I have never been on a long sea vessel trip before, let alone slept on one. Boarding was slow, but easy. The ship has 11 decks, with 5 of them taken up as the garage hold. We had a twin cabin with porthole ($430), but you certainly needed to pay attention to the map to locate your deck and room number, if you did not want to get lost.

Once we had dropped off our bags, we quickly went to explore the rest of the ship. There was an eatery section, restaurant, lounge bar, main bar, outdoor bars, children's playroom, admirals gaming lounge, Tasmania at Sea shop, as well as a tourist information section.

By then we had seen enough and decided to retire and sleep. The ride across the Bass Strait, takes about 10 hours, and it was a perfect ride across. Despite what people had said, we did not have any rough seas, in fact we slept amazingly well.

To soon, day was breaking and we had arrived in Devonport. The sky was grey and overcast, and it was raining...

Morning in Devonport and raising the flag...