Pain in the Neck...

[Mo]

Shawn and Russ mentioned tell tales in a previous thread and there's something to be said for having tell tales on the stays and not looking to the mast head all the time for wind direction. Racing is different, of course, but for general sailing tell tales on the stays are just fine.

I've been sailing since 1999...my lowest mileage year was 780 nm (my fist year with a boat) and the highest was 2235 nm if memory serves me....generally hang in the 17-1800 nautical miles yearly. That's allot of looking up! The first number of years I never had neck pain...could sail days on end and nothing hurt. Past few years though the neck pain set in and it likely is Degenerative Disk Disease...I know this and how to treat it so why bother getting the tests only to be told what I've told others for years.

Degenerative Disk Disease sounds like something pretty serious. Well, it's painfull and a nuisance. It's just a medical term created to denote the obvious ...we are wearing out. It can happen in your 30's, 40's...whenever. It's generally caused by OVERUSE and CONSTANT movement of the spine...typically classed as lumbar DDD or Cervical DDD. It's not the end of the world, it's not as serious as the doc's all say and the term "suck it up princess" has come to my mind occasionally. It's actually normal wear and tear and there is a movement in the medical community to actually refrain from putting such a serious sounding name to the condition.

OK...that said. Here's what I've done the past couple of years and it helped me allot. I rarely have to take meds for it but if on a cruise you can keep some Ibuprofen, Naproxen, or Robax Platinum aboard. Robax Platinum has a muscle relaxant and Ibuprofen...works best for me. (These all are anti inflammatory so no active bleeding ulcers, or intestinal problems such as diverticulitis or crohns disease...talk to your Doc if you have other meds as well. At the end of the day a couple of those will calm it all down.

The best treatment I've found is refraining from looking to the top of the stick all of the time for wind direction and put your tell tales on the stays. The type of hat you wear also makes the biggest difference. I used to wear a Tilley Hat with the wide brim. I only wear it dockside in the sun or at anchor now...no more sailing with it on. Baseball cap...same thing, I don't sail with it unless I forgot the others. The brim is long and I have to extend my head all the way back to see up the stick even looking occasionally.

So I started wearing more shallow peak hats and the difference was night and day. I don't mean a little change, I mean there was no pain most of the time...the cracking and snapping has stopped. Two hats I like are the greek fishermans hat and my light colored (I call it a salt and pepper hat because that's what my grandfather called his...he was a rum runner (schooner) back in the 20's and old pics of him had him wear it) For bad weather I use my Sou'Wester and it too has a shallow brim forward so you can see upward without too much movement.

So, for you young guys, I wish someone had told me that when I started sailing. For us guys with a few more miles on us...hat change is the answer. The other day I put my hat and coat on and my wife says "you forgot your walker"...you know what I said

Pic attached of my two favs. Hope that helps a few of you guys out when you start getting up in age...it is what it is.