Wednesday 14 July 2010

Stages of Seasickness


The jokey version is :
1. You're afraid you are going to be sick
2. You're afraid you are going to die
3. You're afraid you are not going to die.

For most sailors :
1. You become aware of your stomach
2. You become aware of your throat
3. You start to burp
4. You are sick
5.You get your sealegs.

Many famous mariners have been troubled by seasickness, including Nelson. Everyone who goes to sea reaches one stage or another, the lucky ones going straight to stage 5 and stay there.

This morning we tried to go out to get round Rattray Head. The tides here seem to have a life of their own, not as shown in the Almanac, so we asked the Harbourmaster for local information.
We had until 10am to have the ebb tide flowing south to north to sweep us up and around Rattray Head.

So we tried going out at 7am. Once outside the breakwater the sea was rough and confused and the fog closed in. With the prospect of another 2-3 hours of this and I was at stage 2 and contemplating stage 3 we opted to head back to Peterhead. Robin made a good job of getting Catabout back in, so much so the Harbourmaster radioed "welldone".

I didn't think Peterhead would be a welcome sight, but it was today.

Oh well. Maybe later.

The picture is a snapshot from the Peterhead webcam:
http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/webcams/peterhead.asp
Catabout is extreme left at the front as you look at it.

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