Sea Leg: The Spirit of Tasmania

Queueing to board The Spirit of Tasmania

Following the ever-helpful and never flustered Karen's GPS directions we found Station Pier at Port Melbourne. Despite Dave driving through red lights and making wild, last minute lane changes in peak hour traffic, Pap and his car-load found it too!

We queued up and were loaded onto the ferry by efficient stevedores. Excitement had hit fever pitch in the kids - they were really looking forward to the sea leg of our journey. Pap was happily looking forward to dinner and Mum, Dave and I were dreading sea-sickness! We had two adjoining cabins right at the front of the ship with small views out of the portholes, where we settled in. The ferry left right on the dot at 7:30 p.m. as we were enjoying dinner in the Captain's Cabin. Mum and Dad retired to the cabin while we took the kids to the theatrette to see Kung-fu Panda II ... they enjoyed it and I enjoyed a snooze on the comfy seat! There are so many amazing kids' movies - Kung-fu Panda is not one of them, in my opinion.

Jackson was way too excited to sleep and had smuggled the GPS in to our cabin, where he spent ages observing our position at sea. He was so pleased with himself that he photographed many stages of our trip - proving to me how little sleep he had! Marcus and Lachie were similarly excited, but contained in the other cabin. Ella passed out from sheer exhaustion, cuddling her soft toys which she had arranged in her bunk. Although the swell increased overnight when we hit Bass Strait around 11 p.m., to everyone's surprise, no-one was sea-sick. We watched the sun rise and Devonport come into sight early next morning. The ferry docked and we disembarked, met the friendly quarantine dog and reclaimed our gas bottle before heading off to eat our first breakfast on Tasmanian soil.

A chilly breakfast on the river at Ulverstone

Stay tuned ...