This morning I drafted a document titled “Security System Notes” to provide a one page summary directed to workers for operating the site alarm system and two additional pages for the person maintaining the system to know what features have been changed from default, with instructions for things might normally need to be changed.

Last night, I discovered that the way to overcome a wrong code entry, was to ‘stop, press * and start over again’. This was found in a one line statement in all 100 plus pages of three manuals for the system. I found it by downloading all three manuals via the internet and searching for ‘entry error’, ‘wrong’ , etc., until a search for ‘mistake’ found it. When I tested this ‘error correcting’ procedure, it worked, but was confusing. When a mistake was made and the * key was pressed you often would no longer get the ‘beep’, which is typically given as each keystroke was ‘confirmed’. This must be a tactic of the system to ‘fool’ an unauthorized person into thinking the keypad has been disabled (like it was doing to me for a while!). If you persevered and continued the entry without becoming rattled, it would usually work. This information will now be incorporated into the ‘System Notes’.

On the way to the site after lunch, I noticed a ship at the airport dock. It must be delivering jet fuel for the storage tanks there. Getting closer to the site, I noticed that the ship was still loading at the salt pier. This time they were filling the middle of its three holds. This must mean that after almost a day of loading, they were half filled.

At the site, I continued reprogramming the security system to the specifications that TWR Bonaire wants, then, where possible, tested each change to make sure it worked. Also made notes as reminders to incorporate certain features into the ‘System Notes’. One of the programmed features added was one-button access to the Time/Date of the system. This was needed in preparation for reprogramming the system to AutoArm at a specific time. This will automatically arm the system if someone forgets.

Upon leaving the site, I noticed that the salt ship’s bow was about 2 feet lower than it was shortly after noon. They still have the front hold to fill.

We went for another refreshing swim this evening, but this time with the huge Emerald Princess berthed not far away. Passengers were streaming back on board in preparation for departure. The cruise ships tend to leave about sunset to make the journey to the next location. This one is headed for Aruba.

After taking a shower to wash the salt water off, we decided to go back to the beach to watch the Emerald Princess leave.

[An interesting fact — the Emerald Princess like most large cruise ships do not need tugs to maneuver them into or out of port. They have rotatable pods under the ship that allows them to move any direction, even sideways!] Her departure was ultra-slow to prevent a wake that could damage the beaches, or boats. When close to half mile from shore, she slightly in increased her speed, which caused a few waves that were slightly higher than normal to reach shore.

For supper we had a Japanese dish of chicken and rice. Anyone noticing a theme here?! NOTE to Nathaniel Simone — you would love the food here! 🙂

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This morning we went to the office. Along with other prayer items, we prayed for Haiti and the effect that the storm Tomas will have on them. They have had a lot of suffering this year. Pray for their health and safety, but mostly pray for their hearts. Pray as God’s word goes out into that country in their language, that hearts will be ready to hear and accept God’s salvation.

On our way home at lunch time, we saw that there was a cruise ship, the Emerald Princess, in the harbor and our normal route home was blocked. (We usually drive along the sea front to enjoy

the view until we are just a few houses from our place.) This ship is huge! It is longer than down town Kralendijk. It is about three times higher than the highest building in town and can be seen from many miles away. There are a lot of people that get off for the day.

I decided to visit the vendors that set up shop in the ‘park’ or ‘town square’, and see what type of gifts they had for sale. The vendors make their crafts at home and then bring them to town when a cruise ship is in. The vendors

are quite an international bunch. I don’t think I spoke to one who was a ‘true’ born on Bonaire, Bonairean. They all claim to be Bonairean because they live here. I also found a lot of nice people with whom friendships could be formed. In talking with some of the people, I found out that there will be another ship tomorrow and three more next week and then a six day break before the next one.

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This morning, Joe and I discussed which of the various available options for the site security we wanted to implement, or revise. There are well over 100 program data fields and most of those have several options within those fields. We decided to leave most fields at their default settings but determined to change about 20 of them. One of the options is the ‘entry delay time’. Initially we were just going to use a standard delay. Then we discovered an option of waiting (0, x, y, or z) number of seconds after the alarm sounds to initiate the ‘call’ to report an intrusion. Our final decision was to allow a much shorter delay to disarm the system before the ‘siren’ sounded, then wait a few seconds before ‘calling’. This way, if for some reason the worker entering the building forgot to disarm the system, he would get a startling reminder when the ‘siren’ sounds to hurry and disarm the system before a ‘call’ is initiated.

After lunch, Virginia accompanied me to the site. I was able to successfully reprogram and test most of the changes to the security system. There is one problem which is presenting a major challenge to which I have not yet found the solution. When a code is being entered, if a wrong code is used (i.e. hitting a wrong digit, by mistake) the keypad locks out any further attempt to reenter a corrected code and the alarm will sound. The only way to get past this has been to power down the whole system. There has to be some simple corrective procedure, so that is on my list of things to research further tomorrow.

After work, we took a detour past Salt Pier to observe progress on loading of the salt ship. We got home with just enough time to go for a swim. It sure was refreshing after missing several days due to the rough waves. We felt cooler the whole evening.

After our swim, as we were walking on a sidewalk on our way home, I saw a small piece of ‘coral’ move. I thought, “That’s strange, neither of us kicked it!” Almost immediately and subconsciously from experience 40 years, I remembered it could only be one thing — a very small hermit crab. We picked it up and brought it home to release in another area with less traffic. It’s overall length was about one inch.

After supper, I added three blog entries with lots of photos for two of them. I am amazed how long it takes to add photos and keep a reasonably organized look.

Hermit crab

Today was a little different. This morning I went into the office and met with the Barker girls and we made some quilt shapes. They will put them together for a hot pad. It was fun, but I think it would have been easier and moreenjoyable to have better equipment. My scissors have gotten very dull and Rhonda’s scissors were no better. But we managed to cut the shapes and fold them around the paper octagons. Now to see how it finishes up.

On our way home we saw a bird eating its catch by the sea. We went around the block and took a picture. He was quite happy to have his picture snapped until I got out of the car to see if I could get closer.

As we drove by the fish market, we noticed that they had lots of fruit and even some plants from Venezuela. We stopped and bought bananas and papaya and took a picture of the ‘banana boat’ (as

we used to call them) at the wharf. We used to buy straight off the boat, but things have changed.

On our way to the site we saw a ship at the salt flats pier, so we drove the extra mile past the site gate to take some pictures. When we got closer, we heard a warning siren, which we learned later was because they were in the process of opening the huge covers over the rear hold in preparation for loading.

We checked again several hours later as were were heading home. We could now clearly see that the huge covers over the hold were folded back. The conveyor belt was running and salt was flowing into the ship’s hold using a funnel type arrangement. We assume this is so

the falling salt will not blow around under windy conditions. Unless there are conveyors inside the hold, they will need to move the ship to fill the front hold.

We were amazed to see that the loading onto the conveyor was being done by a couple of front end loaders. They loaded the salt into a hopper over the conveyor belt which evenly distributed salt onto the conveyor. We observed that the loaders were not able to load enough salt to prevent empty spots on the conveyor belt. It is going to be interesting to see how long it takes to fill this huge ship.

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Tuesday morning, I was in the office doing more identification of old pictures and laying out a huge map to prepare it for mounting and display. It will be hung in the main entrance area to show the different locations of our partners, places that are reached by the broadcasts and other interesting information about TWR Bonaire.

I did see a cockroach at the office. It was dead, which is a good thing. I really don’t enjoy killing those huge crunchy things. Yuck!!!

I went to the transmitter site with Larry in the afternoon and later went shopping. The shelves were pretty empty. With the threat from Hurricane Tomas, no shipments were coming in. Even the fruit vendor was closed. One of the days when I was at the Warehouse Supermarket, I saw some lunch meat with a face on it. I did take a picture, but didn’t buy any! (see below)

While at the transmitter site we did see flamingos and wild donkeys, as well as the resident egret on the property. That was fun. It was as good as zebra and wildebeest at TWR Swaziland transmitting site.

Because of all the rain our backyard is now a swamp! We have gone from 12 inch grass to desert looking ground to three inches of water. By Saturday the grass should be growing well again, as it is already poking green sprouts through the water!

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