This morning we had our ferry crossing booked for 11am and we needed to be at the ferry between and hour to 45 minutes before the crossing.
We’ve been talking about what to do with Jerry since we found out that we had a hole in the engine block. We’ve also had a lot of people give us some feedback on what we should do with Jerry too. We appreciate hearing from you, because it helps in our decision making process. We agree that we should replace the engine in Jerry and now that we were heading to Vancouver Island and have the benefit of time, we can get the work done on Jerry. Before we got to the Island though, Richard wanted to order a new engine for Jerry from the wreckers in Coombs, Vancouver Island. We had been shopping around online and seen that the wrecker actually did have an engine that would suit our Jerry. 109,000 Km on the engine too which is a lot less than the engine Jerry had.
Before Richard called the wrecker in Coombs though I had him walk over to Jerry who was parked in the front parking lot of the RV park, to double check the VIN # on Jerry. Just because Canadian tire typed in the Vin number on our invoice, doesn’t mean it was right! ‘Devil’s in the details’ as Ron Porter used to say. If we ordered an engine using the wrong VIN #, then we would be “up you know what creek, without a paddle!“ Richard came back from checking the VIN #, and sure enough it was correct. He got the guy in Coombs at the wrecker to confirm they did have the engine on hand with 109,000 km on it that would work for us. The cost would be $800 for the new engine.
Richard asked if there were any mechanics that the wrecker would recommend who could take on this job that weren’t far from Coombs. One person that was recommended was Coast Auto in Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island. Richard called and spoke to Brock, the new owner at Coast Auto who said he would be happy to do the job for us. He quoted us approximately $1800 which he thought might be on the high side because he said he would also need to replace the water pump and the thermostat. Now that we had the mechanic lined up to do the repair, Richard called the wreckers back and bought the engine and asked if it could be shipped over to Coast Auto by November 1st. WHEW! We were glad that was taken care of! Now off to catch the ferry!
The lovely roads at the Tsawwasen RV Resort! There has been a lot of rain lately, but the potholes were unbelievable! I thought Newman was going to get swallowed up by the potholes!
Our biggest challenge this morning was going to be backing up Newman to hook up to Jerry, with me directing Richard. Newman is 40 feet long and the ball of that hitch is pretty small to try and be so accurate and hook up Jerry, when Jerry is dead and doesn’t move at all. . Richard backed up and I tried to get him to go more to the right. He ended up too far to the right by about an inch. So I told him to go forward and back up again. This time he ended up 5 inches too far right. He tried again and he was almost there. I finally asked him to get out of Newman so he could see what he was dealing with. Then he backed up once again and BAM! DONE! We had hooked up Jerry to Newman. That was pretty stressful, since we were now at 10am, and Richard still had to hook up the brake lights, secure the tow hitch, and we still had to drive down the road to get in line for the ferry.
Here we go again! Victoria here we come!
The price of the ferry has gone up $12 since we were here in April, and the ferry was very busy this morning!
We are on the ferry!
When we left Newman down below, I visited the gift shop which is an amazing store for a ferry! The women’s and men’s clothing section had some excellent name brands, but we don’t need anything, so I left empty handed. Richard on the other hand went to the cafeteria and got a bowl of the Manhattan Clam Chowder, which he said was a 6/10. There was no wifi onboard so I read my Kindle, while Richard slept. The book I’m reading now is the new Louise Penny//Hillary Rodham Clinton collaboration called ‘State of Terror’. I started it last evening and I can’t put it down! The book was recommended to me by my friend Susan from Burlington. When I started to see land outside the ferry, I went out to the upper deck to take some photos.
Little did I know while I was out taking pictures, someone was taking pictures of me!
There were a lot of ferries crossing today on our trip to the Island.
Beautiful Gulf Islands off Vancouver Island.
There goes another ferry!
We were a few minutes late leaving Tsawwasen so we arrived into Schwartz Bay, Vancouver Island at 12:40pm. The first stop was YJJ - Victoria Airport for me to pick up our rental car from Avis. Luckily there were no other people renting from Avis, so I didn’t have to wait in line. Richard was outside the terminal waiting with Newman and Jerry and a bus came along, so he had to do a circle around the airport, while I was completing the paperwork for the car rental.
I was given the option of a Nissan Kicks or a Hyundai Kona and of course I chose the Kona. Having worked with Hyundai for over 20 years in time at Scotiabank, I much prefer Hyundai over Nissan and I like the Apple Car play, which is easy to use for navigation.
Richard went on ahead of me as I got my phone paired with the Kona and then I headed down the road to Peddar Bay RV Resort and Marina. We both arrived at Peddar Bay at the same time. I went in to register us and Richard unhooked Jerry in the marina parking lot.
Our balcony spot at Peddar Bay. Such a nice spacious lot and tons of room for parking the Kona, as well as Newman!
When I got out of the car though Richard was speaking to Drew, the Maintenance Manager at Peddar Bay. I was wondering why Drew had followed Richard in his pick up truck from the marina to our RV site. Next thing I knew, Drew was giving Richard the name of a mechanic to call. NOW WHAT?
Apparently when Richard tried to unhook Jerry from Newman in the marina parking lot, he put Jerry in 1st gear and despite being in 1st gear, Jerry rolled backwards! Oh my goodness. Don’t tell me either the clutch or the transmission is also gone on Jerry?!! Richard called the mechanic who does all of the work on Drew’s cars and boats to see if he could come and take a look at Jerry, but only got his voicemail. In the meantime, we called St. Stephen for an opinion on why he thought Jerry rolled backwards, despite being in 1st gear.
St. Stephen gave us his opinion on the issue with Jerry. He thinks that because there is no compression in the engine, the transmission won’t work either. Hence the rolling backwards, when Jerry is in first gear. Since we really need a mechanic to diagnose the issue, Richard has Drew’s mechanic coming tomorrow at 10am to take a look at Jerry. We’ve put the engine replacement with the wrecker in Coombs on hold until we know for sure what is wrong with Jerry. Hopefully we’ll have this figured out tomorrow. Canadian Tire in Kelowna couldn’t be wrong could they? Or is there more wrong than just the engine, and then we need to re-evaluate the repair to Jerry?
I wonder when we are going to start to have some fun, instead of dealing with things breaking down and trying to figure out what is wrong with all of the mechanical things we own?!! Since before we left home, til now, its been non stop mechanical issues. The weather has not been the problem on the journey this year at all. I’m not sure which was worse? We do know that we can’t control the weather, or the mechanical stuff, so we just have to ‘roll with it’!
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