Sea sickness

[cliffordpope]

I know all the atandard stuff about prevention, don't look down, fresh air, watch the horizon, keep active, plenty of water, grown men suffer too, nothing to be ashamed of, Nelson suffered badly, etc.
My problem is I get "land sickness" for about a week afterwards. Yesterday I was standing leaning against the coming of a deep cockpit, braced with my hands behind me, swaying gently with the motion of a 45' schooner bowling along on a broad reach in a force 5 touching 8 knots. Bliss!

The trouble was, I was at home standing by the kitchen worktop, swaying in time with the lurge of the room, and I suddenly felt sick and had to dash outside for some fresh air. The schooner trip was last week. But the floor still heaves, and I go cautiously through doorways in case they bash me on the side of the head.
Sea sickness lasts a few hours and then one can eat a hearty meal - land sickness lasts a week or more and is there constantly to some extent.
Does anyone else find this?

 

[Kilter]

Yes after a long passage, it goes away eventually!

 

[cliffordpope]

Long, as in 10 hours?

 

[bbg]

Once on land - try sitting down and closing your eyes.

 

[Superflid]

Mine has lasted over 24hrs, that was after almost 3 days onboard.

 

[Kilter]

longest was after a 28 day passage, took a few days to wear off. Staggering like a drunk at first and stairs were difficult, soon as I got back on the boat felt fine!

 

[jimmynoboat]

This Lady has that problem - and it has never gone away.

 

[26ft_bathtub]

I get land sickness for about 24 hours after sailing, but only if I'm not sailing frequently.

It's pretty mild though - just a pleasant rocking sensation.

 

[najsmith]

Same gentle rocking sensation and then every now and then a little jolt as I get a falling sensation.

The worst post water contition I've has was driving back from dinghy sailing lessons. I got to a roundabout and physically ducked to avoid the boom /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[yindoor2]

just back after a 48hr passage and swayed for about 5 or 6 hours afterwards. a good nights sleep helps greatly.
Regards Ian

 

[Colin24]

I work aboard a ship and spend six weeks at sea at a time. When I get back on dry land I feel nothing unusual, but after 12 hours in my small sailboat I find I’m swaying in the kitchen that evening. Never mentioned it before; thought it was just me being daft.

 

[jonathankent]

[ QUOTE ]
The worst post water contition I've has was driving back from dinghy sailing lessons. I got to a roundabout and physically ducked to avoid the boom

[/ QUOTE ]
There must be something in the salt water... its causing us all to hallucinate /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm the same... not so much that I'm swaying, but everything around me is moving. Its particularly unnerving when driving back from the boat... makes the drive a bit different anyway - I wander if the Police would notice it? might make for an interesting explanation /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[cliffordpope]

"I wander if the Police would notice it? might make for an interesting explanation "

Freudian slip there - "wander" is just the word! It comes from letting the car go with the wave motion, not trying to fight it, just bringing it back on course as it slips down the other side.

 

[Neddie_Seagoon]

Interesting problem. I assume that it is caused by the brain continuing to "correct" the balance signals it receives even though no correction is required once you are back on stable ground.

I have a balance disorder, caused by disease of the inner ears. It totally incapacitated me, to the extent of not being able to move - at all! The drugs don't help much, the "Cawthorne-Cooksey" exercises referred to on the sailtales website are relatively gentle balance exercises which did nothing for me, so in order to cope with it I have had to do some "extreme" balance training. - so I play Raquetball (an American game similar to squash) at least twice a week, the violent twisting & turning involved really helps me. Essentially I have trained my brain to ignore the dodgy balance signals received from my defective ears and to rely instead on the balance information gathered by my eyes. Hard work, but my disease was totally debilitating so I was willing to try anything. My consultant, arguably the top Neuro-otologist in the UK, is gobsmacked by the improvement I've achieved - essentially I am back to normal, just a bit fitter!

If the problem is really distressing you it might be worth trying something similar - squash should do nicely - while you are feeling fuzzy just to train your brain to rely more on the evidence of your eyes.

I suffer no motion effects on or off boat. I took my son in law out for a sail a couple of months back, and chatting in the pub the following day it turned out that he had felt wobbly for some time after getting back on dry land, whereas I can't tell the difference, being on deck or on land is all the same to me.

FWIW. PM if you want to know more.

Steve

 

[Kilter]

would that be menierres? (?spelling)

 

[Neddie_Seagoon]

Yep. As explained in another thread a while back, I have taken up sailing explicitly to "challenge" my balance, the more I challenge it the better it gets. I'm definitely doing something right, because I was totally crippled by it - couldn't manage the 8 mile journey to work - couldn't work with a computer screen (I'm in IT /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) etc. etc. and that was when I was good. When bad - couldn't move at all - effectively paralysed.

Steve

 

[StugeronSteve]

I can sympathise, I had a couple of months of labyrinthitis last year, it was orrible.
A friend of ours has suffered from menierres (sp) for some time. She plucked up courage to come out sailing with us for a weekend and found that it offered long lasting relief rather than the increased nausea that she feared.

 

[Kilter]

In which case keep it going, it worked really well for a good friend of mine!