Sea Sickness

R

rpthomas

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Hi Folks

Would welcome advice on overcoming this. On a two week sail from Falmouth to Gib, I still found I was queasy at sea in the second week if it got lumpy, and it dulled the sharpness of my awareness of navigation, plotting, etc. It is the one thing that spoils an otherwise unstoppable urge to change to liveaboard.

Has anyone experience of overcoming this after a whiile, and if so, how?

R
 
A long time ago a merchant seaman who crewed for a bloke called Noah told me that you should put cotton wool in your ears when the sea gets lumpy.

Don't know why it works, but it works for me and no drowsiness - well, no more than usual :-)
 
Try Stugeron. My wife, who often gets seasick, and I, who rarely do, have both found Stugeron to be the best preventive and remedy. It's available over the counter in Europe, can be swallowed with water, or chewed or sucked, and produces less drowsiness than other remedies. If you're going to North America take some with you, or get friends to bring it.
 
Thisgets discussed a lot on these boards and it's worth a search to uncover the nuggets of wisdom. For prevention, we both like Stugeron, taken at least two hours before leaving and regularly thereafter. But it doesn't suit everyone. If it's not working for you, really worth talking to your doctor.

For managing the horrid effects, two things we find particularly good. One is crystallised ginger. I hate the taste (really hate it) but just sucking a lump of the stuff and spitting it out makes a big difference. The other is to drink hot water (just don't put the tea bag in the tea). It stays down the way hot drinks or cold water won't; this helps prevent dehydration which generally means you don't feel so s---ty!

Best of luck and do share any solutions.
 
Thanks. Hot water and crystal Ginger both loved. I agree - I would have given my eye teeth for some hot water in a mug last week, after 24 hours rolling around in a force 7 trying to point a Bavaria 37 in the right direction in the Channel, beating northwards against a Northerly!

Its all very well suggesting I sit under a tree, but my heart is in sailing, and I just love it. Its in my bones. But I just feel sooooo [--word removed--]*y after a few hours rolling. Will use Stugeron next time to see what happens.

R
 
I have been at sea all my life and my main interest/hobby is sailing. I have suffered all my life but was advised to take Stugeron and Tagamet at the same time about two years ago. Tagamet is a drug that is given for ulcers you can buy it over the counter. It works for me. Last summer we left the UK and the boat is in Palma. We have had a few rough passages 7-8 in Biscay and as long as I took the medicine early enough I had no problems.
 
MrsE suffers badly from seasickness (her record is 3 straight days on the trot) and the only thing that has worked for her is Scopaderm which is a transdermal patch worn behind the ear. It dries up her mouth and makes her feel a little drowsy at times but never seasick and this includes a transat and several week long ocean passages in fairly uncomfortable weather.
 
I'd echo that. I used to take Stugeron in isolation, but it didn't help, in fact even made me feel worse until I started taking a strong indigestion/stomach ulcer pill at the same time. Or rather, half an hour before, then food, the Stugeron. Works superbly not only for me, but also with g/f .

I also tried before Scopaderm patches before that. They worked pretty well, though with the side effects Chris Enstone mentions, and only for a limited period of time. I suspect that the 'nuclear option' for the really worst weather is Scopaderm patch + ulcer tablet, but haven't tried that yet. Probably worth checking with a doctor about their compatibility before doing so.
 
Scopaderm, after being a long suffering victim, I have still found though that after a week at sea if its been calm and blows up again I can start to feel rough.

As the side effects of the patches can be quite strong you can cut a patch in half, the beauty is you can put them on if your starting to feel rough where as all the other ingested drugs need to be working well before.
 
Good old fashioned ginger seem to work for some. McVities Ginger Snaps, home made ginger bread and Thorntons chocolate gingers all go down well, and usually stay down. Start nibbling them before the symptoms really kick in. Once you're hanging over the lee rail the only thing that works is a Scopalomine patch (Scopaderm).

Has anyone tried a pair of polaroid sunglasses where the lenses are polarised 90 degrees to each other? I read about this somewhere, but have no idea if it was succesfull.

Legend has it that Nelson, a chronic sea-sickness sufferer, never suffered after losing the sight in one eye; but I don't recommend it.
 
Scopaderm is a miracle drug! Or at least the only one that works for me when things get bumpy, with the added benefit of no side effects. A mate of mine who is also prone to mal-de-mer did an entire ARC with one stuck behind his ear-'ole (I think each patch lasts for four days or so).
 
Try valoid tablets. I don't get sea sick but I used to get extremely car sick and the valoid worked very well for me. I used to take them an hour before any car journey that lasted longer than an hour, I seem to have gotten over it and no longer need to.
 
I was chatting to a bloke on the train today who is a hynotherapist; got me wondering whether hypnotherapy could cure/control seasickness; googled 'Hypnotherapy seasickness cure' and apparently it can be; kevin Costner supposedly used his personal therapist to cure him when filming 'Waterworld'. So, has anyone tried it? Or used it for giving up smoking etc and think it might be an option?
 
Really depends on how susceptible the victim (errrmk, client) is to hypnosis. I used to do a party piece when a student and it depended on people being able to be hypotised, and every stage act I've ever seen, used similar principles of weeding out those that will respond.
 
I wonder if there is some sort of correlation for some between being susceptible to seasickness and their being susceptible to hypnosis?

John
 
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