What are your experiences of sailing single handed whilst being sea sick

[pandos]

Pepto Bismol tablets, not available over here but brilliant if you can chew them just in time, once you realise that they work and they are there the work really well especially is anxiety is mixed with the motion and the anxiety of chucking is adding to the whole situation.

 

[Babylon]

Factors that precipitate or exacerbate seasickness include fear (anxiety), cold, dehydration, hunger, fatigue - also the after effects of alcohol and greasy food.

Deal with these - and develop the attitude that its no disgrace to vomit (if in the presence of crew).

I generally feel much better post-puke - and hungrier! But I completely understand your worries about one's inability to think or act clearly when feeling green. Fortunately I've only ever been badly seasick when double-handed or when crewing.

But my experience of being 100% responsible for myself when single-handing in testing/enduring conditions has taught me that with determination one can overcome much.

Finally, I'd consider whether your choice of boat is suitable for your cruising area, especially if anxiety is an underlying cause of your propensity to sickness. Although my own boat is small, she's very secure with a 'heavy' rather than 'bouncy' motion, and the knowledge of this gives me increased confidence.

 

[Angele]

Factors that precipitate or exacerbate seasickness include fear (anxiety), cold, dehydration, hunger, fatigue - also the after effects of alcohol and greasy food.

The first time I was sick on Angele, it was because I conspired to combine all of those in just one passage. :disgust:

.... best avoided.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Good to hear you can suffer from the sea sickness as well Pete... Er if you know what I mean. Sturgeon is the stuff I use ...

 

[maby]

My mum's another Scop patch convert. She's always suffered badly from seasickness, and insisted that no drugs worked for her. Then my uncle introduced her to Scop patches for skiing (white-out conditions can also bring on seasickness by hiding the horizon) and she's finally started using them on the boat. She crossed from Alderney to Weymouth last year with a moderate sea on the quarter giving that corkscrew motion, and although she didn't want to risk going below she was quite comfortable in the cockpit which would absolutely never have happened before.

I've also seen Buccastem (prochlorperazine) work miracles for people on a square rigger, which was fortunate as we had just departed the Azores for a non-stop passage to Cherbourg taking a couple of weeks

The day to day choice on Ariam is Stugeron; I have a friend who often takes one at the beginning of a week's cruise until he acclimatises, and I will occasionally take a dose just in case if I'm expecting a rough passage.

We ran out of Stugeron once before a rolly crossing back from St Vaast, so my two friends used the pills from the MCA official first-aid kit. Won't be using those again if we can help it - I had to stand watch the whole way as they were effectively sedated! No seasickness, but they just couldn't stay awake.

Pete

The big advantage of the patches is that you are not taking the drug by mouth - with tablets, once you start throwing up you are lost - you can't keep them down long enough to get into the bloodstream. The scopoderm patch is there all the time, topping up the level in your blood. If you don't put one on soon enough and start feeling sick, you can still salvage the situation by applying one and waiting for it to kick in.

 

[BlackPig]

I take Kwels for sea sickness. Not not drink loads of cold water or juice to re hydrate. I have found out it makes it worse, small amounts better. If you have a boat that steers itself, keep low, lie on the cockpit floor and pop you head up to keep watch. The time you have head down will depend on where you are. Hook yourself on, you don't want to go overboard while chucking up over the side.

 

[maby]

I take Kwels for sea sickness. Not not drink loads of cold water or juice to re hydrate. I have found out it makes it worse, small amounts better. If you have a boat that steers itself, keep low, lie on the cockpit floor and pop you head up to keep watch. The time you have head down will depend on where you are. Hook yourself on, you don't want to go overboard while chucking up over the side.

I seem to remember that Kwels are the same active ingredient as Scopoderm but in rather low doses and taken by mouth.

 

[southseaian]

Stugeron take a couple of hours to become effective whilst Kwels seem to work even if taken after the start of feeling ill.
My wife uses either depending on circumstance.
I would suggest the OP tries to ascertain the main cause of his sickness and works at that.
As someone has already said, "factors that precipitate or exacerbate seasickness include fear (anxiety), cold, dehydration, hunger, fatigue - also the after effects of alcohol and greasy food"

Take care single handed. Some people keep going throwing up now and then but remain useful crew. Others just get worse and worse until they virtually fall into a coma.
I suggest finding a friend who is not sick, go out in a sea that would make you sick and keep going and see how well you survive.

 

[maby]

...
Take care single handed. Some people keep going throwing up now and then but remain useful crew. Others just get worse and worse until they virtually fall into a coma.
I suggest finding a friend who is not sick, go out in a sea that would make you sick and keep going and see how well you survive.

I'll second that - extreme seasickness can be seriously disabling and it is wise for all of us that use boats for pleasure to be well aware of our limits.

 

[prv]

The big advantage of the patches is that you are not taking the drug by mouth - with tablets, once you start throwing up you are lost - you can't keep them down long enough to get into the bloodstream.

Yep - and the Buccastem has the same property because it comes as a sticky blob you apply to the top of your gum, right up inside the upper lip (that's where the "Bucca-" part of the name comes from).

The French solution was traditionally suppositories, I believe

Pete

 

[prv]

Some people keep going throwing up now and then but remain useful crew.

I remember greasing a topgallant mast with Seasick Steve (not the actual singer, obviously, but another Steve who had definitely earned the name). A hundred feet above the deck, with a canvas bucket full of badly-refined beef tallow with occasional bits of connective tissue in it, and an old sock each to smear it thickly on the spar to let the topgallant and royal yard parrels slide up and down. He'd sensibly taken the leeward side, and every couple of minutes he'd turn round and hurl into the void, then turn back and dip his sock in the grease bucket again. Could never accuse him of not being useful crew despite his constant sickness!

(He was reliably sick continually for the first three days of any passage, so going to sea for just a week meant he'd spend half of it ill. Last I heard of him he was joining a non-stop voyage from Cape Town to Waterford - three days out of that passage a much better proportion!)

Pete

 

[flaming]

I haven't done a lot of sailing singlehanded, and I've never been sick singlehanded.

In fact thinking about it I've never felt sick when I've been sailing as skipper. Maybe I've just been too distracted.

But I have been affected over the years, not always but often enough to be annoying.

When I have been sick it's gone a little bit like this.

Hmmm, I'm not feeling so good.
Stop thinking about it and maybe it will go away.
Nope, going to be sick. *is sick*
Maybe that will be it...?
Nope, still feeling bad.
Think I'll helm, that usually helps.
Nope....
Maybe a lie down?
BUCKET PLEASE!
Oh god this is hell.
Make it stop!
How long to go...? 5 Hours...!? Kill me now...!
Why am I still alive?
Who did I wrong in a previous life?
I hate sailing
Look at those smug gits who aren't sick and talking about what a great sail this is. I hate them all.
Are we nearly there yet?
NO I DO NOT WANT A SODDING MARS BAR!
Bucket please.. Please....
Oh good we've arrived
I feel like death, must help tidy boat up...
Starting to feel better now.
That wasn't so bad really, sailing's great!
Is it lunch time...?
Pub anyone..?

 

[Uricanejack]

I haven't done a lot of sailing singlehanded, and I've never been sick singlehanded.

In fact thinking about it I've never felt sick when I've been sailing as skipper. Maybe I've just been too distracted.

But I have been affected over the years, not always but often enough to be annoying.

When I have been sick it's gone a little bit like this.

Hmmm, I'm not feeling so good.
Stop thinking about it and maybe it will go away.
Nope, going to be sick. *is sick*
Maybe that will be it...?
Nope, still feeling bad.
Think I'll helm, that usually helps.
Nope....
Maybe a lie down?
BUCKET PLEASE!
Oh god this is hell.
Make it stop!
How long to go...? 5 Hours...!? Kill me now...!
Why am I still alive?
Who did I wrong in a previous life?
I hate sailing
Look at those smug gits who aren't sick and talking about what a great sail this is. I hate them all.
Are we nearly there yet?
NO I DO NOT WANT A SODDING MARS BAR!
Bucket please.. Please....
Oh good we've arrived
I feel like death, must help tidy boat up...
Starting to feel better now.
That wasn't so bad really, sailing's great!
Is it lunch time...?
Pub anyone..?

Very good

 

[Angele]

I love the tale that Jeremy Clarkson recounts on one of the QI episodes of a Cross Channel ferry trip:

The worst thing Jeremy ever experienced, when he was on his own and did want to help, was when he was on a cross-channel ferry during a storm. The boat was rocking and everyone else was being violently seasick. He went to the toilets and looked under the cubical doors where he saw that they were all occupied by people being sick. As the ship rolled a businessman in his suit was on the floor and the sick flowed over his head, and he was sick as well. The man then looked Jeremy straight in the eye and said: "Kill me."

:disgust:

 

[JumbleDuck]

I seem to remember that Kwels are the same active ingredient as Scopoderm but in rather low doses and taken by mouth.

Yup. Kwells and Scopaderm are both hyoscine hydrobromide. When Scopaderm isn't available I find Kwells OK, but with a much shorter period of effect. I presume that's because a dose of Kwells takes you up to a safe level which then subsides over the next few hours, whereas Scopaderm continuously infuses the stuff and so keeps you at a high level of doped-up-ness for longer.

Away from cures, OP, if you think you are likely to be seasick to a debilitating level, don't go sailing single-handed. I gave up sailing on my own for several years when Scopaderm wasn't around.

 

[Angele]

Away from cures, OP, if you think you are likely to be seasick to a debilitating level, don't go sailing single-handed.

See post #2

 

[Oldfellah]

I have suffered debilitating bouts if seasickness in the past however have now found 'my cure' in the Avomine tablets. Before I was able to cope on deck and would happily spend many hours on the helm however the moment I strayed below deck the vertigo would render me completely useless and the vomiting would follow soon after. I can now look forward to some single handed sailing (once I Have bought my boat) without the constant fear of being laid low by that dreadful affliction.

 

[doug748]

Factors that precipitate or exacerbate seasickness include:
fear (anxiety), cold, dehydration, hunger, fatigue - also the after effects of alcohol and greasy food.....

On a typical weekend away I seem to nail every one.

 

[Zagato]

Finally, I'd consider whether your choice of boat is suitable for your cruising area.

NO MORE BOATS!! I tried that Babylon.

In the last 7 years I bought my first boat a Drascombe Longboat 19' and chucked up all over the Solent and somebody suggested getting a bigger boat for better sea motion (it wasn,t you was it Babylon, :moody so the following year I bought a Folksong 26' and couldn't get past West Pole before decorating my decks!! So being beaten by the sea I bought a Drascombe Drifter 22' for estuary fun only BUT things improved and I managed to get past West Pole YIPPEE, so I sold that and bought a Crabber 24, the biggest thing I would want to sail single handed but I still suffered with sea sickness and realised It,s too risky to go on passages around the IOW on my own. I was also fed up with the hassles of bigger boats, so I bought the love of my life a Drascombe Coaster which is what I should have bought in the first place but couldn,t afford. Good fortune then that all the buying and selling had made me a good chunk of dosh to buy an as new one So far I have not felt queasy in her probably due to the lack of stress of not owning a big boat! Ah for the simple life!!

on the other hand watch this incredible roller coaster ride in a Drascombe Lugger!!!!!! They were lucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmEP8_6NXw

 

[snooks]

The big advantage of the patches is that you are not taking the drug by mouth - with tablets, once you start throwing up you are lost - you can't keep them down long enough to get into the bloodstream.

This is why Kwells are wonderful. You can suck or chew them so you know the drug is in your system.

The patches are great too for longer periods, but make sure you're not deprived of sleep – that's when they got a bit too trippy for me.

The only time Kwells failed me was in a liferaft - So now I avoid liferafts :0)