Mildewed Books

[SeaSeeker]

Just found several of my favorite books onboard have gotten unnoticed water damage and mildewed over the hot/humid Mexican summer months. Anyone have any suggestions for recovering them or at least reducing the damage?

[Billy Higgins]

Wipe them down gently with a rag lightly dosed with rubbing alcohol.

Over the years I have changed my approach to book storage - now I plan to carry the usual nav books in the open, but restrict almost everything else to paper backs that can be kept in ziplocks. Some books can remain in those shelves that are on the bulkhead, but not stored out against the hull where the mildew forms more quickly.

[jzk]

Give ebooks a try. No mildew, and not much weight....

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by SeaSeeker

Just found several of my favorite books onboard have gotten unnoticed water damage and mildewed over the hot/humid Mexican summer months. Anyone have any suggestions for recovering them or at least reducing the damage?

That stuff is very bad for you and you don't want it on your boat. Wrap them in a damp paper towel so it will catch any spores and get them off the boat. Replace them with used copies from Amazon dot com.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by jzk

Give ebooks a try. No mildew, and not much weight....

I have a Kindle and I love it. Unfortunately a lot of slightly older books aren't out in e-book format.

[dacust]

This would be overkill and too expensive for just a few books, but if you also have a little mildew in the boat, or some moldy places, or other odors, then this is a treatment for the whole boat.

==> Odor Watch Vapor and Solution - Boater Tech

Disclaimer: I have NOT used this and do not know anyone that has. But the video on their site is pretty impressive. And, from what I read, chlorine dioxide was widely used in New Orleans to treat houses that had been submerged.

-dan