Seasickness Questions

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by Rohan

A little late, but I'll chime in here. To answer your questions. Yes, you adapt to it in time. How much time no one can say. And the opposite is true too, you can lose your tolerance if you haven't sailed in a long time. Ginger and Dramamine help, but only if you take them before you are sick. Once you feel sick it's too late. I definitely think it's wise to try a couple charter outings and see how it goes.

Seasickness is 100% mental, not physical. It's not the motion itself. Ever here of someone getting motion sickness while they are jogging? I doesn't happen. Motion sickness occurs when your eyes and body send conflicting signals to your brain. To your eyes, it looks like you are not moving because you are in an enclosed space, but your body feels like it is moving. So obviously it's worse if you are below decks.

So now that you know that, what about the remedy? The only failsafe immediate remedy is to return to dry land. But there are other things to try. Get topside and keep your eyes off the boat and on the water. Feel the wind in your face - that helps a hell of a lot more than people realize.

There's also a mental exercise that helps me. Just imagine yourself in a swimming pool, lying on a inflatable pool raft on a warm day, drink in your hand. Its unlikely you would feel seasick that way. Well being in a boat, the motion is no different than on that raft. You don't have to feel sick if you get your mind to cooperate.

Mental...a theory is that the nausea/vomit reflex is your brain responding to the conflicting signal it gets when what your sense of balance feels and what your eyes see are violently different...in layman's terms, the brain concludes that you are hallucinating and you have been poisoned, and that you need to expel the poison, which the body does by, you got it, vomiting...

There are other theories... but...

But if we go by the defense-against-poisoning theory, again, in layman's terms, if what your eyes see and what your body feels can be reconciled... i.g., you are looking at the horizon and rationalizing you are riding a bike on a bumpy road, and, say, steering... errr, maybe you can overcome this reaction.

Give it a try?

[goeasy123]

My two-penneth...


I used to teach gliding (big plastic hard wing type). I'd have people turn up on the airfield for a 'surprise' birthday experience. On more than one occasion the victim confided in me that they had a morbid fear of flying, had never been on a commercial flight and had just been car sick. In every case they completed their first 3 air experience flight with huge smiles on their faces. In two notable cases the pilots went on to be successful international competition winners.


With 100's of first time students I never once had one be sick. I believe this is because the training method has the student in control and fully engaged in a important series of tasks. Their brain is too busy to be sick.


I use to be very susceptible to motion sickness before I started gliding. I don't now. But I do recognize a continuum of symptom. I gave up gliding because I found myself nodding off on long cross-country tasks. I also find myself nodding off uncontrollably whilst on sea passage. So I may have adapted my brain chemistry much as the drugs are attempting to synthesize control of the condition between nausea and drowsiness.


A possible conclusion is that a behavioral solution is the right way to go for a sustainable solution and anything that uses chemicals might be counterproductive.

[Auklet]

On my first few trips going to sea before sailing I took meclazine to ward off seasickness. I remember a few times feeling very sick, but not throwing up. That was 40 yr ago. Now I can take quite a bit of sea motion without much notice of it, except perhaps for an occasional headache. But I’ve noticed that the mal de mar can be kept at bay when folks are focused on some task aboard, such as helming. So my wife, who is quite susceptible, does most of the helming. That, in combination with a meclazline regimen when aboard and the night before, allows her to feel comfortable and have fun aboard the first day after which her problem subsides. Your wife will need to make a determination to deal with it in the ways available, but not everybody can. There is some genetic component to susceptibility. If one is only mildly susceptible it can be dealt with. If severely so, perhaps not to the degree needed. Yes. One can acquire “sea legs” as it is called, but they must be exercised!! It would, of course, be better to find out your situation b/f committing. It’s true, I’m told, that some folks can begin to feel nauseous just looking at some sea conditions from shore in anticipation of going out. I’ve seen folks down sick before the boat clears past the sea buoy, not be seen again until it is tied up back at the dock. Those folks probably cannot be helped.

[MicHughV]

Strangely enough....I don't get seasick....but after a long voyage, the first time I step on land, I sometimes feel queasy...

At sea, I get used to the constant motion of the boat in the water....but the land doesn't move, but my leg muscles seem to try to compensate on land, I find it hard to walk in a straight line..I don't throw up, but certainly feel lopsided for a while

[JPA Cate]

@Wilyum:

We have another, different thread running on seasickness now, in which you might be interested: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...on-252893.html

Ann

[KateMid]

It's not always, but I get seasick from now and then. What I know is crucial for me is a diet. If I drank alcohol yesterday, I'll definitely feel awful the next day. That's why I'm trying not to drink alcohol before the trip, have a light, non-spicy dinner and get plenty of sleep. For hard core cases, I always keep pills. These can be Meclazine/Bonine, Dramamine or Stugeron from Canadian pharmacy. When it happened, just stop, look at the sea and take a good breathe. Staring at the horizon, mid-ship area and staying outside might help to relieve the condition.

[Don C L]

I'll just throw this into the mix too. Last summer my 10 year-old son started feeling sick and though he is a pretty experienced sailor, and tends to keep his maladies to himself, he was getting pretty green. I told him (as I tell guests) to stand up and let the boat roll underneath him, and not try to fight it. He was fine in 5 minutes. I think for some the anxiety of a boat moving, especially rolling, and not being sure it is normal and under control, can really contribute to queasiness.

[Hasbeen]

The first couple of days at sea after a period ashore are the worst for me. Pills can help this. I had this sick feeling on an aircraft carrier, a destroyer or my yacht. I particularly had it navigating an ocean racer from Sydney to Hobart.



Working with figures trying to work out the area of most helpful current was murder. I did find a cure. Dry Sao, [cracker] biscuits would dry the mouth & reduce or eliminate the likelihood of throwing up.


I also ran tourist boats, & found different motions made a big difference. The rough hard hitting ride of a high speed 100Ft cat, cruising at about 28 knots would make few of its 300 passengers sick, where the slow roll of a 60 Ft round bilge launch would get a lot more lining the lea rail.


Experience did not help, even 53,000 miles worth. I would always get that queasy feeling for a couple of days after a stint ashore.


A mates definitional of really sea sick
You're not really sick,
If you feel queasy.
When you throw up a bit.

When you are cuddling a toilet & think you might die.
When you are sure you are going to die.


No you are only really sick, when you are frightened you might not die.