I love sailing, and my wife loves the ocean, but she gets sea-sick often.
Any advice on how to avoid sea-sickness in people prone to it?
I'm looking for advice in terms of foods that are less of an issue to digest, where to sit in the boat, boat types that rock less, etc... Drugs are not an option in this case since my wife is breastfeeding.
Please leave the answers currently posted, as they may be helpful to others.
I'm a seasoned traveler, former deckhand, and a budding reference librarian, all qualities that uniquely situate me to answer your question. When I was working as a deckhand in Alaska I battled seasickness everyday. I found these things helpful:
The Mayo Clinic also recommends abstaining from smoking cigarettes and cigarette smoke. Here's a link to their page on motion sickness: Motion sickness: First aid
Also, in my experience, riding on a multihulled vessel, like a catamaran, greatly reduces the likelihood of seasickness as multihulled vessels do not roll side-to-side in the water as much as monohulled vessels.
If your wife begins to feel sick, she might try some breathing exercises, such as regulating her breath by slowly counting while remaining still and continuing to face forward. I have also found ginger to be a very effective homeopathic remedy for motion sickness. Visit the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine(NCCAM )website for more information on the use of ginger to prevent/treat motion-related sickness. Here's the link: Ginger.
If your wife must resort to medication I'd recommend Bonine brand. I took it several times on days when the sea was extra choppy and it did the trick. However, she must be sure to take the medication at least an hour prior to boarding the vessel. I switched to Bonine from Dramamine because it doesn't cause as much drowsiness. Per the travel website Lonelyplanet, Bonine is available in Israel.
My mother suffers from every form of travel sickness, and the only solutions she has found that help to ameliorate the symptoms (if not actually remove them entirely) are:
If I feel at all queasy in really heavy seas (ie the middle of the South Atlantic in a storm) I find that being on deck with good visibility of the sea surface (and possibly the horizon) helps me feel better almost immediately. The reasoning behind this solution is that it removes the confusion between your inner ear and eyes.
Update in terms of position on deck, being seated as close as possible to the centre of mass of the boat helps, as you will move least.
Dimenhydrinate (popularly known as Gravol in Canada and as Dramamine, Driminate, Gravamin, Vomex, and Vertirosan in the USA) is an over-the-counter drug used to prevent nausea and motion sickness that's considered highly effective.
Anecdotally, I was constantly throwing up on boats in South East Asia until I started taking gravol.
I'm a sailboat skipper with 25 years experience, so perhaps my tips could help a bit.
Since the skipper is responsible for the safety and well-being of his/her crew, he or she also has a responsibility to avoid when possible situations which will make members of his crew seasick.
For the crew:
If you are susceptible to seasickness, consider starting to take Stugeron at the morning of the first travel day. Take it, and if you don't get sick after 2 days, you can stop. Works very well.
Take time to get used to the motions of the boat, if possible sleep on the boat one night before putting to sea.
Avoid heavy eating or drinking the day before departure, especially histamine rich food like red meat, wine, garlic etc.
Listen to your body and react at the first signs! Get on deck, watch the horizon, breathe deeply, if possible steer, keep yourself warm with a jacket and a hat, eat salty crackers and coke in small portions, if available take a travell chewing gum or similar. Avoid going below decks for longer time, so make sure that you find stuff like camera, sunglasses, gloves, clothes etc. quickly. Tell your skipper that you're not feeling not perfectly well, so that he can keep an eye on you and exclude you from work below decks. Signs of a beginning seasickness are:
head starts to feel a bit quizzy ('electric' or like a migraine/headache incoming)
strange taste in your mouth
feeling cold and/or dizzy
For the skipper:
If at all possible, start the journey in light conditions, with wind of 3-4 Bft and seastate light to moderate.
Make sure that your crew is comfortable, i.e. adequately clothed and equipped, has eaten but not too much, has enough liquids (water and coke) and snacks (biscuits, crackers, salt sticks) available without going below. When a crew member has to go below shortly after getting out of the harbour to get f.e. a sweater and and a jacket or to use the heads, this may already be enough to trigger sea sickness.
Look out for signs of seasickness: crew members feeling cold, yawning, paleness, absent minded, falling silent.
If a crew member is heavily seasick, insist that he wears his lifeline when on deck. Also, sending seasick crew below to sleep (with a bucket if needed) helps in a lot of cases.
I practice that: If one on board feels seasickness, (s)he should work with ropes and sails on the deck for some time.
Pros:
Con:
In addition to all the excellent advice, I'd like to recommend a few other things that help me. I have a digestive disorder, as well as an inner ear disease which causes the type of vertigo commonly experienced on moving boats.
As @jrovermier mentioned, ginger has been medically proven to help nausea, and I rely on it every day. I recommend sipping on tea made from 100% ginger root. It's caffeine-free, safe for breast-feeding, and can be either hot or iced. Tea bags are easy to pack, and if the taste is too strong, buy some sugar packets and pack them together. Peppermint also helps nausea, and adding a 100% peppermint tea bag is a good way to temper the strong ginger flavor.
For convenience, my favorite product is Tummydrops, which are individually wrapped lozenges. Even tough they're made with real ginger, they don't have the harsh flavor that can make raw or candied ginger hard to swallow. For me, they work quickly and are more effective than ginger capsules.
Ginger tummydrops contain a patent-pending specialized blend of purified gingers that are enriched in the special compounds that can help soothe nausea and digestive upsets. Each ginger tummy drop is made from the purest and best tasting ginger, which may assist with occasional stomach upset, nausea, morning sickness, & motion sickness. They are great for travel and when you're on the go, and always keep your tummy happy!
They're low in sugar, have no high-fructose corn syrup, are gluten-free, kosher, non-GMO project verified and made in the USA with only the most premium ingredients! The NATURAL choice for upset tummies™
They also have a peppermint drop. It's made from real peppermint oil, which, as I mentioned about the tea, is helpful and soothing.
Close your eyes and stay in a prone position with as few bounces as possible. This works very well for me on boats, and when there is an extra seat available, on an air plane. It maintains a stable head position. It also minimizes the conflict between inner ear and visual information.
