worst seasickness stories

I'm curious about how others here have run smack into this and how they dealt with it. For my part I've gotten seasick twice, both on dive boats. The second time, down in Florida the same day I was supposed to board the Blackbeard's boat, was by far the worse of the two. We had about six or seven hours to kill so we got onto another boat for a mini-excursion somewhere around Miami (you could see the skyline just fine). I had taken Dramamine, but it must not have been enough or something. Great sunny day, but the water was choppy, I was underweighted by the time I jumped in, had a REALLY hard time getting back into the boat, and I got so sick that my hands were numb and cramping up and the only way I could keep from throwing up was to close my eyes and put my head back over the side. I really wonder if I didn't technically have some kind of seizure that day. Funny thing was, later on I was fine, I made it to Blackbeard's in fine form, and I didn't get sick at all during the infamous crossing over to Bimini. I hope I never feel that awful again...such is the price of great diving for some of us, I guess.

cheers

Billy S.

Sea sickness ain't no fun at all and most of us have probably been there. A few weeks back on a dive boat in Monterey, one of the divers was getting violently sea sick. He was so loud, it was almost funny. Even the capitain of the boat thought it out of the ordinary, I could tell by the look on the captain's face. So I asked him, being very used to this sort of thing for sure, on a scale of 1-10 would he rate this guys performance of sea sickness? He said it was at least an 8, we laughed, but felt sorry for the guy at the same time.

dlndavid:

Sea sickness ain't no fun at all and most of us have probably been there. A few weeks back on a dive boat in Monterey, one of the divers was getting violently sea sick. He was so loud, it was almost funny. Even the capitain of the boat thought it out of the ordinary, I could tell by the look on the captain's face. So I asked him, being very used to this sort of thing for sure, on a scale of 1-10 would he rate this guys performance of sea sickness? He said it was at least an 8, we laughed, but felt sorry for the guy at the same time.

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Feel sorry for this guy? Imagine how the 10 must have felt

I just had an amazing bout on first day of a four day trip -- absolutely spectacular. I kept it together until after the first dive, and then the fireworks started. I couldn't even look down long enough to pour a cup of water without feeding the fish again. I was considering diving in with my pockets full of lead, just to end my misery.

I went out again the next day. The water was just as choppy and I was on the same boat.... and I felt absolutely fine. Never had another problem. Never took anything for it.

Coulda been nerves... it was 5 months since my last dive. Coulda been I swallowed a little water on my first entry... coulda been the greasy omlette I had for breakfast ...

Does anybody else have this experience, like it takes a day to adjust to being on a boat?

worst seasickness stories?

line up my boat dives and throw a dart

LeFlaneur:

Does anybody else have this experience, like it takes a day to adjust to being on a boat?

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Yeah. That's called "Getting your sea legs".
It happens to even the most seasoned pukers among us.

My worst seasick story? I am not sure I could pick just one worst time. There are so many to choose from. If barfing were an olympic sport, I'd be Mark Spitz.

Right after I reported to my destroyer as an ensign, we got underway for missile tests off the north coast of Kauai in the winter - the open rollers just come streaming in from the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia.
I had the midwatch - midnight to 4am, and the ship was really moving. After about an hour, I was feeling pretty lousy even having the conn of the ship. I just stepped out onto the port bridge wing ( the lee side) and fed the fishies. After that, I was ok forever, even in 65' seas, although then I felt pretty lousy.

OK, here is a good one. My husband and I went on a Truth Aquatic trip to the Channel Islands last July. He is notorious for getting sick on dive boats. Needless to say the trip was very rough. The Santa Ana's were blowing like crazy, one night we spent tucked up in a cove on the leeward side of San Miguel Island and the wind was blowing 40 knots!!!!

He was really doing pretty well and I think by this time had only puked over the side once. He always feels much better in the water that he does on the boat.

It was a fairly routine dive through a rather non-descript kelp forest but we had been buzzed by a sea lion several times and having a great time watching him. It was time to go up so we followed some kelp to our 15ft safety stop. As we were hanging on in mid-water there you could see the eelgrass moving one direction and the kelp moving the other direction. Really unsettling even for me who has an iron stomach.

We had just about hit our 3 mins (maybe 5 mins, we tend to do long stops when we are doing multiple dives) I turned around to signal to him to go up and he agreed although he had this rather green look about him!!! We gave each other the thumbs up and then he rubbed his stomach gave me a funny look and out it came. Rather colorful I must say. I though I was going to toss my cookies at that point but managed to keep my composure but hubby puked through his main reg. his octo. and his main reg. for a second time. He started to look longingly at my regulators but at that point he was empty and ready to return to the surface.

Once we got to the top all he could say is "Well I guess the theory of being able to throw up through you regualtor is true." he did feel much better after that!!!!!

I guess I am lucky, I have not been sea sick since I was probabally 8-10 years old. I have spent thousands of hours on boats so that probabally helps.

I pretty much have gotten somewhat sick on any boat dive. One exception I believe. I've also been known to get seasick if I'm bobbing in the water on a shore dive (when I'm swimming, I'm fine).

Worst was when I went whale watching when I was 11. Got HORRIBLY sick. Really wanted to try and swim for shore despite being about a mile off San Francisco and seeing a blue shark in the water. Mom finally drugged me by melting a nonchewable (ICK!) Dramamine under my tongue, which caused me to feel like I'd just had a mouth hit full of novacaine. Mercifully, I passed out, on the deck of the boat. She covered me with a blanket, not anticipating that we would hit rough water on the way back. Wave crashed on deck, soaked me (didn't wake up), so that when I did awaken, I was wet, cold, and sick. That was the closest I've come from the "Navy warning about seasickness" truly suicidal despair.

The best part about getting seasick on boat dives is it makes me weak as a kitten, so if I can't find people to "Dress me", essentially, I can't get off the boat because I can't lift my tank. Once I'm in the water, boom, instant revival. Fortunately, a lot of people have been really good about it, including the crew of the Monterey Express who put my stuff on me and shoved me in. Ah, bliss.

Weird part is every time I swear I'm never going to do it again, and every time I go out, it turns out to be so worth going, despite being sick.

Using a patch and taking a dramamine the night before and the morning of is starting to work better though.