Model Boat Mayhem

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Author Topic: Sea sick....  (Read 4529 times)

BarryM

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Re: Sea sick....
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2013, 06:08:27 pm »

Nigh-on three day trip on an OSV between N. Sea ports. The ship was fresh out of the builder's yard and late for delivery at the next port and so we pushed on at maximum speed into a F9/10; one moment looking down into the troughs, the next looking up at the sky. There had been insufficient time to wash out the newly-painted (two-pack epoxy) fresh water tanks and thus the drinking water was contaminated with thinners and stank to heaven. Of course the cook was also cooking with the same water and the toilets were flushed with it.  <:( Thus, as you honked up your epoxy-flavoured food into the porcelain telephone, paint fumes came up to meet you. Not a man was any colour but green.
The final touch was that the bunk mattresses had not been delivered before sailing and only sleeping bags were available which had no grip on the mattress well. Thus as the ship pitched, heaved and rolled and corkscrewed, you slid from one end of the well to the other. I have never been as sick as on that voyage nor as happy to make port.
Barry M
 
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Bryan Young

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Re: Sea sick....
« Reply #26 on: May 01, 2013, 09:48:42 pm »

Sea sickness is horrible. First you get disorientation. Then because of that you begin to sweat. Then the old stomach decides to join in the fun. Life as you once knew it no longer exists. In fact, the sufferer will most likely fervently wish that he/she had never been born. But the vestigial knowledge of being "alive" remains......and you wonder why. Please God, just let me die now.
I actually don't believe any "deep-water" seafarer that says he's never been seasick. It comes in varying forms. Quite often no "barfing" is required. A lot of it is physical endurance. A 2 or 3 week passage through a constant swell is a real killer. Legs, back, head all ache something awful. Then when you get to bed it's almost like having the "whirly pits" as there's no point of reference for your one available eye to focus on. Not that an eyeball can help all that much. You need a real horizon. No good at night.
My first 18 months at sea were sheer purgatory ....but eventually I came to realise that it was all down to "balance" and anticipation of the next movement of the ship. Then came the adjustment of the breathing. Ship goes up, you breathe in. Ship goes down, you breathe out.
Doesn't help the aches and pains much, but at least sleep will arrive. BY.
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Notes from a simple seaman

dreadnought72

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Re: Sea sick....
« Reply #27 on: May 01, 2013, 10:11:33 pm »

I was sailing an Enterprise dinghy in a severe wind-against-the-tide chop, off the Camel Estuary in Cornwall. After going up and down short, steep waves at least twenty dozenteen times, I realised that my stomach was out of sync with the motion. I had a taste of bile in my mouth after one furious descent, and thought "this is it!"  :((

And then I thought: "But I've no time to be sick. I've a tiller in one hand, the sheet in the other, and my feet are under the toestraps. I'm fully preoccupied with keeping this thing upright, and being sick can't be on the menu."

So it wasn't. Very much a moment where mind overcame matter.  :-))

Armed with this experience, a few years later I was Dover-bound on a cross-Channel ferry in truly horrendous weather. People all around me were losing their breakfasts, their dinners-the-night-before, their afternoon-teas-before-that, and their wills-to-live. Vomit was sloshing around all the passenger areas. At one point I was making my way up the stairs at the aft end of the pitching boat, and found it really hard work. For a moment or two I felt that I weighed twice what I normally do, as the ferry pitched nose-down into a deep trough. "This is amazing" I thought. "You'd pay pounds for this at a funfair." Followed very rapidly by the thought that I'd be experiencing the inverse in a few moments: and it's true - I had to hold onto the handrail because my feet literally left the stair treads as we pitched nose-up.  {-)

Andy
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Enjoying every minute sailing W9465 Mertensia

grendel

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Re: Sea sick....
« Reply #28 on: May 02, 2013, 12:00:38 pm »

we had a fun trip like that from dunkerque one time, the boat was chopping across the waves and it felt like the boat was hitting the wave and stopping, each wave crashed through the ship, they stopped serving food - most of the crew were suffering and wearing the wristbands - it felt like the ship was shaking itself to pieces, after our extended crossing (we had to wait for two tugs to push us against the wall as we berthed as the bow and stern thrusters couldnt manage - I believe we were the last ship that docked, before they cancelled the crossings.
It was great fun and I felt fine all the way, mainly because I made sure I could watch the horizon, where on a gentle swell I can feel quite queasy.
Grendel
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wbeedie

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Re: Sea sick....
« Reply #29 on: May 02, 2013, 12:39:42 pm »

Any time I used to join a new fishing vessel I would hurl for three days , only drinking warm water so as not to shock stomach , third morning full breakfast and gone ,, found it worse when working on boats that were fully sheltered , havent been bothered for a couple of years now , but at its height I would be gutting fish , turn the head look down and spew without stopping gutting and keep going , when it first happened I wished the world would end as its the worst feeling ever , apparently chewing on ginger helps  worst thing is lying down as you cant stop thinking about it 
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