Is It Time to Stop Sailing?

[hellosailor]

Chotu-
"Or, do you mean get rid of all boats? And move on?"
Yes. Because the catamaran is "right" except for requiring an extensive investment, and trying to find the right professionals to do the job and another year or more to get it done. So as a practical matter it may cost you less time and money to just find something that is already built and just needs the usual refit.

With regard to dairy problems? If you just have the common lactose intolerance, you may be interested to know that pretty much all hard cheeses that have been aged more than 90 days, will not cause a problem. The great folks at Cabot (a dairy/cheese cooperative) had told me they actually confirmed, in the lab, that enzymes in the cheese break down the lactose and once it has aged 90 days, there's no lactose left. This year I came across the same news for parmigiana and regiano cheeses, both of which are aged even longer. The issues Ben mentions about gluten are more complicated, because so many unlikely things are adulterated with wheat products. Wheat flour is used to put the "grill marks" in some "grilled chicken breast" as well as used as a soup (even broth) ingredient. Commercial tuna salad and chopped liver often has wheat flour or bread crumbs added as a thickener. And eve some brands of instant coffee are cross-contaminated with wheat flour--because they are run on the same packing machines without thorough cleaning. Oats are normally grown in alternating years in the same fields as wheat, so there's almost always wheat contamination in oats, from sprouts that still come up in the fields. Celiac support groups can give you an overwhelming amount of information about gluten.
There are fairly inexpensive blood tests that can tell if you have a gluten sensitivity.

But even with that, amine sensitivity and molds are still separate issues. You may find a medical school or other clinic that has some affordable care options to at least do the testing and confirm the issues.

[Fidsplice]

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. I’m going to offer a really, really, really......... left field suggestion.

Try drinking water. Heaps. (2 to 3 litres a day). Don’t try to eliminate the problems. Allow you body to rediscover its ability to deal!

Other posts suggest interventions such as pharmaceuticals, diet etc. but as we get older the body’s ability to keep itself clean diminishes. Apparently suddenly, it reaches a tipping point. It seems that the ageing bod needs a bit more hosing out. I’ve had crippling, life changing, illnesses, prostatitis, prostrate cancer (beaten!). By chance, I discovered, water worked. By upping my water, and only water (not tea, soft drink, juice, beer or whatever) I chanced on a profound cure (for me).

Much bigger story, not appropriate to post here. So I won’t! But what do you have to lose? Apart from a little sleep, getting up to pee? It has to continue for several days! Don’t cop out!

Best, chris (Fidsplice)

[Pgutierrez]

Boat interiors are built by gluing / screwing multiple component parts. Hull is made with stringers, the floor is attached. When mold starts to grow, it grows indiscriminately into places where you can’t clean. IMHO, if you have severe mold allergies, you should find another hobby. My family has allergies, and when looking at boats, first indicator of sanitation and mold is no farther than the tip of your nose. If you think you can kill all mold on a boat, you are deceiving yourself. What you can do is attempt to dehumidify the interior, use bleach containing cleaning wipes, occasionally add a minuscule amount of bleach in your bilge water. When not on the boat, leave a small fan to circulate the air.
My qualifications: we are on our fifth sailboat in almost forty years of sailing. Wife, daughter and son have multiple allergies and we all continue to boat.
Best of luck.

[pir8ped]

Mould: I solved it on my cat by removing all linings and painting interior surfaces with water based paint designed for kitchens and bathrooms. The paint is cheap, easy to use and contains a fungicide. Any other places that might get mould, keep them clean with vinegar.

I also improved airflow, ensuring that air flows right through all the accommodation even in wet weather when everything is closed up.

The boat never smells 'boaty', even after sitting in the mud over winter, and cushions and mattresses could be safely left on board.

It can be done! I've had monohulls too, and I don't think you can make them as nicely ventilated and mould free as a cat. There's more in the water, and less raised above it.

With epoxies, there are some which are much less unpleasant than others, but it sounds like you're past the point where the difference matters. Someone else will have to do that work.

I was beginning to become sensitive to Epoxy when I sold my boat, and I had become super sensitive to mould. So I sold up and built a cabin in the woods. Now I'm sensitive to tree pollen! Maybe it's an age thing!

[Chotu]

Well, here is the outcome. I spent last night on the boat for the first time since having my girlfriend scrub the bilges, which was very nice of her, and doing a huge shock treatment of ozone.

Sadly, even with all of the hatches open, I woke up at 3 AM with a huge allergy attack. I am still feeling the effects of it right now. Even after taking the antihistamines. It has left me weak, my sinuses are burning, it’s hard to get a full breath, my eyes are scratchy and itchy. Not good.

It looks like I’m going to have to give this boat up. I am not going to be dumping it and selling it for nothing. But I’m going to sell it. I don’t really have a choice. It’s a 50 foot Gulfstar sailmaster. Exceptionally clean and scrubbed for mold. LOL there’s just about none on there. Very fresh smelling interior now. However, it only takes a microscopic amount for me to have problems. I guess I should list it in the for sale section.

[fatherchronica]

So sorry for you, that is a sad outcome. I used to renovate hotel rooms and public places and a lot of hotels have mold hidden inside the walls. I kept firing an assistant that had destroyed his sinuses with a near lifetime cocaine addiction. The only value he had in my mind was the most powerful allergy to mold that I have ever encountered. He walked in to the lobby once of an 11 story hotel in Brentwood, California about 8 hours before I fired him for beating up a crack prostitute in his room and threatening to kill the chief engineer, and I watched as he began sneezing immediately hundreds of times and his eyes swelled shut and his nose ran and ran. Literally in just a few seconds. He said to me there is mold here and I cannot stay here. Apparently he self medicated with cocaine and Maker's Mark and an hour later was just sniffling. But he was a chronic over self medicater.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Well, here is the outcome. I spent last night on the boat for the first time since having my girlfriend scrub the bilges, which was very nice of her, and doing a huge shock treatment of ozone.

Sadly, even with all of the hatches open, I woke up at 3 AM with a huge allergy attack. I am still feeling the effects of it right now. Even after taking the antihistamines. It has left me weak, my sinuses are burning, it’s hard to get a full breath, my eyes are scratchy and itchy. Not good.

It looks like I’m going to have to give this boat up. I am not going to be dumping it and selling it for nothing. But I’m going to sell it. I don’t really have a choice. It’s a 50 foot Gulfstar sailmaster. Exceptionally clean and scrubbed for mold. LOL there’s just about none on there. Very fresh smelling interior now. However, it only takes a microscopic amount for me to have problems. I guess I should list it in the for sale section.

I am really sorry to hear that. YOu're absolutely certain it's mold and epoxy?
There's always the open Viking ship!

[Chotu]

Thank you. I’m pretty sad about this. But I’m reminding myself that sailing is a luxury. It’s something I choose to do. Not something that I absolutely have to do to survive. Although it feels like that sometimes. Ha ha we all know that.

Generally, I still have my health for other things in life. Even for other forms of travel. And I guess sometimes one chapter of life is just has to come to a close.

I spoke with our forum member who was very kind to have helped me work through some of the logistics, medically. He had some great ideas for medication, but if I have to take medication to go sailing, I think I’m doing the wrong thing. Sometimes the path of least resistance is the right one. I have been fighting the good fight to stay on boats for a long time now. I’m tired. Worn out from the fight. Between building a huge catamaran and fighting the mold on a monohull, I think I just have to throw the towel in.

Owing to mold and epoxy, it’s just not something I can really do anymore I don’t think. Certainly I don’t want to take several different drugs just to go sailing. I take none as it is. Generally a very healthy person. I just can’t seem to go near boats anymore.

In a few hours my girlfriend and I will be having a big discussion. Figuring out the exact path to take. Maybe we can make some lemonade out of these lemons.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Don C L

I am really sorry to hear that. YOu're absolutely certain it's mold and epoxy?
There's always the open Viking ship!

Yes. Epoxy Is a killer for me. Anytime I’m near it, pretty much lands me in the hospital. And there is no mistaking that.

When it comes to mold, it’s more of a nuisance, but then again, it would be nice to be able to breathe. I have exactly what our forum member was saying. The allergy I have to the mold induces a strong asthma attack. It fills my lungs with fluid. It makes it so I am unable to breathe. And breathing is a pretty important thing to do. On top of that, it’s very clear. 2 AM, 3 AM, I wake up completely unable to breathe. That’s when mold sprays out the spores. When it is cool and damp. Much like the way flowers open up in the daytime when it is advantageous to them. Actually I have also done all sorts of things to bedding just in case it was that. And the problem does not occur for me on other beds. Only in boats.

I’m truly not interested in cruising on an open deck boat. I have spent 25 years or more out in the sunshine. I don’t need any more elements. No Viking boats for me.

It’s a sad outcome, but I have had a long life on the water and really enjoyed it. I have spent more time sleeping at anchor than most people have. And I have spent more time sleeping at anchor than I have in a house. Including my childhood. I’d say that’s something to take with me in my memory. Something to hold close and look back on with a smile.

[JPA Cate]

Bad luck, Chotu, but good on ya for looking to make lemonade from the lemons. Let us know what new adventures draw you. All of us will sometime have to leave our boats, and ideas are helpful.

Good luck with it all.

Ann

[Chotu]

Ok, what the heck is going on here??

I have my RV near the boat. I'm sleeping in the RV as I've done most of the past month, just next to the water. It's parked next to the water tonight with the windows open and the same exact air from the water blowing in as was blowing into the boatast night.

I am having my allergies!!

Burning eyes, asthma attack, ears clogging, ringing, burning in my airways, 4am instead of 3am!

I'm lost.

Is it possible it's something IN THE WATER causing this rather than the boat??

It doesn't happen to me on my catamaran but my Catamaran is in Florida waters. I'm currently in Long Island sound on the monohull and my previous problems on boats have all been in this area as well.

Could it potentially be an algae bloom or something?

This isn't good. I was almost happier thinking it was the mold on the boat, which I am allergic to. It's not, because I'm having the same problems on land right now at the water's edge!

[boatman61]

Maybe your having the same problems as me..
I am suffering throat and eye soreness, very chesty cough and waking with breathing difficulty.
Been getting worse over the last coupla three years.
Last month I went to a small town in N Wales to collect a boat, spent 5 days there prepping and funny enough my ailments began easing, then came the trip and towards the end my breathing was back to normal, exertion was no longer a killer and I could comfortably walk for kilometers without wheesing.
Now, 1 month after getting back to base I am back where I was.. Civilisation and its pollutants are to blame is my conclusion, diesel fumes from the traffic which deposit black dust everywhere is the cause.
Get out to sea on your mono and try clean air away from the cities and see how you feel.
I am so sure this is my source of discomfort I am boat shopping for a boat to return to the liveaboard life..
Life ashore in a dusty polluted small city is killing me ahead of time.
But.. thats just me.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Yes. Epoxy Is a killer for me. Anytime I’m near it, pretty much lands me in the hospital. And there is no mistaking that.

When it comes to mold, it’s more of a nuisance, but then again, it would be nice to be able to breathe. I have exactly what our forum member was saying. The allergy I have to the mold induces a strong asthma attack. It fills my lungs with fluid. It makes it so I am unable to breathe. And breathing is a pretty important thing to do. On top of that, it’s very clear. 2 AM, 3 AM, I wake up completely unable to breathe. That’s when mold sprays out the spores. When it is cool and damp. Much like the way flowers open up in the daytime when it is advantageous to them. Actually I have also done all sorts of things to bedding just in case it was that. And the problem does not occur for me on other beds. Only in boats.

I’m truly not interested in cruising on an open deck boat. I have spent 25 years or more out in the sunshine. I don’t need any more elements. No Viking boats for me.

It’s a sad outcome, but I have had a long life on the water and really enjoyed it. I have spent more time sleeping at anchor than most people have. And I have spent more time sleeping at anchor than I have in a house. Including my childhood. I’d say that’s something to take with me in my memory. Something to hold close and look back on with a smile.

am so sorry to hear this Chotu. i really was so hoping to learn that you found way, somehow...


wolfgal

[JPA Cate]

Chotu,

For goodness' sake, get together with Ben Solomon. Maybe he can help you help yourself, and he offered!

Ann

[Chotu]

Well, moved the RV away from the water at 6am and 2 hours later... No symptoms.

Something in the water of long island sound is doing this.

Getting an N95 mask today and sleeping by the water in the RV tonight with it to see what happens Then tomorrow night on the boat to see with the mask.

Then trying the boat with no mask, closed up and air conditioning on if necessary the following night.

That logic will narrow it all down sufficiently.