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ohhhh robino, so sorry to hear that.

Hope you still had a good time

Robino, I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work for you. Here's an article from September 2003:

http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/Jellies200309.shtml

I also slathered myself in Safe Sea while visitng Roatan last week--only to return home with a "collar" of sea lice stings. However, my boat mates didn't use Safe Sea and didn't get any stings to speak of. Maybe some of us are "sweeter" than others!

One thing to keep in mind, if you buy the Safe Sea with SPF protection, they warn that it could ruin your neoprene dive suit. I bought the non-SPF type and at least saved the suit. I'm using two types of creams (one is steroidal) given to me by the resort doctor and trying not to scratch. Sea lice stings are nasty.

The article does say that despite using the Safe Sea, some people will still be more affected than others.

Are you very sure you applied to the area where you have the ring? For example, I burned my feet terribly in Hawaii one time. All because I hadn't slathered suntan lotion all the way to my toes. It was quite an interesting burn pattern.

I just got back from Roatan last week as well and also didn't have any Safe Sea but didn't get stung either. However, I was diving with a couple that were absolutely covered all over their cores. They had encountered the pica pica two days before I met them. Wicked looking. I didn't find out if they had been wearing wetsuits or not when stung like that.

What side of the island were you diving from?

The only exposed areas were my face, neck and hands. I put a generous amount of Safe Sea on my neck, and that's the area that was most affected. I didn't apply it to my face or ears, and I got one sting on my face and one on an earlobe. We were at Anthony's Key Resort on the north side but did a few dives on the south side as well (Mary's Place, of course). I saw thimble jellies in the water on our north and west end dives.

I guess I got lucky. I was down at West End.

I just did a test on safe sea. I covered myself with profusious amounts and got pica pica as if I had done nothing. I did two days of diving and found no benefit to using it. On the third day, I just used vasoline around the areas usually affected and had better results.

Bywarren, I want to make sure that I correctly understand your testimonial.

Are you saying that you dove two days, encountered the thimble jellyfish larvae both days and became covered in welts?

And then on the third day, when you were already covered with welts, you smeared vasoline on strategic areas, and encountered thimble jellyfish larvae, but didn't get any new welts?

When did the welts first appear?

I got fewer stings using the vasoline than when I used safe sea. The welts were noticable as soon as I got out of the water. I have been going thru this for many years and have found no other prevention other than using oil or vasoline and either wearing as little as posible or if you have a skin or wetsuit that fits very tight around the neck, then you can get by with that.