We attended services at International Bible Church again this morning.  No animal-caused distractions this week!  This morning’s message was titled “This Year: Serve”.  You can visit the church website at http://bonaireibc.org/  or listen to the sermons at https://ibcbonaire.podbean.com/

On the way home from church, we decided to stop at Exito, a small cafe in downtown Kralendijk.  During the week they have quite a variety of hot foods, but on Sunday we learned they only sell sandwiches, which are more like subs.  I got a chicken salad sandwich and Virginia got curry chicken salad for $8.25 total.  We shared and decided the curry chicken was more flavorful, definitely not too spicy and worth the extra $0.25.  We also felt that one sandwich/sub would probably be enough for the both of us.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the day working on our February McGuiReport, knowing that there would not be much time to do so tomorrow (Monday) with its full day of work.

This evening, I called my mother in Colorado using the Skype app that was installed last week on Virginia’s Kindle Fire.  Actually, it is more convenient because it has a built in microphone and camera. These accessories have to be added to make calls using my old Windows Vista laptop.

We slept a little warm last night so this evening we lowered the air conditioner to 26C (78F).

After breakfast, we began packing for the move to the north side of the duplex.  Everything was packed into the little car we are driving, except for the things in the fridge.

With this done, I began working on our McGuiReport for February 2018 which is due on Tuesday.

About 2 pm, we headed to the duplex to help Vera clean, since the Wayneburg team was now at the airport to catch their flight back to school.   Vera and Virginia started the several hour clean up of both sides of the duplex.

About 3 pm, Tom King and his son, Joshua, unexpected drove in.  We thought they were to arrive tomorrow!  They are supposed to stay in the south end of the duplex.

While the ladies continued their cleaning, I helped by washing the bed linens, towels, etc and hung them on the clothes lines.  I then washed our own clothes.  I lost count at around seven loads total.  The clotheslines on both sides of the duplex were all full and all the clothespins were used up yet there were still clothes to hang out.

On Bonaire, if you don’t at least double the number of clothespins used, the laundry will likely be blown off the line into the sticker burs that are on the ground.  It takes a long time to take all those burs out! Don’t ask how we know!! [We learned this last time we were here]

The wind also dries the clothes quite quickly–as long as the sun is shining.  Some of the lighter sheets and shirts were dry, when it became time to hang out the last load of clothes, but, by then, it was beginning to get dark outside.

We finally unpacked the car, then went back across town to pick up our items out of the refrigerator.  When we got back, the last of the clothes was not completely dry, so we fired up the gas (propane) dryer to finish getting them dry.

Our bedroom in the duplex does not get as much breeze as at Rienstra,s, nor does it have a ceiling fan.  It looks like we will be using the air conditioner at night for the rest of our stay.  Whoever used it last set it to 27C (80F) so that is where we left it for this evening.

One of two emergency stop buttons for the new transmitter wired on Friday morning. These are needed for safety reasons before beginning the transmitter testing.

TWR had a  Thank You/Farewell  pizza/salad  luncheon for the Waynesbury University team at noon. Ladies first! There were also 6 or more fellows.

After lunch, I began preparing for the big job of rerouting the 127/220 volt 200-amp 3 phase cable on Monday.

Hole (on left) opened up for cable entry into the new power room.

Inspected the 40-foot long cable tray that runs about 12 feet off the floor through four rooms for any obstruction. The cable is to run on this tray to its breaker panel.

Opened up a hole (on the left) in the tray for the wire to enter the room with the circuit breaker panel.

Tonight is our last night for staying at the Rienstra guest room.  Tomorrow we are scheduled to move to the north duplex, which is a lot closer to the transmitter site..

Jonas tie wrapping the final run of cables into position (looking toward the transformer end)

This morning Jonas, Frank and I completed the final run of cables from the transformer to the last transmitter cabinet.  Jonas helped bundle the last cables and install the tie wraps.  After all cables were in their final position, Frank clipped off all the ends of the tie wraps.

Frank clipping tie wrap ends (looking toward transmitter)

Cable Tray over the transformer is all tie wrapped and finished

This is how the cables are terminated on the transformer. Nautel provided Cytolok connectors that self crimp.

The cable slides into the hole in the right end of the Cytolok connector. As the bolt is tightened through the left end, the cable is crimped tight.

I spent a couple hours color coding all the cables in preparation for the inspection required before the power company turns on their 380 volt transformer.  That inspection was anticipated for today, but has now been shifted back to the original time of Tuesday 16 January.

This is what the new 400,000 watt AM transmitter hall looked like at the end of today, Thursday January 11

Jonas informed us that on Monday he would like us to move the 220 volt 200 amp 3-phase cable that supplies the old part of the transmitter building.  Currently it originates at the power company’s old transformer, which is to be decommissioned soon.  This cable is to be disconnected from the old transformer and rerouted to the new breakers (installed during our March/April  2017 trip), which are connected to a newer, and bigger transformer located on the other side of the building.  I spent the last hour today checking what still needs to be done to make that possible.  There is a lot to be done tomorrow in preparation for moving that 200 foot long cable.  This cable runs in a trench which still needs to be opened/unearthed in places.  This job must be completed before the broadcast starts on the afternoon of the move.  Vital equipment for cooling the old 100,000-watt transmitter (currently being used) is connected to this supply.

What the hall looks like almost 19 days before the dedication of the new transmitter scheduled for January 30.

Virginia and I walked to the shore this evening to watch the sunset and took a couple of photos (below):

Sailboats at Sunset (the island of Klein, meaning ‘little’, Bonaire can be seen on the horizon)

Message at Sunset (at first we thought someone had written “God dou” [maybe Papiamento?] then we finally noticed the “I” in white coral pieces, then a heart shaped rock. Now we could see that the message reads,”I love God do U”

Dave, Daryl and Lionel installing the cable tray over the transformer

Frank and I finished installing the rods for the cable tray in the ceiling, while Daryl, Dave and Lionel installed the cable tray that makes the transition from the transformer to the ceiling tray.  Lionel fabricated and painted this section of the cable tray.

Lionel, Jonas, Daryl, Kevin and Dave hoisting the cable reel onto a stand.

After the heavy real of cable was hoisted onto stands, Frank and I began installing the 500 amp cables from the transmitter’s input transformer to each of the four transmitter cabinets.  There are three 500 amp cables for each cabinet.  Each of these cables is about 1-1/2″ (35mm) in diameter and weighs about 2 pounds per foot.  In addition there are also two 1/0 neutral cables and one 1/0 ground cable.

Frank cutting a cable to length by hand, using this amazing ratcheting cutter.

Every time we wanted to unreel another length of the large cable, we recruited five or six extra helpers to pull the cable through the tray.  We would then terminate both ends before pulling in the next run.  After doing this for the three large cables allocated to one cabinet, we would bundle this group of cables and secure them to each other and the cable tray.  The four bundled groups of cables for the four cabinets need to be spaced equally across the width of the cable tray.  We managed to get the cables ran and terminated to three cabinets and bundled for two of the cabinets.

Photo taken at end of day shows the cables run and the copper coax line which runs perpendicularly under the cables.  The third set of cables have not been bundled yet.

Daryl, Jonas and Dave worked on running the large coax line from the output of the transmitter to the input of the antenna switcher.  This involved a  lot of measuring and cutting of large diameter copper tubing and installing two elbows.

I mentioned previously that a large group of students arrived on Saturday to help TWR.  About half of this group from Waynesburg University are involved in preparing the large old transmitter hall for the dedication celebrations on January 30.  What a transformation is taking place!!

Virginia went grocery shopping with Vera this afternoon for ourselves and for a pizza/salad luncheon that will take place on Friday at noon to ‘thank’ all the visiting workers that have helped this week.  When I arrived ‘home’ after work no one was here, so had to wait for Virginia and Vera to arrive with the key.

We are staying in this corner of Rienstra’s home. Note–the air conditioner for our bedroom/kitchette and the gas bottles for the gas cooking top.

They had stopped for Chinese takeout on their way home, so we ate together this evening. We also enjoyed the sunset from their west-facing porch and had coffee and tea together before retiring earlier to our room this evening, than last night.

Rienstra’s have  a nice porch from which to watch the sun setting over the Caribbean