Slept in this Good Friday morning until about 8am!!

After a leisurely breakfast, Virginia accompanied me to the transmitter site.  While I continued installing capacitors, Virginia spent most of her time in the air conditioned transmitter hall.  Another diagnosis of her rash is that it is a result of the heat, so we will see if this will help.

Shortly after starting on the installation of the capacitors, Dave Pederson came and began helping.  This really sped things up as he would take the capacitors out of their special padded boxes [vacuum capacitors are fragile and very expensive!], and remove the bolts from the bottom plates.  While he did this, I would quickly consult the Kintronic photos to verify the capacitor orientation, then properly orient the capacitor and bolt it to its mounting plate.  By 1pm, all the remaining capacitors were installed and we headed home for lunch.

Well, I had my usual PB&J sandwich for lunch — I like them, always have!!  My nap ended up being 30 minutes today — again with my feet elevated to help reduce the swelling, especially of my left foot and ankle.  Virginia got word from our family doctor to try hydrocortisone cream and/or prednisone to see if that helps her rash.

We headed back to the site about 2:30pm where I began doing the short connections within each capacitor bank.  These connections consist of copper tubing, normally about 1.5 inches in diameter.  Kintronic has made a nifty connector that slides inside the tubing and expands using just one set screw to join two pieces of tubing.   I’ll try to remember to take a photo of this connector next week.

Some of the Kintronic connectors had some light corrosion on them, so Dave used sandpaper to clean the corrosion off and Brasso to polish them.  Again, it was necessary to consult the photos to connect the interconnecting tubing to the right connections of the capacitors.  By the time one was connected, Dave would have the next two Kintronic connectors cleaned and ready for the next connection.  By 4:30, all the possible short connections were done.  For now, we decided not to do any of the longer connections between capacitor and inductors (coils).  There is still some solder-brazing of copper straps to be done and installing the longer connections will restrict access routes too much for doing the solder-brazing that still needs done.

On the way back to the duplex, we decided to check out the nearby beaches.    Every beach was crowded and there were lots of tents and temporary kitchens made from old pallets.  Since Bonaire is a small island, many use their long weekend for a vacation camping on the beach.  It costs too much to fly anywhere else!  We decided not to go for a cool-down swim with all this crowd!

We also noticed that the ship Logos Hope ( https://www.gbaships.org/en/meet-logos-hope ) was at the dock in Kralendijk.  We had seen it coming in last night.  The Logos crew has organized a special tour of the ship for TWR staff tomorrow at 2pm.  We also have tickets for a theatrical presentation of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” on board the ship on Monday at 2pm.  On Tuesday, several of the Logos staff plan to assist with various projects at the TWR facilities.  TWR’s Jonas used to work with Logos ships and helped outfit this ship when it was first obtained by GBA Ships.

For supper, Virginia prepared macaroni and cheese with bacon and lettuce with grated carrots, then iced tea in two variations — with lemon and with peach flavor.  We are still using up some of the food supplies that our team shipped in the container from Niles.  Later we had brownies with walnuts for dessert.  This proved to be a yummy ‘practice run’ for the desserts that she will be preparing next week.

Virginia’s rash seems to be looking a little better this evening.  Your prayers for her would be appreciated.

We do not plan on turning the alarm on again for tomorrow morning.  Everyone sleep well!