Seasickness, a form of motion sickness, can be a real nuisance for you and your entire family, and it can even ruin your trip if one of your loved ones is extremely susceptible to its influence. While adults can definitely suffer from seasickness, it’s typically the kids who will have a difficult time battling the swiveling and bouncing that the ship will go through on your voyage, which means that you have to do everything you can to prevent them from getting sick in the first place. You will definitely need to treat these symptoms on your voyage as well (even if you are traveling alone), but they should be mild at best if you take the necessary precautions before setting sail.
Today, we will go over some of the best tips and tricks that will help you avoid and treat seasickness on your family cruise. Here’s what you need to do.
Get some prescription medication
First things first, understand that battling motion sickness doesn’t have to boil down to your willpower alone, because modern medicine is well aware that many people suffer from this condition, and has thus produced numerous remedies to help you fight it and prevent it in the first place. If popping pills is okay with you, then go ahead and get some over-the-counter drugs to help you feel great throughout your trip, all the while keeping the contents of your stomach where they should be.
Some of the popular options include the well-known Dramamine and Meclizine. Beware, they will make you drowsy for a while. If you’re experiencing severe seasickness, then be sure to talk to your doctor about getting a scopolamine patch, which will have a slow-release trans-dermal effect that will treat motion sickness for prolonged periods of time – ideal for those first few days on your cruise. In the case that you want to avoid medications, then you can try peppermint and ginger in pill form to treat mild nausea.
Plan for plenty of pit-stops
Photo by McKayla Crump on Unsplash
One of the best things you can do to keep motion sickness under control during your cruise is to make regular pit-stops at ports along the way, and to spend time on dry land frequently. If you go on a commercial cruise, this isn’t really up to you, but when you go yachting through a professional yacht charter broker who can plot a route according to your exact liking, then you can stay in control at all times and moor your ship regularly so that you and your family can spend some time recuperating on land.
This is one of the reasons why yachting in particular has become so popular in recent years, because it allows for some much-needed privacy and it allows you to plan your sailing trip to suit your needs. Combined with the aforementioned tips, it can help you prevent nausea altogether.
Keep still and look straight ahead
It might sound like an impossible task because the ship is constantly swiveling and bouncing on the water, but you can minimize the effects of this type of motion by staying as still as you can. How? Well, remember that the ship will bounce more around its center of gravity, which means that you will experience less motion the closer you are to the center – you just need to find it. This point is obviously located in the middle of the ship, so make yourself comfortable there until nausea has passed.
Next, it’s important that you don’t add to the effects by looking around and turning your head too much. You need to stabilize your center of gravity as much as possible, which means that you need to fixate your eyes on a stable object. Your best bet is the horizon, plus, that’s the most beautiful thing you can look at from a boat or a yacht, so go ahead and stare at the endless beauty in front and forget about the motion of the sea below.
Fresh air and a frugal diet
Photo by Aishath Hameeda on Unsplash
If you’re experiencing motion sickness, the last thing you want to be doing is to remain below deck. You need plenty of fresh air and an open environment so that you can stabilize your center of gravity – otherwise the walls will feel like they are coming down on you. What’s more, be sure to eat something just before setting sail, but don’t indulge in a big meal. Drink water regularly as well in order to stifle nausea through proper hydration. Stay active along with your children, no matter what.
Talk to yourself
And finally, never underestimate the power of positive verbal cues. You can talk yourself into a state of calm and composure, just like you can talk to one of your family members when they start feeling sick, and help them turn their attention to something else rather than dwelling on the way they feel physically. Be sure to talk to yourself, and you should be able to minimize the effects of motion sickness.
Wrapping up
Seasickness is a real problem that many people and their family members experience nowadays, but that shouldn’t hold you back from going on a sailing escapade. Be sure to use these tips to prevent motion sickness while you’re on a cruise, and you will have one amazing adventure to remember.
