pedersons for dinner. They live on the other side of the lot south of the duplex, so Virginia had already walked over. I quickly showered and changed clothes. Pedersons prepared what I would call a Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables and cranberry sauce. We also had ice cream for dessert. Please pray for their disabled son Joshua, who has some serious pressure sores, and needs to be transferred to better medical facilities to receive skin grafts. They are currently trying to contact a doctor at Duke University where he has previously received medical care.

We finally got back to our duplex a little after 9 pm.

The holiday weekend was over, so back to the workweek routine!  This  morning there were nearly 20 persons at morning devotions.  Eleven crew members came from Logos Hope to help for the day.  I think there were 6 young men and 5 young ladies.  I wasn’t involved in assigning or supervising tasks, but I know the girls did extensive cleaning of the four antenna tuning units (huts) at the base of each of the four towers.  One also vacuumed the phasor room that I had been working in.  A couple of the fellows worked on repairing barbed wire fences around the perimeter of the property.  Over the past few weeks, donkeys have managed to find access.  Two of fellows mounted LED floodlights on the outside of the building and hooked them up to the wires that were run last week.  Some others worked on framing a ceiling in a small room off the new lab.  Virginia said there was another girl that worked in the office.

My first task was sorting out the orientation of six capacitors in the phasor room for best arrangement of their copper grounding straps, then using the concrete anchors installed yesterday to bolt them to the floor..  After that was done, I began connecting the copper pipes in the center of each inductor (coil) that connects to its tap.

With the Logos Hope crew here, lunch was brought in by Vera and Virginia.  Pizza was the main dish.  There was also cole slaw and various drinks — cool and hot.  Virginia made brownies with walnuts for dessert.  They set up four tables in the large tool room with real flower centerpieces.  One of the fellows from the crew commented, “Flowers!  Not used to real ones.”  I counted about 25 people present for lunch at 12:30 pm, which included several from the office.  It was nice, but I missed my short nap today!

After lunch, the crane arrived to set the dummy load into place.  Jonas and I had marked its foundation this morning to show exactly where it should be set.  The huge crane lifted the 2 ton dummy load up and over the WEB building, then set it into place.

After this was done, I finished connecting the rest of the approximately 20 inductor taps in the phasor room, then I connected a couple of interconnecting pipes.  At the end of the day, arrangements were made with Lionel to solder-braze the rest of the copper ground straps in the phasor room tomorrow.  I said ‘good bye’ to Jonas as he and his family plan to leave on the Logos Hope tomorrow headed for Aruba.  They plan to fly back on Saturday morning and we are not sure we’ll see them before our flight leaves that afternoon.

Virginia caught a ride into town with Vera after clearing up after lunch.  She asked me to pick her up between 4:45 and 5:00 at Gio’s.  So that is where we met at about 4:55 pm.  I convinced her to go with me to the webcam bench to have our ‘photo’ captured on the 5:00 hour.  Proof that we really are still on Bonaire!!

From there, we came back to the duplex for supper.  We had leftover nasi goreng AGAIN– the fourth and final meal from our $10.50 Chinese carryout.

We also had salad with grated carrots and bits of real bacon and finished off the last of the watermelon.

We went for a swim, just before sunset.  Earlier, we had noticed there was hardly anyone at Bachelors Beach, but when we arrived about 6:30 there were quite a few people setting on the ledge above the beach to watch the sunset–maybe to see the ‘green flash’. http://earthsky.org/earth/can-i-see-a-green-flash We watched the sun setting while also immersed in the coolness of the water.   There was a haze near the horizon today, so it was obvious no green flash would be seen today.  Those setting on the ledge left when it became obvious the sunset would not be visible.

Later in the evening we had triple chocolate ice cream on a sugar waffle for desert and a glass of iced tea.

Because I did not rest with my feet up today, my feet seem more swollen tonight.  Would appreciate your prayers that the swelling does not get worse.  Thanks for praying, Virginia’s rash is getting a lot better.

Today was a public holiday, Easter Monday, so the alarm was not set.  I finally woke at 8:30 am.

After a breakfast of raisin bran and toast, Virginia and I headed to the transmitter site.  I ended up installing about 45 of the 60 (20 per box) small concrete anchors that Jim Hull brought to me yesterday.  I think all of the anchors are done now.

I had been invited to an exclusive tour of the engine room of the Logos Hope at 1 pm today, so we headed back to the duplex about noon for a light lunch (sandwiches–PB&J  for me and ham/lettuce/mayo for Virginia, plus Sun chips) and a quick shower, then off to town.