11-21-2000, 06:59 PM
What a day... I had never been deep sea fishing before in my life and was looking forward to the experience. With a little trepidation I might add.<br>It was a social club outing with the firm that I was working for at the time. and I listened to all the other experienced hands telling me what to eat beforehand and what to bring with me, what to wear and so on.<br>The sun had not yet appeared when we met at the wharf right under Sydney Habour Bridge. On the advice of a friend I had had nothing to eat but an orange before we left. The Harbour was calm and just coming alive as we cruised towards the heads. "Hmmm" I thought. This is going to be an enjoyable day....WRONG !!!<br><br>We exited the heads and were heading for open water, a slight swell was lifting and dropping the boat in a gentle motion, and I just felt a slight twinge of something not quie right in my stomach. I was glad at that time that I had only eaten an orange before leaving.<br>A few kms out from the heads and the swell had grown to about 3 Mtrs and thats when I knew that the day was not going to be so good after all. Most of the other fishermen werde preparing their tackle, laughing and talking and some even drinking a beer at about 5.30 in the morning.<br>The swell grew even more and I felt really ill. The Captain at that moment decided that he would cut the engines and drift for a while to allow some fishing to be done. Without the engines to push us through the swell a little, the boat started to rise and fall the height of a ten story building (or so it seemed to me) I headed for the railing and brought up the orange in one go.<br>For the next four hours I hung over the rail and dry heaved, every orifice in my body was spewing forth some kind of liquid or another. Even just writing about it 20 years later makes me feel sick. I begged with the skipper to take me back, but he had great delight in telling me that the boat was payed for for 6 hours and the others wanted to spend that time fishing. I even threatened to jump overboard and take my chances, that's how bad I was. My throat was sore, my eyes were stinging with the mixture of salt water and tears, My arms and back were aching from hanging continually over the rail, and my backside was burning for some reason. Bad Bad time.<br>Eventually we headed for home I had found a greasy floor in the engine room to lie down on to wat to die. The boat was tying up to the wharf and everybody was looking for me, but I had jumped of as soon as we were in jumping distance of the jetty.<br>Result....I smelt like I hadn't washed in a month. I was sore from head to foot, even my hair hurt. I had to have a week off work because I had pulled all the muscles in my chest from dry heaving all day, and to top things off I never wet a line.<br>Never ever again. No fish is worth it.<br><br>by Bear : Saturday 30 September, 2000 <br><br>Submit your Fishing Adventure Stories to win great prizes at ReMemory.Com