worst seasickness stories

[Allison Finch]

I will NEVER make fun of sick folks again! I was taught a hard lesson......

In the 70's in Pensacola Florida there were no dedicated dive boats. The local dive shop chartered snapper fishing boats for the dives. These boats are flatish on the bottom and roll like a garbage scow.

Winter dive....COLD.....rough. I was doing great but most of the other people were very sick. I even ate a sausage in front of everyone relishing my lack of sickness. Well, after the first dive my buddy came up with a major nose bleed. His mask was half filled with blood. When he opened his mask, the blood ran down his body. The sight was just awful and made me quite sick. Can you say puke city? About this time everyone else was starting to feel better. To say the least, paybacks were hell.

 

[LeFlaneur]

If barfing were an olympic sport, I'd be Mark Spitz.

Was that an intentional choice of olympic athelete? ... as in Mark Spitz-up?

 

[Saipanman]

I never get seasick "on my own" but the only time I've ever fed the fishes was when I had help.

A customer just upwind heaved and there was some blowback. The smell was terrible. I checked myself, to make sure she didn't splatter me with her lunch.

"Hey, not one drop got on me! I'm glad, else I'd be puking for sure" was my last thought before I started honking all over the place.

Other than that, I consider myself very lucky. I try not to laugh at the less fortunate.

 

[dive_lover88]

Mine was when i was heading up to Aur,malaysia for the 1st time. That weekend was the tailend of the monsoon season, and the seas were very rough. Winds at at least 50km/h and waves at 2-3m(est.).A dive boat en route to the island also sank

I was on the dive deck of the boat as i did not know there were bunks...so a few divers and i slept on the dive deck.It was terrible,i was feeling super queasy, i fed the fish a few times. :icosm12: It was the same when we were heading back, other divers were also feeing the fishes.

And now after that incident,i have not much problems sleeping on any boats in normal surface conditions. and i have a higher tolerance for seasickness,

 

[SueMermaid]

Was that an intentional choice of olympic athelete? ... as in Mark Spitz-up?

Me? Make a bad pun? Never. :05:

 

[adurso]

My daughter has hundreds of hours in small boats, yet last summer diving with Florida West she was feeling queasy on the way out, no unusual weather or sea conditions, just feeling somewhat green. She was 11 years old at the time and had a lot of attention directed towards her due to her age and experience. When we anchored the skipper stood on the outside rail behind my daughter to give his briefing, after about a minute, my daughter, being a good sailor not wanting to soil the deck, turned over the rail and puked all over the captain's feet and legs. Captain Steve did not miss a beat in his briefing as my daughter tried to die of embarrassment. We did our first dive, then during our surface interval she vomited again, people being careful to maintain their distance this time...We did our second dive and she was okay on the ride back until we got into the channel returning to the dock. It was a beautiful sunny day with many boaters on the way out and as we passed by a tour boat of some sort an elderly couple on the tour boat rail were looking over saying, "look at the cute little girl", who met their eyes and began projectile vomiting again, causing them to turn green and gag themselves....all in all a day to remember

 

[taylode]

I'm not sure I could pick a worst case since every time I wished I were dead; however, the most embarrassing was when I invited my father-in-law to go salmon fishing out of Fort Bragg. The day was beautiful but the water was rough and we were in the back of the boat where diesel exhaust was rolling back into the boat. For the first hour I was fine, then the dreaded precursor (at least for me) of over salivating began. After that I knew seasickness was inevitable. Yes I got sick and spent the rest of the trip lying down on the engine cowl along with about 8 other poor souls. Of course my father-in-law didn’t get sick and caught salmon of which I could have cared less.

Dennis

 

[MSilvia]

Even my worst wasn't so bad, but I'm a "good vomiter". I boarded a 6 pack boat bound for the wreck of the Idene off Block Island RI, after stopping in at the local convenience store for a coffee and "breakfast sandwich". Apparently, microwaved sausage egg and cheese biscuit, diesel fumes, and choppy seas are a bad combination. I got sicker than I ever did while commercial fishing, but was (excuse me, blech) still able to carry on a conversation (excuse me again, blech) by pausing, excusing myself, and chucking over the gunwale when ever the urge to purge became too strong to ignore. On the plus side, I felt fine except for the nausea... none of the sweats, chills, etc that some folks get.

After jumping in and descending below the chop, I was right as rain.

Needless to say, I'm a bit more picky about my pre-boating breakfasts now.

 

[DennisS]

We were doing an oceanographic cruise in the gulf stream on a 60 ft boat. We had a guy get sick the first hour out and it was continuous from there. We assumed he'd get over it the first day but he just kept heaving. He couldn't hold down crackers or water for 5 days. The seas were moderate for oceanographic work, 5-7 ft. The fifth day was a sunday so I was making a great breakfast for everyone. He came up the ladder, said he felt better, took one look at eggs, ham and sausage, muttered "you SOB" and proceeded to go outside and get sick. There was nothing left to toss. We called the trip two days ahead of schedule because we were afraid of dehydration, he wasn't doing well. Bonine works for some, scopalamine (lobotomy patches) works for some and some people never get their sea legs. He was one of the latter, he tried to work but it got to the point where we didn't want to get near him, just in case.

On the other hand I've seen people smoke cigars and eat smoked oysters around people that were marginal.

My trigger is the smell of diesel fuel in a heavy sea, the saliva just starts flowing and I know it's time to get out of there.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I get nauseous if you walk in circles in front of me but I had never actually vomited on a boat before our trip to Lake Erie 2 weeks ago. I have a careful seasick prevention plan that works well for me when boating and although I sometimes get nauseous to the point of wanting to vomit I can usually head off the feeling with a few saltine crackers. I failed to head off the feeling soon enough on our last trip because I had my dry suit on with dry gloves as well as all my other gear and I couldn't get to my crackers soon enough. Another diver saw what I was trying to do and came over and started feeding me crackers but I knew then I wasn't going to finish the trip without getting sick. He helped me out of my gear and I waited by the railing for the inevitable. Luckily after I got sick I felt fine and was able to eat a turkey sandwich and some Cheeto's on the way back to the marina. Evidently 12-hour Dramamine only holds out for 7 hours in my system
Ber :lilbunny: