Chronicles of a Reluctant Traveller | Episode 3

In the first two episodes of my series Chronicles of a Reluctant Traveller, I shared stories about a downhill skiing adventure and a trip to Mexico (links are in the notes at the end of this post).

I haven’t told you about a couple other excursions that we’ve taken over the years. The first was a trip to Orlando, Florida one year in late October. I wanted to book an excursion to go on while we were there that The Hubs would like. When I saw one for deep-sea fishing on a boat called the Super Queen, I signed us up.

The day started with a beautiful lunch by the pool at the marina at Clearwater Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. We then boarded the boat which could carry about 100 people when fully booked. I went up to the top deck to enjoy the sunshine and the view of the marina bay. It was so calm and beautiful that I said to myself, "man this is the life".

We proceeded to make our way out of the bay area where it was calm and into the gulf. Ten-foot waves quickly began to rock the boat. Bow down stern up, bow down stern up, up-and-down, up-and-down we went. I came down to the main deck and stood along the railing looking out at the ocean as The Hubs and others fished.

Well, it didn’t take me long to get seasick. The instructions from our tour guide were that if you got seasick you were to barf over the side of the ship into the ocean, not anywhere on the boat. I wasn’t comfortable doing that in front of everyone, so I quickly dove into the boat’s bathroom and gave up my shore lunch. The bathroom was the size of an airplane lavatory and it was about 100 degrees in there.

I proceeded to make my way to a long bench that was situated next to a large garbage can. I pulled it up beside me and rested my arm on the edge of the can and then rested my head on my arm.

I eventually looked up and noticed a rather robust gentleman in shorts and an undersized T-shirt sitting right next to me with a beverage in one hand and a big sloppy hotdog in the other. He greeted me with a big grin and I just shook my head and put it back down on my arm on top of the garbage can. The boat had probably 50 people on it and I was the one in the worst shape.

I didn’t know where the best place to sit on a boat would be to avoid feeling seasick. The excursion was a half-day tour, so I was stuck out there, seasick or not. I thought maybe it would be better if I went back out in the fresh air on the upper deck. I stumble my way up the steep metal steps to find only one other passenger up there. She was in almost the same shape as me and there we sat, two strangers on lounge chairs sharing the moment. It was an ill-fated decision to relocate to the top deck as I naively didn’t think about the fact that the motion would be worse up there.

The Hubs caught a couple little fish and enjoyed his day. We arrived back at the marina in the late afternoon and I start to feel better as soon as my feet hit the ground.

We took the two-hour bus ride back to our hotel and by supper time I was starving. We went out for super and had a nice evening eating spicy chicken wings of all things.

We also visited Universal Studios, SeaWorld and went on a shopping tour while we were in Orlando. We missed the van we had paid for to take us back to the hotel from Universal Studios. It had gotten dark outside and we stood out in the parking lot in pounding rain trying to figure out what to do.

It happened to be Halloween night - and every time lightening ripped through the clouds and lit up the parking lot we would see Frankenstein or some other creature walking by. We were about the only ones left waiting for our ride, so we finally gave up and got a cab to get us out of there.

You would think that I would have learned my lesson after that episode, but no. Another trip found us booked on a cruise from Florida to the Bahamas. We spent a few extra days in Miami before the cruise and went on a city tour and an airboat ride in the Everglades.

My luggage was missing in action for the first two days, but I survived. Luckily my luggage showed up before I had to board the ship. The cruise ship was beautiful and the December sun glistening off the Atlantic Ocean was a magnificent site.

Not surprisingly, as the huge cruise ship made its way out into the open ocean things went down hill for me. I had thought that a cruise ship would be much smoother than the Super Queen and it was, but not smooth enough. The water got rougher and rougher as our first evening onboard progressed.

We attended a banquet and dance and people were dancing and making merry. I tried one dance, but the motion of dancing, the dance floor itself swaying and the site of the angry ocean lapping up the windowed walls was too much and I got seasick.

I convinced The Hubs that the night was over for me, so we headed back to our cabin. I was feeling unsteady by that point. The ocean was so rough that we bounced from wall-to-wall along the corridor. We clutched onto the railing on one side then the other side as the waves battered the ship. I was never so glad to get back to my cabin and lay down as I was that night.

The next evening I felt better, so we decided to go top shelf and pay extra for a fancy meal. We ordered our meal plus a nice wine to accompany it and all was going well. I looked out at the ocean then I felt the table swaying back-and-forth and that was it for me again. I didn’t finish the meal. So much for that plan.

We got off the ship in Nassau, the Capital of the Bahamas, and toured the beautiful Atlantis Resort and visited a market.

On our last day of the trip we were scheduled to stop and be taken by boat from the ship to an amazing little island to spend the day on the beach. I was really looking forward to this dry land adventure. Wouldn’t you know it, the ocean was so rough that we were not allowed to disembark onto the small transfer boats.

We weren’t scheduled to return to Miami, so we had nowhere to go. The ship just sat out in the middle of the ocean all day until the time came to head back to Miami. It turned out to be a good day of relaxing on the deck by the pool with the music playing.

I was finally getting my sea legs and was feeling better. It could also have been that I had found the medical office where they dispensed the good seasick pills.

I don’t know why some people get seasick and others don’t. We haven’t booked any high seas adventures in recent years as I am a bit leery after my two attempts. This is unfortunate as cruising is a great way to travel. A cruise affords you the opportunity to see multiple destinations and you only have to unpack once.

Have you ever been seasick? Do you have any advice to avoid this besides not getting on a ship in the first place?

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