Mold

Killing Mold with Vinegar

Mold is a terrible scourge on a yacht. It lives in the wood of the interior and is always lurking just below the surface, waiting for the perfect conditions to bloom and rise up! 

Mold is not just fuzzy and annoying, it can also pose great respiratory concerns! Mold spores can trigger symptoms as mild as allergic reactions all the way up to much more serious conditions like aspergilliousis. 

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Killing mold (or at least driving it back into the wood where you won’t be exposed to it) is actually simple to accomplish. 

Maddie sprayed straight white vinegar onto the afflicted areas and let it sit for a full hour. Then she scrubbed the surface with a stiff brush (we used a new toilet bowl brush) to get into all the nooks and crannies of the interior joinery. After that she wiped the surfaces down with a dry towel.  

You might be wondering about the vinegar smell. Let me assure you that the smell is strong but it does air out quickly with the hatches open. So, be sure to do this on a dry day when you can open up the hatches instead of on a rainy day when you will be trapped without ventilation inside what would smell like a pickle jar! 

Mold

The Azores have a nice cool wet winter climate, perfect for growing mold.

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We left the boat for about a month of the Christmas holiday and when we returned, the inside of our home was covered in a milky green hue.

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This fuzzy surface was most disturbing, as it is just the equivalent of a plants flower. The real organism was living deep inside all of the wood on our boat. Our home is but a varnished and painted fungus.