On 24 Apr 2007 08:41:36 -0700, Bob wrote:

On Apr 24, 3:19 am, "Roger Long" wrote:

I wonder how much of a role the acclimatization of many thousands of miles
to the motion and lifestyle played.

Roger Long

Two words, "sea legs"

Id say everything. Typically when I was doing marathon "voyages" I
spend the first day puking, the second dry heaving and horrizonal, the
third day beginging to recover and rehydrate. However, there is a
whole diffrent set of musscles in use at sea. It took me 30-50 days at
sea before getting 100% again. If one thinks someone is an
"experienced skipper" with "thousands of miles under their keel" my
bet is they never spent more than 3-15 days at sea at any one time. In
other words a very experenced daysailor. Something happens to a body
after the 4th week on a boat. I think its called adapting or
"acclimatization." The problme I had after 90 plus days at sea was
back on the dock................. urp

Agree about sea legs, and getting land legs back too, although that
normally happens fast. One time the Navy destroyer I was on took
about 2 weeks to get back to Norfolk from the Med in heavy wintertime
seas. Somehow I was off on liberty right after docking, walked to the
bus, and was dropped off near a liquor store in downtown Norfolk.
I walked in to buy a pack of gum and stepped to the counter.
I put my hands on the counter and saw bottles of liquor stacked to the
ceiling on shelves behind the counter.
For some reason, though my feet were planted on the floor and my hands
on the counter - maybe because of that - my heart jumped as I thought
those bottles were about to fall on me as the store "rolled."
Scared the hell out of me for an instant, and I've never forgotten it.
Weird. Only thing I can figure is that was the first time I had been
standing motionless in weeks, and physiology had to do a final tweak.

--Vic