Melbourne has had it's fair share of horrendous weather this past week and Friday night was looking to be no different. Bad weather at night doesn't normally phase me...except when I have to cross Bass Strait on the trusty stead that is the Spirit of Tasmania.
Normally when I make the crossing it is quite a pain-free experience which usually involves boarding the boat, eating tea, going to bed, and then voila, arrival at destination. However Friday night was quite the opposite.
After eating tea at the restaurant on board, Dad and I went out on the deck to check out the scenery (although at 9 o'clock at night in the middle of the ocean not much can be seen), and phew it was windy!! Dad made me hold on tight to the rails as he said I could possibly blow away (not sure if he was joking or not, but I made sure I held on as tight as I could!) We decided to head back inside once it started pelting hail and the captain made an announcement that "we were to be in for a rough night with 100km/hr winds, lightening and unexpected patches of discomfort so sit back, relax and TRY to enjoy the ride!
This was when I thought it was best to just head to bed, sleep through the bumpy crossing of Bass Strait and wake up to Tassie in the morning. How wrong I was! As I settled into bed the rocking of the boat started to get bigger and bigger, until the boat was doing full blown smack downs on each wave. It was like one of those rides at the show where you climb, climb, climb and then BAM you hit the bottom...except on a ride it's kind of fun and only lasts about a minute. On the boat it is horrendous and lasted for hours on end. Each time the boat smacked into a wave I was sure it would capsize and that would be it, life over!
It was at this point that I decided to send a fair well message to Sam and say that if he didn't hear from me in the morning then I would be at the bottom of the ocean. Nice to know that he took me seriously when he responded with a "Safe Trip!!xx"
As much as I tried to sleep I swear I woke up every minute...even one time to the people in the cabin next door screaming! When I looked at my watch and saw that it was 5.30am I was so excited...until I realised that I was looking at my watch upside down and it was in fact 1.30am! Meh...still another 5 hours of this torture!
Meanwhile Dad was snoring his away through this nightmare. Although I did take some comfort in this as he has done the Sydney-Hobart yacht race something like 17 times, so if this didn't phase him then I shouldn't worry...
Anyway, to cut a long story short I didn't die and we did make it to Tassie in one piece. I did in fact manage to get some sleep and when I awoke to the calm waters in Devonport I had to think twice as to whether I had just experienced a dream-nightmare or real life-nightmare. I conclude the latter...
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