Thursday, October 6, 2011

Oh the humidity!

Let me tell you about a fun thing that happens when you live on a boat and it rains for a week solid: EVERYTHING is damp and MOST OF IT gets moldy.

I am cringing just thinking of sharing these stories. If you are squeamish about mold you may want to stop reading right about now.

So here are the things you need to know before I start this tale of gruesome woe:
1. It rained for an entire week, thanks to Tropical Storm Lee.
2. I gave up and went to stay with the boyfriend for the rainiest weekend of them all.
3. The humidity was getting to me. OH THE HUMIDITY!

OK, now that you are properly prepared, I will begin.

When I came home, I decided to make toast. I love toast. I eat a lot of toast. And what did I discover that day? Well, I realized I hadn't emptied my crumb tray in a couple of weeks, so I took the toaster outside, held it over the side of the boat and shook. Nothing came out. Perplexed, I looked inside only to see that all the crumbs had turned into GREEN PUFFBALLS.

I manned up and took a couple deep breaths before I pried the bottom off of my $6 toaster and scraped the mold off, bleached the tray and then ran the toaster without toast thinking the heat might kill the mold.

When I told my mom this story, she said: "Um, why not throw it out? You said it doesn't work well anyway and you're the only person who uses the toaster at our house -- take that one."

So I did. I threw out the toaster. I just.... couldn't.

After the puffball incident, I realized my rug was damp and the floor was getting to be a strange color. Yep. My rug was molding. And I couldn't get it to dry because of the humidity. Luckily I was able to save it with a quick trip through a washing machine and an air dry in a house that isn't as humid as a rainforest.

My towels were also distressingly still damp from a shower taken days before.

I attacked the mold with all my might and green cleaners -- it was raining on and off, so I couldn't deal with bleach in the cabin without ports open -- but you can be sure my bleach bottle is going to get a workout soon. Yick!

In the meantime, it has dried out a lot, but I am still researching ways to dehumidify, including the purchase of three 900-gram packets of silica gel in tyvek bags (they're rechargeable!) I don't see good reviews for the boat dehumidifiers on the market, but I can't figure out what else to do. I simply cannot fit a dehumidifier.

That said, the rain has stopped and the boat has dried out a LOT recently.... so maybe this was a fluke and I don't need a dehumidifier.

What do you all think?

5 comments:

  1. I think you need to move the fuck off the boat and live in an apartment or house like a normal person :D

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  2. Thanks, Roi. It's so nice to have supportive friends... ;-)

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  3. I have this on my houseboat, and I've been pretty happy with it (seriously, who has room for anything larger?):

    http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=100586&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50667&subdeptNum=50668&classNum=50671

    I'm thinking about getting one of these, too:

    http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=38370&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50667&subdeptNum=50668&classNum=50670

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  4. I had been thinking about one of those, Leslie, but the rainy season has stopped for now... next time I get a coupon for WM maybe I'll pick one up...

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  5. An air conditioner also dehumidifies. If you have one on the boat just run it.

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