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Published: November 5th 2013
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"Summerizing."
For our northern boating friends, this might be a new word and new concept, as it was to us. As good as we may have become at winterizing our boat is about as bad as we were at summerizing Caribee.
We arrived back in Fort Pierce about two weeks ago. We pulled into the marina at dusk. It was a very warm night, and it felt even warmer to us- we had just driven straight from Montreal with only a few hours rest along the way. A big difference in temperature for sure! It was just light enough to see how different the deck looked with the damaged teak gone, and to see the beginnings of our hard top bimini in place. The details would have to wait until the morning. The best change for us at this particular moment was to see that our shore power had been added, and we would be able to go inside Caribee and turn on lights as we pleased. The last time we returned to Caribee in the dark in Virginia we had to find flashlights for everything as the batteries were not properly charged- at that time we only had
the solar panels to charge them. When we opened the boat the humidity came pouring out... along with an unpleasant smell. The temperature had reached very high degrees while we were away, and Caribee had been all closed up. Worse yet, it rained a lot during the time the decks were being done, and we discovered that water had managed to get into the boat. This made us happier about our decision to remove the damaged teak because obviously there were leaks in the deck we did not know about, but the bad news was that the water had allowed too much moisture to be trapped inside, and mold began to grow. A quick inspection of the rooms showed that the two back bedrooms and our vberth bedroom showed to signs of mold, but we knew we had to clean everything anyway. The main salon was not too bad considering the water that was sitting under the floor, but again we would clean everything. The bunk room held a very bad surprise. We had left some cans of beer and coke in a big container, lid off. Neither of us was aware that cans exploded in extreme heat- we only
knew you couldn't leave them over the winter in extreme cold. Along with lots of mold in this room there was also a sticky mess to deal with. The boat itself was very hot and humid regardless of the mold smell, so we slept in the cockpit that night in the breeze.
The next full week, and possibly a day or so more, was dedicated to eliminating the cause of mold and the mold itself. We had not put our clothes and linens in airtight bags, so we took many trips to the laundromat and washed absolutely everything in the boat. We also washed walls, ceilings, cupboards, dishes, cutlery, shoes, throw pillows, throw rugs- everything. Thankfully I had varnished pretty much the whole boat as well, so the mold was not able to penetrate into the wood. For the cushions we bought a bissell- how scary it is to see the dirty water coming out! But how amazing to know they are clean afterwards, even if it takes forever to do each one and your hands ache afterwards. We had fans going to help dry everything out completely, and to help us cool off. We were not yet used
to the heat, let alone work in it. We had some really hot days at that time too. We have learned from this- we need to make sure that we have a method of removing the humidity when the boat is not in use. Although it was a really tough week, we are happy that nothing was really damaged through our ignorance and we only had to throw out a few things in the end.
We managed to get the boat in order just in time for some visitors- we were happy to welcome Alain and Darlene for drinks and supper on their way down the coast. It was great to relax and laugh with friends. We also met them a few days later to go to the Fort Lauderdale boat show. At the show Marty got some information on solar panels, we replaced our hose and we got some ideas. We spent more time in great company, I think it lifted both our spirits.
Now we are making our list once again of all the things we need to do before we leave here. Time to move forward. They are working on the hard top today, it
is now properly arched and they are bolting it on. As a result we have two extra poles in the cockpit coming off the table. We were not sure about this initially, but they don't take away from the view when helming, they don't take much away from the table and they add places to hold onto. One of them will even be a good protection for the nav pod- people will grab the pole now instead of trying to hang onto the nav pod when entering the boat from the transom. The solar panels are are being ordered today, and once they arrive the hard top can be finished. The fridge compressor has announced it has done its day, turning off now and then but coming back to life when some wires are jiggled. We will have to get a new compressor- it is not worth rebuilding our original one. We are researching how to test the wind generator, and we will run the proper gauge wire for it tomorrow. We have a page full of things already, some of them are large projects and luckily some will probably be done more quickly. We will not leave until we
are satisfied that we have done all we need to for the boat, and until we have rested and are ready for the journey.
Other than the gale warnings of yesterday and today everything has been great here. We have been welcomed back by friends, and we slowly relax a bit more each day. Now that the mad cleaning is over I think we'll be able to post about our progress a little more often.
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Yvette & Claude Lussier
non-member comment
Patience
I guess you know by now if you are not patient you can't own a boat. You might consider installing solar powered little fan for ventilation. Had 2 in my sailboat and they worked great. Good luck and have a safe trip