A cruise to Antarctica via the Drake Passage – the most notoriously violent waters in the world – will turn even the strongest stomachs. You need to prepare for motion sickness in Antarctica before you depart home.
Motion sickness medications, home remedies, and avoidance strategies are worth researching before your cruise (or any travel), as you’ll probably need to be ready to treat motion sickness on the go. Some folks, Perry in particular, can get motion sickness easily when riding as a passenger in a vehicle, flying on planes, or at the very sight of a Ford Fiesta (not kidding). As a nurse, here are my thoughts on how to treat motion sickness and other tips to make it through the Drake.
Disclaimer: My articles are not and do not supersede medical advice. We provide this information for entertainment and planning purposes only. I recommend that you speak to your primary care provider (PCP), such as a physician, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, etc. Going to one of the most remote places in the world warrants a conversation with your PCP and your ship may require medical clearance. What follows is a simplified and brief selection of motion sickness remedies that we have used. There are many, many more.
Motion Sickness Medications
First, let’s clear the air on Dramamine. Everyone says they “took some Dramamine,” but that can mean a lot of different things.
Dramamine is a brand name with several different formulations. The “Dramamine” brand has an original (drowsy) formula that contains dimenhydrinate and a non-drowsy formula that contains meclizine (also called Bonine or Anti-Vert). Some other Dramamine products contain ginger supplements, herbal lozenges, and other ingredients, making the discussion murkier for the unwary consumer. Some of the other passengers on our Antarctica cruise blindly grabbed the wrong type of Dramamine from the grocery store and struggled to find an adequate replacement due to the language and branding differences between Argentina and the United States.
For the purposes of this article, we will be referring to the medications by their generic names to avoid confusion.
Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine Original Formula)
Dimenhydrinate is an antihistamine, which means it inhibits your body from creating the histamine compound in response to injury, allergens, or inflammatory reactions.
Allow me to break out my soap box for this type of medication. Especially for older adults, use great care when taking Dimenhydrinate or any antihistamine, and take it only as advised by a licensed physician or primary care provider. The bottle may have its own instructions but there are many instances when your doctor or nurse practitioner will advise you to use less and to use smaller doses than the bottles recommend. Depending on your age, health, and lab results, your PCP may discourage the use of antihistamines entirely.
The reason for these recommendations is the increased risk of falls, hallucinations, and a myriad of other nasty side effects that can occur due to the effects of antihistamines.
Take into account that when going to Antarctica you will be on a rocking ship crossing the most notoriously challenging waters in the world. Add commonly abused/misused antihistamines into the mix and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Meclizine (Dramamine Non-Drowsy Formula)
Meclizine is also an antihistamine, so use appropriate caution. Marketed as the Non-Drowsy formula of Dramamine, it can still induce drowsiness.
Disclaimer: Not all antihistamines are alike and they DO NOT treat the same problems as effectively. Don’t confuse Dimenhydrinate (motion sickness/Dramamine) with Diphenhydramine (allergy medication/Benadryl). Allergy medications won’t help you here and likely should not be taken in addition to motion sickness medications. Consult with your doctor to be sure.
Scopolamine Patches
Scopolamine is a diversely useful medication sometimes administered for motion sickness by a transdermal patch you stick on the skin on the bony prominence behind your ear on one side. It is also used prior to surgeries to minimize saliva and used post-surgically for treating nausea and vomiting related to anesthesia. Scopolamine is a prescription medication and thus you are required to see a doctor to get your paws on it. This is for a number of good reasons.
You need to wash your hands before and after applying a Scopolamine patch. If you touch the patch and then brush your eye, it will dilate for 24-72 hours (which means your pupil gets bigger, you become light sensitive, and your vision becomes blurry). Some reports suggest eyes have remained dilated for upwards of 2 weeks. 😱 Apply the patch as directed, wash your hands, and don’t touch the dang thing!
The Scopolamine patch is typically well tolerated and some people swear by it. However, as the ship doctor and Perry can both attest, it doesn’t work for everyone. (Note from Perry: That’s the understatement of the century. I puked four times while trying to use a Scopolamine patch in the Drake. Others on our ship swore about how fantastic they were, but I did not do well taking it. )
The Drake Passage is perhaps not the best place to experiment.
The Ship’s Solutions
Take motion sickness medications as directed by your doctor (PCP) and/or the label directions.
If you didn’t visit your doctor prior to departure (which you absolutely should!), there is a doctor on the ship. Our ship doctor treated sea sickness for free. For other illnesses, he only charged $20 USD for visits to the infirmary and $25 USD for visits to your stateroom (generously cheap compared to most medical practices in the USA).
Motion sickness medication was also distributed for free (in a dish at the ship bar, no less) if you ran out or forgot to bring your own. Due to the written language barrier, nobody seemed to know or fully understood what these tablets actually were, but they seemed to be both safe and effective. Some passengers aboard the ship did report slight drowsiness or sleepiness after taking the mystery tablets, but Perry experienced less drowsiness with the ship’s pills compared to Dimenhydrinate.
This all likely varies from ship to ship and company to company, so make sure to inquire with your travel agent or ship crew.
What We Did
I am remarkably sensitive to most if not all medications, and so I can skate by on a quarter of a tablet to half a tablet of Meclizine when the waters of the Drake get too rough. A whole tablet will make me drowsy enough to need to lie down and take a nap. I never vomited, and seldom do.
Perry, on the other hand, was taking a whole tablet of the Dimenhydrinate as often as the label permitted (2-3 times per day). She tolerates more of these medications than I do but also suffers from much worse motion sickness. One night she deviated and tried the Scopolamine patch and she vomited profusely.
You should be prepared and familiar with what works for your body, and don’t deviate. Make sure to seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
Herbal, Natural, and Home Remedies
Ginger, Mint, and Lemon are all mild and natural home remedies for motion sickness, nausea, and more. Further, when used as an herbal tea, you are also drinking fluids and hydrating. If you have been vomiting it is easy to become dehydrated.
Lemon-Ginger tea is my personal preference as it is easy on the stomach and quite soothing.
Mint is sometimes added to tea bags with lemon and ginger which I don’t like as well but it still gets the job done. (I’m not a fan of the flavor. Sometimes less is more.) In the absence of lemon-ginger tea, plain mint tea is a good backup.
We brought our own stockpile of tea onboard with us as well. While the ship did have a selection of teas, ginger was oddly not among them. We were happy to have our own. You can buy tea at the Carrefour, La Anónima, or many other convenience stores in Ushuaia.
Lemon, mint, and/or ginger candies, lozenges, or chewing gum are also useful if you aren’t able to stomach fluids after a vomiting session. We suggest bringing these from home, as we had trouble finding them in Ushuaia. They are also useful around the house as whenever possible I prefer to treat ailments with the least amount of intervention. If my favorite lemon and ginger tea will do the trick, that is often better than deferring immediately to medications.
Other Tips
Electrolytes
In addition to vomiting as a great way to deplete electrolytes, the water on many ships can also be an issue. When ships have used their fresh water supply from shore (day three on the ocean in our case), they will begin to use reverse osmosis to create drinking water.
You will taste the difference immediately, it is a little underwhelming but not unpalatable. It is perfectly safe to drink and it is important to drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. However, it does not have the minerals or electrolytes that are commonplace in tap water. This can deplete electrolytes and leach minerals from the body over time. As such, I was glad that I always keep packets of Gatorade powder and packets of chicken broth in my pack while we travel. Not only are both great for repleting electrolytes, but they are also easily tolerated. Especially broth – it can be drunk warm and can therefore be soothing on the nauseated stomach while also nourishing.
Room Selection
Picture sitting on a teeter-totter and imagine that it is the ship. From there you can more easily see the best place to sleep at night while rocking the Drake Passage: the center.
Booking your cabin towards the center and bottom of the ship rather than at the top or sides minimizes your movement through space.
Sleeping Orientation
By the same logic, it also makes sense to sleep with your head towards either the front or back of the ship so your body rocks mostly forward/backward rather than the nauseating side-to-side.
That said, the Drake Passage rocks in all directions all at once.
We had trouble staying in one spot in our beds – the Drake would roll us from side to side, making sleep nearly impossible. On the recommendation of our crew, we placed our foam life jackets underneath one side of our mattress so we were angled into the wall and unable to roll.
Secure the room
You won’t be surprised to hear that when ships rock back and forth, their contents, including you, will shift with them. Slang terms like “Loose Cannon” originated from just this circumstance, referring to an unsecured and heavy cannon rolling and crashing unpredictably on board a ship.
If your suitcases or bags have wheels, flip them upside down and store them in the closet. I had spare hiking boots with me which worked well to wedge them in to prevent the rattling back and forth. The first night it sounded as though a great and terrible monster was fighting to be let out of our closet.
As smuggling snacks is one of my favored hobbies and useful talents everywhere we go, I built an impressive cache of apples, pastries, and other goodies in our room. Not more than we would eat, but just to be prepared in case it was too rough or we didn’t feel well enough to lurk downstairs for meals. During the return trip, on perhaps the darkest and stormiest of nights on the dreaded Drake Passage, one of those bright green apples (my favorite and more scarce in supply by the end of the trip – I had been saving it) had worked itself loose. Apples are not perfectly round and so when this one escaped containment It let out a loud, “Bang! Thud-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-Bang!” as it beat and bruised itself from one wall to the other. I had to cautiously get up and chase after the apple. Were I prone to a broken hip, clumsy, or in a fragile state of health (read: vomiting from motion sickness), I would have had to leave the apple be. I was almost tempted to leave it as it was cagey at best to try to retrieve the green renegade.
A smart man would have better secured the apples. A safe man would have let the apple roam. But I couldn’t do that because we’d have had to listen to it… beating on the walls like a lunatic in the night. My precious green apple was an abused brown mess in the morning.
Bring a variety of entertainment for your mental health
You won’t be able to stop thinking about your physical health in the Drake passage, but we remind you to think of your mental health, too. During the passage, there is limited movement and activity around the ship. We were confined to our room for a prolonged period of time (sometimes by choice and sometimes not).
We brought a variety of e-books, audiobooks, downloaded movies and TV shows, and podcasts for our journey. During the Drake, Perry could only tolerate audiobooks and podcasts since looking at a screen or the written word aggravated her symptoms (not uncommon for those plagued by motion sickness). Bring more entertainment than you think you need; the Drake will consume 4-5 days (1.5-2+ days each way) during your Antarctic cruise, and there is all the time in between to keep occupied to maximize your sanity and enjoyment.
Online library apps like Libby only require a library card from your local library and allow you to download as many books and audiobooks from their selection as you desire for 14 days at a time. Just be sure to download them all to your phone or tablet’s memory for the journey as there is no free wifi or cell phone service.
Come Prepared!!!
You may not be able to find what works well for you in South America. I’m fond of a specific brand of Lemon-Ginger tea for nausea or stomach upset. Naturally, I did not find the specific brand I was hoping for at the grocery store in Ushuaia, Argentina. The “Limon, Lima, Jengibre y Menta” tea combination (Spanish for lemon, lime, ginger, and mint) I did find was still helpful but not nearly as good. This is true of medications and more.
Have a plan before you leave home! We promise the motion sickness will be worth it once you reach Antarctica.
