>and a lot of leg and arm flexing compensating for the
>boat movements (in other words, not taking a rigid brace but doing a lot of
>knee bends).

"sea legs". Certainly, part of the adaptation to the new - and nauseating -
environment is to learn to control your body when within it.

Yet, in choppy weather, boats take no rythmic pattern of movement, and the
old notion of holding yourself steady (your seasick-prone ear canals, that
is) vie adopting rubber legs is hard-put to the test. You can never match
the beat...

Which is why real sailors on real ships continue to clip themselves to
lifelines.

But learning to ride the boat, rather than being ridden with it, when
possible is a good thing. If nothing else, I think, it helps the brain
maintain a frame-of-reference that doesn't include freestyle chumming.

>I think everyone is vulnerable once the boat stops and you are
>bobbing up and down.

This is the worst, and I think the reason why is that it leads to
less predictable movements, as well as ending one source of fresh
air (wind on the cheek is a clue the brain locks into, I think).
Anyway, the kind of yawing-roll that a boat under power often attacks
waves with (unless your skipper stubbornly hits them bow-on) seems
easier to deal with than the less-predictable movements of a boat
not under weigh. Such a boat changes angle-of-attack, among other
things, as the waves twist and turn it.

The above, of course, comes from second-hand observations, because
I maintain a maniacal, non-puking, beer-drinking, head-peeing,
telephoto-peering aspect on my sea trips :)


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, at http://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza