How to Avoid Seasickness on a Boat: Are Catamarans Better?
There is perhaps no worse feeling than being nauseous. This is even more upsetting if it happens on what should be a good experience, like during a vacation or while on a trip to the beach. How irritating! The last thing you want to do is ruin the fun for yourself and everyone else.
If you’re planning to be on a boat soon and know you’re prone to seasickness, you want to learn all you can ahead of time about how to avoid seasickness on a boat. It’s not as impossible as it may sound!
Table of Contents
- Why Do People Get Seasick?
- What Is Happening Inside of Your Body
- How to Avoid Seasickness on a Boat
- Book a Catamaran Excursion
Why Do People Get Seasick?
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greeks and Romans knew about motion sickness. This is because it’s natural, so natural in fact that people have experienced it since the beginning of time. A person experiences motion sickness when there are conflicts among their senses. This can happen on a boat, roller coaster, car, or a variety of other moving situations.
Essentially, your eyes see one thing, your muscles feel another, and your inner ears sense something else. Talk about confusion! Your poor, mixed-up brain can’t take in all of those different signals. That’s why you end up feeling dizzy and sick.
What Is Happening Inside of Your Body
Motion sickness on a boat, seasickness, is a result of a conflict in the inner ear and is caused by the vessel’s erratic motion on the water. As the boat hits waves, it rocks back and forth. Inside the cabin of a rocking boat, your inner ear detects changes in both up-and-down and side-to-side acceleration. This is occurring as your body bobs along with the boat. However, the cabin moves with the passenger, so their eyes register a relatively stable view. How confusing for your senses! Your brain becomes agitated by this perceptual incongruity and responds with stress-related hormones that lead to nausea, vomiting, sweating, pale skin, and vertigo.
How to Avoid Seasickness on a Boat
There are several things you can do to avoid seasickness on a boat, like taking special medicine or eating ginger. It is also recommended to look at a stable object. If you’re on a boat, this may be the horizon. You will want to avoid overindulging in alcohol, as this makes you even more nauseous and dizzy. Eat lightly, breathe fresh air, and avoid reading.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply stop seasickness at the very root of the problem? Rather than worrying about looking at the horizon and limiting your alcohol, you could simply be on a boat that isn’t prone to rocking around on the waves and causing seasickness in the first place!
Compared to monohull sailboats, catamarans are more stable. It doesn’t rock back and forth so much. This reduces the risk of seasickness to people on board. If you’re prone to seasickness, this is welcome news indeed!
Book a Catamaran Excursion
People who are sensitive to motion sickness are less likely to get sick on a catamaran. Even if you have been seasick on a sailboat in the past, you can book a catamaran excursion with confidence. Catamarans, like our Esmeralda, are known to provide a smoother ride than similar monohull vessels. This makes it easier to sail without motion sickness.
Seasickness in catamaran is much less common than other vessels because the ride is much smoother. The best way to avoid being seasick on a sailboat is to be on a catamaran! We encourage you to browse our packages and book the one that is perfect for you. The Esmeralda is a large catamaran, not prone to rolling in the waves and leaving our passengers seasick.