Normally no one works at the site on Saturday, so we took the day off to relax and recover. Since our whole team of 9 men will be here next week, we will request to be allowed to work next Saturday, unless we are way ahead of schedule with the work we want to do.

Six of Ralph’s grandsons (one is actually a grandson-in-law) arrived on the 1:30pm flight from Newark. They had all flown to Newark the night before (3 from Michigan and 3 from California) and spent the night in the Newark airport. Their names are Steven, Paul Phil, Brian, Bruce and Jake — ages 17 to 32.

Since the TWR Toyota Hilux pickup that we are using can only seat six people, Ralph rented another Hilux pickup like it (only newer) at the airport to accommodate our crew for the next two weeks. Maryjane and Virginia had lunch ready for everyone when we got them back from the airport. Even though our numbers only doubled, plus one, the amount of food eaten nearly quadrupled!!

After lunch, Jim and I took these young men by the transmitter site then on to the salt pier. The smaller ship that we saw yesterday was already filled and gone and another, even smaller ship, was getting ready to receive its load of salt. The two ship loads of salt that were taken hardly seemed to have even made a dent in the ‘mountains’ of salt waiting to be loaded.

We then went to Coco Beach, by the TWR office north of town, where we swam with Daryl VanDyken, the project manager, his wife Carol and two men that also just arrived from Alabama. Jim, Ralph’s son, taught all of his nephews the basics of snorkeling and ‘they were off’ to check out the beautiful fish found on Bonaire. All but the one who swallowed too much salt water through his snorkel were elated by what they saw.

Maryjane and Virginia had a huge pan of spaghetti, vegetables, and salad ready by the time we all got back from the beach, got the sand rinsed off in the shower at the back of the house, and then showered inside to get the rest of the salt water off.

After supper, everyone sat around the table and sang hymns. What awesome singing, with all the parts! Someone counted that 22 songs, nearly all hymns, were sung including all the verses. Rarely did anyone have to look up the third or fourth verse in a hymnal.

After not getting a good night of rest on their trip here, all the young men were in bed by about 9pm and quiet.