Triangle Loop – Week 27 (Maintenance And Old  Friends)

Oct 26th to Nov 1st, 2025

Day 182 – Sunday, October 26th, 2025 – To: Murrells Inlet, SC
Wacca Wache Marina

• From: Holden Beach, NC
• To: Murrells Inlet, SC – Waccca Wache
• Start Time: 10:30 am
• Dock Time:3:55 pm
• Time Underway: 5 h 25 m
• Miles Traveled: 53.3 NM (61.3 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 9.9 knots (11.4 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 2 Locks: 0
• Weather:54°-60° – Overcast
• Winds: 6-12 mph – Waves: None

On Sunday morning, our friends Robert and Diane picked us up and we went to Breakfast. It was great to catch up with them! We got back to the boat about 10:15 and were underway by 10:30. Our run today to Murrells Inlet, SC, our old home marina, is just over 60 miles. There are two swing bridges and lots of No Wake zones along the route. As we left Holden Beach, our chartplotter said our ETA was 5:45 pm. The marina closes at 4:00, so we had some time to make up. As this was our old home marina, they would have just told us which slip to go to, but we wanted to try to get there before they closed anyway.

The entire trip was speed up for a bit, slow down for a no-wake zone or small boat. Being Sunday, there were some fishing boats out, but fortunately, the cold weather and clouds seemed to have kept traffic down.

When we reached the Little River Swing bridge, we were stunned to see it open! In all of our trips through Little River, I don’t think we’ve ever not had to wait. We’ve hit rocks waiting, waited over six hours for it to open, there always seems to be an issue! I called the bridge on the radio and asked it to stay open for us. They said, “Come on through!” Woo Hoo!

After Little River is an area called the “Rock Pile”, which is the longest blasted section of the ICW. At low tide, the rock edges of the channel look like sharp, pointy teeth. It was high tide as we went through, and aside from having to pass a small tugboat with no barge, we were able to stay in the middle of the channel and run at 18 mph.

The rest of the way to the Socastee Swing Bridge was pretty much more of the same, speed up, slow down. This is all very familiar territory to us, so we know where most of the slow zones are. We were amazed at how much of the land along the ICW has been developed or cleared, ready for development. Pretty soon, the entire Myrtle Beach section will be lined with houses.

At the Socastee Swing Bridge, we radioed the bridgetender and asked for an opening. We only had to wait a few minutes, and the bridge opened. We went through and saw a boat behind us racing to make the opening. The mile beyond the bridge is all no-wake with houses and marinas. Also, the Waccamaw River is in flood right now, so the water is extra high. Just after the bridge, the boat that was racing to make the opening came past at 20 knots in a no-wake zone . The wake rocked us, and the fast boat almost went onto the bank while going around us. The waves it made knocked a jet ski off a dock on the bank. The captain was an idiot and was operating very unsafely. I told him so on the radio! If you ever see a Hinkley named Ricochet, give the guy a slap-upside-the-head for me.

Once we reached the Waccamaw River a mile later, we were able to run at 20 mph for most of the rest of the way to Wacca Wache. We got there at 3:50, just in time, and they had us tied up in our slip by 4:00. It was good to be back in our old home.

After we got shut down, we walked to the office to check in. They were just heading home, so they said “Go Away And Come Back Tomorrow.” We went to Outriggers, the restaurant at the marina, and had an appetizer (chicken fingers), and I had my local favorite beer, “Dirty Myrtle”. We chatted with a few folks and then had dinner.

When we got back to the boat, we went a few boats down the dock to Bandit. We first met Ann & Cliff on Bandit at Killarney Mountain Lodge in the North Channel during our Second Loop. They were traveling with Brenda and Tim on Indigo, who we started the trip with. We followed them off and on down the rivers.

As we walked up to their boat, they were just going up to their flybridge. I called out, “Hey! You can’t park here!” It took them a minute to realize who we were! They invited us aboard, and we chatted for about an hour, catching up and sharing notes on other friends.

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Day 183 – Monday, October 27th, 2025 – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

On Monday morning, we went to the Myrtle Beach Airport to pick up a rental car, then stopped at Lowes Supermarket to pick up a few essentials. We are staying here in Murrells Inlet until Sunday, and then if the weather cooperates, we only have 5 days before we reach home. We still have supplies we started the trip with in April and want to get through as many as we can before we get home.

When we got back to the boat, we put the groceries away and then went up to the office to check in. It had been spitting rain all morning, and we got showers all afternoon. We spent the afternoon cleaning the boat and getting ready for Mendy from A&M to arrive in the morning to do some maintenance.

We have put almost 1,000 hours on the engines since they were rebuilt before our second Loop trip, and it’s time to maintain the consumables. Water pump impellers, belts, engine fuel filters, and to make sure everything is tight. Having a professional give your engines a good lookover every now and then helps prevent future failures.

Finding good boat diesel mechanics that you can trust is difficult. Very few people are entering the trade, and aside from shade tree mechanics, they are few and far between. One of the major repair companies on the East Coast, Zimmerman Marine, just closed their Solomons Island, MD, location because they can’t hire enough qualified help. Manufacturers are making it difficult as well, forcing mechanics to be “Certified,” taking several weeks of expensive training a year, charging thousands of dollars to access parts and repair manuals, and requiring minimum yearly parts purchases. I think that within a few years, it will get to crisis mode and start affecting boat sales. We’ve used A & M Marine in Georgetown for over 8 years since we purchased our boat, and they have done fantastic work for us. They are certified with most major engine manufacturers and, most importantly, can be trusted to do the job right the first time at a competitive rate. They removed the engines from our boat and completely rebuilt them before our second loop trip. We’ve put 1,000 hours and 10,000 miles on them with no issues. Thanks, Michael!

Day 184 – Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5:30 and started getting the boat ready for the mechanic’s arrival. This means moving the table out, rolling up the carpet, and lifting the floor to give easy access to the engine room. Mendy arrived at 7:30 and got to work. I have an 8-year relationship with A&M, and one of the things that they have allowed me to do over the years is watch, learn, and assist. This has saved me lots of billable time over the years. They don’t do it for most customers, and I feel fortunate to have the relationship.

The first thing that he tackled was a pesky fuel leak on the port engine. The seal on the fuel line to one of the injectors drips, and I’ve been getting an increasing drip from where the fuel lines connect to the fuel pump. After a few minutes of poking around and checking the tightness of the fittings, he found that one of the connections to the pump was loose, so loose that he could wiggle it. He had to remove a few parts to access the fitting and tighten it, but it was clear that that was where the leak was coming from! No parts! He cleaned up the area and wrapped absorbent towels around the fittings. Then we cranked up the engines and ran them at near full RPM to make sure that the pump was fully pressurized and watched it for a few minutes. No leaks! The towels were clean. Tick that one off the list.

Next, he replaced the impellers on the water pumps. This went pretty well. On one of them, he had to remove the pump from the engine to get the new impeller to seat fully. The engine belt replacements went smoothly.

It had been raining overnight and for most of the morning. We had a break in the rain, so Mendy decided to do the generator maintenance next, since that is outside in the lazzerette. We’ve been having an on-and-off problem with the pump losing prime, and we suspect the impeller on the water pump. He pulled the covers off and replaced the belt first, since that was easy. Next was the water pump impeller. There are only two bolts that hold the water pump, so he removed it from the generator to make removing and installing the impeller easier. It was a quick job. He reassembled it, and before we put the covers back on, we gave it a quick test. No water. We checked all the hose connections, the strainer, and made sure that we had reopened the seacock. Still nothing.

We spent the next two hours pressurizing the system with a hose. When pressurized, it worked okay, but as soon as we relied on the pump to move the water, it did nothing. By process of elimination, we decided that it was the pump. We isolated the pump and tried to pull water from a bucket. It didn’t work. There was nothing obvious, but that was the point of failure. Michael ordered us a new one for overnight delivery. The pump is original, and it has over 3,200 hours on it, so I guess it’s time for a new one.

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That took care of day one! After cleaning up, we went to Outrigggers, the restaurant at the marina, and met Cliff and Ann on Bandit for dinner.

Day 185 – Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

Wednesday, we started at 7:00. Today’s project was to detach the transmission, remove the pressure plate, and the flywheel, so that we could access the rear main engine seal. This is a pretty big job. We have experience with this from when we removed the engines to do the rebuild, so we got right into it. First, Mendy disconnected the propeller shaft from the transmission, and we pushed it back to make room to move the transmission back. Next, we removed the bolts from the motor mounts so that Mendy could jack up the engine and place blocking under it.

To get access to the bolts that hold the transmission to the engine, he had to remove a bunch of coolers, brackets, wires, and hoses. Once he had access to the bolts that hold the transmission to the engine, Mendy practiced boat mechanic yoga to remove the 12 bolts that hold them together. We then lifted the transmission onto blocks and 2x4s so that we could slide it back out of the way. After removing the pressure plate (8 bolts), we struggled to remove the six large bolts that held the flywheel on. The engine was reassembled in A&M’s shop during the rebuild, and there was plenty of room to torque the bolts properly. In the close confines of the engine room, it took all of Mendy’s substantial strength and weight to break them free. Once the flywheel was off, we had access to the seal. We could see that the seal had been leaking. It was a bit of a job to remove, and it looked like there might have been a split in the seal, probably a manufacturing defect.

Once the seal was removed, I tapped in the new seal while Mendy replaced the engine’s fuel filters. Now it was time to put it all back together—five hours of work for a 10-minute job to install the seal. It was a reverse of the disassembly process—first, the flywheel, and then retorquing the bolts. Then the pressure plate. By this time, it was close to 3:00, and we decided to quit for the day, before lifting the transmission back into place.

After I got cleaned up, we went to Quigley’s for dinner. It is an old favorite restaurant of ours from when we lived here.

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Day 186 – Thursday, October 30th, 2025 – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

It was another 7:00 start time. The first job was to lift the transmission back off the blocking and onto the engine mounts, then it was a process of pushing, pulling, lifting, and wiggling to get the transmission back and lined up with the engine. Mendy then did his yoga again to replace the bolts that attach the transmission to the engine.

While he reattached all the coolers, brackets, wires, and hoses, I replaced the engine zincs while I had reasonably easy access. Once Mendy had everything put back together and we had the bolts loosely back in the engine mounts, we pulled the prop shaft back into place and checked the alignment. Mendy had taken care to keep the engine from moving while lifting it and had marked the positions of the engine mounts on the stringers so we could get them back into the exact location. The shaft alignment was almost perfect, and with just a few tweaks, we got it back into position and bolted it back to the transmission.

There was some more reassembly, reinstalling the exhaust, and cleaning up the hoses and wires with tie wraps. Then came the moment of truth! We turned the key… And it started right up! We let it run for a bit and checked for leaks. None! Job done!

We got a message that FedEx had dropped the ball again. Side note, of the last six deliveries we’ve had from FedEx, only ONE has arrived on time. They are not the company they used to be. The delivery was now scheduled for sometime on Friday. We cleaned up the engine room and put the floor back in our salon. Then I decided to get the generator ready for the new pump so it would go quicker when we finally get it.

Mendy pulled off the generator pump and handed it to me. I was looking at it and noticed an old bit of impeller stuck in the intake side of the pump. We got really excited! We had found the problem! Mendy fished the bit out and reinstalled the pump. We started the generator, and… Nothing, it didn’t work. Bummer. We were SO sure that was the issue. So, we pulled the pump back off and called it a day.

After cleaning up, we got ready for dinner. On our second loop, we met a boat called Shamrock. Dawn, Mick, and their dog Hank were with us for Thanksgiving in Demopolis, Alabama, and again for New Year’s Eve at LuLu’s in Gulf Shores, Alabama. They also stopped in Palm Coast to visit when they came through this winter.

Their boat is here in Wacca Wachee, and they have it up for sale. They returned today for a showing and are leaving with it on Saturday to move it to Jacksonville, Florida, to make it easier to sell. We got together with them for dinner at Smuggler’s Den and had a great catch-up!

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Day 187 – Friday, October 31st, 2025 HALLOWEEN! – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

Friday, we were waiting to see if FedEx would deliver our part. We got to sleep in a bit as Mendy wasn’t going to be knocking on our door at 7:00. We ran a few errands and worked on route planning for the rest of our trip home, checking the FedEx site for a delivery notification about every 15 minutes. We finished putting the boat back in order after the maintenance and tidied up.

At 3:00, Mendy went to their office to check if the package had arrived, but nope. There were other packages, but not the pump. We had dinner plans with my friend Dave and his new wife, Vicki. We went to Hot Fish Club, one of our favorite old haunts (Halloween pun not intended), and had a great catch-up with them!

When we got back to the boat at 8:00, there was still no update on the package. We kept checking until 10:00, but nothing —still showed as “Out For Delivery”. So, we called it a day and decided to check in the morning.

Day 188 – Saturday, November 1st, 2025 – In: Murrells Inlet, SC

Saturday morning, we checked on the package again. There was no update. It still showed as Out For Delivery. I called FedEx, and they were no help. “Oh, your package is out for delivery and will arrive by 8:00 pm on Friday,” the customer service Dork said. I pointed out that today was SATURDAY. “Oh, I am sorry that your package was not delivered on Friday. But it is on a vehicle and will be delivered by 8:00 on Friday.” I again pointed out that 8:00 pm on Friday had come and gone. “Oh, I will have to escalate your case. You will hear something within two business days.” USELESS!!!!!

We decided to make some backup plans. I ordered another pump on Amazon. The soonest delivery was Monday. We are scheduled out of Murrells Inlet tomorrow, so I had it shipped to Georgetown, where the A&M office is, and we made a reservation at a marina in Georgetown for Sunday and Monday. At 9:00, I got a call from Mendy. Michael checked the office security cameras and saw the package sitting there. FedEx had never marked it as delivered!

Mendy went to the office and picked it up, and came to the boat at 9:30. While we were working on the generator, Brenda started a couple of loads of laundry. I had already removed the old pump, so it was a quick install. We tested it with a bucket of water before reconnecting everything, and it worked great! Mendy hooked everything up, and we ran the generator for about 10 minutes to make sure that it was working correctly. The water flow out of the exhaust is about double what we have been getting. Excellent!

Finding a marine mechanic who will answer the phone on a Saturday is about as rare as a Dodo Bird! Having one take time out of their weekend to pick up a package and install a part is almost unheard of! It pays to be respectful and generous to your mechanics. We always make sure we have coffee and cold drinks for them and get them lunch. You’d be amazed at how much extra work you’ll get out of a Jersey Mike’s sub! And we always tip for good service.

Once Mendy had left, Brenda went back up to the marina office to finish the laundry, while I returned our rental car. For the rest of the day, we finished up the blog and chatted with boaters we knew on the dock.

Our friends on Shamrock have been here for several months and were scheduled to leave this morning. When they checked out, they found they still had a couple of days left on their contract, so they opted to stay for a few more days. In the evening, we meet them again at Outriggers, the marina restaurant, for dinner.

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Recap of the week

We only traveled 61 miles this week, bringing our total to 3,651 miles so far. We made it back to our old home port, Wacca Wache, in Murrells Inlet, SC. We had some maintenance done on the boat and caught up with lots of friends.

Next week, weather permitting, we will make it most of the way home. If all goes well, we should arrive back in Palm Coast on Saturday, the 8th!

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Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda