Return Trip On The Spirit Of Tasmania


And then it was Sunday the 15th April. This is the day we leave Tazzie. We got word that the Spirit of Tasmania was delaying the boarding for a late leaving. Whereas the normal departure time was 9.30am it was now going to be 10.30am. The reason was that the weather was so bad on the Saturday that everything was delayed. I assume the night sail had also been delayed and there would be a lot of knock on effect.

So we left our van park about 8am to queue up for ticketing and boarding. That side of it went very smoothly but an ominous sign was that after most of us had got through that process there was still no boat there for us to board. I spoke to one of the marshalling staff who said that the swell in Bass Strait was 6 metres.

The boat finally arrived and started unloading. It seemed to take ages after the unloading for them to start loading us on board. I am not criticizing the staff or the process as cleaning up all the vomit on the boat would have taken an age, let alone all the other stuff that had to be done.






Eventually loaded on board which went well. The boat did not leave the dock till 11.40am. The boat firstly had to do a U turn which was a slow turn around. The captain announced that we should arrive at Port Melbourne at 9.10pm and that the swell in Bass Strait would be around 4 metres.

If you recall from the previous post I showed photos of the day before, the Saturday, of the breakers that surfers were riding beside where the Spirit of Tasmania sails through. These are a couple of photos to remind you.





For our trip on the Sunday there were no such breakers going on so we felt a little confident that the trip would not be so bad. These photos are of the same area but taken from the boat.







Some more views from the boat as we were leaving Devonport. Weather looking a darn sight better but still blowing a bit.









We chose to sit on the level 10 which was the top level. We did that on the trip over and the seating was more comfortable. It is also not near as crowded, ie the seating is not as tightly packed. By the time we got there most of the seating was taken but there were two seats which we grabbed near another husband and wife couple. It turned out they were absolutely lovely people. We wound up talking to them for most of the trip. They were Tazzie locals embarking on a 13 week trip on the mainland. I was envious of them as our trip was ending.

With the info about 4 metre swells I was not taking any chances with being sea sick so I popped a couple of Kwell tablets. Linda took the lesser protection of ginger tablets but as the swell was looking large she then opted for a single Kwell tablet. The following photos do not do justice to the swell that we could see with the naked eye. The external doors were barred so we could not go out to take a better photo. You would not want to have done that though as you would get soaked and the camera wrecked.



Yes it was a bit rough but not to bad. You had to be careful, very careful, when you got up to go anywhere so as you did not stumble into a wall or someone.

The boat did not dock till at least 9.30pm. During the trip the management had to scramble to come up with a plan for dinner as they do not offer dinner on a day sail of course. Normally you are driving off at 7.30pm. They had to consider the food situation, staffing and overtime. Chefs that would normally get down time had to strap the apron on again and not get a break. They whole crew seemed to do well.

Our deck (of vehicles) was either first or second to disembark but even with that we did not drive off the boat till 10pm. We drove out of Port Melbourne the way we came in. It was a good run. Considered just camping beside the foreshore as people do before boarding for a day sail but Linda reminded me that the next morning was Monday and we would be battling with peak hour traffic. So we continued on to our planned camp spot at Donnybrook for $10 a night. We had stayed there on the way down so we knew the set up. You had to know the set up coming in at 11pm, otherwise you would be stumbling around in the dark and probably would not stay.

Despite the late finish we had a good night sleep.

I would rate the Spirit of Tasmania trips as a very slick and clever operation. They cannot control the weather but adapted well to the changing situation. People who have trouble are usually those that don’t read the requirements which are all laid out.

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