water in the bilge

[Kevin White]

I recently towed my boat from Ojai, CA to the Sacramento Delta, up Interstate 5. Holy Moly what a rough road. When I stopped to check out the trailer hubs and overall state of the truck and trailer, I noticed water coming out the drain plug. I wrote it off as residual from the previous outing in the bilge. At the next gas stop, there was still water leaking out. At this point I was over 200 miles into the trip with a couple hundred to go so I continued with the horrible thought that the rough ride had broken the water tank connections as there was water in the bow foot well as well. When we got to the ramp, I cleaned up the foot well and dried it up with a towel then turned on the house pump expecting a torrent, but there was none. Prior to the trip, I put a few gallons in the water tank to hopefully add some tongue weight and I deduced that somehow, the rough ride had caused water to slosh out of the tank and into the foot well that sent water back to the bilge and out the drain plug. So, we completed the trip without further incidence and now I'm left with the question; how did the water from the tank end up on the floor? On out return trip, out tank was virtually empty and there was no water in the bow foot well. Any ideas? I am currently trying to figure out how to add a tank monitoring system for the black and fresh water tanks. Having to guess how much water and how full wasn't convenient.
I was so impressed with the way the boat handled and performed. What a machine! We were very comfortable and all systems performed perfectly. I even sucked up some algae into the raw water pump that clogged the intake. I had to put a wet suit on and mask and armed with a knife I was able to unclog the vent. It was packed tight. The sea strainer did it's job and the boat ran perfectly.