Feeling unbalanced

[Fabiola]

Hello, I just move to a narrowboat.  

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

Then when I come of the boat and go somewhere and seat I feel that my sourandings are not balance.  Is this a normal ? when you first move in to live in a narrowboat? 

 

Thank you 

Edited January 21 by Fabiola

[Alan de Enfield]

Never had it whislt on a NB on the canals, but after a week or two at sea, then certainly I can get the 'wobbly feeling'.

[Arthur Marshall]

2 minutes ago, Fabiola said:

Hello, I just move to a narrowboat.  

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

Then when I come of the boat and go somewhere and seat I feel that my sourandings are not balance.  Is this a norma ? when you first move in to live in a narrowboat? 

 

Thank you 

Normal. Takes me a few days on the boat before the world wobbles when I step on dry land, and that fades after a day ir so. Doesn't seem to happen as much as it used to so maybe my brain is getting used to the contrast.

And the boat is always moving a little,  and sometimes your brain thinks it's going along rather than just rocking a bit. It adjusts after a  bit.

[tree monkey]

14 minutes ago, Fabiola said:

Hello, I just move to a narrowboat.  

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

Then when I come of the boat and go somewhere and seat I feel that my sourandings are not balance.  Is this a normal ? when you first move in to live in a narrowboat? 

 

Thank you 

Fairly normal, it fades with time, the weirdest thing is driving a car after a week or so on the boat, everyone is on the wrong side of the road and going so damn fast

[mrsmelly]

31 minutes ago, Fabiola said:

Hello, I just move to a narrowboat.  

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

Then when I come of the boat and go somewhere and seat I feel that my sourandings are not balance.  Is this a normal ? when you first move in to live in a narrowboat? 

 

Thank you 

Yes, for many people. It goes away after a few years. The longest time I ever in one hit spent at sea was about 4 months in but even then, when moving on to the land it only took a few minutes to walk normaly. I think its something to do with balance and your inner ear iirc?

[ditchcrawler]

54 minutes ago, Fabiola said:

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

 

Unless its on land the boat is moving, hand a pendulum from the ceiling and you will see it

[Tam & Di]

Our boat was ballasted slightly down by the stern, and I never noticed that at all. But then we went into dry dock and I suddenly found myself almost falling over when I walked forwards as I seemed to be going downhhill, and conversely found it odd going 'uphill' walking towards the stern.

 

Tam

[Tony Brooks]

10 hours ago, Fabiola said:

Hello, I just move to a narrowboat.  

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

Then when I come of the boat and go somewhere and seat I feel that my sourandings are not balance.  Is this a normal ? when you first move in to live in a narrowboat? 

 

Thank you 

 

Not much info about your boat, but shorter narrowboats tend to rock more than longer ones. I understand it is to do with the length of the swims compared with the parallel section of the hull. I think a narrowboat will always rock when you turn over in bed. I also suspect that a modern 2ft draft narrowboat will rock more than one with 3ft draft. It is just boats and normal.

[howardang]

There was a story a few years ago concerning someone who bought a brand new wide beam which was being demonstrated during the Crick Boat Show, and when she took delivery some weeks later was surprised to notice that it moved. According to reports she couldn't come to terms with this movement and sold the boat shortly after taking delivery.

 

The movement of a boat affects people in different ways. Some people can never get used to it while others get used to it very quickly. My father was a case in point. He couldn't tolerate the slightest movement when on a boat and yet he was never affected by travel sickness. He could never understand why I chose to go to sea, working worldwide and spending many years running across the North Atlantic in all weathers, a notorious region for bad weather. Like many seafarers I sometimes felt a little queasy when rejoining a ship after being on leave but it wore off very quickly in a day or so,  and yet I did occasionally feel nauseous when travelling as a passenger in a car although never if I was driving.🤢

 

Howard

[Tracy D'arth]

Did you never hear the phrase " sea legs"?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

10 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

Our boat was ballasted slightly down by the stern, and I never noticed that at all. But then we went into dry dock and I suddenly found myself almost falling over when I walked forwards as I seemed to be going downhhill, and conversely found it odd going 'uphill' walking towards the stern.

 

Tam

A similar experience when the boat is out of the water. My brain expects there to be movement of the boat when walking about inside and is confused when there isn't any.

 

53 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I think a narrowboat will always rock when you turn over in bed.

The thin ice across the marina these last few nights has shown this. You can hear the ice creaking when you move about, which can be heard by the neighbours too. 

[Tony Brooks]

1 minute ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The thin ice across the marina these last few nights has shown this. You can hear the ice creaking when you move about, which can be heard by the neighbours too. 

 

And I found that when the boat was frozen solid in the marina it felt very odd stepping on, moving about, and turning over in bed.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

10 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

And I found that when the boat was frozen solid in the marina it felt very odd stepping on, moving about, and turning over in bed.

Yes, a similar feeling to being in a dry dock, or on a hard standing.

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, howardang said:

There was a story a few years ago concerning someone who bought a brand new wide beam which was being demonstrated during the Crick Boat Show, and when she took delivery some weeks later was surprised to notice that it moved. According to reports she couldn't come to terms with this movement and sold the boat shortly after taking delivery.

 

The movement of a boat affects people in different ways. Some people can never get used to it while others get used to it very quickly. My father was a case in point. He couldn't tolerate the slightest movement when on a boat and yet he was never affected by travel sickness. He could never understand why I chose to go to sea, working worldwide and spending many years running across the North Atlantic in all weathers, a notorious region for bad weather. Like many seafarers I sometimes felt a little queasy when rejoining a ship after being on leave but it wore off very quickly in a day or so,  and yet I did occasionally feel nauseous when travelling as a passenger in a car although never if I was driving.🤢

 

Howard

I concur. I used to love very very rough weather for more than one reason. I recall being in weather above force 10 up to 12 which wasnt that regular, for a few weeks around Iceland in one instance. I loved it because I was never sea sick but many where, so apart from the danger of simply moving about in a washing machine the benefits were great, such as no queue for your scran and extra beer as those seasick used to give their beer ration away. However I have been on small leisure stuff such as day fishing boats just a few miles off shore in a swell and that used to make me queasy sometimes, its a different motion entirely as you will know.

[Tracy D'arth]

I sleep better on planes when its turbulent, perhaps its reminiscent of boat movement.

[tree monkey]

4 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I concur. I used to love very very rough weather for more than one reason. I recall being in weather above force 10 up to 12 which wasnt that regular, for a few weeks around Iceland in one instance. I loved it because I was never sea sick but many where, so apart from the danger of simply moving about in a washing machine the benefits were great, such as no queue for your scran and extra beer as those seasick used to give their beer ration away. However I have been on small leisure stuff such as day fishing boats just a few miles off shore in a swell and that used to make me queasy sometimes, its a different motion entirely as you will know.

I can't claim any real sea experience but I did go onto a tourist trip in NZ to white island (the one that blew up), the trip nearly didn’t leave the harbour because of the rough weather, anyway we did and I was outside loving the rough seas, fantastic experience, until the captain decided it was too much and turned back, I got ordered inside to the hot cabin full of green people and the smell of vomit, that's where I nearly lost it

[MtB]

12 hours ago, Fabiola said:

Sometimes when Iam laying down I feel that the boat is moving but is not. 

 

I used to get that after a skinful....

 

It goes away as you get older.

 

 

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, tree monkey said:

I can't claim any real sea experience but I did go onto a tourist trip in NZ to white island (the one that blew up), the trip nearly didn’t leave the harbour because of the rough weather, anyway we did and I was outside loving the rough seas, fantastic experience, until the captain decided it was too much and turned back, I got ordered inside to the hot cabin full of green people and the smell of vomit, that's where I nearly lost it

Since Iceland, I have had immense respect for Trawlermen and the job they do. They are tiny little things, especialy in those days, some around 70 feet long so absolutely tiny boats. In realy rough weather you would see them above you on a wave and a few seconds later they would disappear completely in a trough b4 reappearing with their props spinning in the air out the water, proper tough blokes they were that took it all in their stride.

[Dav and Pen]

After a long voyage stepping on land felt odd and apparently when I came home on leave the first time fierce 12 months deep sea I sort of swayed about when walking. After a trip from Australia to Middlesbrough I found myself unable to cross the road due to the speed of the traffic. When we brought our first little canal cruiser it certainly moved about but the thing that always  woke me was water lapping against the side when the wind got up but this never bothered me when we got the steel narrowboats.

[tree monkey]

30 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Since Iceland, I have had immense respect for Trawlermen and the job they do. They are tiny little things, especialy in those days, some around 70 feet long so absolutely tiny boats. In realy rough weather you would see them above you on a wave and a few seconds later they would disappear completely in a trough b4 reappearing with their props spinning in the air out the water, proper tough blokes they were that took it all in their stride.

I had an uncle who was in the Navy during the war and then moved onto the fishing boats for a few years, seems he loved it but it must have been a change after the navy, nobody shooting at him was a bonus I suppose.

 

To add he spent some time on minesweepers so an even bigger bonus, nobody trying the make the boat go boom

[howardang]

6 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

After a long voyage stepping on land felt odd and apparently when I came home on leave the first time fierce 12 months deep sea I sort of swayed about when walking. After a trip from Australia to Middlesbrough I found myself unable to cross the road due to the speed of the traffic. When we brought our first little canal cruiser it certainly moved about but the thing that always  woke me was water lapping against the side when the wind got up but this never bothered me when we got the steel narrowboats.

I know what you mean about traffic speed and I still feel this to some extent when driving going home after boating.

One legacy of spending a lot of time in bad weather is  my semi-obsession with making sure that doors are properly closed in the house,  otherwise they will bang when the ship rolls! I normally sleep like a log but will nearly always wake up to investigate any unexpected noises - especially things switching on or off or mechanical noises which are out of the ordinary.  Although I wasn't an engineer I suppose being at sea comes with a more acute awareness of your surroundings,  something which has stayed with me even after I came ashore. 

 

Howard

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Yes, a similar feeling to being in a dry dock, or on a hard standing.

That is a strange feeling indeed

[howardang]

45 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I can't claim any real sea experience but I did go onto a tourist trip in NZ to white island (the one that blew up), the trip nearly didn’t leave the harbour because of the rough weather, anyway we did and I was outside loving the rough seas, fantastic experience, until the captain decided it was too much and turned back, I got ordered inside to the hot cabin full of green people and the smell of vomit, that's where I nearly lost it

One thing that really got me queasy was a trip on a glass bottomed boat in Malta. A great experience until we reached the reef and went down below and looked through the glass bottom! It was great to see the reef and all the fish but I was really glad when it stopped!🤢🤢

 

Howard

[Mike Hurley]

10 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I had an uncle who was in the Navy during the war 

Not uncle Albert?

[ditchcrawler]

Its a strange thing, my late mother who suffered terribly with travel sickness never had any problem on our boat, it was just the journey getting there, whereas my daughter cant bare to go inside the boat for more than a few minutes.