Sea Sickness - Oh Joy And Glee!

[BroadAmbition]

Not wishing to drift the 'Independence' thread off course, I have started off a new one here

To start with,  my own experience of sea sickness.  The first time for me was on a ferry from UK to Brittany in 74, I was 14 and on a school trip for a fortnight. I spent most of the journey in the heads and not happy at all, fortunately the journey was not that long - I survived the experience but can easily remember it.

Second time (And the last!) 1977, I joined HMS Antrim alongside in Rosyth.  She was my first proper RN Ship I was drafted to as ships company.  I was 17 n a bit, fresh out of training from HMS Mercury, scared to death of my own shadow.

HMS Antrim was a county class guided missile destroyer, a big ship by white ensigns standards. 6'850 tons laden 522ft x 55ft with a draft of 20ft and a crew of around 500. She was a 'Proper' warship built to warship standards of course, She could take anything we could throw at her and then some as I found out

We sailed on a three week JMC exercise with many other nations warships,  -  straight into a storm force 12 it went on for ever, well it seemed like it to me

I was that sick there was many watches I just could not operate, which of course meant I was a passenger, not crew and letting down my mess mates.   The mess deck I was allocated to was '4E'  that meant only four compartments back from the bow, it was the furthest fwd messdeck, which meant we got the full force of pitching up and down and also of course the smell of cordite from the fwd twin 4.5's as an added bonus.  The older salts were of course offering me much 'Sea Daddy' advice, some good some not so good, some just plain down right ridiculous.  I purloined a pussers standard black bucket with some 10mm rope tied to the handle.  Me and that damn bucket became inseparable. we went everywhere together, bunk, shower, heads, on watch, off watch, dining hall, upper deck (Never saw much of that)  action and damage control stations (Saw plenty of them)  - the lot

Having that bucket tied to me meant I could operate in a sort of fashion.  Mealtimes were the highlight. Eat a mouthful, swallow it down 5 seconds later transfer to bucket and so it went on.  It was relentless.  The wx did not improve but incredulously and all painfully too slowly -  I did.  One memorable occasion I actually ate a whole meal in one sitting and actually made it out of the dining hall before the bucket collected its now standard wares.   Next mealtime - made it out of dining hall and nearly got to 'My' office.  This progressed / improved until at last my 'Euraka' moment.  I went from one mealtime to the next without using the bucket! then a full watch completed - No bucket and a full off watch in my bunk - no bucket.  I took the rope off said damn bucket, put the lot away and never used a bucket ever again for sea sickness.  Nor have I ever been sea sick ever again - it doesn't happen.  Yes I have been in far worse conditions is smaller ships / boats but no sea sickness.  I can to this day remember how horrible and debilitating I found the whole experience and have not the slightest inclination to repeat the exercise - ever

Griff

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

I can' t match that,but when I used to smoke,Marina and I would go to France and Belgium on the ferry.We always got the 08.00 from Dover.We would have a coffee and a cheesy toast.Many others on board would make for the bar,lots of beer and full English,The fun started once we cleared the harbour.I have lucky,Not suffered much sea sickness. 

 

 

 

 

[Vaughan]

We should remember that Independence is an excellent sea boat. What is known as "tight".

This means if she leans over with a wave, she will immediately bounce back.

That's great for her but not very good for the crew!

[ZimbiIV]

I have never felt seasick (yet) but on several cruise ships after 2 days at sea I always feel very queasy for the 1st hour on LAND!

The damn thing isn't moving in time  to my legs.

paul

[ranworthbreeze]

1 minute ago, ZimbiIV said:

I have never felt seasick (yet) but on several cruise ships after 2 days at sea I always feel very queasy for the 1st hour on LAND!

The damn thing isn't moving in time  to my legs.

paul

Hi Paul,

I get this on the boat and when we have hired narrow boats in the past the longer I am on the boat the longer it lasts, usually ater a week aboard it takes about a couple of days for the effect to subside. Whenever you are sat the effect seems to be worse.

Regards

Alan

[Guest]

I was once very nearly sick on a boat, it had nothing to do with sea sickness, just that I had emptied out the bar 

[BroadAmbition]

Three posts from t'other thread srping to mind which I thought were really very good and excuse me if they are not word for word.    Two cures for sea sickness:-

Go inland 4 miles and sit under an apple tree  -  Sound advice and should wok every time

Jam Sandwiches - Doesn't cure sea sickness but tastes a whole lot better on the way back up - Classic and sound advice

And the priceless one that made me LOL   I'm still not back to normal, went for a bath and felt sick - Now that really is a cracker.  Brought humour to the proceedings and being able to laugh at oneself is an admirable quality - BZ

Griff

[BrundallNavy]

During  August 1985 we hired a T31 sailing boat from Falmouth, after being stuck in the Helford river for the first 3 days we finally made it up the coast to Salcombe. The following day we had planned a trip across to the Channel Islands but decided due to the weather forecast to head back down coast towards Plymouth. We passed a large white object sitting upside down on the rocks but didn’t take much notice.  On reaching Fowey harbour the crew had had enough with all but one being sea sick.  We moored up on the visitors moorings which are directly in line with the harbour entrance, as the boat was being tossed all over the place we took the decision to head to the nearest hotel for the night.

The following morning we called the water taxi to take us back to the boat and he headed off towards the yacht club moorings, sorry I said we are down there on the visitor moorings oh no your not came the reply we move it last night due to the.wind.

On arrival back into Falmouth we found the harbour full of Fastnet boats and the white hull we had seen days earlier was Drum Simon LeBon’s yacht that had lost its keel.

Not a pleasant two week holiday during which I got very friendly with the big white telephone that was the last sailing holiday in the UK preferring Greece but that’s another story.

Edited February 11, 2018 by brundallNavy

[Polly]

 

As a kid I was always horribly car sick, and still dislike travelling in the back seat.

I was telling Doug we took 90 kids on the ferry from Dieppe on a rough crossing. There were two of us still on our feet at the end of that. We spent most of the time getting the kids to lie down to ease the sickness, and avoiding the heads ourselves which were awash, yuk! My friend Margaret really did go green.

I am ok if I can see forward or backward, but as Doug said, starting before dawn meant he couldn't see where the waves were coming from or the horizon.

[ChrisB]

Drum was repaired and refitted in about 5 weeks and went on to compete in the Round the World race. I remember vaguely that they entered The Fastnet as a shake down cruise for the Whitbread. 

She has been owned by Arnold Clark the Motor Trader for many years and does a lot of charter work. She also had a contretemps with a RN sub in Scottish waters.

She was loaned to Le Bon afterwards so he and his crew, 20 years later, could complete a Fastnet.

[ChrisB]

I have only suffered once, becalmed, sails down but in a large swell under a sub-tropical sun. The regular rise, fall and roll did it for me.

[NeilB]

Never been seasick myself but only had 2 very rough trips.  One was on a ferry across the bay of Biscay when I was the only one out of 4 still standing for about 36 hours, restaurants were nice and quiet though! 

The other was shortly after I started working for Volvo Penta back in 2002.  Drove down to Plymouth in the afternoon and had a slightly heavy night with 2 colleagues and a couple of guys from Princess.  Next morning I felt a little queasy in the lift so I was a tad apprehensive when I was invited on board a sea trial, on the way out they said it was a little rough but "should" be ok.  It was so bad leaving the harbour you had to cling on just to stay in one place but I didn't feel the slightest bit sea sick.

My granddad was in the navy from 1917 to 1930 and then in reserve from 30 to 39, back full time 39 to 45.  Up to 1940 he was mainly in destroyers and apparently was always sick for the first day or so at sea, after this he acclimatised.

[Malanka]

Crossed the channel from Le Havre to Chichester in a moody 29 summer of 1983. 

Was fine whilst helming ( we were in a force 7 across the deck, safety harness et al all day and all night. Youngest daughter ( I was bf to the oldest) stripped her left index finger of skin down to the bone and up to her wrist with a self tailing winch. She was screaming the place down,  I was off watch and shaken awake in the bow cabin. Ten seconds later I was heading over the side in the pitch dark mid channel. The only other excitement was picking up a lobster pot in the dark and being swung round like a cork in a bucket. 

 

Enjoyed sailing and that was the last time ever being sea sick . Was sick every day sailing for two weeks and this was the longest section and heading home. Never been seasick since.

 

in Maldives whale watching everyone else on the two story dhony was puking accept me and the three crew. Must admit to smirking just a bit. 

 

M 

[vanessan]

Many years ago we crossed from Cape Jervis in South Australia to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island by catamaran. It was an evening crossing (only 45 minutes) and it was a horribly squally dark evening at that. As we left, the weather got worse with the wind really getting up. We were riding on the waves one minute and slamming down in the troughs the next, trouble was we couldn’t anticipate anything as it was pitch black. Neither my husband or I were seasick although we both felt pretty rough. That rough feeling stayed with us for the next 2 days unfortunately  but that is the nearest I have ever got to seasickness. 

[Polly]

Nelson was always seasick.

[grendel]

I have suffered from seasickness, once in a flat calm after getting a whiff of spilt diesel walking onto the ferry, the other time in a punt on the river cam, after a heavy night drinking the night before. on the other hand I have been on a ferry crossing from france where the ferry was hitting every wave and stopping, the crew were wearing the wrist bands and battening everything down. on the other hand I do suffer at times from labrynthitus where you can feel seasick just standing up and moving, so I dont really know anymore.

[YnysMon]

I usually feel a bit queasy on cross channel ferries and used to be sick as a child. My fear of being sick has receded though since I managed not to during a crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe the night of ‘the great storm’ (Oct 1987?). It was a scary and prolonged crossing, not getting into Dieppe until about 3-4 hours later than we were due to. The rumour was that it was too rough to get into harbour so we were sailing around in circles off the coast of France. It felt like that anyway as the motion of the ship wasn’t consistent. Each time we got to a certain point it pitched forward more and then the whole ship shuddered and groaned, presumably as it hit the bottom of the trough between waves. 

Maybe I was too scared to be sick!

[Speleologist]

I'm fortunate in that I rarely have any seasickness problem. I sometimes feel a bit queasy if I'm out in rough weather after a long time ashore, but that usually wears off within 24 hours and only rarely am I actually sick (4 or 5 times in 50 years of sailing). I'm also fortunate in that when I am sick I am back to full functionality pretty rapidly. I have known people who suffer much as Griff's experience above and continue to do so. Most memorably on on one Fastnet race, where one of our crew was continuously sick for the first two days, and therefore getting very dehydrated and hypothermic. He also refused to go below because it made him feel worse.Once he minally collapsed and we got him asleep below he slept for about 12 hours and was fine for the rest of the race.

[Wyndham]

It's funny reading the stories of people who used to get sick but don't now, that's like me.

When I was younger I suffered terrible motion sickness, cars, boats, playground roundabouts.

On foreign holidays when the girls were young we'd always book a boat trip and I'd always get ill.

I gave up on boats at sea for years.

Around 12 years ago I was on holiday, just me and my daughter,  she wanted to do some diving and booked three trips. I weren't looking forward to it but turned out it was fine and I didn't suffer at all, haven't done since.

Best one was a boat smaller than Indy, 8 customers 2 crew. They laid on some food and drink for the return journey, proper rough and 5 of the 8 were ill. My daughter and I had a feast.

[imtamping2]

Luckily no seasickness ever for me.......but I am still amazed at how many actual shades of green there are....

[Ray]

12 years old, Dover to Zeebrugge, journey length twice what was expected. I actually died of sea sickness and am writing this as a spectre of my former self.

 

True story lol

[Wyndham]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

...... night of ‘the great storm’ (Oct 1987?). It was a scary and prolonged crossing, not getting into Dieppe until about 3-4 hours later than we were due to. 

Probably not as scary as sitting under an apple tree that night.

[ZimbiIV]

Jill was very green on her first cruise, in the West Indies our honeymoon, when the waiter brought her two tablets 1 now and the other if you feel ill later, she was fine for the rest of the cruise.

I do wonder what was in that tablet, being we were just off St Lucia at the time.

paul

PS she still has that spare in her memory folder. 21 years later.

[BrundallNavy]

I did once get seasick on a windsurfer in the black water estuary. There seems to be a pattern forming 

[TheQ]

I've been sick at sea once, even though I've been on ferries to the outer hebridies in gales many times , and round the top of Scotland in a 27ft yacht in a gale.

The being sick at sea?,  in a lobster boat in the atlantic off the West Coast of the Hebridies (Benbecula).

I was the one who found out having taken a gulp of tea, Discovered salt water had got into the fresh water tank...