Sea Sickness

[Country Boy]

I would like to hear everybody's tips or tricks for dealing with Sea Sickness ( aka motion sickness).Mostly how to prevent it.An I'm also aware that some people are very immune to it. While others are immune on the water but, as soon as they hit dry land they loose there land legs. I've got a buddy like that. I've tried certain things to a varying degree of success with dealing with it. The wristbands worked in Tahsis for me but, when I tried them out in front of alberni inlet and litlle ways past the green marker. No such luck, green I's be and in a hurry I might add. I think it was under twenty minutes too. Boat size might have something to do with it too.

[Chinook Nut]

Bonine, one the night before and one pill an hour before departing, works very well for me.

[flapbreaker]

I use meclazine which is basically the "less drowsy" formula of dramamine. I take it as stated above. The other thing is try and glance at the horizon often. It gives your brain something to correlate the motion with.

[Chromaflage]

Last time I was out, I used a scopolamine patch and one bonine (mecalzine, less drowsy) - worked perfectly and I wasn't a bit drowsy. But then how can you sleep with reels singing all the time.

CrF

[fishindude]

ginger candy from the asian market. wrist bands, dramamine.
take two the night before and one in the morning. The
ginger works. Saw it on myth busters

[Herring Problem]

One shot of jack daniels, ham and egss for breakfast, works everytime.

[USCGBoating]

Hurl and get it over with. Normally after that things are OK.

You are more susceptible to sea sickness if you have a head cold or stuffy nose. Most sea sickness medications have a antihistamine in them, that is what induces the drowsiness. A good nights sleep also helps.

I think one thing that should be mentioned is what not to do. DON'T eat saltine crackers. If you have ever watched a cat hack up a fur ball, eat a bunch of crackers and you will know how the cat felt.

Dan

[Rosco]

Scop patch the night before (they last three days), bonine the night before, dramamine an hour before you go out. You will be bulletproof. Also, eat some bananas before you go out because even if you end up having to puke, they taste just as good on the way back up :smile: but for the love of god, don't take bananas on the boat!! Its the worst kind of bad luck!! Happy hunting

[PeterMac]

I have been out in really horrible conditions and not had any trouble wearing the patch. IT WORKS.

PeterMac

[Chrome Bumper]

Take whiskey and tomato soup for breakfast, tastes the same going down as coming up.

Watch the horizon and fresh air helps.

[Maverick Maxcat]

Copenhagen constantly kept my stomach in line back when I could afford it.....don't forget to swallow some of the juice too. Seasickness will not bother you at all!











That's because you'll be puking from the chew instead. DO NOT TRY THIS---YOU WILL REGRET IT ON LAND OR SEA IF YOU DON'T CHEW NOW!

This post is for comic effect only

[Woody]

1. No alchohol the night before.
2. Get a good nights sleep.
3. Eat a light breakfast.
4. 2 meclazine the night before and 1 or 2 in the morning.
5. Drink plenty of water while on the boat.
6. If you start feeling ill, and you're in the cabin, get out right away and get a face full of fresh air and lock on the horizon.
7. Same goes if you're carking fish or tieing gear, at the first sign you feel ill, look up and find the horizon.
8. If you're past the point of no return, get it over with and let 'er rip. If you fight it, it just makes it worse when you finally do the technicolor yawn.

[ICHTHYDEMON]

Have them drive the boat. Driving makes them concentrate on something other than feeling sick.

[wheredafish]

If you have tine to see your Dr. ask them to write a rx for Phenergam 12.5 mg Oral and 5.0 mg Dexadrine. Those together two hours before your trip will eliminate any nausea/vomiting and won't make you tired like some otc medications. Also both are generic and cheap.

DS

[Hammer Down]

Everything everyone here notes works perfectly well. And I know each of them by heart. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to follow anyones advice, except for what USCG noted above. Simple and effective.

Just hurl and get it over with. Then go back to fishing.

To your original statement about "some" people being immune. There is no such thing. EVERYONE gets it at one time or another. And if they haven't yet, they probably will. Just a fact of offshore fishing.

[Something Good]

I found out last week if you get vertigo you are very sensitive to motion. Wether it's you or something you are looking at. I'm usually bullet proof and go with lots of whiskey or vodka the night before, 2 hours or less of sleep and a big greasy breakfast. Meclizene held the vertigo thing at bay last week. Took 1 the night before and 1 a couple of hours before getting on the boat.

[fish Addict80]

I have a buddy that is always on my crew and he has never been sea sick. We have been out in some pretty sporty seas and he takes no meds and has no problems.

Usually I pick him at 3am after he has been partying all night and came straight from his girls house so I know he didn't get any sleep. He then waits till we are on the boat and sits down and attaches his reels to his rods and sets up his rod. Then ties everything up that he wants to use. The whole time on an empty stomach and chewing tobacco. He almost never brings any food or drink and I fish all day and he knows it.

He has done this repeatedly and has never even been close to feeling sick. I make him my gofer so I can keep my head up more. Pretty handy having someone to crawl around the cabin in sloppy seas and no one gets sick.

Point is not everyone gets sea sick. If that were true he would have been sick many times. There have been times that even when I take bonine the day of and dramamine the night before and stayed hydrated that I feel a little queasy. While he is fine. I have even purpose fully tried to make him sea sick. He just says go for it. I think he has a problem with his head...LOL

Maybe something will change with his head or stomach and he will be sick in the future but I doubt it. He has been out with me many times in the last 2 years in some large seas and never takes any meds.

I do as most recommend. Plenty of sleep, meds the night before and morning of and lots of fluids. Works pretty good as long as I also snack on something.

Luke

[J-Luke]

I used to get about as sea sick as a person can get. I'd have to get better to die. Now I don't have a whiff of it. Here's my regimen: nite before I apply a scopalamine patch (Prescription) and the morning before we set out I take 2 meclazine tablets. Meclazine is an over-the-counter anti-motion sickness med that really works for me. Only problem is extreme sleepiness if there is nothing going on. I usually sleep most of the run home. Good luck!

[OceanBlue]

Green apples. It's the first I heard of it, but on a recent cruise, my mom's friend and most of the passengers were very seasick. The crew told my mom to make her friend eat a green apple. (the friend was refusing to leave the bunk at this point) Her friend finally consented and almost immediately she was feeling well enough to get up and around.

[Zippy]

Take 25 mg the night before.chew a mint flavor gum while out there and don't eat until you have been out awhile and feel hungry,then eat bland type foods.Been using this for a couple of years now and has worked for me.

[Pandalus]

Here’s my take on sea sickness, based on 20 years of experience working and fishing at sea and trying to help newbies who find out that they get very motion sick. Two drugs have been proven clinically effective at relieving motion sickness, scopolamine and promethazine, also known as phenergren (both are prescription only). Scopolomine, also known as “the patch”, is effective for most people, but many of us who have used it a lot find the side effects annoying (dry mouth, blurred vision). Promethazine has less severe side effects; it is very commonly prescribed to patients after surgery to prevent nausea. It’s main side effect is extreme drowsiness, so it is usually prescribed as one part of the “coast guard cocktail” along with a stimulant such as dexedrine or ephedrine. Over the past few years, doctors have become very shy about prescribing ephedrine, and many who use the coast guard cocktail have now switched over to Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) as the stimulant. It works just as well, but less of a crash when you stop taking it. The two pills are taken every six hours. Some people need to take it ahead of time, some don’t.

The over-the-counter meds can work for people who are moderately or mildly susceptible to motion sickness. How to tell? If you get motion sick on most boats when the swell is less than 4 ft, you are severely sensitive; jump right to the prescription stuff. If your problem is boat specific or comes and goes with the sea state (I‘m okay up to about 6-7 feet of swell on most hulls, higher than that, I‘m incapacitated without meds), I call that mild to moderate sensitivity. Some folks with mild sensitivity do alright with over the counter meds, or with prescription strength mechlazine. A lot of the other posts offer good advice; like don’t drink the night before and keep your eyes on the horizon. Remember though, the guy talking may not be that susceptible and may never have experienced incapacitating motion sickness; trust me, these tips do not fix severe motion sickness. Most people I know who have tried ginger or the c-bands, or “the shocker” ultimately concluded these were ineffective or they were only moderately susceptible to motion sickness to begin with. I’ve never known the coast guard cocktail to fail someone with moderate or severe sensitivity, although I’ll bet it has happened. Hope this is helpful. Keep working on it; it’s worth it to see the stuff we see out there.
Sorry for the lonwinded post.

[tunachaser]

Fish Addict 80 is right on about there being some people who just have a metabolism that does not include sea sickness. I know because I am lucky enough to be 1 of them. I have been on the big blue since I was a baby of 2 and I have never been sick. I can drink all night and go out on my buds boat and tie gear all the way to tuna and be fine. My bud on the other side can do all things suggested above and will still get ill on many occasions. I have my own boat and have gone after tuna 20 to 30 times a year as well. Thank GOD I am fortunate to not have problem.

[Wolf EEL]

Never been close to being sick, been out hundreds of times in all kind of weather, been scared to death more times then then I wish to remember. I was so busy with what was happening out on the big pond that I never thought about getting sick, watched many people get sick, but I am one of the lucky ones.

[Norski]

Been across the big blue 2 times, about 35 to 4500 miles, been fishing out of Newport for years, I have never gotten sick, having to much fun, but what I have learned over the years, just before breakfast, a shot or too of what ever I had the night before, and sausage & eggs & hash browns, and a big cup of coffee, like I said never been sick.
Now after 10 hours out on the big blue, and back on shore, I get the swaying fits, last for a hour or too, than go's away.

[FinFansea]

Why drug yourselves? Ginger, ginger and more ginger is all you need.

Chewable tablets available at any health food store for around $10.00. Take 2 before heading out.

Ginger Snap cookies, munch on them all day.

Ginger ale soda

Works every time even with the weakest of stomachs.

[Catch All III]

Most times I don't get too bothered unless I'm tieing lines or rigging poles.

Ginger snaps and diet 7-up seem to work for me. Wife swears by diet 7-up and a few regular Lays potato chips if she starts to feel queasy...says it must be something about the salt?

In any case, frequently looking at the horizon or other boats helps alot.

[CAPT KUJO]

Search for sea sick posts...I got my formula from NASA. The CAPT KUJO "Ocean Cocktail" .04mg Scopalamine and 5mg of Dextroamphetamine. Must be compounded and I have a letter from NASA with report documentation for your doctor for those wishing to get an RX for it. Many Ifishers are using this RX


I have stayed away from the "patches" as they leach the drug into your system for 3 days or so and really mess up vision ,speech, judgement on some folks. The NASA report shows that astronauts that were studied using both systems prefered the "pills" over the "patch" and I'm with them. As you can see I have been taking the formula since 1984 with GREAT success.

Hope you find this information helpful


CAPT KUJO
Commander of the BLACK ROCKET

[StickFish]

Pandalus - Great first post and welcome to the fray - interesting stuff this motion sickness - airplanes, boats, no problems, put me on a roller coaster and

[Joel O]

Whatever you do, DO NOT stare at the deck of the boat. I've seen people go from bad to worse by putting thier heads down and staring between thier shoes.

[Nick6547]

There's some good advice in this thread, but another thing you should take into account is that the drugs affect different people different ways.

The side effects of scopolamine can be really bad for some people, and the time to find out that you are really sensitive is not when you're 40 miles out at sea!

It's a good thing to try a dose of the stuff you're planning to use on land when you're not going out to sea and see what the side effects are.

For me the side effects of most of the strong seasickness meds are worse than seasickness, so I stick to dramamine and ginger.

[Country Boy]

here's another guys suggestion
"I know you will think this a joke, but i use on everybody on my boat, and it has worked very well on 90% of the passengers. A gob of mentholatum in the navel. I'm serious, it works, just don't ask me why. Some I now use it on always get sick, but not now. Placebo?"

[Waytogo]

In great respect to hammerdown, I am 72 yrs. young been hittin the he brinny since I was a teenager and up till now never been sea sick,not even when the guy next to me was puckin his ham & eggs. that said I will probly pay by getting sick next Tues. ----waytogo----

[Raven1]

According to our buddies on "Myth Busters" and a couple other posters ginger was the remedy of choice. No side effects, cheap, and worked on both of their test subjects.
Kinda cool to watch the testers later after taking the OTC pills, talk about snooze-ville.
BTW - They also added it's possibly hereditary, so if Dad offered his breakfast to the sea-gods, guess who's next! :smile: :smile:

[prienn]

Saw it on myth busters

THEY LIE!!! :smile: I tried it in lieu of my normal dramamine original at night, the morning of, and a granny smith apple. I haven't been that sick in 10 years!

[Miss B Haven]

Who gets seasick? I get landsick. A day of rolly polly on the water and then the ground is moving for 2 days after. As long as I'm on the boat I'm fine. I can't believe asphalt can have waves in it though!

What cured me (ya- I puked my guts out before) was spending nights on a boat. Starting with housboats and moving to Miss B. It's amazeing how it doesn't matter whether the movement is 10 feet or a tenth of an inch. You get acclimated!

[HaliUna]

Before you head out the door, Take a dramamine pill. Stop and eat a great breakfast. Greaser the better--eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and biscuits and gravy. After breakfast, take another pill. I've been doing this for 20 years. Works everytime.

[Foreel]

as a child fishing in rough seas I'd get sick once in a while....but as an adult I have never gotten sea sick...my boys 6and 8 have never gotten seasick and they have been going with me since they were 4---and none of us take any medicine....my wife on the other hand gets car sick....she gets mad when I say this but sometimes I think motion sickness is a state of mind...my boys do everything they shouldnt,look over the side into water,sleep in bad seas in the cabin and eat everything under the sun while on the boat and before we go nothing seems to affect them...if its genetic they must have gotten my genes....