Seasick on live aboards? Which location is the calmest?

[scubabob1234]

Hi
I am a bit prone to seasickness and the patches, etc., are a bit hard on me when diving. Is there any particular location where liveaboards are more sheltered than other locations?

 

[teknitroxdiver]

I'm not sure what places are better, but all good captains will seek sheltered areas at night, and most dive sites are in sheltered areas.

 

[crpntr133]

Middle of the boat and as low as you can go. The idea is that you don't move as much as the rest of the boat.

 

[sharkbaitDAN]

Try the Nekton boats. The cruise the bahamas and go down to Belize I think. I've never been, but I've seen em. They are huge cubes in the water, big and ugly, but suppsedly effective. They do not have much lateral movement, as they are some sort of semi-hydrofoil design. Not sure on the websight. Try Google-ing "Nekton Live aboard".

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Yeah, it's a submerged-pontoon style, called SWATH, standing for Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull. You've got two huge pontoons attached by either a thin piece running the length of the pontoons, or two pieces for each pontoon, depending on which of their boats you're on.

For a smooth ride (and slow), they flood the pontoons so that the pontoons are below the waterline, which gives the boat some serious stability. For moving fast and somewhat rougher, they blow out the pontoons so the boat rides like a pontoon boat--mostly out of the water. The engines are down in the pontoons, so it's a quiet ride. I hear it's really cool if you can get the engineer or captain to give you a tour of the engine rooms, because you get to go down through the support legs into the pontoons, below where the waterline is outside.

Here's the website: www.nektoncruises.com

Here's the SWATH info: http://www.nektoncruises.com/swath.aspx