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.