Eat bananas. They don't help much with the seasickness, but they do come back a bit easier.

David

: Me too! I prefer meclazine (Bonine, Dramamine Non-Drowsy Formula, etc.) It
: lasts all day and it doesn't make me drowsy. Regular Dramamine works for
: me to stop the seasicknes, but it makes me so goofy I wouldn't want to
: paddle. (For me it's not a pleasant "goofiness" either.)

: I have some tips. One, eat bland foods prior to paddling. Two, keep your eyes
: on the horizon. Don't dig in someone's hatch, fiddle with your GPS while
: looking down, study charts, etc. Three, keep paddling slowly during rest
: stops. Four, take your first meclazine dose the day before you paddle.
: I've heard from reputable sources that it works better if it has been in
: your system for awhile.

: Story: A few years ago some pals and I paddled from the mainland to Catalina
: Island - about 22 miles. I hadn't had any prior problems with seasickness
: - when I took my meclazine (though plenty of problems without.) That
: morning I had my then-favorite breakfast - pesto flavored sausages. Yumm!
: We launched just before sunrise on very calm water, but had to wait
: offshore while the last member of our party stuffed his camping gear into
: his newly-built baidarka. While bobbing around in the calm water, a friend
: said he had forgotten to put his water on deck; it was in his hatch. Would
: I be so kind as to dig it out for him? Sure, I said. His hatch closing
: mechanism was unfamiliar and very elaborate. It took awhile to figure out
: how to open his hatch, then some time to dig through his stuff, then more
: time to reclose the hatch. When I finally finished and looked up, it hit
: me. I was seasick! Even in calm water after having taken my medicine.

: You know how it is when you're seasick. There's no way to get un-seasick
: except to get onto dry land for awhile. Unfortunately, it was an 8 hour
: crossing! I was sick the entire way!

: Keeping busy paddling, looking at the horizon helped a bit. But we'd stop to
: rest for 10 minutes every hour. Those 10 minutes of sitting there,
: bobbing, were awful! Finally, on about the 4th rest stop, I heaved my
: sausages violently up. I could tell that their spicy-ness had added to my
: nausea.

: That was one of the longest 8-hour periods of my life.

: Prior to the return trip, I decided to eat bagels and cream cheese. I again
: took my meclazine. This time I announced that if anyone needed anything
: dug out of their hatch, ask someone else who wasn't so prone to
: seasickness. I also told everyone that when we stopped to rest, my
: intention was to keep paddling, as slowly as possible so it would be easy
: for them to catch me, but that I felt less likely to get sick when
: paddling.

: It worked like a charm. I never felt the slightest bit queasy on the return
: trip. During rest stops, after taking a few bites of bland food, I
: immediately started paddling again, but as easy as possible. It never took
: more than a couple of minutes for the rest of the party to catch me. I had
: a wonderful crossing, made all the more enjoyable by the memory of the
: agony of the first day!