We slept in late this morning — must have needed it. The heat seems to have a draining effect on those of us not used to it. The typical high is about 87F and low is 80F, but the last few days that has been more like 95F and 89F respectively. Forecast for next week is supposed to be more normal.

In an email yesterday we learned that the 50,000-watt AM transmitter for Swaziland is supposed to be packed into its container on Monday 18 Oct 2010 at 9am. Pray that it can be loaded and secured in the allotted 2 hours before charges begin for extra hours. Also pray that it will be able to make the ship departing for Africa on 23 Oct.

The transmitter ‘called’ me at 9am this morning, which seemed strange since it was not supposed to be on the air at that time. Joe Barker then called to say that he had changed the settings so the transmitter called in the morning about cutbacks in power rather than interrupting sleep. Of course, if the transmitter was off the air, it would still call. Virginia and I went to the site to check the events log to see exactly what had happened. Found that there had been several cutbacks, but in each case the transmitter returned to full power within minutes. The listeners would have hardly noticed. If would be good if the system could be programmed to call if the transmitter did not return to full power within a certain amount of time. I will need to investigate whether that is an option with this monitoring system.

While at the site I continued to disassemble the PA Module to get to the faulty parts. I think everything is accessible now, but I need to grind down the outside diameter of a 5mm socket to less than 7mm. Fortunately there is a small lathe at the site, if it can be made operable.

From the site we came home for an early lunch, then filled up the car with gas at about $4.60 per gallon to do some sight seeing. Today we went to Lac Cai (Lac Bay) on the east (windward) side of Bonaire. Lac Cai is a shallow bay that is very calm in spite of being being on side of the island with larger breaking waves. I estimate the bay is about 10 feet deep in the deepest parts and one can see all the way to the bottom every where. There also seems to be more sand there than any place we have seen so far. This bay is famous for all the conch, and their shells. They are protected now but 40 years ago I would go diving for conch and brought home a couple of really pretty shells. The huge piles of conch shells that were let after the conch were harvested to eat are still there after 40 years, but are all bleached white and crumbling.

On the way back home we passed a wind turbine, one of more than a dozen large ones on Bonaire. We are rather amazed how quiet it was while standing under it, but it may have been louder with faster winds.

Back in town, we decided to do some shopping at Cultimara, where it is possible to select fruits and vegetables (not prepackaged) and sort out the bad ones. We then shopped at Warehouse Bonaire Supermarket. Stores are now open on Saturday afternoons. Will need to check tomorrow to see if some are open on Sundays.

Again we were able to have our regular half hour plus swim at sunset. This evening was amazing! Exactly as the sun set, there was a boat in the distance that completely fit into the circle of the orange setting sun. Unfortunately we did not have our camera with us. Even if we did have, we probably could not have gotten out of the water fast enough to get it.

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