We woke up with a chilly wind but a sunny day. The late checkout made our day so much easier. We were able to prepare everything in the morning and then met up with friends to have a liesurely lunch at the Drift Restaurant at Mersey Bluff. We can definitely recommend the meal.
We left the caravan park at 4PM and were lined up for registration, quaranteen and bording by 4:15PM. We were in lane 11 with the other motorhomes by 4:40PM and then it was just a wait for SOT to start loading. At 5:30PM loading started. The start / stop on the ramp was interesting but the rest was stress free loading process. There are links below to a video of the loading at Devonport and then the disembarking at Geelong.
We ended up on Orange Deck 5 at the front of the starboard side lane and out of the Knaus House by 5:30PM. Once on board we dropped our gear off on our recliners (A4 and A5) and went to the outsiide decks to watch our departure. Sailaway was 7:15PM. It was late as the hold up waiting for 2 B Doubles to arrive and be loaded. After our buffet tea, we watched a beautiful sunset that was saying goodbye to us.
We settled into our recliners for the night. We knew it wouldnt be a good nights sleep but it was sufficient. We did see the light as we came into Port Phillip Bay around 2:30AM. The docking seemed to take a while. The decks we opened for access at 6:30AM and beacuse we had a prime location at the front, we were off and into Geelong by 6:40AM.
After a short reststop at United fuel on the way out of Geelong, we headed for our night at Ballarat Windmill Caravan Park. The shopping centre is just across the road so we were able to fill in time before we booked in.
