Sometimes a boat is put away for the winter with a few cups of moisture in it, sealed up with a cockpit cover, and there ya go. Congratulations, you’ve just created a 55-gallon petri dish.
Even though we had a long, cold winter, there are some pretty amazing creatures that grow inside whitewater boats even through the deep freeze. I found out first hand when I opened the cockpit to air it out and make sure the outfitting was ready to go for the whitewater season. To quote Roseanne Rosannadana, “I thought I was gonna die.” What was growing in my boat could gag a billy goat with a bad head cold. It wasn’t the volume of creatures, it was the pungency.
Plugging my nose with a clothespin, I washed out the Hoss C1 and rinsed it with a mild bleach solution. Sure, I killed 99.44% of the little buggers, but my guess is that I’m only creating Supermold that will be able to dissolve and digest polyethylene and closed-cell foam, leaving only an empty husk.
Ewwww.