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Land Sickness


LadyR

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Hi all,

 

so we’ve just come home after our first week on our new nb. I adjusted really well to being on the water, however, now I am home, every time I sit or lie down, I feel like I’m swaying & bobbing - not a nice feeling. I’m really hoping it subsides as this might be the breaking of my new found love of the water. Anyone else suffer?  I’ve read horror stories of people having it permanently, but quickly stopped reading :o

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7 minutes ago, LadyR said:

Hi all,

 

so we’ve just come home after our first week on our new nb. I adjusted really well to being on the water, however, now I am home, every time I sit or lie down, I feel like I’m swaying & bobbing - not a nice feeling. I’m really hoping it subsides as this might be the breaking of my new found love of the water. Anyone else suffer?  I’ve read horror stories of people having it permanently, but quickly stopped reading :o

 

Yes, we used to get this on returning home.

 

It does wear off.

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4 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

Yes, we used to get this on returning home.

 

It does wear off.

That’s good to hear!

3 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I find this happens after a couple of weeks on the boat, always feels like the office is swaying.  Tends to only last a few days.

Yes, it’s so strange. I went to do a food shop this afternoon and it felt like the supermarket was on water. Hoping to wake up tomorrow and it’s eased. 

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6 minutes ago, LadyR said:

That’s good to hear!

Yes, it’s so strange. I went to do a food shop this afternoon and it felt like the supermarket was on water. Hoping to wake up tomorrow and it’s eased. 

 

There are some very very rare cases of it persisting for more than a few days, but it should vanish as quickly as it came.

 

Cruise ship passengers often experience the same sensation.

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2 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

The other condition you may develop is "sailor's gait" where you basically walk with slightly bent knees to easily compensate for the roll of the boat. (Or it may be due to the alcohol consumption)

 

And 'narrowboat twist' where you walk with one shoulder slightly forward to squeeze down the corridor.

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Don’t recall having this problem after being on the narrow boats or the barge for long periods but when on leave after up to a year at sea the house certainly moved and my gait was remarked on . Probably because of that I have always walked with a bit of a roll even when sober.

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1 hour ago, David Mack said:

I used to get it after every boating trip. But I think after years of boating my body has adapted, and so no longer gets confused by the transition from on land to afloat and vice versa.

Me too.

 

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We use to call it "bobbing" or boat-rock. Something to do with the ears apparently, but, as others have said, it does pass fairly quickly, and - importantly - it tends to dissipate the more time you spend boating; hardly ever happens to me nowadays (although I shan't say never...)

 

The other weird thing I experience after time afloat is driving. However hard I try, I don't seem to be able to drift the car towards the kerb... and as for putting it into reverse to stop -- shall we just say there's no prop-walk (c:

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4 minutes ago, Bacchus said:

We use to call it "bobbing" or boat-rock. Something to do with the ears apparently, but, as others have said, it does pass fairly quickly, and - importantly - it tends to dissipate the more time you spend boating; hardly ever happens to me nowadays (although I shan't say never...)

 

The other weird thing I experience after time afloat is driving. However hard I try, I don't seem to be able to drift the car towards the kerb... and as for putting it into reverse to stop -- shall we just say there's no prop-walk (c:

Thanks for your reply. It’s very interesting that it does get less the more time you spend afloat, this is very positive news. It’s still all new to me but this is one thing that I didn’t expect, so has taken me by surprise. It seems like a common thing to happen, so gives me comfort. :)

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I did a week aboard a tall ship in moderately blustery weather many years ago, and when we first stepped back ashore it was a totally bizarre feeling to walk on solid ground, that didn't move. It took a few hours to adjust. But over time, you definitely do adjust, just as you adjusted to being aboard in the first place.

 

I have noticed a much less extreme version of this syndrome recently- it happens if I've not stepped ashore (for any significant time) over a period of days. 

But it never persists for very long.

I find that a ten mile round trip- cycling to the nearest shop- is a great cure.

Typically I bump along the towpath for half a mile or so, then do another mile or two down rutted, potholed and often muddy lanes, and finally a mile or two more into civilisation- usually, I must admit, to procure a beer ration- and generally speaking, by the time I arrive at the shop or supermarket du jour, my body and senses are so grateful to just not be cycling any more, and to be walking upon smooth concrete (and more importantly within easy reach of liquid groceries), that the sensitive gyroscopic balance systems within my inner ear, that might otherwise have taken issue with me stepping ashore, make no fuss at all.

 

 

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Yes, a bit, even since I was a kid, and still occasionally. Probably half psychothingummy and half genuinely trying to compensate for a rocking motion that is no longer there. It's just your way of telling you that you really, really need to get back on the water. Oddly, it affects me no more after sailing on the estuary, bouncing everywhere, than it does gently rocking away on the canal. It affects none of your faculties, reactions etc, but there is no cure except for playing boats again.

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I spend about 80% of my time on the boat but never get feelings of swaying when I spend time on land. What sort of waters are you lot boating on? Canals aren't exactly lumpy water.

 

Most narrowboaters seem to be either scared or angry because someone's gone past too fast, if their boats pitch or roll 😂

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