Disembarkment Syndrome

[barnakiel]

How common is MdDS?

Mal de debarquement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know a person who has just developed this and another who has had it for a time.

b.

[a64pilot]

Everybody has a little of this don't they? My wife describes it as having to put your hand on the shower wall to keep from falling when you shut your eyes.
Also seems to coincide when you don't seem to get motion sick very easily, or is this something else?

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

How common is MdDS?

Mal de debarquement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know a person who has just developed this and another who has had it for a time.

b.

I can't say I "have" it inasmuch as I don't experience it all the time, or even much of the time, but I have experienced it on a number of occasions. Usually it has happened after a long day of sailing when the wave motion is more or less consistent throughout the day. When I got off the boat I had the sensation of still being in motion for a time. Very weird feeling to be standing on the dock and feeling the wave motion.

[brownoarsman]

If it's the same as land-sickness (the Wikipedia definition was very brief), i.e. feeling like you're still in motion after getting back on solid earth, out of my thirty or so friends with whom I've gone on sailing trips of two nights or longer, myself and one other friend experience it routinely. It's most severe when falling asleep, and also if we get off the boat and have a couple of drinks at the bar. So, anecdotally from my experience, 6 out of a 100 people? I used two nights because if the trip is less than two nights it doesn't really affect us.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[ontherocks83]

Used to get it all the time when i was younger and taking a shower on shore but it is rare now.

[Stu Jackson]

We simply call it: "I'm Rockin' !!!

Years ago, got off the boat after a week, went into a restaurant and they seated us is a high backed booth. WOW! Almost couldn't grab the spaghetti, it was movin' so fast.

Small spaces always do that after some time on the boat, rarely only a daysail, but more than 24 hours.

[Hudson Force]

My wife and I both remember having some mild vertigo after an active day of sailing, but we haven't had that in over thirty years. We had recently mentioned missing that feeling from the past. I remember the same after a day of skating or skiing, but not ever to a degree to be thought of as an illness.

[JK n Smitty]

We get it occasionally after a rough passage. Like was already said it seems worse in the shower. Usually doesn't last more an hour or two.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[atoll]

I call it "Land Induced Weather Helm",nothing that a few rum and cokes won't cure.........it's the "TACKING" back that is the problem..................

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

Used to get it all the time when i was younger and taking a shower on shore but it is rare now.

Same here. Years ago when I was chartering from a club I used to experience it everytime I returned to shore. Now when I return it's not there. May be my body had gotten used to the sea motion.

[StuM]

According to the quoted Wikipedia entry:
"In MdDS, the symptoms persist for more than a month, possibly for many years,"

So it's not the wobbly land boots that many of us (myself included) experience for a short time after being at sea for more than a day or so. It's a chronic condition.

[delmarrey]

Opposite of Sea legs!

[JPA Cate]

Actually know 2 men who have the condition. Ruined them for sailing, as the side effect was less motion tolerance than previously. Two guys who were bullet proof, and now find any kind of travel, water, land, air, horrible and experience "mal de mer" unless still on land. Horrid ends to lovely cruising.

Yes, it's different for the moving shower stall feeling one occasionally has after a brisk day on the wind, which i think is just one's semi-circular canals getting stirred up. The other is a permanent vertigo issue.

Ann

[FlyingCloud1937]

It's original name was "Drunken Sailor Syndrome" as far back as man has been going to SEA.

It most likely effects sailors that don't experience sea sickness.

It can last for months longer then the time at Sea.

Short trips, usually don't cause the symptoms, if they do, then it's most likely an inter-ear infection/sinusitis.

I have had it, on many occasions after weeks at Sea... never been debilitating, Until this year.

This year after 6 weeks at sea only touching land for a few hrs here an there, upon return. The next day I was vomiting, like morning sickness.

Went to my doc and he prescribed Dramamine, or go back on the boat.

Funny thing, in years past after returning, I always stayed on the boat, and slowly spent more time on land. Didn't know that was the cure.

But the Dram... helped, after I was landlocked.


Lloyd

Originally Posted by barnakiel

How common is MdDS?

Mal de debarquement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know a person who has just developed this and another who has had it for a time.

b.

[barnakiel]

Thanks everybody for feedback!

So it seems it is pretty common but not very much discussed.

The two cases I know are both ladies and one of them never had this before, until now...

We did some reading meanwhile and it seems it is not ear related and not damage related. Some doctors say this may be somehow hormones related.

We too think, that maybe staying onboard for a while helps; we found the symptoms most pronounced when we dock the boat and go to town. We did not notice anything when we anchored off and slept the first night in bobbing at anchor.

Cheers,
b.