On Wednesday June 11 we departed Rocky Harbour and preceded north on NL 430 headed to Saint Lunaire-Griquet, NL, located on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland. The rains had returned and soon became a deluge. On the way we saw a moose running along side us off the road. He decided he wasn't going to win this race and bolted into the woods.
Then disaster: the dreaded STOP ENGINE message and red light. Faithful readers will remember we had a STOP ENGINE fault back in August last year while traveling in the Colorado Rockies. That episode resulted in a 113 mile tow, a $23,000 repair bill and a delay of 3 weeks, almost causing us to miss our NKK Grand Circle Caravan. CRAP! Not again!!!
After only a few miles I was able to pull off the road into an Irving Oil service station in Hawke's Bay. My BlueFire adapter showed the fault was related to a severe high engine crankcase pressure. That's a new one for me.
My Cummins Inline Mini Data Adapter confirmed that diagnosis and showed that it was still an active fault. DOUBLE CRAP!
I called Cummins, our engine manufacturer and got through to a representative pretty quickly, but the guy was not terribly helpful. He suggested one cause might be a clogged crankcase ventilation filter, but without someone putting eyes on it, he couldn't be sure. He strongly suggested not driving the coach with an active STOP ENGINE code. I asked him if the extremely heavy rain and the water on the highway could be a factor, and he said not likely. He did suggest we shut the engine off for a minimum of about 20 minutes and to let the crankcase pressure go down and see if the fault disappeared, so that's what we did. While waiting for the engine crankcase pressure to go down I went into the Irving station to see where the nearest diesel mechanic might be. The guy there suggested I see David at D&D Repairs, who had a shop about less than a mile down the road.
When I restarted the coach the fault showed "Inactive" suggesting the fault condition no longer existed. I was able to clear the stop engine light on the dash, so maybe everything is all good now, and that it was a fluke fault (is that a thing?)
I still wanted to have someone look at it, so I drove down the road to D&D Repairs. Unfortunately no one was there, and the place was locked up tight. CRAP!
At this point we had a decision to make. Continuing on our intended route would only take us further away from a a qualified service facility, We knew there was a good engine service facility in Deer Lake, about 130 miles back; in fact two of our caravan members had had repairs done there in the last few days. So what to do? It was encouraging that I had been able to clear the fault code and that it had not returned. Being generally optimistic and somewhat willing to take a gamble, we decided to continue on.
Almost immediately after pulling out from D&D Repairs, I saw what appeared to be another truck shop across the road on the right. I quickly pulled in and saw there was an open bay and truck repair work was in progress. It turns out that the facility was primarily a trucking company, George House Trucking Ltd, rather than a a repair facility, but I went in anyway to see if they could help. I met Tyler who immediately agreed to come out and take a look. He connected his diagnostic computer to the engine and observed the same thing I had already learned. He added that there had been only 1 count of the fault code, and that the fault condition had lasted only one second. He also told me, if the crankcase pressure was actually high, I would also see high oil pressure readings. That would be a bad thing because it could cause blow-by in the cylinders and damage the engine. I had not observed any high oil pressure readings on the dashboard display, and his diagnostic device showed no high oil pressure readings had been logged. This is good news. I asked him the same question I had asked the Cummins guy: could the fault have been caused by the heavy rain and wet roadways? He said the experts would say no, but he believed definitely yes. So perhaps water had splashed onto the pressure sensor connector resulting in a false reading. With this new information I decided our previous decision to continue on was the right decision. Tyler spent perhaps 1/2 hour working on our coach but said there would be no charge. I slipped him a few bills anyway. Soaked from the persistent rain I returned to the coach and we continued on our way.
The fault code did return again later in the afternoon. But by the time we checked into camp the active code had disappeared and cleared. I did another scan and saw we now had 2 inactive fault codes, so apparently the intermittent fault had occurred just one more time. The rain has now diminished somewhat, so maybe we are good now. (On edit 7/4/25: so far the fault code has not returned. When we return home I will try to located the crankcase pressure sensor connector and seal it or coat it with some dielectric grease.)
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| We're really up there now |
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| Ted is our dedicated volunteer parking director today. I got two words for Ted: Gore Tex |
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| Cold windy and wet at Viking RV Park |
After we checked in at Viking RV Park we had a group dinner at Northern Delight in Saint Lunaire-Griquet.
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| Jeanne and Dorcas |
Kris gets down and boogies on the ugly stick.
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| Newfoundlanders like colors |
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| But sometimes they don't bother with colors |
On Thursday morning rains stopped, the sun came out, at least for a while, then cold and rain again tonight.
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| Our weather today |
Taking advantage of the fair weather our group visited Norstead.
From Wikipedia:
Norstead: A Viking Village and Port of Trade is a reconstruction of a Viking Age settlement. Located near L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Norstead won the provincial Attractions Canada award for "Best New Attraction" in 2000, and was the centerpiece of a series of events held that year to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Vikings' arrival. The site also houses a 54-foot replica Viking knarr which sailed from Greenland to L’Anse aux Meadows in 1998 with a crew of nine men.
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| Telling fortunes using runes |
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| Blacksmith's shop |
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| Full-scale replica of the Viking ship "Snorri", which sailed here from Greenland |
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| Dorcas: Viking queen |
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| Woolens |
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| Jamie and Beth serving box lunches |
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| Leif Ericson Monument |
From Wikipedia:
Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (c. 970s – c. 1018 to 1025) was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago.
In the afternoon we visited L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site contains the excavated remains of a complete 11th-century Viking settlement, the earliest evidence of Europeans in North America. Situated at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, this exceptional archaeological site consists of eight timber-framed turf structures built in the same style as those found in Norse Greenland and Iceland from the same period. The buildings include three dwellings, one forge and four workshops, on a narrow terrace overlooking a peat bog and small brook near the shore of Epaves Bay in the Straight of Belle Isle.
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| Al interprets the carvings |
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| Dorcas brought home a Newfie: a Newfoundland dog |
On Friday our group went on an iceberg and whale watching boat tour out of St. Anthony. Correction: there were no whales to be seen, but the tour operators practiced truth in advertising.
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| It was a cold and blustery day on the water |
But we did see icebergs.
St Anthony is adjacent to Iceberg Alley. Iceberg Alley refers to a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean that goes from the Arctic to Newfoundland. Most icebergs drifting through Iceberg Alley come from the coast of Greenland, when in the spring and summer, chunks of glaciers break off and Labrador Current takes them along the Baffin Bay and into the Labrador Sea, where they eventually melt. Icebergs from Greenland generally take about two years to reach Newfoundland.
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| Dorcas eating an iceberg chip |
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| Dorcas saw an iceberg. She's happy |
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| Myron eating an iceberg chip |
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| Fishing Point Lighthouse |
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| Our boat tour track |
In 1912, a light was established at the south entrance of St. Anthony Harbour, replacing the original harbour light placed there in 1906. The white occulting light was installed in a cast-iron light tower. It exhibited 20.5 meters (67 feet) above sea level and was visible for 10 miles. A fog alarm was installed at the site in 1936, housed in a flat-roofed, wooden building. The light tower and fog alarm building were painted with red and white vertical stripes.
In 1958 a new fog alarm was installed, and in 1955 provision was made for a new landing, storehouse and outdoor toilet. A bungalow was constructed in the same year. Because the lighthouse was on a 20 minute walk from St. Anthony, the keepers’ children were able to attend school and the families could participate in social functions in the town.
In 1960 the iron tower was replaced with a combined light tower and fog alarm building, a new aluminium lantern was installed, and the acetylene gas light was converted to station-generated electricity. A second dwelling was constructed in the early 1960s. Commercial power was brought to the station in 1970.
Fishing Point Lighthouse was de-staffed in July 1992 due to automation initiatives. However in July 2002 it was re-staffed again with 4 light keepers. There are currently 3 light keepers at the site.
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| Fishing Point Lighthouse |
From Trip Advisor:
Somewhere around 450 steps... but I wasn't going down to recount. This is a unique walk that gets one thinking about the tenacity of Newfoundlanders who would build their version of "The Stairway to Heaven".
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| Stairway to Heaven |
We encountered a massive traffic jam returning home from our visit to the lighthouse. We took a detour around the construction using some side streets and a shortcut through the high school parking lot and by-passed about 3/4 mile of the backup, and then stopped for groceries and dinner. By the time we were back on the road the traffic had cleared. Slick move!
After 3 nights at Saint Lunaire-Griquet, it is time to move along. Tomorrow we back track south to Rocky Harbor.
