A Galapagos Dilemma...

[StephMiller]

Hi, I am travelling to the Galapagos next year and am trying to decide whether it is worth going on one of the 8 Day live aboards to Darwin/Wolf (most likely with the Aggressor Crew). It will cost just over US$10,000 for my partner and myself.
One confounding issue is that I have a tendency to get rather seasick!

Can anyone give me any advice? Should I go on the liveaboard or just stay put on the islands and do some day trips to Gordons Rocks?

???Steph???

 

[drrich2]

I haven't dove there, so this is second hand from the forum, having little idea as to what your experience is. A couple of trip recent trip reports I've read from Galapagos trips emphasized that it's rather advanced diving. Here's TStorm's report from a Galapagos Diving & Humbolt Explorer trip; here's GoProHonduras' 2'nd part of his report. I later searched & found Part 1 and Part 3.

Perhaps these trip reports can help you.

Richard.

 

[DandyDon]

There is a lot of help in preventing sea sickness. Preventing problems from lack of experience before advanced diving conditions is not so easy. Why not make a few easier trips and get more prepared?

 

[Scott L]

Perhaps a 3 day live-aboard excursion in your country as a trial run might be worthy of consideration...

 

[vladimir]

I would not use a Galapagos trip to test seasickness remedies. Do a shorter, cheaper trip beforehand and see if your remedy of choice works and you can live and dive with the side effects (dry mouth can complicate clearing, for example). If you are facing seasickness for eight straight days you may start to consider overboard as a more appealing option.

 

[tstormdiver]

As drrich2 pointed out, yes, I did get some sea sick. It was much worse on the pangas (inflatable Zodiacs) than on the live aboard, but here were times we were going through 10- 12 ft (3- 4 m) seas. I really don't like to use the patches because the tend to knock me on my butt, but a friend on the trip who was is a nurse suggested for me to only use 1/2 a patch. I tried it & it worked like a charm. I was not sea sick, yet I also wasn't loopy...... OK,... no more loopier than usual . SInce everyone is an individual, its hard to say what will work for you. As was suggested, try a short live aboard & see what you might be able to find.

 

[SelkieDVM]

I agree with everyone else, maybe test the waters on a shorter liveaboard and if needed get some experience with colder, high current situations. It's an awful long way to go at major expense (at least it was for me) to be miserable for a week.

Having said that, personally I would not go again to the Galapagos without including Wolf and Darwin. The cool stuff we saw there was what truely made the trip a "lifetime" experience for me.

 

[mjh]

We just got back from doing two weeks, back to back trips, on the Galapagos Sky. We did this because we wanted to max our time at Wolf and Darwin and happy we did. First trip we saw 5 whale sharks at Darwin and at Wolf we saw walls of Hammerheads but "in the distance". Second trip we saw 2 whale sharks on one dive at Darwin, then no more but the Hammerheads and Galapagos sharks came in much closer.

On the first trip about 1/3 - 1/2 of the people got seasick, missing dives. There were 4ft seas at times making panga entries a bit challenging but everyone did fine. The second trip was about the same but only 2-3 people had issues with seasickness. We used Scopolomine (SP?) patches for the whole trip and never had an issue. Like any destination conditions can change minute to minute but I think it is best to prepare for dealing with some "rough" water in the Galapagos Islands.

I have been diving for 30yrs, cold water, +3000 dives. Galapagos when conditions are "rougher" and currents are running is very manageable but not for the beginner diver. Our dive guides were excellent but you must follow instructions, be comfortable with negative entries and be in good enough condition to deal with stripping your weight belt, and BC off on the surface, in chop then haul your self in the zodiac. Again we had people of all ages and levels of fitness do fine but I personally know divers that I would say skip the Galapagos until you do or master X. Want to emphasis the crew is always on the spot to deal with your gear, helping you in and out of the pangas, etc... So go, have a great time just be prepared. Trip report in a couple of weeks....

 

[Crush]

I did a Galapagos trip abut ten years ago. The boat had about seven cabins. I did not dive at the time. I was taking the recommended dosage of Gravol all day, every day, and I still felt sick. Then, I switched to Dramamine and the rest of the trip was great. Get on the pills before you get on the boat and gradually decrease the dosage if you can. I have heard that Dramamine might not be good for divers, but neither is dehydration induced by constant vomiting.

About me: I find that I am the first to feel unwell on a boat of seasoned divers, but I don't throw up as quickly as a boat full of new divers doing their OW certs.

See what drugs work for you on a boat dive - a few hours in rough water will make this abundantly clear to you.

 

[cheeko8080]

I dove on the Galapagos Sky this past summer as well. I feel personally feel that Galapagos is the destination it is because of Wolf and Darwin, which in turn means diving form a live aboard. I was a little sea sick at points and so were many of the people on my trip, but after starting medicine, we all got over it quickly.

Galapagos can be more challenging diving, but the rewards can be incredible from walls of hammerheads to very, very close encounters, to massive whale sharks swimming right up to you. If you are going to take the time and spend the money to go to Galapagos anyway, I don't see anything outside of live aboards that are going up to Wolf and Darwin as even a consideration. Save your money and make it a "once in a lifetime trip"...not that you can't go back .