Odd skin reaction while cleaning hull

Feb 20, 2011
7,990
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
Wifey made me clean the hull on our last trip down to Mexico. While taking a 5 inch putty knife to a couple of lightly encrusted areas, suddenly my skin began tingling uncomfortably.

I swam to the stern, climbed up the ladder and rinsed off with some fresh water. A bit later a reddish welt or two had arisen on my upper left arm where the stinging was most apparent.

Didn't see any jellies in the water, so I'm drawn to it being caused by whatever type of hull life I had just scraped off, or a reaction to the blue ablative...Micron 66.

Anyone else had this happen while cleaning a hull?
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
What kind of welts? Sea lice (jellyfish larvae) float around and can get caught in bathing suits and excrete a toxic inflammatory. Usually appears as lots of angree inflamed spots. Your scraping growth off your bottom may also have disturbed them.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
:plus:

Those crusties might have a defense where they excrete something if they are being attacked.
 
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Feb 20, 2011
7,990
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
What kind of welts? Sea lice (jellyfish larvae) float around and can get caught in bathing suits and excrete a toxic inflammatory. Usually appears as lots of angree inflamed spots. Your scraping growth off your bottom may also have disturbed them.
I googled sea lice earlier today but it seemed to lead me elsewhere. The few welts raised looked kinda like a classic case of poison ivy.
Gone the next day, thankfully.
 
Feb 20, 2011
7,990
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
:plus:

Those crusties might have a defense where they excrete something if they are being attacked.
Yah, they might. I was upside down under the scrapings, and they simply rained down onto my skin.
Thanks to both of you for your insights.
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Friend of mine helped take my boat for the haulout. During pressure washing, friend used the scraper to clean the shells off the bulb keel. Got a nick on his lower leg that took a couple months of a doctor to treat and be rid of it.
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Friend of mine helped take my boat for the haulout. During pressure washing, friend used the scraper to clean the shells off the bulb keel. Got a nick on his lower leg that took a couple months of a doctor to treat and be rid of it.
Oh yeah.... my oldest daughter has a wicked scar on the back of her knee from a jelly fish. The wound got what seemed like an infection and would not heal. At one point the doctor was thinking skin graft. He called a friend of his in Brazil that specializes in tropical diseases and his friend told him of a parasite that can live in some jelly fish species but usually does not get as far north as where we were at the time (Myrtle Beach). We tried the recommended treatment for the parasite and it cleared up within two weeks. All-in-all it took 18 months to get it cleared up. To this day my daughter flinches at the sight of a jelly fish.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
I'm just getting used to the fact that I'm mortal.
So I scrapped my leg on barnacles on a dock pole when I was cleaning my bottom. It took months for that to heal. I was suspicious that there is some chemical substance, or blood thinner , or micro-organisms, or something that delays healing. I never cleaned by bottom in the slip again. Oh, and there was that vicious blue claw crab on my keel wing. Scared the crap out of me. It was probably mutual. Maybe why I kicked the dock pole.
 
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capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
Welcome to the wonderful world of sea lice! They apparently live in the growth on the bottom and become pretty angry when you disturb their home. lol
 
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capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
The consensus appears to be sea lice. All I know is that my body will not be in the fall zone of any more bottom scrapings!
OK, then. My wife gets a very serious reaction to their stings. I've gotten her a very tight dive skin which helps a lot and she uses cooking oil which she applies any areas the skin doesn't cover well, like her neck. Any place they can get at your skin and not get out, like the underarms on a wetsuit, are particularly susceptible.
 
Feb 20, 2011
7,990
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
Any place they can get at your skin and not get out, like the underarms on a wetsuit, are particularly susceptible.
That was the anomaly in my limited experience. Whatever got me had nothing keeping them in.

Loose-fitting swimsuit, mask and fins, and they nailed my arms, legs and upper torso. \_(ツ)_/
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Let me just clarify my position. I'm not saying you had sea lice, you probably did, but there are other possibilities as well. That was just the first thing that came to mind. Whatever it was, the dive skin is designed to help. My brother took a jellyfish tentacle across the face when he was in second grade and it really burned and welted up. There is even the possibility that it was a chemical burn, although slim. You said poison ivy like rash. Boy am I familiar with that. So, sea lice. At least it's not a parasite. Calamine lotion and will power will cure it.
Be well.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Dec 29, 2008
805
Treworgy 65' LOA Custom Steel Pilothouse Staysail Ketch St. Croix, Virgin Islands
I’ve encountered the same thing when cleaning the bottom. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it. So, I try to stay out from under it and upstream of the current, and work my way upstream , waiting for it to was away before approaching the same area for the next pass. It takes me 4-5 tanks of air to get the entire bottom. The other challenge is having the right botany to bothe apply pressure on the scrapper and not float up or down, with little to hang onto down low on the hill.