sea sickness

[Karletto]

Originally Posted by freetime

Look at the horizon...yes, but at night?

use a flashlight

stars, lights

[Ricky]

Originally Posted by dacust

Well, there IS a way to get sick driving.

Off subject here, but as to the micro-correcting, I read in an article that an experiment was done comparing a beginner and an experienced captain. They held a straight course over 4 miles. The results were that they both traveled the same distance in the same amount of time. But the beginner made about 4 times as many course corrections. It was remembering that article that prompted me to experiment with the GPS views that night.

-dan

As a backup to this off-subject note.
some years ago when I was working in Nigeria, a couple of helicopter pilots flew out to one of the offshore oil rigs. One held his altitude and course rigid - the other allowed the helicopter to go with the flow - to a degree! The rigid course helicopter used 30% more fuel.
I think the same applies to sailing - not just in terms of fuel but effort, time, frayed nerves etc.

[Adaero]

So lets recap, my normal routine of:-

A skinful the night before to celebrate the up and coming trip,
Get to bed around 2am,
Up at 7am
2 cups of coffee
3 smokes
A full english breakfast,
2 more cups of expresso
2 more smokes
Pull up the hook and set off.

So the above doesn't bode well for avoiding sea sickness?

[rtbates]

Originally Posted by freetime

Look at the horizon...yes, but at night?

Try this puppy
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...ine&marketcode

40 million candle power should find the horizon!

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Adaero

So lets recap, my normal routine of:-

A skinful the night before to celebrate the up and coming trip,
Get to bed around 2am,
Up at 7am
2 cups of coffee
3 smokes
A full english breakfast,
2 more cups of expresso
2 more smokes
Pull up the hook and set off.

So the above doesn't bode well for avoiding sea sickness?

It's fine, just add Stugeron to the breakfast feast, you'll be fine.

Paul L

[Sail Dumaguete]

If i know its gonna be rough, i usually skip my last meal before sailing, then i sustain myself with oranges and apples and maybe some hardboiled eggs if I'm really hungry. If i go down below its usually to sleep, if my eyes are closed i dont get seasick below decks.

[Sail Dumaguete]

one other thing, on an empty stomach, you'll be dry heaving which is not as messy and is more considerate to other crew.

Not feeling well eh? And I see that there no one who mentioned dramamine. First time I was on the water got sicker than anywho, deep sea fishin. Dramamine seemes to work, take it before you meet rough waters maybe eh?

[Sail Dumaguete]

I'll do that, but my problem with seasick pills is that it makes me real drowsy, although I read in previous posts that some take the pill a day before sailing and continue taking it thru out the trip, they say that the drowsiness happens only in the first 24 hours.

[LtBrett]

If seas get over 8 ft or so, I get sick. Only Scopalomine works for me, and I've tried nearly everything (but not Stugeron). Here's what I've found after years of experimentation. Scopalomine patches work (on me, results may vary) when placed behind the ears, but also in the armpit, inner bicep, and the side of my torso--as a navy guy, I was trying to hide them. They do tend to dehydrate you, severely if left on for over 10 days. The dehydration can be ameliorated without loss of efficacy or duration by cutting the patch in half. I can apply a patch after getting sick, and it takes about 1.5 hours to take effect.

For folks with less severe symptoms, I always carry ginger onboard. Everyone loves this stuff, sick or not:
Spices at Penzeys Spices Crystallized

Hope it helps!

Brett

[Sail Dumaguete]

Thanks Brett, will also try the patch on side of torso (to hide it too!)

[RRR]

Thankfully I have never been sea sick and I have been in some crap that had us walking on the ceilings and bulkheads!

What I did for the other guys that did get sick was I tied them face down in their racks so noone else got puked on.

It worked for me!

[rebel heart]

My $0.02:

Everyone can get seasick, it's just a question of what it takes to make it happen. There are some common sense things you can do to minimize the chances and effects. I'd recommend Bomine over Dramamine; although Dramamine is great if you need to get some rest.

I find that motion sickness goes away if you try to go to sleep. If you stay awake in the cabin in bad weather, you can get motion sick. If you close your eyes and lay down, it minimizes. And a few nights sleeping underway is as much as most people need.

Unless you've been hanging upside down in a disgusting bilge with noxious fumes, with the boat heaving around all over, and nice stomach ache, you can't say you "never" get sea sick. And even if you can stand that, have your shipmate next to you barf and let the smell hit you.

[97octane]

My experience:

When I was 15 yrs old, my family and I went Deep Sea Fishing on a 45' boat in the Pacific in Acapulco. It had the scaffolding above the pilot house, or what your call the raised derrick thing. I was up top, and enjoying heading out of the bay... everything was fine.

Outside of the bay, things began to change and the pitch and yaw of the boat sent my stomach and brain reeling. 8' - 12' swells up up high is NOT the place to be if you are unsure of being sick.

I made my way down to the rear deck, but it was too late. To complicate things further, I went below to lay down on the bed. Thankfully, the boat designers engineering a port hole directly beside the berth just big enough that my head could fit though. The spewing was violent, and after that regular bouts of dry heaving. I was so sick, Im certain I passed out at one point, but the berth was located at the bow of boat, so I was not in any position to recover. I had no medication avail other than aspirin, and I couldnt keep anything down.

I do remember feeling so ill, that I wish someone would have hit me in the head with a baseball bat to knock me unconscious until the trip was over. It was one of the longest days of my life.

I havent been sea sick since. I learned my lesson. Bonine works great.

[James S]

I tried the one solution that worked best for the Mythbusters….Ginger tablets….works for me. Actually ginger flavored cookies like ginger snaps also work for me.

Without, I would get sick the first couple days of a passage then be fine, regardless of how extreme the motion.

Once I make land fall and get my land legs back, then head out again, I would have to go through it all over again.

Most pharmaceutical solutions work well for me as well, but make me drowsy….two tablets and I’m out….big time.

The pressure thing on the wrist doesn’t work for me, nor does the electric thing.

A note on the Mythbuster test bed…it was a tilting/rotating chair in the middle of the shop….I cant imagine that fear played much of a roll (no pun intended).