We were a little early leaving for the site this morning so we drove down to the salt company pier. We noticed that one of the salt pans was different than on our previous visits. There was no water in it and there was a huge bulldozer that had been pushing the salt into high rows—much like snow being shoved off a parking lot, except over a much larger area. Someone told us that when a salt pan is ready to ‘harvest’ there is a layer of about 18” of salt. This salt is then collected and piled into ‘mountains’ of salt using equipment that reminds me of the augers used to make high piles of grain.

This morning, Steven, Paul, Philip, Bruce and Brian finished the wiring in the new lab area.   Jim and Jake completed connecting the copper lines to the second condensing unit.

Because the air handlers came without electrical controls, Daryl VanDyken took Ralph and me to town to see if we could find two starter contactors to allow us to proceed with wiring them into the circuit. Nothing was found, so a message was sent to someone that is coming from Kansas tomorrow to see if he could bring them.

While we were in town we noticed a ship at the dock with five huge masts for sails. We drove by the town pier and found that it was named, Royal Clipper, of Star Clippers. We looked it up and found that it is the largest fully-rigged sailing vessel in the world. On our way home this evening, we were disappointed that it had already sailed. What a sight it would have been to have seen it with all its sails up.

This afternoon, Paul, Philip, Bruce and Brian began wiring lights and outlets inside the phasor room. Their handiwork is a real work of art to behold! Steven checked out the best way to install the covers on the cable tray.

Jim and Jake installed pans in the loft to catch any overflow of condensation from the cooling coils that is not taken care of by the drain line. The air handlers are so big that these pans were made in two pieces then sealed with silicon sealer. With occasional help from others, the air handlers then had to be moved and set down into their respective pans. The next step is to connect the copper lines to the air handlers. Because the condensing units were moved after the original plans, it looks like there may be a shortage of the 1-5/8 inch diameter copper pipe to finish the connection to the second air handler.

Since the 1200 amp circuit breaker shunt trip came without wiring instructions, I researched what circuitry will be required to connect the ’emergency shutdown’ button to this shunt trip. The company that made the breaker supplied a 1,000 watt transformer to provide 110 volt from the 380 volt incoming line. To me, this seemed to be very inefficient, since the shunt trip only requires 100 watt for a fraction of a second to trip the breaker. Why waste approximately 50 watts (the approximate idling current needed for the transformer) continuously, when 100 watt may only be needed for a fraction of a second maybe once per year at most! I wanted to verify that the shunt trip worked. By connecting the coil of the shunt trip to a 110 v plug, the shunt trip successfully trip the breaker when plugged into an outlet.

There were also no instructions for connecting the neutral sensing transformer. So research was done on this also. It looks like this will not need to be used for our application, as there is no neutral line going the delta connected primary of the transmitter’s input transformer.

Before supper, Mark, Philip, Jake and I went swimming at a beach which is about ¼ mi further towards town from the airport beach. This beach has more sand than the previous beaches we have been to. Unfortunately, more sand means the water is cloudier. Even so, it was possible to see some types of fish that had not been seen previously.

Supper this evening was homemade pizza (various types with cheese, pepperoni, bacon, and pineapple), and fruit salad. Before leaving the table each evening, a song, or two, or more, are sung. Boy, can these boys harmonize!! These times are a highlight of our meals.

Tonight there is no internet connection, so will have to save this text for sending later.