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June 18, 2007 - LEAVING THE BOAT - 2ND EDITION
by Beth & Al Liggett

Last year we left the boat in Langkawi at the Hole in the Wall while we visited the States for 6 months. It was not the first time we had left the boat for a lengthy period of time, and we followed our usual routines of cleaning and stowing. We thought we had made adequate preparations for the boat storage even though at the last minute we had to change a few things. You can review this report - 16 May 2006.

On our return we found mold and mildew everywhere! It was shattering to see and timely to clean up. At least it did clean up. We had other Yachtie friends who had left their boats in the Hole during the same time period, and none of them reported having the same kind of extreme mold problems. Check out our photos with this report: 8 November 2006.

This year we again intended to leave the boat for six months and make another trip to the States. So what to do this time around?

Again we chose to leave the boat at the Hole in the Wall. We knew the boat would be safe there in all weather, and security is not a problem. Leaving the boat in the water during an absence has never been a concern of ours either. And certainly the price is right - about a fourth of what a marina or a hard stand fee would be.

Topside

On deck we did much the same as before - the sailing gear and equipment was removed and stored below. This includes the sails, the sheets, and all the halyards except the roller furling halyard. We had spent an intense week at the Langkawi Yacht Club prior to arrival at the Hole, soaking, scrubbing and rinsing all these lines, and washing the salt out of the roller furler jib and the mainsail. We also washed all the sail covers, the awnings, the dodger, the cockpit cushions, the winch covers, and anything that even looked like it might be salty or dirty.

Everything went below. The roller furling sail folds neatly and lives in the forepeak with all the sheets, lines and halyards. Out of the way and no problem. The fully battened mainsail is another story. It has to lay on the cabin sole. It's 15 feet long, taking up a considerable amount of floor space, so we were loathe to take it down too soon and have to walk over it, or on it, too much. Luckily we had a few dry days after arrival at the Hole, so when we took it down we only had 3 days of living with it in the cabin.

Below Decks

This was a real disaster when we came back to the boat last year. We thought we were doing a good thing by making special hatch boards with computer fans in them to blow air in and suck air out. Well, it did that all right - but blew in the dampness and mold spore as well. Could this have been the problem?

No more fancy fan boards for us this year. Ventilation consists of the foredeck hatch over the bed (open about 6 inches as usual), the 3 dorades on deck and cabin top, and the louvered main hatch doors.

I meticulously scrubbed down the galley and the head and all high-wear areas of our living accommodations. I washed a great deal more than that too, using a soap with bleach mixture. Just before leaving I wiped down all the teak wood and cabinets with a vinegar/water solution. We again put open bottles of bleach - in a bucket in case they tip over - in the cabin when we left the boat.

All the main salon cushion covers were laundered, as were the mattress covers from our bed. All the bedding washed and dried and the pillows aired. The last sheets and towels and dirty clothes went with us to town to the laundry. They would be picked up and returned to Sunflower by another Yachtie friend who was coming to the Hole with their boat.

Awnings

We had had to leave our brand new main awning in place last year, and it suffered. The old one, saved just for this purpose, had been too rotten to use. This year I was determined to put the good awning below. We bought a piece of reinforced vinyl and had it welded into an enormous rectangle. This we draped over the boom. It covered all the area from just in front of the mast to the backstay. We cut and stitched and shaped the outer edges of this piece to come right down and tie to our lower lifeline.

We removed the dodger - frame and all - and put it below. Now we had the mainsail, the rolled up awning and the dodger to contend with! The sacrificial awning over the whole foredeck was still in good enough condition to use again this year, although I did fix a few small tears in it.

The Unexpected

It had happened last year, and right at the last minute of course. There was that rotten awning we couldn't use, and the roller furling bearing that froze (that actually was a blessing, as we just took the bearing with us and had the unit rebuilt while we were in the States). So was there something laying in wait for us as we did all this preparation? Certainly!

The last week we were at the marina in Penang we had killed a cockroach in the galley. I sprayed and went on the hunt, but didn't see any others. Nor in all my cleaning of galley etc. did I find any - not even any evidence of roaches. So we thought it was just some stray, a drop-off hitchhiker, a one-time event. Then...the week before we were leaving, another roach crawled out of the crack between the floors in the galley. Al pounced! I ran for the spray! The floors came up! Chemical warfare was declared! We saw no more...

Will the mold and mildew that had struck our boat with such abandon last year now mutate into squadrons of cockroaches? Will we return to find our awning and dodger, so carefully stored below, free of mold (hopefully) but crawling with critters? Stay tuned for the season finale in October!