Water in the engine compartment while in the slip! Hopefully its not bad

Well I let my kids talk me into storing the boat (05 XLV) this summer at the lake. Was fine the first 2 times but my boys left the ballast drain switch on 2 days ago and ran the batteries down. today when we arrived we had water up to the 3 sprinkle ballast manifold and the engine would not start even after jumping. It turned over but would not start. We live 2 hours away and all my goodies (jumper, extra battery, 12v manual ballast pump that would pump out the water in seconds, etc) the bilge would not run so that may be contributing to the problem.

I checked the oil and no problem there. I wonder if some of the electronics are wet, or possibly water in the gas (although the water was well below the spark plugs and the majority of the engine. I am heading back in the morning with the trailer to pull it out and figure out what damage has been done. Any pointers or anyone with past experience. I suspect my packing nut is leaking to fast. I can remember how to tighten that on my v drive.

Thanks in advanced

My packing nut was a little loose and allowing a stream of water in and I am sure that is why my compartment filled up over 2 days. I tightened it and got it to be a slow drip (1 drip/second), so I loosened the nut and tried to add another level of graphite rope but packing nut couldn't catch any threads so I just tightened the nut and will call it good until I get some new packing material. My boat ran great (I did have to switch out my Bilge pump as it has gone bad). Hopefully my starter will last as that appears the only thing that was under water (partially) that is not designed for water.

I believe that the v drives use 3/6 packing cord so I will order some up on skidim or go2marine.

My friend had a bad ballast bag and bilge pump. Filled with water like yours. Starter was only thing that got damaged.

If water got above the vent for the V-Drive then more than likely there would be water in there.