Crawling out of lurkerdom,

I'll attest to the effectiveness of ginger - personally I'm
very prone to seasickness.  Very thinly sliced fresh cut ginger,
or fresh grated ginger.  Take before symptoms of seasickness
appear, after that, its too late for ginger.

Also know what are your triggers of seasickness.  For me its
diesel exhaust (so keep upwind), lack of a fixed reference
point, so focus on the horizon and better yet, stay near
the the centre, usually beside the helm :-).

Favourite foods like greasy fried eggs and bacon washed
down with thick coffee also make me susceptible.

If you can, sleep on the way out.  Wake up, gear up
and get into the water - for some reason, you don't
feel so sick once you're in the water.

HTH
Lawrence

At 15:26 08-06-00 +1000, you wrote:
>On Thursday, June 08, 2000 1:18 PM, Dave DeBarger wrote:
>
>> [z-z-z-zip.  entering UNLURK mode]
>
>Good! :-)
>
>(snip)
>> Now I need some help.  This will be my first liveaboard.  I tend toward
>> seasickness, but have had pretty good luck with The Patch (although it
>> has never had a REAL test!)  It is also our club's first-ever liveaboard
>> trip, so we have no "old salts" to dispense wisdom.  I know, however,
>> that this list is brimming with wisdom.  Some of you have even done
>> liveaboards!
>
>Having some first-hand experience of sea-sickness <g>, I can tell you what
>I've found to work best for me, (leaving to one side my Dad's advice that
>the best cure was to sit under an apple tree for half-an-hour!)  :-)
>
>When diving - especially from a live-aboard -  I *try* and avoid taking
>drugs of any type.  Which left a fairly limited field of options.  One of
>the ancient remedies, however, was the use of ginger; ginger-beer; ginger
>biscuits; neat ginger root, etc.  Apparently recent clinical studies suggest
>that this is so, and that ginger has a superior action in the treatment of
>motion sickness when compared with synthetic drugs.
>
>A company here - and I guess they'd be available elsewhere in the world? -
>produce ginger tablets which when, (to quote from the blurb on the back of
>the packet), "Taken prior to travelling .. may ease or completely ward off
>the symptoms of nausea and vomiting associated with motion sickness.  They
>may also help reduce the symptoms of gastrointestinal upset from other
>causes."
>
>They certainly seem to work for me.  Best of all you can take as many as you
>need, whenever you feel the need, without worry about side effects.  Some of
>the live-aboards here actually make them freely available to passengers.
>
>(Just as an aside:  If you have suffered/are suffering from sea-sickness,
>then the chances are that you may be de-hydrated.  Should that be the case
>then it's best not to dive until such time as you are again fit and well.)
>
>There are other 'natural' remedies - but that's the best that I've found.
>
>Also you should consider working on the basis that 'prevention is better
>than cure'!  In other words, the on-set of sea-sickness is sometimes the
>result of shore-side over-indulgence the night before sailing.  I know!
><BWG>  So be moderate in your habits, get plenty of sleep and rest the night
>before, don't skip meals and keep warm! :-)
>
>I hope this helps a little. :-)
>
>Strike
>