Mold is icky and I’m allergic to it. But, it grows on boats. Ask almost any boater with wood inside their boat, and I bet they’ve dealt worth mold spores at least once in their nauti-lifetime.

 
We’ve seen it a couple of times on this trip, but now that we’re parked in tropical weather, I think the problem is here for the long haul.  On our boat, it shows up mostly in the head and galley. That makes sense right? These are two places that see the most moisture. We’ve showered in the head only a handful of times, but the mold grows like crazy a day or two after showering so now that it’s warm outside, we’re going to limit showers to the cockpit!

 
How you deal with mold is as controversial as what anchor you choose, so needless to say, I’ve found a lot of ideas and theories on how to get rid of it.  I’d love to hear your ideas too, if you have something that works better or a way to prevent it altogether PLEASE share! Here’s what I’ve been doing:

1) Spray area with bleach to kill the mold! I use Clorox Clean Up.
2) Wipe it down with a wet cloth.
3) Let the bleached area dry pretty well to make sure you washed away all of the mold spores.
4) Oil the wood with lemon oil. If I understand correctly, the wood will absorb the lemon oil and have less places to absorb moisture.

The wood really looks beautiful once cleaned up and oiled, but it’s such a chore! I bet if you keep the wood oiled, the likelihood of mold growing becomes less, but I’m lazy and hate cleaning!