"AMPowers" wrote in message
...
The worst sea sickness I ever experienced was twenty years ago during a
sail from SF Bay to Drakes Bay as part of coastal navigation class.
Foolishly, I had done pretty much everything one shouldn't do: I'd been
out drinking the night before, ate a greasy meal, didn't get enough sleep
and didn't bring warm clothes.

We had long Alaskan swells off the starboard bow on the way up. I
realized I was starting to not feel well but needed to use the head. I
went below and by the time I finished I was green. I began throwing up
everything I'd ever eaten in my life. When there was nothing left in my
stomach I then alternated between dry retching and vomiting bile.

Now at that time I did not know that bile was supposed to be bright green,
like antifreeze. Seeing that made me worry I was going to die, because
obviously nothing that color should come out of a person.

After an hour of this I greatly feared I was going to die. After the
second hour I greatly feared I wasn't going to die. In fact, I would have
welcomed it. The minute we arrived at Drakes Bay and anchored in calm
water I was fine.

I've cruised a lot since then, and find that without the aid of sea
sickness drugs I'm usually unhappy for the first day or two, sometimes
I'll get sick, feel "not great" for the next two days after that, and then
am fine for the rest of the cruise.

I have tried "Sturgeron Retard" (that's the name on the box) that I bought
in Mexico and found it useful for keeping me from getting sick for the
first few days. It did make me drowsy and cause dry mouth, but nothing
too serious.

Other than that I found just about all of the home remedies useless except
for the obvious: plenty of rest, warm clothes, light foods, no
recreational drugs or alcohol, and a good frame of mind.

Cheers,

Robb

The turning point for me has always been when I would rather die than not
die. Then, I start to feel better. :-)

Speaking of which... I'm off to go sailing in and out of the SF bay today
and tomorrow. I don't think we'll get as far as Drakes, since it's a class.
:-)

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com