4 ms·

Whenever I go sailing with friends on SF bay, if we go anywhere near a cruise ship my sea sickness goes into overdrive from how disgusting the exhaust odor is.

Whenever I go sailing with friends on SF bay, if we go anywhere near a cruise ship my sea sickness goes into overdrive from how disgusting the exhaust odor is. Vile machines, I wish more places would ban them.

randyrand 3y ago
Same with the shipping container ships in the bay area for me. The pollution they put out irritates my lungs and all for what, consumerism and global trade?
cguess 3y ago
As a fellow sailor who's only dealt with ferries, what's the wake like coming off those cruise ships? I can't imagine it's just the fumes causing sea sickness when one of those monstrosities steam past your 26' or whatever.
- pengaru 3y ago
  Actually I've only been anywhere near them when they're docked, presumably taking on passengers. They're not supposed to run on the bunker oil near shore, but the stink from them just idling there is always exceptionally bad. Incidentally, we also learned one time that if you get too close (on the order of hundreds of yards) to a docked cruise ship the USCG will appear with a large deck-mounted machine gun trained on your bow while ordering you to change course. So not only are the cruise ships making the air disgusting for everyone nearby, our tax dollars are spent guarding them from terrorist attacks while doing so too. I'm sure container ships are disgusting too.. but they don't generally sit docked idling for ages where people are doing recreation.
soderfoo 3y ago
How do you cope with sea sickness while sailing? I've been wanting to take sailing lessons but I'm worried my queasiness will rear it's ugly head.
- pengaru 3y ago
  I just puke a lot. It gets better with more time at sea. Avoiding breathing noxious exhaust helps me a lot too, that's quite a trigger. Don't go below deck when under way. Don't try practice tying knots or reading books under way, all the usual motion sickness triggers to avoid in cars/trains. Watch the horizon/scenery, man the helm if you can, have the wind on your skin. Short day sails are kind of the worst because it's enough to get sick, but not long enough to get over the "sea legs" hump. Do overnights, long weekends, sleep/live on the boat. That helps me significantly. I haven't tested this on the boat yet but fasting seemed to help on my last cross-country train trip. It's on my list of things to try sailing. Fasting is basically being deep in ketosis AIUI, so maybe just going sailing on a keto diet would make a difference. I was _trying_ to make myself motion sick on that train trip where I hadn't eaten for 48hrs, and there wasn't even a hint of nausea, it's a very different head space.

randyrand 3y ago

Same with the shipping container ships in the bay area for me. The pollution they put out irritates my lungs and all for what, consumerism and global trade?

cguess 3y ago

As a fellow sailor who's only dealt with ferries, what's the wake like coming off those cruise ships? I can't imagine it's just the fumes causing sea sickness when one of those monstrosities steam past your 26' or whatever.

pengaru 3y ago
Actually I've only been anywhere near them when they're docked, presumably taking on passengers. They're not supposed to run on the bunker oil near shore, but the stink from them just idling there is always exceptionally bad. Incidentally, we also learned one time that if you get too close (on the order of hundreds of yards) to a docked cruise ship the USCG will appear with a large deck-mounted machine gun trained on your bow while ordering you to change course. So not only are the cruise ships making the air disgusting for everyone nearby, our tax dollars are spent guarding them from terrorist attacks while doing so too. I'm sure container ships are disgusting too.. but they don't generally sit docked idling for ages where people are doing recreation.

soderfoo 3y ago

How do you cope with sea sickness while sailing? I've been wanting to take sailing lessons but I'm worried my queasiness will rear it's ugly head.

pengaru 3y ago
I just puke a lot. It gets better with more time at sea. Avoiding breathing noxious exhaust helps me a lot too, that's quite a trigger. Don't go below deck when under way. Don't try practice tying knots or reading books under way, all the usual motion sickness triggers to avoid in cars/trains. Watch the horizon/scenery, man the helm if you can, have the wind on your skin. Short day sails are kind of the worst because it's enough to get sick, but not long enough to get over the "sea legs" hump. Do overnights, long weekends, sleep/live on the boat. That helps me significantly. I haven't tested this on the boat yet but fasting seemed to help on my last cross-country train trip. It's on my list of things to try sailing. Fasting is basically being deep in ketosis AIUI, so maybe just going sailing on a keto diet would make a difference. I was _trying_ to make myself motion sick on that train trip where I hadn't eaten for 48hrs, and there wasn't even a hint of nausea, it's a very different head space.