Seasick in the marina!!

R

roblpm

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 Mar 2012
Messages
7,310
Visit site
The last couple of years I have been busy fantasising about my future as sailing legend in order to escape my humdrum middle aged life. Fastnet, Atlantic, Greenland, Jester etc etc.

All came crashing to earth this afternoon after an hour on the boat in the marina changing the oil in my engine. The marina (port edgar) just has a rubbish tyre wall in lieu of a wall so the swell is pretty bad and it was gusting over 30 knots so the (lightweight) boat was bouncing up and down quite a lot. The nausea was pretty bad, luckily I could escape to dry land. Even so I am still feeling a bit sick a couple of hours later. Bit worried about my coastal skipper in February if they make me do too much navigation at the chart table.

Funnily enough I have been out on the boat about 40 times this summer racing and a few weekends away and not felt a thing. And on previous 10 day trips away have only been sick in a force 7 in the minch and that had something to do with about 10 pints the night before.

So what to do:

a) Plan my sailing to ensure I never go below??!!
b) Go and sit on my boat for an hour at a time below in the marina until I beat it??
c) Buy a catamaran?? Or trimaran (I was looking at the dragonfly website yesterday dreaming of speed!!)
d) Buy a sports boat for racing that doesn't have a "below".
e) Face the fact that at 45 I am washed up and will never be a sailing god??!!

Hmmmmmmmm!!
 
down below, not seeing surface, cramped, oil fumes, in a marina in a big gusts - I wouldn't be harsh on yourself. I would say the circumstances were pretty conducive to a bit of queasiness
 
I never go below if I can avoid it - I feel ill within minutes. Much better to watch the horizon.

Mind you, my wife felt seasick the first time she went on my boat, and it hadn't even been launched.
 
johnalison said:
Do your course. Get the certificate. Buy a plotter.
Click to expand...

Ah yes I like this approach but no good on an RYA course. I will have to pretend I don't do all my nav on navionics on my phone. (And before anyone yells, the backup is my mates phone, and the backup to that is a laptop and last but not least is some paper charts. I usually have at least 5 independent gpss on board so not too worried about power, batteries etc. I suppose if they switch the gps system off i might have to look where I am going! )
 
Thistle said:
I've got a boat in Port Edgar if you'd like another try. Tuesday this week looks suitable ;)
Click to expand...

Well if I wasn't working we could try an experiment in changing oil etc in a gale! I wonder if the new bloke will build a wall! Its like paying marina prices for a pontoon in the middle of the sea! Anyone know how much a 100m seawall costs??!!
 
It takes practice to be below doing work in a blow. 1200sq ft of sopping wet spinnaker needing repacking is one way of practising, changing a speedseal is another.
YTou have to remember you were tethered, so restricting several degrees of freedom in the boat. At sea, you will have pitch but little yaw if sails are up and tyou are leaning over a bit.

Keep the faith.
 
No Rob it's not unusual to get feeling that way especially when moored up in the situation you were in. The boat doesn't take on 'normal'

movements of being away from a berth, although there are a few troubled seas that have left me feeling a bit squiffy.

If you've survived this long without any serious seasickness afloat I would just forget about it and get on with the job. Some seasick med's

can leave you feeling a bit drowsy, but out of the many that Mrs.S. has tried, only Scopoderm patches have worked for her and it doesn't

suit everyone.

On a course you'll probably find yourself on a larger boat than you appear to have and that in itself will hopefully give you a steadier

motion whilst at sea during your course.


Thankfully it's rare that I get sea sick.

A couple of years ago we were anchored on a safe lee shore, albeit with only a very light wind forcast.

A rolling swell abeam began in the middle of the night making me feel nauseous. I shot out of bed to right myself and get some air in the

cockpit to stop anything worse happening.

S.
 
Last edited:
Crouched over trying to work on the engine is about the worst thing for seasickness. Especially without any acclimatisation if you just drove down and immediately started getting stuck into it. You seem to have a reasonable amount of sailing under your belt without feeling ill, so today's experience needn't indicate a problem.

They always say that on a Yachtmaster exam, spending too much time at the chart table is a sign of a poor skipper, not a good one. So hopefully your course won't contain too much.

A reliable way to feel seasick is to worry about feeling seasick, so try to ignore and forget about the entire concept unless and until your body starts insisting!

Pete
 
prv said:
Crouched over trying to work on the engine is about the worst thing for seasickness. Especially without any acclimatisation if you just drove down and immediately started getting stuck into it. You seem to have a reasonable amount of sailing under your belt without feeling ill, so today's experience needn't indicate a problem.

They always say that on a Yachtmaster exam, spending too much time at the chart table is a sign of a poor skipper, not a good one. So hopefully your course won't contain too much.

A reliable way to feel seasick is to worry about feeling seasick, so try to ignore and forget about the entire concept unless and until your body starts insisting!

Pete
Click to expand...

I agree completely.

I would add that it's worth trying one or two types of seasick tablets when it isn't critical -that is, not immediately before a Yachtmaster exam or before starting a long solo trip. If you can find a tablet that (a) helps you and (b) doesn't make you drowsy, then there's no harm in taking it as a precaution before a trip where you think you might be in danger of getting seasick.

Sometimes I sail with someone who nearly always feels seasick on the first day out unless it's flat calm. If he takes a Stugeron the night before we set out and follows it up with others on the first day at sea he's as right as rain after that with no more tablets, even if it's rough.

Stugeron works well for many people. The only one of my crew who had trouble with it went light-headed and sleepy but he was on anti-depressants and (like the Real Man he is) didn't read the Stugeron leaflet which says (I think - don't rely on me as I'm no doctor) 'Don't take Stugeron if you're on anti-depressants'.

I think working on a warm engine with head down is one of the most seasickness inducing situations that exist. Feeling it is no indication at all of inadequacy. In fact any sort of seasickness is no reflection at all on the sufferer.
 
Good advice above. Stugeron works well for me & many others. I used to sail with a fellow who got seasick sitting on deck in Dartmouth marina if there was even a little swell: and he was one of the best, most experienced sailors I ever met : ex-merchant marine, ex-skipper of sail training boat, etc. When I asked him why he still did it, he told me that he regarded getting sick now & again as an occupational hazard, and that after a day or two at sea it would always pass! His relaxed attitude towards it definitely helped. Try the Stugeron, make sure you drink (not 10 pints of beer though!), eat (ginger biscuits are very good) & don't worry. Nelson always got seasick, and you don't get much more legendary than that cove!
 
roblpm said:
The last couple of years I have been busy fantasising about my future as sailing legend in order to escape my humdrum middle aged life. Fastnet, Atlantic, Greenland, Jester etc etc.

All came crashing to earth this afternoon after an hour on the boat in the marina changing the oil in my engine. The marina (port edgar) just has a rubbish tyre wall in lieu of a wall so the swell is pretty bad and it was gusting over 30 knots so the (lightweight) boat was bouncing up and down quite a lot. The nausea was pretty bad, luckily I could escape to dry land. Even so I am still feeling a bit sick a couple of hours later. Bit worried about my coastal skipper in February if they make me do too much navigation at the chart table.

Funnily enough I have been out on the boat about 40 times this summer racing and a few weekends away and not felt a thing. And on previous 10 day trips away have only been sick in a force 7 in the minch and that had something to do with about 10 pints the night before.

So what to do:

a) Plan my sailing to ensure I never go below??!!
b) Go and sit on my boat for an hour at a time below in the marina until I beat it??
c) Buy a catamaran?? Or trimaran (I was looking at the dragonfly website yesterday dreaming of speed!!)
d) Buy a sports boat for racing that doesn't have a "below".
e) Face the fact that at 45 I am washed up and will never be a sailing god??!!

Hmmmmmmmm!!
Click to expand...

Son 2 has frequently been seasick in a marina - and without the benefit of a blow or working on anything below.
A SA friend of the wife had to escape onto the pontoon in Pwllheli after 20' aboard in the saloon.

One of Cousteau's "babes" confessed to me that he spent the first 36 hours of any mission in his bunk - he reckoned that the effect of scopolamine merely delayed becoming acclimatised.
I once had to heave-to off Cape Cornwall for 8 hrs to get my head down - attempted projectile vomiting on an empty stomach resulted in an inguinal hernia.
Seasickness happens to most people!!

The good news is that it goes for most in 36 hours - if you sail single-handed you can't afford to indulge yourself with being seasick. Also beyond 73rd year it seems to go away (as do many other things), so I've not suffered for the last 5 years.
 
Are you sure it was sea sickness? I suffer badly myself but the nausea always goes immediately on setting foot on land again.
One absolutely key thing about taking pills is to start them well before setting off. Ie the night before a morning departure.
 
Sounds rather the worst case situation. Bouncing up and down in that situation is not ideal. Don't be too tough on yourself.
Got quite unpleasant and green replacing the impeller whilst bouncing about in some weather off Dunkerque.

Experience, I find the first extended trip of the season is a bit unpleasant until the brain finds the settings for sailing.
Do try to limit time below if it is a real problem.
Get your navigating prepped before hand - mark the pages in the pilot, almanac and have your little chart of departure and arrival stuff, lights, VHF channels, phone numbers, significant pilotage stuff all on cards before you need them.
Prepare food before hand and have a Thermos of boiling water ready to make a quick cup of tea, pot noodles or cuppa soup. Regarding the latter, leek and potato seems to be the most digestible and does not stain the deck like Minestrone.

Give yourself some aclimatisation time before going off for the Coastal Skipper.
Non drowzy anti histamine [ Poundland or similar] taken from the night before in moderate doses seems to work for me at the start of the season. Also works for visitors who are not accustomed to the motion of the boat. This is what I do when necessary and not intended as medical advice for you or anyone daft enough to follow my advice!

Keep warm, do not get hungry, avoid too much sugar and do not worry. The latter can be the biggiest single element - for me anyway.

Soon someone will be along to remind us that [alledgedly] Nelson used to get seasick
 
Gwylan said:
do not worry. The latter can be the biggiest single element - for me anyway.
Click to expand...

It's definitely possible to worry yourself into feeling ill even if you wouldn't have done otherwise.

My mate and I have been introducing his 5 year old nephew to sailing. At that age he's very suggestible - imply that something should be scary and he'll be scared, act as if he might not like a certain food and he'll say it's horrible, etc. So we haven't told him that sea-sickness exists, and sure enough he hasn't been seasick :)

Pete
 
Stugeron beats all other remedies hands down in my experience as a sailor and as a pharmacist. Other medications are available (generally hyoscine-based or antihistamines) and there are infinite numbers of folk remedies and old wives' versions. However, if you go with Stugeron, start the night before you leave on your trip and take regularly for at least the first day or so (read the instructions!), until you are sure that you're over it.

Another tip I found very useful in coping with a longish voyage in winds mostly Force 9 and 10 upwards (a long time ago and haven't done it since) was to do chartwork and looking at instruments with one eye closed. Didn't stop the nausea totally, but helped. And when I wasn't doing anything else, keep both eyes closed. Gives the brain a chance to shut down one of the competing inputs which are responsible for the problem. Otherwise, just throw up and look happy, you do feel better for a while afterwards!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

conks01
Hanse 301 Buying Advice
Replies
5
Views
354
stownsend
S
B
Halberg Rassey 31
2 3 4
Replies
71
Views
2K
ashtead
ashtead
Frogmogman
My next boat.
2 3
Replies
40
Views
1K
fredrussell
F
S
Leaving my boat in Orkney
Replies
17
Views
595
dunedin
D

Share this page

Top