Cleaning gear on vacation (limited facilities available)

[lunula]

We are newly certified divers and are leaving on 14-day cruise (regular cruise, not a liveaboard) to the Southern Caribbean in a little over a week. We have set up private dives (no ship dives!) in almost every port and we are very excited (and a little nervous).

We will, of course, rinse/wash our gear at the various dive shops/locations as best we can; however, we were wondering about the best way to disinfect our gear (especially our wetsuits) given that we will have a very tiny bathroom on board the ship, with only a shower and a tiny little sink. I have very sensitive skin, so we have been careful to clean, rinse and disinfect (we have been using McNett wetsuit shampoo, and also their "Mirazyme" odor eliminator) our gear. After our certification trip, our suits were pretty yucky and we didn't have the Mirazyme yet, so we used Listerine!

My question is: since we will not have facilities on board the cruise to soak/clean/disinfect as we do here at home - are there any little tricks to keeping our gear clean and odor free? I was thinking even a small spray-bottle with Listerine for our wetsuits & booties? I have no idea what to expect at the dive shops for cleaning, so I want to make sure we are killing any critters left behind (given that I have sensitive skin and I'm very prone to allergic reactions from bug/spider bites) and that we don't reek by the end of the trip.

Thanks, all!

 

[Kryssa]

We cruise a lot and if we can't rinse gear at the dive shop, we hose it down in the shower (most cruise bathrooms seem to have the removable showerhead) and let it dry on the balcony. I hope you have a balcony because its hard yo get stuff dry without one.

Make sure you turn the wetsuit inside out when drying. We use only water while on the trip; there isn't really anywhere to soak it with wetsuit shampoo.

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[lunula]

Bugger, I didn't want this moved to the cruises section. Really was just asking it as a "I have limited facilities in which to clean my gear" - not specifically about cruises. Thanks for the advice, Kryssa - we do have a balcony cabin!

 

[uncfnp]

If you have a way to do a limited dip and rinse on board, use a weak vinegar solution soak then rinse. An alternative to the spray Listerine you mentioned is the Mirazyme. "Add 1/2 oz to clean spray bottle. Fill remainder of bottle with water. Spray to saturate surfaces. Air dry."

 

[lunula]

Great, thanks so much!! I'll bring a spray bottle and I'll use that if we can't totally clean/disinfect after each dive. I appreciate it.

 

[cannon fodder]

Take your gear up to the pool deck, there will be showers up there that will give you more room to work with. It will be much easier to do your rinsing. You can't leave things unattended, but you can hang wetsuits over a railing or the back of your deck chair to dry while you are there. This works out if you do clean ups on sea days and would just be hanging out anyway.

 

[eelnoraa]

For small items, like mask, regulator, camera, light, spool, etc, the sink in the bathroom or kitchen will work. You may have to do it in more than one round, but do-able. For bigger stuff like fins, BC, just take them into shower or bath tube.

 

[TSandM]

The biggest thing for keeping gear pleasant is to get it dry as quickly as possible. Nothing will really grow in your neoprene if it is dry. When we did our cruise on the Paul Gaugin, we just hung our stuff on our balcony. We didn't rinse anything, and we had no odor problems. Gear got a good soaking after we got home.

 

[reghunnicutt]

I'd take a small bottle of simple green and some water tight plastic bags. The simple green works well diluted, and gets rid of oder. A few tablespoons goes a long way.


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[lhhoback]

Number one way we keep the gear from smelling funky...avoid the dunk tanks at the dive shops!!
Just take your gear back and rinse it on deck or in the cabin shower.
Then like it was said above...get it dry!

Have fun!!