rough seas for first time

[paydirt]

I have been sailing around cortez and anna maria island for awhile and finally decided to venture to eggmont key. I tried and had to turn back. the wind was coming out of the west, SW at about 10 knts. once i got past bean point (land) into the bulkhead where the gulf meets the river, the seas were too big at about 2-3'. since i needed to go NW I just tacked towards the skyway bridge and then I thought I would tack the other way to the key. I got alot of lee helm for some reason. I did buy an ida rudder works well. I also added some cumaru on the bottom over the keel inside and also made one for a "cockpit grate" so I may have added 100-150# to the boat but not sure if that is enough to make it lee helm as much as it seemed. I was by myself thankfully because my kids would have been crying. I went out for a couple of hours and went about 2 nms at avg 4 knts so I was getting beat up and decided to head back.
I think I will wait til the winds change to try again and maybe that will help. I will try to post some pictures of some of the upgrades to the boat