There are many claimed ‘cures’ for seasickness. I’ve probably tried them all. I’ve doped myself to the eyeballs with Stugeron, stuck patches behind my ears, eaten fiery cubes of ginger, administered electric shocks, even tried acupuncture.

But the drugs just put me in a stupor. The patches dried up all bodily secretions (agonising at sea!). The ginger burned away my taste buds, and all the electric shock watch succeeded in doing was turning itself to full power in my bunk and giving my arm a jolt. Sitting in a pitching and rolling cabin bristling with acupuncture needles served only to prove that porcupines will never make good sailors.

But there is one which does seem to help. Music. The catchier the better. Powering upwind to Jimi Hendrix, rolling sickeningly to Exile on Main Street, or sitting around, rolling listlessly to Dire Straits, it seems to be to sickness what St Patrick was to Snakes. Obviously it’s only really suitable out to sea, and you have to ensure you’re not so carried away that you get trampled under the bow of an ocean-going container ship.

I stumbled across ‘nevasic’ the other day – it claims to be a ‘unique audio programme that stops nausea and vomiting by stabilising the balance receptors in the inner ear’. You download it on to your mp3 player. It could be an effective solution – but it’s probably not nearly so much fun as real music. We’ll put it to the test and let you know. Best music so far? A CD of Uffa Fox singing Sea Shanties . Wonderfully out of tune but endlessly catchy and entertaining.