I do not like putting more chemicals in my body. Sea sickness...mal de mer, can be reduced or eliminated with mental and physical discipline.
Think, if you are a passenger in a car you are subject to motion sickness. So why if. you are driving you do not get sick.
One can focus on the seas and horizon forward, stand with hands on rail or some structure and just pretend to be driving the boat. Concentrate. Practice without loosing patience or tiring or changing position or focus.
Tell me your experience.
Most people don't get motion sickness while driving a car or piloting a boat/plane; the reason being because you're directly effecting the action of the vessel, you see what actions you have to take to steer a clear passage, you anticipate and react to the dynamic forces that result from such actions. Your mind/body kinesthetics are synchronized, your vestibular senses unconfounded, and you don't get motion sickness. . .
Now short of going up to the wheelhouse and actually taking control of the boat, if permissible try sitting with the Captain at the Wheel, let him talk about how he's steering the boat and then actually see/anticipate the resultant boat motion in response to his actions.
In other words . . .don't anticipate being seasick --anticipate being in control, knowing & feeling what the boat's motion is going to be. With practice of this simple visualization, you can even "quell the queasiness" in the roughest sea conditions --all without any medication of any kind.
Do this as an anti-motion sickness exercise before you leave for your trip:
Have a friend drive you from home, around to the supermarket, shopping mall, the bank, to work etc. --places and routes you are very familiar with-- and as passenger close your eyes (or blindfold them). "See" in your mind's eye and only from memory tell where you actually are in the route, based only on feeling the car's motion -stopping, turning, accelerating etc (and maybe a street callout from the driver if needed). Repeat the exercise, while sitting and perhaps lying down in the back seat for another trial. . .
When you get to the Diveboat or Liveaboard and you're at sea:
Look not only at the Horizon, but also at the railing of the boat in the foreground --and see how it all moves relative to each other as the vessel makes way through the swells. Memorize that movement and close your eyes, feel the boat's rhythm moving through the swells, and "see" that railing/horizon movement in your mind's eye. Anticipate where that railing/horizon orientation will be when opening your eyes . . .and finally look to see it and confirm it. The idea is to convince the mind and inner ear that you are in dynamic motion based on your sense of balance, tactile/kinesthetic feedback, and coordinating-synchronizing it all with the movement pattern of the railing/horizon which you just memorized. . . Now when you go down belowdecks, just play it all back in the "mind's eye" as you begin to feel & anticipate the boat's apparent motion --or even imagine the boat belowdecks is transparent and you can actually see the horizon & swells in sync with the boat's apparent motion!
Once you get good at this visualization, you can handle the roughest seas even without any medication --but it takes a lot of focus and concentration (and not looking/reading your cellphone, or even setting up your gear & kit yet). . . Feel the motion of the ocean and synchronize how everything looks to be moving with that motion.
