Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Last week one of my charter fishing clients (let's just call him "Joe") was not doing so well. The first clue of Joe's predicament was when he locked himself in the head for nearly half an hour. Eventually one of his buddies knocked on the door and asked him if he was OK. "I'm fine," Joe croaked from inside the enclosure in a voice that sounded not like it came from the 30-something angler who stepped aboard the boat that morning but from someone maybe three times that age. Joe wasn't "fine," he was sick as a dog. But when I suggested that the head was the worst place to be if he was seasick, his pasty-pale face snapped back, " I don't get seasick, my stomach is just all churned up from those damn bacon and eggs I had for breakfast!"
I resisted the temptation to ask Joe if he always has such a violent reaction when he eats bacon and eggs in the morning or if it was just a coincidence that the first time the breakfast food made him sick he was aboard a boat that was pitching and rolling on a choppy ocean. I figured I'd just leave it alone. Poor Joe wasn't feeling good at all and he certainly didn't need any needling from the captain - his fishing partners were already taking care of that. I was just glad he was headed out on deck, I was also afraid to go down and check on the condition of the head, but it had to be done. So as I've done so many times before, I took a deep breath, held it and stepped right in. Eeeeuck! "Hey Joe, you didn't mention that you had hash browns too!"
Joe, like so many fishermen and boaters just wouldn't admit that he was seasick. As if succumbing to such a condition was somehow shameful or would make him less than the man, the angler, or maybe the "tough-guy" he considered himself to be. But if it's true that seasickness somehow defines a person's position in the realm of outdoor activities then I guess I'm right there with Joe because, even though it's been a while, I can still remember how it feels to be hanging over the rail "yacking" into the big blue bathtub! Yea - I've been seasick before.
Fortunately, in a couple decades of running a charter boat I've never been "throwing-up" sick with clients aboard, but I can say that there have been a few very rough days when I didn't exactly feel up to eating my lunch. Some might not consider that being truly seasick, but when you figure that ashore I always eat my lunch, I can only blame the lack of appetite on the motion of the ocean! So does that make me less of a fishermen or some kind of sissy? I guess in some eyes it does, but as far as I'm concerned it-is-what-it-is, I've been seasick before and I might be again some day - so what!
I wonder why it is that so many more folks won't admit that they are or have been seasick. We recently had a fellow aboard who lasted 15-minutes outside the Inlet before he started "blowing chunks." It wasn't even all that rough of a day, but his stomach couldn't handle it and he spent the entire day going from laying prone on a bench-seat to hanging over the gunwale. Then, as with most victims, no sooner had we got back inside the Inlet than he was up on his feet smiling and chatting with his friends. When we got back to the slip I made the comment that he seemed to be doing much better now that we were in calm waters. But he quickly responded that he "wasn't seasick" but that he'd come down with some kind of virus that morning and it must have run its course and left him at the end of the day. RRRRIGHT!
Another fellow told me about a time when he and his wife were out on another boat on a day that was extremely rough. He said that the two of them were shocked that they were both sick for the entire voyage. When I mentioned that I could understand why someone would get sick on such a rough day, the fellow said, "no, we weren't seasick, we don't get seasick, we both had a bad batch of pancakes at the local diner that morning."
I didn't even know you could have such a thing as a "bad pancake". What in the heck is a bad pancake? Maybe one that's square rather than round! Whatever they are, I guess the couple found them that morning and paid for it by calling for "RAAALPH" all day long. No, they weren't seasick that day - Naaaaa!
Those of "us" who will admit to knowing what it feels like to be sick will tell you that it is an absolutely miserable feeling that is much worse than what one experiences when they get a cold or the flu. The good thing is that no matter how bad a person feels, the symptoms miraculously clear up the minute they get inside the Inlet or off the boat - usually. Rough seas on the ocean are the number-one culprit of causing seasickness but I've also seen plenty of folks "blowing grits" on days that were glassy calm. Last year, I think some kind of record was set when a young man stepped off the dock onto my boat, took about four steps across the cockpit and started "hurling" over the side!
A lot of folks will claim that seasickness is just a "mental" thing and in some cases I reckon it is, as with the little guy who no sooner stepped aboard the boat before he was "feeding the fishes," but I think it's been proven that most of the time it has to do with the inner ear, equilibrium and such. Over the counter remedies such as Dramamine and Bonine work for a lot of folks but they should be taken the night before and then all through the day (always follow the instructions) but some don't like to take them because they tend to make you feel drowsy. But then again, seasickness makes one drowsy as well so I'd say it's much better to be a little tired and not sick than tired and "barfing bullfrogs" all day!
The real savior for a lot of boaters has been the drug Scopolamine that's administered via a little round patch that's stuck to the skin behind the ear. It's by prescription only but it seems to work quite well for most people - but not everyone. A few years ago a company came out with some kind of electronic wrist band that supposedly delivered a minute electric current through the skin that the manufacturer claimed would not only prevent but also cure seasickness. For a year or two they did a lot of expensive advertising for their product but at $75 - $130 each I don't think they sold too many of them and I haven't seen the electronic gizmos on the shelves or even in the magazines anymore so they might have gone out of business. My only experience with the product was when a client of mine came aboard with one on his wrist, an hour into the trip as he was sick as a dog and "barking" over the side. At one point he did pause long enough to look at his electric wristband and say, "$130 wasted and I'm still seasick!". At least he admitted it.
Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and Captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
