Day 294, Sunday, 17 January, 2010

Distance travelled – 18.6 km
Avg speed – 15.2 kph
Max speed – 28.9 kph

Melbourne to Devonport

One of the reasons we chose the night ferry rather than the day ferry to Devonport was that we reasoned that we might as well sleep on the ferry instead of buying a day ticket and then stay a night in Devonport.

As it turned out we had not consulted the weather about this plan and our trip across Bass Straight last night was rather rough.  A three metre swell and strong winds meant that Denise had her first ever bout of sea sickness and neither of us got a good nights sleep. As we lay in our beds we could feel the ship lunge forward into a wave and out again and then to complicate the rhythm the wind would try and knock the ship sideways from time to time. A couple of crew told us they have crossed with a 10-metre swell and on these occasions no one gets any rest. Before we book our return ticket we will be looking at the forecast for Bass Straight. We both got off at 7.00am feeling very weary and have decided to stay in Devonport for the night.

You may remember we have found that outside the supermarket is a good place to meet interesting people. Today we met Hervé Leduc a Frenchman cycling around the world. In the last couple of days he reached 50,000 kilometres. We spent a long time discussing his last five weeks in Tasmania. Tasmania is known for its brutal hills and one of Hervé’s traveling companions worked out that their total climb in Tassy has been the equivalent of two ascents of Mt Everest. Something for Denise and I to look forward to!

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

Previous Report

Next Report

Top