Thursday 3rd March 2011

Up early this morning (4.30am) for the drive to the ferry terminal for our trip across Bass Strait to Tasmania.  We had driven to Melbourne yesterday and stayed overnight at Dingley.  Was a simple ¾ hour drive to the terminal.  Loading is a slow process as you pass through a quarantine inspection and check in and then line up and wait to be called for loading.  No vegetables or fruit or plants, so my parsley pot was donated to the caravan park at Dingley and we had a cook up of our remaining fruit last night so as to avoid any problems when checked.  Well after all that the ‘check’ at Port Melbourne was a cursory look in the van.  However after arriving in Devonport the sniffer beagle was on hand for a search so again all was well.

I jump forward to soon, what about the trip?  Weather predictions were 3 metre swells and an overcast sky with strong winds.  They were right!  Leaving Port Phillip Bay takes 2 ½ hours to get to the heads and finally enter open sea.  Then we met the swells coming in with full force.  Access to the outer decks was then closed for safety reasons however with large viewing windows visibility was still great.  Seating was available on both level 7 and level 10.  The upper level was a little cooler and the seating although high backed did not have the softness that an all day journey requires.  Level 7 on the other hand was all comfy chairs and sofas, restaurant and bistro, casino, theatre and bar areas.  As we were travelling as ‘day’ passengers we did not have allocated seating so anywhere in these public areas was available.  We visited the theatre and found the chairs there were high backed and comfortable so must remember to watch more than one movie next time.  We didn’t try the theatre till later in the afternoon and Lawrie found it a more comfortable place to rest the eyes.  There was even additional sound effects coming from the gentleman behind us.

There were 3 movies shown through the day and also 2 presentations from National Parks and Wildlife Tasmania in the theatre during the trip.  Along with visits to the coffee shop, tourism info shop and the Shop Tasmania store there was plenty to keep us interested during the trip.  Never mind watching fellow passengers try to walk straight and upright!
We had the Spirit of Tasmania 1 pass us mid Bass Strait after lunch on it’s trip from Devonport to Melbourne.  Our ship was Spirit 2.

The sun was shining when we arrived in Devonport at 6.40pm.  We had been due to arrive at 6pm however the swells were against us not on our stern so hence the slower trip.  Vehicles were lined up waiting to load for the return trip to Melbourne overnight so they should have an interesting trip.

Off to Bothwell tomorrow morning for Spin In and the adventure really begins.