Mildew, nobody's favourite thing

Well, today.  What a day! 

I mean in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal at all, but today was....the battle of the mildew; and I wasn't happy.

I woke up far to early, and lay in bed, realizing I could smell mildew.  Now that's the way to start a day!!!!  Nobody loves mildew, but living on a boat, especially a sparsely insulated boat in a cold climate, you learn to hate mildew in such a wide variety of ways!  The walls in the v-berth are theoretically somewhat insulated, in that they glued on a vinyl backed bit of thin foam.  It is effectively impossible to remove without a grinder, and brilliantly has a weave pattern pressed into them, cause wtf not?  Except when mildew starts to grow, it finds every one of those nooks and crannies the perfect place to hang out.  And makes it equally difficult to remove!  Love.

So this morning, before breakfast or a cup of tea, there I was with an old toothbrush, cleaning fluid and some tp, having a go at it.  We really can never completely get rid of it, but by poisoning it regularly with the cleaning fluid, we can keep it in control.

Headlamp on, cause the Netherlands in mid December doesn't exactly see a lot of light.  (Mildew heaven, rain rain more rain, cold and no sunlight!)

Well, that accomplished, off to breakfast, if not feeling happy, at least like I've accomplished something.  Darned my sweater after breakfast as I was on a roll and we'd gotten up early (insomnia + mildew = not sleeping in!)  and I thought I'd read a book for a few minutes while my phone charged before taking Stella Petronella out for her 2 - 3 hr walk.  Gotta have lots of juice to listen to that many podcasts!

Well, I pulled the book out, and you can probably guess this, it was really wet and mildew-y.  NooooO!

Pulled its neighbours out, yet, active ponding water and lots and lots of disgusting growth.  I, in a mix of despair and rage contemplate throwing out all the books, but reason prevails.  Thankfully!  One had to be tossed, and one I'll read and get rid of.  We cleaned it out back there, again that same stupid foam shit, and Stella and I went on our walk while the best husband in the world continued the battle. 

We decided we'd need some kind of plastic grid along the back of the bookcase to keep the books from touching the hull and to promote air circulation, so we arranged to meet up at the tail end of the walk to go the Karwei - imagine Home Depot, but much smaller and with more furniture.  We may have found a solution there!  Wandering the store and thinking laterally, we found this:

It's that cheap plastic stuff that people put on the roof of sheds.  Just might do the trick, and it was really the only option.  Plus we got some pipe insulation to stuff up behind the ornamental trim to insulate the bolts that hold the hull and deck together.  You see, because they're metal and they go through to the outside, they get horrific condensation, hence the ponding, but a good layer of insulation and hopefully that would be solved. 

Back home, a little lunch, a little struggle cutting the plastic roofing stuff, and it's all up again, well minus a couple of things.

Doesn't look tooooooo bad!  We'll get more of that pipe insulation for all around the v-berth, and likely some more of the roofing stuff for behind the other bookshelf, and possibly between the mattresses and the hull in the v-berth as well.  They get more than a little damp too, and if they don't touch the mildewing walls, they'll last longer.

Oh, and the best husband in the world?  We took turns going into Karwei cause we had Stella Bella with us and she can't go in.  When he came out having bought everything, he brought me a chocolate bar.  This man can totally STAY!

Living on my ja-ch-t.