Re: New boat, water in the bilge
I don't think you need to worry about this yet Sandi but certainly something to look at in the future, your exhaust runs water through the manifolds and over time they wear out and need replaced, look for some water trickle near where the manifolds bolt to the block, mine are getting replaced this off season but my boats a fair bit older then yours, I think most here would say to check this more frequently as your boat gets older, I don't know of anything you can do to prevent this its just one of those things, when I winterize I drain my block of water and then I put antifreeze throughout my motor, so I feel pretty fortunate that I have gotten 14 years out of my manifolds.
Anyway you really need to learn to judge your water intake as you get more familiar with your boat, yeah I would expect a dry boat with the use you described but 2 quarts is not a lot and I think you are probably in fine shape, water can absolutely sit in your boat for a very long time depending on if it was stored properly with the bow up high enough to drain and even then water can still sit behind a bulkhead and need to be shaken loose while driving or whatever.
I would suggest you and your other half make certain that you have an auto bilge though and that it works properly, this will make you sleep better knowing that on overnights when the boat is in the water even if you do have a small leak in the bellows or some other area your bilge will automatically pump the water out, a quick way to check this is to simply put the pug in and run a hose into the engine compartment, and fill until your bilge turns on and pumps the water out, its important to note that your bilge will not get all of the water out since it will stop when the water drops to a certain point.
