Prout Quest mast height

[classicone]

Tomorrow we will be passing under a 45' bridge. Our first low bridge to test the height limit of our venerable Prout Quest. I hope I wasn't too optimistic about our height!

After arriving at our southernmost destination, I'm going to tackle some of the ingress of water.

I suspect that the hull to deck seam is to blame. Our head has quite the puddle of condensation and moisture from ingress. How do know? I tasted the damn salty stuff! Obviously there is some ingress from the ocean.

We have busted both hinges on the forward deck storage locker. Buggers are just pot metal and have been cracked since we purchased SunStar2 4 years ago. But, they finally gave out. Got to go looking for better replacements.

We sailed her outside the AICW this week. For you who don't know what I'm talking about.... the US coast has an "intracoastal" waterway, protected canals, steams, rivers and such that you rarely even see the ocean. We have been traversing this waterway for the last six weeks. We finally took the plunge and went "outside" into the vast Atlantic ocean for a passage of 20 miles and guess what...the wind died to flat calm and we had to motor the whole way..... very anti-climatic.

Big Red, our trusty Bukh has continued to amaze us at it's frugal use of the stinky stuff. I just wish she was quieter. Have almost 140 operating hours on this trip alone. Only one failure "alternator bolt" and one semi failure..stuck starter solenoid that responded to a light tap on the housing. Hope this doesn't manifest into something more....Bukh starters are notoriously expensive.

One the question side, has anyone fitted an ESPAR type heating system in their Prout? The hot water type?

Terry