The weekly staff meeting was moved from the office to the site this morning. There were around 15 individuals in attendance.

After the meeting we removed the 800 amp distribution panel from its pallet inside the building then moved it into the power room. This is the heaviest of the five panels that goes into the power room. (I don’t think I have mentioned in precious messages that the floor of the power room is about 5 feet above ground level.)

Jim discovered when reviewing the air conditioner schematics that a 110v circuit needed to be run to power an auxiliary outlet in each condensing unit. Normally, these wire should have been pulled in at the same time as the large 150 amp wires. We pulled back the ground wire to each unit and were able to use it (with a lot of effort) to pull in wires for the outlet. Today, I learned a technique from Ralph and Jim for freeing up apparent ‘jams’ in the pull by keeping tension on the wire being pulled in while pulling back on all the other wires in the pipe. Worked great!!

I went back to the power room to bolt both the 800 amp distribution panel and the ATS (automatic transfer switch) to the concrete wall. I needed to locate a hammer drill, concrete bits, and the rawl bolts necessary to accomplish the job. Being new the site, this involves quite a bit of time rounding all of these things up. (This process is getting a little faster each day, as I learn where certain tools are kept.) By the time this was accomplished it was time for lunch.

Home for lunch and a siesta!

First the 800 amp distribution panel was bolted to the wall. This was relatively straight forward as there were holes in the back of the panel specifically for that purpose.

Next followed a discussion of how to bolt the ATS to the wall. As there were no holes for that purpose and the removable back panel is only held on by 6 small screws, Daryl suggested drilling through the frame. After I discovered that drilling through the frame would also mean drilling through the back panel, I decided to look for an alternative method. The frame is built much like the familiar 19” frames used for rack mounted equipment. The side panel is recessed into the frame. By cutting a length of 2 X 2 X 1/4” aluminum angle into 2 inch long pieces and shortening one of the 2” sides of the angle to match the distance from the back of the panel to the recess for the side panel, a clamp was made that could clamp the ATS to the wall without any drilling through the cabinet. Fabrication of the clamps and completing the installation took the rest of the afternoon.

While I was doing this, Ralph was completing the wiring to the condensing units and Jim was making holes through three solid concrete walls large enough to allow the installation of all 12 coolant lines plus conduits for all the control wiring that runs between the condensing units and the air handlers.

On the way home, we noticed that salt was being loaded on the ship we saw yesterday, so we drove south to get a closer look.  There is a large conveyor belt with a shoot that drops the salt into the hold of the ship.  Two huge front end loaders dump the salt into large hoppers that feed the conveyor belt.  This process continues 24 hours per day until the ship is loaded.  Judging from the how deep the ship seems to be sitting in the water, it appears to be about half full.

Ralph, Virginia and I went for a cool down swim at Bachelor Beach before supper, which consisted of canned ham, baked potato with sour cream, green beans, other Dutch beans (translated “soft garden bones”–To me they were like the bean seeds you find in green beans that have been left on the vine too long. You cannot eat the pod, but the beans inside are still good–, and salad with craisins and sunflower seeds. Later we had a special treat—ice cream!

This day has been one filled with quite a flurry of activity!

Right after morning devotions, the large crane arrived at the same time as the first, of two, air conditioner condensing units arrived on a small truck. This small truck also had two special transformers for supplying the proper voltages the two condensing units. The site tractor was used to move the transformers to the power room while the crane offloaded this first condensing unit and placed it on its foundation. This truck then left to retrieve the second unit. The crane then lifted the standby generator, which had been offloaded onto the ground yesterday, and gently lowered it onto its foundation will we feed six feet lengths of eight large power cables through its power cable opening. Within an hour, the second unit arrived and was also offloaded onto its foundation.

By the time all this was done, it was time for lunch at home and a siesta. Virginia rode with us back to the site after lunch so that she and Maryjane could do some more shopping this afternoon. Virginia handled the transition to a manual transmission like an expert!

After lunch, the 2” electrical conduits for the two condensing units were extended from their foundations to the disconnect boxes.

The ATS (automatic transfer switch) was moved to its final position in the power room and lifted onto a 6” high platform to allow room to route the large power cables from the generator into the bottom of the ATS.

Next, the two transformers for the condensing units were moved into their final positions in the power room. A last minute change in their positions was required to ensure easy access to their power cable connections. Having determined their final positions, it was now possible to cut the required 150 amp cables to length and pull three cables into each of the 2” conduits to the condensing units.

By the time this was done, the day was finished. Tomorrow the door will hopefully be installed on the power room. After that we plan to move a 1,200 amp breaker box, an 800 amp breaker box, an 800 amp distribution panel and a 400 amp distribution panel into the power room.

On the way home, we noticed that there was a large ship repairing to load salt at the Cargill salt pier, just south of the transmitter site.  While Ralph, Jim and I took a short swim at Bachelor Beach to cool off, Maryjane and Virginia had prepared a supper of hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, green beans, salad (with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds) and applesauce.

At noon we discovered that the internet for the whole island of Bonaire was down. This outage has continued into the evening, so we’ll have to wait to send this message until the internet returns. We have been able to make urgent last-minute orders for parts using phone messages.

It seems like each day has its own ‘surprises’ that result in new challenges.  Today was no exception!

There were two surprises right at the start.  Although not related directly to the electrical installation, I became involved because of my involvement in keeping the overall building drawings up to date.  Daryl was wanting to install the MAD switch (a high power switch that routes the output of either the 400,000 watt AM transmitter or a smaller 5,000 watt transmitter to either the antenna or a dummy load).  Because it is located between two windows, it cannot be moved.  The output to the antenna goes through the wall into the phasor room which contains all the coils, capacitors and switches to properly divide the power between the four towers.  The phasor room has panels  to screen the sides and panels to screen the top.  These 4X8 foot panels consist of a screen with frames around the edge that bolt together in a configuration precisely laid out by the manufacturer.  It was discovered that the switch output to the phasor happens to pass through the wall exactly where two frames bolt together.  Normally a hole would be cut just in the screen, but now two frames will need to be cut that are part of the structure that holds up the ‘ceiling’ screen frames.  This will necessitate an on-site modification to maintain structural strength.

The second surprise came when we discovered the input from the transmitter to the MAD switch was closer to the wall than the drawings of the switch indicated.  This resulted in this rigid line needing to pass through a steel support beam, which is not possible.  As a result we had to shift the location of the transmitter on the drawings, which also required rotating the big supply transformer next to the transmitter.  I will need to do an extensive revision to the drawings.

In comparison to the above, the next surprise was relatively minor.  We began unpacking the power panels and found that  the top of the 800 amp breaker panel box had caved in about 1″ shearing off about 6 bolts in the process.  We think this happened before we packed it into the container in Niles, MI.  There was no obvious damage to the cardboard box in which it was packed and there was no shifting in the container that could have caused the damage.  We removed all the bolts holding the top and were able to use an hydraulic press to straighten the top.  We found some bolts on site to replace the ones that had been sheared off.

We went home for lunch and a short nap.  It is easy to understand why many Latin countries have their siesta time!  A short nap in the heat of the day revives one’s energy.

After lunch, Daryl took us to the site so the ladies could have a vehicle to do some shopping in the afternoon.  I was wondering which lady would be brave enough to drive the pickup which has a manual transmission.  Both have driven them in the past, but not recently.  Maryjane was the brave one.  Virginia’s turn is next!!

This afternoon, the cable for the generator was pulled through a 4″ underground pipe from the power room to the generator pad.  The cables required to carry the 530 amps pretty well filled the pipe and required the front loader bucket of the tractor to provide the pulling power.  Actually, there had been a ‘surprise’ on this as well.  In our drawings we specified two 4″ pipes to pull two separate 4 conductor 350mcm cables.  Unfortunately, the generator supplier told the construction crew that only one 4″ pipe would be needed and only one was installed without consulting us.  It is impossible to get two 2-1/2 inch diameter cables through one 4″ pipe!  The solution was to strip the jacket off each 4 conductor cable to provide 8 single conductors.  It was now possible to get them all through, but barely–with the help of lots of cable pulling lubricant!  The current capacity will be downgraded slightly, but fortunately we had overrated the cable some to start with.

Just as this cable pull was finished, a large truck arrived with the standby generator and the ATS (automatic transfer switch), which will automatically switch the power source to the generator when there is a power failure, arrived.  The crane on the truck was not long enough to place the generator on its pad, so it was set on the ground.  Tomorrow a larger crane is scheduled to come out with the air conditioning units to set all of them into place.   The ATS was transferred to the TWR truck which was able to back up to the power room for easy transfer to its proper location.

Fortunately, we opened the ATS and discovered another ‘surprise’.  There were no compression lugs for attaching our 24 large power cables.  Ralph and I began searching on the internet to find a source of suitable lugs.  It was then that we decided that it would be good to check the generator.  Sure enough, another ‘surprise’, we will need 12 more lugs for there, too!

Now it was 4 pm and Ralph contacted his supplier in Niles, MI via email.  Within minutes it was verified that the supplier had them in stock, and would have them on his counter waiting for Ralph’s grandson, Brian, to pick up.  Brian is one of the team arriving on Saturday.  These lugs will likely be here before we are ready to use them!  God is good!!

This evening, Jim decided to swim partway home from work.  It was just over a 1 mile swim and he anticipated arriving at Bachelor Beach at 5:30pm.  Ralph and I decided to drive to Bachelor Beach to meet him.  I did some ‘swimming’ to cool off while Ralph watched.  At 5:30 there was no sign of Jim, so we decided to go home to see if he had come ashore earlier and walked home.  Jim was not there, so I washed the salt water off and showered, then headed back to the beach with Ralph.  Partway there we saw Jim walking home.  He said that the swim started off fast enough but he then encountered currents that slowed him down considerably.  He said he saw a large variety of beautiful fish and coral at close range and that it was well worth the swim.

For supper we had hamburgers with all the fixin’s, mixed vegetables, oven roasted fresh cut potato ‘fries’ and apple sauce.  The ladies are getting in practice for the six grandsons that will be arriving on Saturday and staying for two weeks.

Thank you for praying!! It is obvious that God is at work in spite of the ‘surprises’.  Keep praying!!

2:30 in the morning is way to early to get up, but we did it.  We were  up and ready to head to the airport by 4:15 when Allan picked us up. We were not the first ones to the airport, but it was pretty quiet at the airport when we arrived. Our flight left on time and arrived in Atlanta 40 minutes early! I have never before had a plane arrive that early to a destination! Our flight to Bonaire left on time and was pretty uneventful until we descended through the clouds to our landing on Bonaire. The plane bucked and dove through those clouds. Once we were below the clouds the ride smoothed out and the landing was good.

When we picked up our suitcases, we found that our old trusty suitcase that has been on many continents, has finally outlived it usefulness. All the stitching, after 49 years, had weakened and when it got caught on something, ripped all the stitching out. We were glad to find that we did not lose anything. Hopefully duct tape will hold it together enough to get it home. That suitcase was a gift to me from my older siblings when I graduated from high school. None of us had any idea of the places that suitcase would travel. God had His plans for that suitcase and more importantly, my life and I am very grateful for His leading in my life.

We arrived along with a few sprinkles. Tired and thankful to be on the Island. After refreshing ourselves at our ‘home’, we took a little ride around the south end of the island, saw the transmitter site and the salt pans and the historical slave huts. After our time of sight-seeing, we stopped at a local restaurant for supper. It was a very tasty meal. We had hamburgers and fries. The bread was freshly from the oven, fresh hamburger and fresh made fries. Yummy. Not McDonald fare and definitely not McDonald prices! Won’t eat there again, but was a real treat and very delicious.

We are grateful for air conditioning in our bedroom.