Neptune’s illness

“What about sea sickness?!” I think this was the question that people asked me the most before our departure. I always answered: “90% of the people will be seasick. The question is if I want to be a part of the other 10% that has to take care of the rest”. In retrospect, I wish I was – but you are lucky! Since I have been part of the 5% that were heavily seasick, I am able to tell you everything about sea sickness firsthand.

Our journey around half the globe started calmly in the Kieler fjord and Baltic Sea. The sea was almost motionless and for the first two days, only one person had light symptoms. But on the 14th of October, things changed. After passing the Kiel Canal, we reached the North Sea at midnight. It was pretty rough, and the waves were short and choppy. Because that was the opposite of what we had experienced at the Baltic Sea, nobody was used to the new ship motions.

I had my first experiences with sea sickness and the bulwark during my night watch from two to five a.m. Later that day, the ones without a night watch also new if they will be sick. If not, that meant they would take care of the other ones and the ship. However, many of us experienced headaches, dizziness, less motivation and nearly everyone felt more tired than usual. Yet we all know that nausea is the main symptom which seasick people experience. In our case, approximately 70% of the people aboard were nauseous the first day and about 50% for two days or longer. I calculated these numbers from a survey Justus conducted for his presentation about sea sickness.

He explained to us why people get seasick, what the symptoms include, and what you can do about it. People get nauseous if their visual system sends different signals to the brain than their muscle and equilibrium sense. As a result, the brain enters an alarm mode because people develop the same symptoms as if they had been poisoned. Often, the reaction is puking.

Of course, nobody wants that and there are preventive measures. Sleeping enough is really important, as well as eating. But be careful – light food only and not too much! And the main thing that helps seasick people is staying on deck and looking at the horizon. This is how the visual system and the brain can synchronize again and realize that the person is on a ship and not on land. The mindset’s influence is also interesting. People who believe that they will be seasick are way more likely to feed the fishes.

Justus also explained that seasickness normally lasts two to four days. This is the time the body needs to get used to the new circumstances. Our situation, however, was a little different. After two days, our wind conditions changed and we had astern winds, which resulted in longer waves from behind. These were more pleasant for the ship and thus our bodies. For the moment we were in luck. Nearly everybody was fit again – but not for long…

For a few days, we waited on the coast of Brest for a gale to pass by but decided to leave a little sooner to stay on our schedule. Hence, the sea was quite turbulent which meant sea sickness for the most of us – again… It was similar to the last time. The only big difference was for those who had only been a little nauseous before. They did not become seasick again, but most of us laid across the ship or in our bunks once more. However, many noticed an improvement which shows that the motion of the sea was becoming increasingly familiar to our bodies. Again, the weather conditions improved after two days – and with it our nausea. Let’s hope it won’t deteriorate!

Now you know why people get seasick, how many of us had the pleasure and what the sequence of events was. However, I have one more topic you might not expect: the positive aspects! Of course, suffering from nausea strained us more than just physically, but it showed something special. Everybody who was doing fine tried to help the others as much as possible. For example, Franz came to our night watch even though he was allowed to sleep through the night because he had galley duty the day before. He did that because he was one of only two people from our watch who were not seasick and was thus able to check the engine room. I have never experienced an understanding and helpfulness like this until now.

In hindsight, I can say that I do not wish sea sickness anyone, but it is something I can look back to and remember more funny stories and positive than negative things – if I will not be seasick in the near future!