i too had to cut my first boat trip of the season short....

last month I took my son and his two HS Baseball teammates striper fishing...

prepped the boat.. new battery, greased the trailer bearings, checked trailer lights, boat running lights, horn, bilge, lower gear unit, stereo,...eerything worked.....

beautiful day that was well planned. I was strictly the fishing guide..... took the kids to the hot spots all while listening to classic rock on the radio under a warn spring California sun.... excellent morning.

we trolled the early tide on the San Joaquim and landed 4 stripers... kids were hyped

as we got ready to jet to another spot, we open to foot locker to pull our life jackets and we find the hull is full of water.... "uh oh"... not a good sign.....

I flip on the bilge pump, it's not working.... "damn"...

I check the engine and it's half covered in water... I check the battery and the water level is about 3 inches shy of the batter terminals...

engine is running but the weight of boat has us bogged down to a top speed of 7 MPH...

We start to bail water and limp back to the boat ramp, which was about 3 miles away....


drained the boat, got her dry and ended the day early...

next day, I check for leaks in the engine... I figure it's a busted hose... can't find the source of the lead anywhere.... run the boat for an hour in my driveway.... no leaks, engine is running perfectly....

took the boat to my mechanic... he couldn't find anything wrong nor the source of the leaks... I had the shop change all belts and hoses for preventive maintenance.

we suspect that the water may have seeped in through the through hull due to the excess weight of the baseball players... big boys .....

I ready to go back out! How about you?