Sea Sickness ? How do you avoid it?

I do not own an ocean going boat, but I do fish out of Half Moon Bay CA and Berkley CA twice a year or more on half or whole day charter boats.

My most recent trip was memorable in that without exception everyone on board, less the captain, the hand and myself were heaving their guts over the side and green faced in the cabin, with no fishing going on.

Why was this?

Myself, I do not take any magic medicine or patches. What I do is as follows.

I refrain from any alcohol the night before. I eat a reasonable dinner the night before at an early hour. I drink lots of water.

The morning of my trip I usually eat Oatmeal with Walnuts, and a large slice of Cantelope. No Caffeine.

Once on board I pay very, very close attention to the design of the ships exhaust system. I make it a point to avoid the chance of breathing ANY Diesel exhaust. Even if I have to bundle up and ride in the bow.

Fresh air and no Diesel fumes, those are my cure all's to sea sickness

My last trip out of HMB there was a bad boy biker type guy, being an abnoxious loud braggart on the rails. He and I were seated port side outside along the Captains helm.

Once he began puking into the wind and water off the wonderful waters of Frisco. I decided I needed a beer and a sandwich. I shook my Budweiser and popped it and made certain there was a bit of a spray and dug into my side dish of Peperocinis. RALPH!!!!!

So what are your remedies to avoid sea sickness? (Hopefully you recognize some TIC)

There is only one true 100% remedie for sea sickness that is to sit under a tree.

I feel your pain

Every time I've exited the Golden Gate (participating in lightship races 12 miles out), I got seasick. I now avoid the sickness by staying inland of the gate or traveling on a stabilizer-equipped ship of at least 800-feet in length.

IMO, it's all about frequency. Never been sea sick. Probably average 100 days per year on a boat, for the last 40 years. IMO, you body adapts if you do it enough. Have had customers who would get sick every trip. The more they went out, the less often they got sick, till it finally stopped.

Ted

I found the best cure was just to get really sea sick once
Like I mean bad not just a one or two chucker
I mean puking till nothing else comes up but dry heaves and you have trouble breathing

After that never got sick again

Boats which are fishing often anchor over a reef where fish might be. The swells heap up on the reef, the boat rises and falls a lot but is held by the anchor, lots of people get sick.
Tablets do work, why not try them. Ginger is said to work too, but not sure in what form. You usually quickly get used to the ship`s motion and the problem goes away, without (further) medication.
Vomiting is sometimes called "chunder" in Australia, a word coined by comedian Barry Humphries(aka Dame Edna); the origins are said to come from seasick people on upper decks of ships warning those below using the cry "Watch Under". I don`t believe it.There is a story of Barry Humphries on an airplane eating using a fork from a can of Heinz Russian salad which was concealed in an airsick bag. I do believe that, it`s in his biography. A number of other passengers then made real use of the sick bags, and he was banned from the airline.
Try the tablets. We used them not so long ago on the Victoria ferry. They worked,and those who refused them came to regret it.

When we took that boat from Seattle to Stockton, CA, I got seasick for the first time in my life.


We stopped overnight at a harbor in Eureka and walked to Costco. They had some "Travel Sickness" pills that fixed the problem.

Sea Q said:

I found the best cure was just to get really sea sick once
Like I mean bad not just a one or two chucker
I mean puking till nothing else comes up but dry heaves and you have trouble breathing

After that never got sick again

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This, did a south trip from Long beach to Mc Murdo on a 283 ft Ice Breaker... I barfed for 3 days straight laying in a mid ships rack with a bucket around my neck... That was almost 50 years ago haven't been sea sick since...

This is what I do before going on an expensive charter or trip. $1 worth of pills to save a several hundred dollar trip.

non drowsy dramamine
1 pill after dinner the night before
1 pill before bed
1 pill an hour before leaving in the morning.
Good for the whole day.

Ka_sea_ta said:

This, did a south trip from Long beach to Mc Murdo on a 283 ft Ice Breaker... I barfed for 3 days straight laying in a mid ships rack with a bucket around my neck... That was almost 50 years ago haven't been sea sick since...

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Was she a Wind class breaker? Or the Glacier?

My belief in seasickness is mostly genetic and exposure. I think some people are predestined to motion sickness and anything may aggravate it or mitigate it.

But as Ted pointed out, for the vast majority of people, exposure to motion generally acclimates one towards motion.

Things like diet, smells, sleep, staring at the horizon, etc...etc... may or may not work from one person to the next.

I am one of the lucky one who is almost never affected by motion sickness. There has been one or two occasions where I've felt a little queasy on the boat after a big celebration the previous night, but that had very little to do with being on board a boat.

My wife also has no problems with sea sickness. It doesn't seem to be genetic though, as both of our children do get sea sick occasionally if they don't take dramamine.

One advice about sea sickness is to look at the sea and take amgood breathe. Looks stupid said like that but often people are sea sicked because they stay onboard talking with each other and looking inside the boat. It is like being sick while you read a book in a car instead of looking outside. You get sick because there is a difference between the movement your body is feeling and the information your eyes are sending, basically not moving like your body think. When you start feeling sea sick, try to look at the sea as much as possible to see the movement that your body is feeling instead of doing something inside the boat so while not being able to see the movement.
Not sure I say it right but don't know how to explain it in a better way.

I had this girlfriend that would get sick if I hit a jonboat wake. She gradually got better but still got terribly sick offshore.

I came up with a strategy: I told her we are going out the inlet, but as soon as you feel bad, just tell me and I will head right back in.

It took two trips and she was fine. I think it boiled down to control. She knew she could control the problem by getting me to head back in, which I did straight away.

This came from me never getting queasy when I was at the helm. I occasionally do get queasy on other peoples boat, mostly if I have a cold or flu symptoms. But at the helm I know I need to be sharp and never felt bad. Even if everyone else is "chunkin".

BTW, that girl was a nutcase and we long since parted ways....

The best way to avoid seasickness is spending time at sea.

As others have said, you get over it.

Light aircraft motion sickness is worse. I started taking pilot lessons and was miserable. A thousand hours and ten years of float plane flying and I never even got queasy any more.

High Wire said:

This is what I do before going on an expensive charter or trip. $1 worth of pills to save a several hundred dollar trip.

non drowsy dramamine
1 pill after dinner the night before
1 pill before bed
1 pill an hour before leaving in the morning.
Good for the whole day.

Click to expand...

First trip, always dramamine. I think it's important that those new to it, have a seasick free trip to improve their mindset. Stabilizers definitely help and starting newcomers in good conditions.

Now, we haven't had any seasick guests, perhaps just lucky. We also are sticklers for diet the night before and morning of.

In my experience with being underway, prevention is absolutely the key for people who know that they get sea sick. Dramamine or other anti-motion sickness pills are great, but they do not do a good job of stopping sickness once you are already sick. You need to start taking them the night before as others have suggested. Another option are scopolamine patches. I know that the doctors in the coast guard prescribe them to some of the guys on my cutter, and they seem to work pretty well. each patch lasts for a few days, and a lot of times once the patch wears off you have acclimatized to being underway and may not need to apply another patch. Maybe not as practical for day trips, but definitely good for spending extended time on board.

Chris

Lou_tribal said:

One advice about sea sickness is to look at the sea and take amgood breathe. Looks stupid said like that but often people are sea sicked because they stay onboard talking with each other and looking inside the boat. It is like being sick while you read a book in a car instead of looking outside.

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I second that.
Staying outside, fresh air rain or shine, midship area, staring at the horizon.

Years ago, someone explained to me that there were basically two groups of people when it came to sea-sickness.
One group is "externally focused" and needed to be able to see/focus on the "horizon", as they needed a reference point.
The other group is "internally focused", and can't see the horizon because it reinforces the motion.

I was never bothered by it on our boat, as I was always at the helm, with something to do. My wife, when it got a bit snotty, would go below to our cabin and lay down and take a nap.

I'm sure that would have pushed me over the edge, just as she was sure that if she spent another minute being able to see her surroundings, she'd be over the edge.

I use meclizine. Works great for me. But that's me.

The thing about seasickness is that it affects everyone differently. There is no one, universal cure that will work for everyone (other than sitting under a tree for two hours). What works great for one may be no use at all for another. So each person just has to figure out what will work for them.

I have great sea legs, but the problem i have is when i'm on land. Elevators, driving up a hill, getting on a plane about kill my ears. I do not know how land people do it...

psneeld said:

Was she a Wind class breaker? Or the Glacier?

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Neither, your much to young.... Burton Island

I've found for me it is best to take a dramamine and go sleep for a few hours when I first get on a boat. That way my body is acclimated to the motion once I get up.

Old Navy saying - There's two kinds of sailors, those that get seasick and those that haven't yet.

Ka_sea_ta said:

Neither, your much to young.... Burton Island

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I wasn't sure, but she is listed as 269 feet..... like her sister wind class that I flew off of...the Northwind and Westwind.

She was decommissioned while I was in, but about 5 years before my polar service.

For those that haven't heard, the older USCG icebreakers had hulls shaped like footbalks...if you didn't get sick on them...you probably wouldnt.

Three years of cruising, only got sick once - when I was helping a friend do an "emergency" fuel filter change, buried in his bilge with 4 ft chop on the Chesapeake ("Chesapuke"). My wife is very prone to motion sickness and although she got more and more used to being on the water, whenever things got rough she took the helm, otherwise she would get sick...

dvd said:

Three years of cruising, only got sick once - when I was helping a friend do an "emergency" fuel filter change, buried in his bilge with 4 ft chop on the Chesapeake ("Chesapuke"). My wife is very prone to motion sickness and although she got more and more used to being on the water, whenever things got rough she took the helm, otherwise she would get sick...

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I've never been seasick although once when young was very sick on the sea, but started throwing up immediately after breakfast, which was on land, and it was determined to be food poisoning. Still an awful place to have it.

I got car sick as a kid. Couldn't read in a car, also front seat better than back. However, the biggest thing was I had a need for food before we went into and curved through and over the mountains. We would leave home very early and try to drive a long distance and finally it became that I insisted on breakfast within the first hour and before the mountainous terrain. Never got car sick again.

Um, I do not particularly recommend it, but a crowded troopship from Seattle Washington to Japan, with the troops sleeping (?) in stacked bunks 18 inches apart, and vomit rolling on the floor with every roll, and three solid days of heaving, worked wonders for me. I probably could not get seasick now even if I tried really hard.

I normally yak once and am fine after that. My dad never did regardless of conditions so asked him the secret. His secret was 3 days riding out a typhoon on the Sea of Japan in a diesel electric sub on the surface coming home from the Korean War. Cook to the Captain and every single other man puked in that stinky tube. By the time they opened the hatch in port they'd all been "cured".

psneeld said:

I wasn't sure, but she is listed as 269 feet..... like her sister wind class that I flew off of...the Northwind and Westwind.

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I was a brown shoe also...

I worked on fishing charter boats for 8 years both inshore and offshore. There are certainly both physiological and psychological factors at play. Most clients who came on board nervous about getting sick did indeed wind up sick, it can be a self fulfilling prophecy. Of course being hungover dramically increases your odds and it seemed like a prerequisite for many charters to stay out drinking the night before their trip. I always avoided the subject and discouraged talk about it. I fished with a number of different captains and the one that went into great detailed instructions about where to get sick had a higher number of sick guests than the captains that didn't bring it up. The instructions were typically ignored anyway.
I developed a habit of lying to clients and claiming that this particular boat rocks an a fashion that doesn't make people sick, and if I ended up caught in the lie they were to busy feeling miserable to get mad at me.
Fishing offshore was a whole new game, once guys lose sight of land they were far more likely to get sick.
If you medicate do it well in advance (24 hours) to allow your body to acclimate or it was too late or just makes you too drowsy. Clients who did this never had a problem, although these guys also weren't the one drinking the night before either.

(I worked alot on head boats the first few years (whole different clientele) that fished 65 and grew very proficient at unclogging heads)