Seasickness

Columbia

5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2011
Messages
5
This might be a really stupid question... but what happens if someone gets to the USMMA and realizes they get seasick in very rough seas? The open ocean is much more extreme than (I'm guessing) many of the cadets have experienced in their lives. Is getting your "sea legs" and overcoming seasickness just part of the process? Or not??
 
This might be a really stupid question... but what happens if someone gets to the USMMA and realizes they get seasick in very rough seas? The open ocean is much more extreme than (I'm guessing) many of the cadets have experienced in their lives. Is getting your "sea legs" and overcoming seasickness just part of the process? Or not??

There's a remedy for this case. It's called "Big Boy Pants" :yllol:
 
Anybody can get seasick, just depends on how big of seas it takes, buck up
 
Try telling the "Big Boy Pants" or "Its all in your Head" line to a girl on any boat. Based on experience they don't think it's very clever. :oops:
 
Most people find that they do just fine in the end.

In my four years there I never heard of someone who never got over motion sickness.

Every time I sailed it would take me about 3 days or so if the waters were a bit rough, but I never threw up, just didn't feel that great and that includes sailing as a 3rd Mate. The worst I ever had it was on the Kings Pointer over spring break, that night sucked, but still no vomiting.

There are ways of combating motion sickness, but for the majority of people out there constant exposure will cause them to get over it. In Naval aviation we send people to a "spin and puke" chair to help them with air sickness. Being at sea does the same thing: exposure therapy. Other options include dramamine and over the counter things like wrist bands, etc.
 
If you're concerned, take some pills for the first few days, your sea legs will kick in.

I was truly sea sick once, first night underway as a 1/c cadet, (I hadn't been underway on a cutter since 3/c summer). We pulled out of San Diego that morning and hit 25 ft. seas that night. I was in forward berthing on a 210' ship. It was a bit much to take on the first night out. I thought I could hold it in, but I made it to the toilet.

If you've been sea sick, you know how miserable it is.

My advice, don't put yourself through that. If you think you're going to be sick, do something before hand.
 
Everyone is a little bit different and every ship is a little bit different. Some people do better with pills or patches but very rarely did I meet anyone who just couldn't get over it. Be aware that in some states the patches are not OTC and you will need a prescription.

For me, it is not about motion but about the vibration and harmonics of my boat. I have gotten wicked migraines whhich made me violently seasick in 2 foot seas, but did just fine on the same boat in 10' seas ... different motion and different vibrations, go figure. I used to wear earplugs all the time to cut out the vibrations from my inner ear but I found out that listening to music does the same thing. I can even get "seasick" at the dock if the boat is vibrating just right. My shipmates think I'm pretty strange but we all get a good laugh over it.
 
This may sound like voodoo, but ginger pills have worked for me in the past as regards the nausea. My experience at sea is limited to that of passenger, though.
 
When I was sailing, both as a cadet and afterworn, I never got seasick. This includes ships of just about every shape and size, from ocean tugs to Panamax containerships. The only time I have ever been seasick was once I came "ashore". I was out, offshore on a drilling rig doing surveys and caught a ride back in onboard a small diving boat. It was a short run (about an hour and a half), but the motion just tore me up. It never happened before, and hasn't happened since. These days, most of my boat rides are on crew boats, dive boats, ROV boats, etc. But that one ride made me understand how those that DO get seasick feel. Of course, it could also have been the night lunch on the rig, too.
 
This may sound like voodoo, but ginger pills have worked for me in the past as regards the nausea. My experience at sea is limited to that of passenger, though.

My fiancee is a pharmacist, properties in ginger do in fact work. Learned it from me' lady!
 
My brother is a captain on a crab fishing boat in the Bering Sea out of Dutch Harbor. He says everyone will get seasick at some point but it is like the flu . . . you will eventually get over it.
 
Ginger pills or ginger ale...if it works on a Coast Guard 110' in 15 foot seas, it will work on anything. Talk about being thrown around...
 
There's a remedy for this case. It's called "Big Boy Pants" :yllol:

Wow, how poorly considered a thing to say for someone who has yet to: a) get through indoctrination; b) figure out if they are going to join the band, the frisbee team or play some "Harry Potter" inspired game or whatever while at USMMA if they can get through their first trimester; and most ignorantly has apparently never logged one day at sea aboard a "real ship" yet, let alone one passing through a hurricane or typhoon, etc. in heavy seas.

Bottom line as is alluded to here by those of us who've been through heavy seas, etc. - in some instances for multiple days - in almost everyone's case - there comes a time and set of conditions where you can and will experience motion sickness at sea. It varies for each individual and from time to time there are individuals who have the issue in things that are very far afield from "heavy seas" as was noted earlier. Usually you can and do get through it in a reasonably short period of time - basically your inner ear, etc. adjust and tune it out - like living next to a train track and learning to sleep through train whistles, etc. As far as patches, etc. some people need them and for some people (myself included) they may make things worse...

Good luck, even to "El Bombero Jr" who likely may have his "big boy pants" turned into "wedgies" during his first few weeks while a resident of zip code 11024 unless his attempts at humor get a little more considered - i.e. he thinks before he types and/or opens his mouth - but that's just one "old timers" opinion and I may be wrong.
 
There is a theory that the mids who are on the offshore sailing team have
the lowest incidence of seasickness during Sea Year because they have experienced rough seas during practice and races. Of course, this theory may just be a sneaky recruiting tool for the offshore team...
 
Being out in the stuff helps later sure, especially when the experiences are close together. I would venture to guess the activity and the wind in their faces helps a little too. Going below decks never helps. Grab a bag and fill it up with your 5 hour old half digested lunch!
 
There is a theory that the mids who are on the offshore sailing team have
the lowest incidence of seasickness during Sea Year because they have experienced rough seas during practice and races. Of course, this theory may just be a sneaky recruiting tool for the offshore team...

Funny- I've never heard that, but would believe that it is true...
 
Payback

Funny. My wise ass son made a 'big boy pants' comment in this thread a couple years ago. Well, Mr. Big Boy Pants sounded more like Big Baby a couple of months back, crossing the Atlantic, SEA SICK !!!!!!!
Please, feel free to chime in, pile on, :biggrin:, whatever makes you happy. I will show him his old comments next time he is internet able in port somewhere. "Big Boy Pants".........I need to use that remark on him next phone call. Thanks for cheering me up, Service Academy Forums !!!
 
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