I'm on the overnight ferry tomorrow from Hull to somewhere in The Netherlands, and, er, I think it's going to be a bit choppy!!

I don't do that well historically on choppy water, so what do folks recommend for sea-sickness relief/avoidance? Can be drug or alternative hippy recommendations 🙂

Ta

Ginger tablets however i havent tried them – try the holland and barret place. I do lots of sailing and have just learned how to be sick and get on with it – prawn cocktail crisps make your sick taste nicer on way back up!

The usual over the counter antihistamine anti sickness pills – quells and the like or you can get stronger from your GP.

Make sure you can see the horizon. Try to sit as near to the roll centre of the boat as you can.

It helps me – and I get seasick crossing bridges

sea bands actually work.
no idea how
wife used them for morning sickness

second being able to see the horizon but being a night crossing you'll need a bl**dy good torch.

You can get Motilium over the counter, it's great for any travel sickness or what I normally use it for….bad hangover

Stugerons good, saved me on this years three peaks yacht race

Ginger works for me. You can get tablets from health food shops, and having some crystallised stuff to munch on helps too.

I use that boat a fairly often, and it's nice and stable. If the weather is bad they will also tend to shadow the coast rather than crossing directly from Hull to Rotterdam to make things as comfortable as possible for passengers.

IIRC there is a sun lounge up top – I think you can get outside there. Fresh air should help you, but if it doesn't, at least you won't be puking inside the ferry that I'll be travelling on on Friday evening. 🙂

Good luck and safe journey.

Nothing, if you're inclined to sea sickness. I got sea sick in the Panama Canal, and then 2 weeks of misery in a hammock crossing the Caribbean. End of my sea-going career.

Yeah, seeing the horizon defo helps, but could be tricky at night 🙂 we have a cabin – I'm hoping anyway that will be near the centre somewhere!

ginger – will go to H&B at lunchtime and get a bag of the stuff to munch on – good idea.. Damn tasty too 🙂

will then head across the road to Boots I think and get something man-made to knock me out 🙂

i'm also holding on to the fact that my last choppy crossing (channel) was actually not bad at all from a sickness point of view, in fact I hardly felt it.

It was daytime though, and I was sat next to the front window with clear view of the horizon!

this trip worries me a little more in that we have the cabin, inside somewhere!

might be running up and down for air!

My wife gets very sea sick – even on fairly calm water.

I remember her taking some "anti-sickness" tablets and them having a very strange reaction on her – to the point where she lay down on the floor in the middle of the cafeteria and fell asleep 😯

Since then she tried ginger tablets and found them to be very good. We managed a 3 day catamaran trip without incident (despite some heavy drinking) and I've stood with her on the prow of a boat doing the Titanic bit as we were flung up and down in the waves, while the rest of the passengers were puking their guts up below decks. 😀

Use ginger tablets for both our girls. they seem to work fine but not sure if its a placebo effect

Tracey

another vote for Stugeron here. But if you can't stay on deck and if you can't see the horizon, lie down, head on pillow, shut eyes. don't get up or look about you even if when you wake up, unless your going straight on deck to look at the horizon.

something about your eyes and your inner ear causes sea sick, so don't let them get confused!!

Tracey, nah, there have been a few studies of ginger which suggest it is genuinely effective, rather than just a placebo:

During a 5-month period, 70 eligible women gave consent and were randomized in a double-masked design to receive either oral ginger 1 g per day or an identical placebo for 4 days…
..nausea decreased significantly in the ginger group (2.1 +/- 1.9) compared with the placebo group (0.9 +/- 2.2, P =.014). The number of vomiting episodes also decreased significantly in the ginger group (1.4 +/- 1.3) compared with the placebo group (0.3 +/- 1.1, P <.001).

"Ginger for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial."
Vutyavanich T, Kraisarin T, Ruangsri R.
Obstet Gynecol. 2001 Apr;97(4):577-82.PMID: 11275030

Google for "ginger antiemetic" to find more. 😀

might not belive me but i swear im not having you on. lots of time traveling at sea… smell and suck a lemon! ha i swear.

I use that boat a fairly often, and it's nice and stable. If the weather is bad they will also tend to shadow the coast rather than crossing directly from Hull to Rotterdam to make things as comfortable as possible for passengers.

I've gone on that boat once in a bad storm, and I think I was the only person who didn't puke. It can certainly get a bit wobbly on a bad day.

I've also crossed the channel in a 60 foot yacht in force 6 gusting to 7 winds (30mph winds or something silly). That was the closest I've come to puking on a boat – everyone else chucked at some point, and I was feeling pretty rough by the time we anchored in a sheltered bay somewhere near Portsmouth. Bloody fast crossing though, no-one wanted to hang around in that, the front of the boat was jumping about 10 foot off the waves and slapping down, and even with radar, it was darned scary crossing the shipping lanes and seeing huge tankers looming out of the fog.

I don't medicate for it, but the only thing that I've ever found to be useful if I am feeling travel-sick is controlling steady breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Don't know what it does, but it seems to at least delay the feeling of sickness.

Joe

I used to get very sea sick and discovered that it was the stress of thinking I would be seasick that made it worse. (I endured some VERY bad sailings as a kid…)
As an experiment, I took some Natracalms before I travelled once and (apart from it sending me nuts) I wasn't seasick. That seemed to break the cycle because I knew I didn't necessarily get sick afterall so I was more calm the next time and didn't get sick.

Good luck. I hope you find something that works for you because it's just horrible feeling that bad when it's supposed to be fun!

eat and keep eating. nothing worse than an empty stomach if your feeling seasick.

take whatever your taking well in advance. stugeron etc tend to make you feel nauseous before having any effect.

If it is throwing it around, get as low down in the ship as you can. Was on a ship in force 10/11 + 30m swells once and we worked out if you stood in the centre of the bridge you were moving laterally by about 50m on every roll. Get down below decks and it was markedly less.

Seabands are very good – they use acupressure (like acupunture, but no needles) just up from the heel of your hand. I used them on the Round Britain and Ireland race a while back, and pretty much didn't bother after the first leg to Ireland. I rarely have problems now, but it I do, I just find that point on my wrist and apply a little pressure. It's three finger widths up from the heel of your palm in between the two tendons on the inside of your wrist.

I used to take Stugeron when I was younger (first JOG race to Alderney at the age of 16) and it's good, but you have to keep remembering to take it. Ginger biscuits or crystallised ginger also work a treat, and seem to settle some of the people I've raced with in the past.

Unless it's thick fog or the boat's *really* lit up, then you will be able to see the horizon at night. Standing on deck also helps – the breeze tends to blow a lot of nausea away, from experience.

Don't do what am mate of mine and I did a couple of years ago when delivering a race boat back from Dartmouth Royal Regatta with two novices: a nice fat curry with bahjees and samosas to start, reheated in the boat's oven, does not help those that suffer from seasickness. That said, it meant more curry for us. 10kts boat speed with just the racing main up, breeze right up the chuff and nice standing waves to surf off all the way back to the Needles. Happy days 🙂

[edit]Oh, and as said above, plenty of nice, bland food. Even if it's a slice of bread, get it down yer.[/edit]

After years of throwing up watching the Onedin Line, I have concluded that if it is rough enough the only thing that will help is a sick bag.

Take tablets with Dramamine (Boots own brand are good) in twice the recommended dosage. Take one the night before and then every 6 hours or so. Lie down with your head level with your feet. Try and get somewhere with good airflow that isn't hot and stuffy. Getting up on deck is all good but you can't do that all night. And eat carefully, remembering how it is likely to feel coming back up the way.

Good luck, and don't try and watch the movie !

Sea Bands only work on people with proven susceptibility to the Placebo Effect !

After years of traveling I have recently started to get sea sick ( and car sick ). As far as the sea goes, I've found it does help a lot to eat before, something quite substantial. Looking at the horizon also helps, but if it gets to that stage, I'm usually pretty green by then.
Empty stomach is definite no no though.

Best cure for sea-sickness:

Sit with your back against a tree.

(Courtesy of Mr Tommy Cooper 😆 )

I'll echo what Hels said – my seasickness regime (developed over about 20 years of diving) was

– go easy on the booze beforehand
– take Stugeron (or whatever) at least one dosage interval ahead of when you're going out, usually the night before
– top up with another dose an hour or so before leaving
– stay in the fresh air, with a good view of the horizon
– drink water
– doze if you can
– if you feel like throwing up, then do – it'll be much better once you have!

as some else said – sea sickness bands.

I have always got sea sick until …. Weird but they really do work
you can get them on the ferry.

Preventative – Stugeron
Belt & Braces – Seabands
Treatment – eat Jacobs Cream Crackers. No way you can puke when your mouth is that dry.
Avoidance – don't go near the heads (toilet) at any costs – the smell of puke will tip you over.

What the sailors used to do? drink rum?

epicyclo – the most established method is to cook and eat a full English brekkie every time you throw up. Sounds horrible, and it is. Generally, it's probably more to do with your body getting used to the idea of going up and down and round and round with no set fixed point – hence the 'look at the horizon' advice. I always felt more comfortable at night, as (so long as you're not lit up) you can see the stars very clearly.

hels – you're obviously a very experienced sailor if you think seabands are merely a placebo.