After soaking up enough sun, we enjoyed cold beverages and a snack at a café in Broadbeach. We walked back to the hotel and got ready for a night out, an early night out because we were set to go fishing at 6 am.
Before heading to the Hard Rock Café at Surfer’s Paradise, we had to stake out the casino and decided where we’d place our bets later. HRC, I imagine, is quite the same in a lot of places worldwide, but there’s no doubt it’s American. We enjoyed great food and great company and as promised, we headed to the casino when we got back to the hotel.
Security almost didn’t let me in to the casino because all I had was my TXDL. The guy even had to look at Greg’s to make sure it wasn’t fake. After I lost $20 on Roulette, Greg put in another $20 while I went to get him a beer. When I got back he was up to $80, not bad. We kept betting 29 black and it FINALLY hit! We decided to cash out and take our winnings, after all we were getting up in a few hours to go fishing. Not so fast, we had to play penny slots before we left. So I put in another $20 and hit the bonus games. The wheels kept spinning and when they finally stopped, I had won more than I thought in 20 minutes with 20 bucks. Cash out. When is the last time you went to a casino and it spit out your winnings in coins instead of tickets? No ticket machines at this casino. Luckily there are $1 coins though. We won enough to pay for the hotel room, not bad for a Saturday night.
Our alarm went off at 4:45AM. We arrived at the pier around 5:30 and found our fishing buddies, Ali, Frank and friends waiting for us. After everyone was onboard, we left on schedule and the guides informed us it should be a good day despite the fact the winds had unexpectedly picked up overnight. After leaving the protection of the bay and surviving the bumpy ride through the jetty, we hoped for the best. However, we immediately feared that with the 8-12 ft waves, it would be a long day.
Wave after wave, we held on as best we could and small talked with the guides in between swells. One mahi-mahi bit while we were on our way out and a guy reeled him in only to find he was a bit too small. Our excitement heighted as we once again hoped for the best. We finally weighed anchor. The guides demonstrated how to bait and drop our lines and let us loose. Greg and I held on tight as we made our way to the back of the boat to our designated rods, trying not to look around at a few of our fellow fisherman/women chumming.
After casting my line I was watching intently, waiting for a bite. Not the best idea to stop looking at the horizon. As I contemplated waiting for the yuk feeling to pass, I could hear the guide asking for a show of hands of who was not feeling so well, yes sir, that would be me. At least four of the twelve people had already been sick and oh how I couldn’t help being number five. “There goes Texas over the back,” the captain said, “There’s no way we’re going to catch a fish in these conditions,” he continued. All of our lines were tangled and almost half of us were sick so they graciously took us back and refunded our vouchers. We were back on solid land by 7:45 and more thankful to get off a boat than ever before.
We decided not to let our sunny day go to waste and after a much needed breakfast back in Broadbeach, we spent a few hours by the hotel pool. After a tan and a snooze by the pool, we headed home. We still haven’t rebooked our fishing trip but we will try to go in February or so.
