Here’s something a lot of people ask when they hear I’m going to the Bering Sea: “Do you get seasick?” My answer: “I’m going to find out.” Most of my boat experience is from studying abroad in Australia and New Zealand 13 years ago, but I’m not sure three nights on a scuba boat on the Great Barrier Reef is quite the same as six weeks in an icebreaker on the famously nasty waters of the Bering Sea.
I’ve been asking scientists when I talk to them, and most say they get seasick, but not on the Healy. It’s really big, which I gather can help. Also, most of the time we should be in the ice. Ice is a solid, so waves don’t travel through it. I got a prescription for the motion sickness patches, and a friend who studies humpbacks gave me advice that involved Bonine, which is apparently kind of like Dramamine. So I have options. I hear pretty much everyone acclimates after a few days anyway.
You’d think being immune to seasickness would be some kind of prerequisite for scientists who go on research ships all the time, but apparently it’s more important to be a Very Tough Person who will keep working even when you’re throwing up all the time.
I am not a Very Tough Person.
I like the idea that ice-scientists see themselves as Indiana Joneseseses of the Great White North, rather than mousy beaker-mongers.
i get seasick on floating docks, waterbeds, and IMAX movies. there are no boats in my future. ever.
In college on the SEA cruise, they gave us what they called “air force cocktails,” which were described as a powerful upper and a powerful downer, but I never knew what the actual drugs were. They were a godsend.
Key piece of advice: don’t puke into the wind.
Don’t eat pasta & red sauce on Day 1…
Chris, that is excellent advice.