The Great Loop: Rough start...

My new crew got off to a rough start. We left Dog River this morning and headed east onto Mobile bay. We were faced with 3 to 5 foot waves with a stiff wind out of the east. The first mile we were travelling directly into the waves which gave a reasonably soft ride with salt spray breaking over the bow so bad we had to have the windshield wipers on. To exit the bay we had to turn and follow the channel south for 6 or 7 miles in the center of the bay with the waves hitting the boat broadside. The boat was lurching so bad that Brian saw books flying across the main salon, then he saw Tom fly across the salon. After a mile of this beating I decided to chance crossing the bay outside the channel, that would allow us to square into the waves and soften the ride (and stay afloat). The water got pretty skinny (five feet) as we approached the exit from the bay but we made it OK. The balance of the day was still tough in some areas but not near as bad as Mobile Bay. We docked at Santa Rosa Yacht Club around 4:00.

I noticed before we left Dog River the aft bilge pump was running constantly. That was odd and I checked the bilge every 20 minutes for excess water. When we docked both the aft and forward pumps were running, not good.