Calmest part of GBR
 

I'm starting to plan my trip and GBR is on the top of my list. I want to try to snorkel/dive but I get motion sick very easily. I am mostly worried about the boat ride out to the reef. Is there any part of the reef that has the calmest waters? I'm willing to leave from any part (ie Port Douglas, Carins, etc) and seasick pills/patches do not work for me. I am a female in my 20s and I will be traveling by myself in the beginning of September.

Thanks

No, I don't think there's a part of the reef where the water is calmer. It depends entirely on the weather on the day as to how likely you are to get sea sick.

You can take a helicopter out to Heron Island. It's a lot more expensive than the ferry but it would be the best way to avoid the possibility of sea sickness. Once there, you can snorkel from the beach or take a short boat ride to go scuba diving.

Lady Musgrave Isalnd is a great day trip. One of the best I've done. They were excellent with people who got sea sick.
It is much further south though but if you are heading to Brisbane a good stopping place. Due to the prevailing winds it can be rough on the way out but no one they say gets sick on the way back. The lagoon is extemely calm and FANTASTIC.


Great snorkelling/diving - huge numbers and types of fish, plus turtles. Great bird watching on the island, glass bottom boat. Southern most island of the GBR. They do scuba dives for novices. I did it and it was excellent for three reasons. One there is so many fish you don't have time to worry about your depth. Two they have installed rungs at two and four metres for you to hold so you can go down slowly and easily. The guide was great. You go doen slowly and hold on at four metres and are surrounded by hundreds of fish. Once you ae comfortable you then go for a swim around the bottom. Then back to the rungs and slowly rise. Extremely well done.
http://www.lmcruises.com.au/

For sea sick tablets look at the other thread. My sister swears by the tablets I described and she get sea sick in a bath!

Do you get air sick too? We took a helicopter (as mentioned, not inexpensive) and snorkled off of Vlascoff Cay. We did experience a bit of movement but that was mostly due to the pilot wanting to give us a better view of everything.

Thank you for all your help.

peterSale-I am allergic to the patch and those tablets do not work for me. Doctors are puzzled as to why nothing seems to help me.

patty-I get sick with any movement from car, plane, boat, etc.

As already mentioned, the motion you'll encounter on the boat is determined by the weather--the wind. You would want to go out on a day with the least amount of wind. (Fortunately, I think September is a good month for low wind speeds.) If you will be in the GBR area for awhile, you can ask the boat operators to check the weather conditions for the next couple of days and book you for a day with the best conditions. (They are used to these sorts of requests.)

If you decide to go out, no matter what the weather is, I suggest you give ginger tablets a try. I suffer from sea sickness and they do the trick for me. Even if they don't help, they should not cause any adverse reaction because they are just ground-up ginger.

Good luck. I really hope you are able to make it out to the Outer Reef because it's an AMAZING place.

The one's on the other thread are mainly ginger and caffeine.

Have you condidered trying hynotherapy? It does wonders for all sorts of problems.

I suffer from terrible sea-sickness [i've even thrown up on dry land after a not particularly rough crossing] so i feel for you.

my tips are that if it is calm, on deck is the best place to be. but at the slightest indication of queeziness, go below and lie down.

if you can take sea-sickness tablets [which you may not be able to if you want to dive] do so well in advance.

we're looking at the GBR reef too in November but as i'm not going to be diving, I'm resigned to taking the tablets on the way there, and probably on the way back too.

From my own experience, the worst thing you can do feeling seasick is to go below deck and lie down - you want to be in a place, preferably outside, where you can spend time looking out to the horizon - a fixed frame of reference. Fresh air is good too, especially upwind of others who may be sick!

I learned this lesson sailing across the English Channel years ago, where (ignoring my dad's advice) I went below deck, laid down and spent about 18 hours bringing up bile. I remembered my dad's advice ten years later when I took the notoriously rough passage across the Cook Strait in New Zealand. I swear I was the only person on the ferry who was not sick. The weather was bad but I stayed on an open deck and kept my face to the wind looking out toward the horizon. My only tinges of seasickness came when I had to go below deck to visit the stinky bathroom.

A quick browse around the internet on seasickness will support my advice.

well, Ralph, your experience and mine are different. Going below and lying down reduces the sensation of movement which is what disturbs the inner ear and causes the sick feeling. I've lost count of the number of times that people told me I was wrong, but I've found through bitter experience that it's the only thing that works for me.

all that fresh air is obviously working for the people being sick over the side, isn't it?

From the University of Maryland Medical Center - http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/m...#ixzz2WOFl5lgw

"If you have motion sickness on a boat, try these tips:
- Ask for a cabin on the upper deck or toward the front of the ship.
- When on deck, keep your eyes fixed on the horizon or land."

<<Ask for a cabin on the upper deck or toward the front of the ship>>

I find that a really curious notion as I would have thought there was more motion at the front of the ship than at the rear (Well that's my understanding anyway)

Definitely need to keep your eyes on the horizon.

Travel Calm have a ginger variety and they are great!

I find that a really curious notion as I would have thought there was more motion at the front of the ship than at the rear (Well that's my understanding anyway)>>

stormbird - logically the least motion should be in the middle! and that has been my experience too. However, it's worth finding out where the engines are situated when booking a cabin; we had a pretty hellish ferry journey back from France once when we were right down in the bowels of the boat next door to the engine. [or that's what it felt like] the noise, smell and vibration were not conducive to sleep or settled tummies. OTOH we'd had a super cabin on the way out [upstairs, lots of light, no smells] and DD threw up about 100 kms into our drive after we'd got off.