Going With the Flow in Devonport on My Last Day in Tasmania

Some good advice from Dory?

My week in Tasmania on my last road-trip came to a rainy and windy end in Devonport and scuttled my plans to explore the beaches that lined the town.

The miserable view of the weather from my car windscreen

Even the seagulls in Devonport
looked cold and miserable today

Devonport was my entry point into Tasmania and my exit point, as this is where The Spirit of Tasmania car ferry drops you off and picks you up from the mainland of Australia.

There are such lovely beaches there, too.
 It was a shame it was raining.

Even 'The Spirit of Tasmania' looked miserable to me:-)

Not much light around the lighthouse today:-)

Sightseeing from the car window is like looking in through the window of a lolly-shop, without being able to go in, I reckon. 

I threw in the lolly-shop reference, because I saw a news story about the stink that was kicked up over a Victorian lolly-shop forced to pull the golliwog from their iconic logo, when I saw the same dolls being sold at the big rock service centre just outside Newcastle on my way down to Tasmania.
Golliwog ad removed from Vic TV screens 
"A retro Victorian lolly shop with a toy golliwog in its logo has withdrawn its television ad after the advertising watchdog ruled it "humiliates and ridicules".
The advertisement features an animated version of the logo with the golliwog alongside other stuffed toys standing around old-fashioned confectionary.
The golliwog has been part of the Beechworth Sweet Co logo since 1992 and is not racist, according to previous owner Judi Borschman.
"It's done out of pure love for gollis," Ms Borschman told 3AW on Tuesday."

The golliwog shop in the big rock service centre
outside Newcastle on the way to Sydney

Selling black-fellas at the big rock
seems a bit un-PC to me somehow:-)

There is only so much web surfing
you can do with free Wi-Fi

I ducked into the Devonport McDonalds to grab a coffee, but mainly so I could use the free Wi-Fi and see if there were movies playing in this town, so I could kill a bit of time until I could board the ship without dying of boredom (pun intended;-). 

As luck ... or synchronicity would have it, Finding Dory was playing at the local cinema that had to me what looked like a fish logo on it's cinema complex.

Does that logo look a bit fishy to you, too?-)

My 'Finding Dory' Devonport cinema ticket

Finding Dory is about a, "friendly but forgetful blue tang fish who begins a search for her long-lost parents, and everyone learns a few things about the real meaning of family along the way."

The spiral pattern of the cinema carpet
in Devonport, Tasmania

I thought that it was kind of ironic for me to be seeing this movie at a cinema in Devonport, Tasmania, as this was the first time in my life that I was separated from my family by the sea and my father was in an old-age home in Brisbane, because he was suffering from dementia.
I also thought it ironic that I was on the longest journey that I had ever been on in my life and the cinema carpet had spiral patterns all over it.

I couldn't help thinking of my wall hanging back in my unit in Queensland and the association I made with the spiral and the meaning of the movie 'The Revenant' that I wrote about in this post in the red link below - 
The Secret of 'The Revenant'
I also find seeing the movie 'Finding Dory' in Devonport ironic because of the seals in the movie and the story I saw this week in the news about a seal getting locked in a toilet block in Devonport, Tasmania, of all places.

Two seals from the movie 'Finding Dory'

Sammy the seal behind bars

'Sammy' the seal found in Devonport cemetery toilet block relocated closer to ocean
 "A 120-kilogram seal has been released close to the ocean after being caught napping in a cemetery toilet on Tasmania's north-west coast.
The male Australian fur seal was found asleep in a cubicle in the female toilets at the Mersey Vale Lawn Cemetery in Devonport on Tuesday.
The council's Karina Moore said she initially thought it was a joke when a council works crew emailed her about the seal they dubbed "Sammy"."

Coffee anyone?
Just go with the flow;-)

And I only found out about 'Finding Dory' playing in Devonport because I stopped into McDonalds to grab a coffee, so I could use the free WI-Fi. 

Isn't "dead men" slang for empty beer bottles?

And I almost forgot that the day before I had done a brewery tour in Launceston and had driven from Launceston that morning to spend my last day in Tasmania in Devonport.
Which I wrote about in this post, if you don't recall...or haven't read it before -
The Dead Man's Hand

1881? The Dead Man's Hand in
poker is a pair of aces and eights

 Down Among the Dead Men (song)
""Down Among the Dead Men" is an English drinking song first published in 1728, but possibly of greater antiquity. 
The song begins with a toast to "the King" and continues with obeisances to the god Bacchus which become increasingly less subtle descriptions of the benefits of alcohol in procuring opportunities for sexual intercourse. At the conclusion of each stanza of the song, those who deny the song's declarations are condemned to lay "down among the dead men," a euphemism for drunken unconsciousness."
The thing in hindsight that links all that was written above in a dark synchronicity is that the ship that I would travel back to the mainland on pictured above would the next night have a man jump off it to his death before it could return to Devonport.

Just keep swimming?!
Search for missing Spirit of Tasmania ferry passenger called off on medical advice
"Police have called off the search for a man who went overboard from the Spirit of Tasmania after medical experts advised it would have been impossible for him to survive.
Passengers on the Spirit of Tasmania I saw the 45-year-old Ballarat man go overboard about 11:40pm, when the ship was about 43 nautical miles south-east of Victoria's Port Phillip Heads.
The ship was traveling from Melbourne to Tasmania, but by the time it turned around, there was no sign of the man, who is yet to be identified."
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the search was suspended at 12:00pm, based on expert medical advice that the man could not have survived past that time.
The water temperature in the area was about 12 or 13 degrees, with waves of up to two metres and winds of up to 25 knots.
Victoria Police are investigating with the assistance of Tasmania Police but the death is not being treated as suspicious.
Sergeant Paul Bartlett, from Victoria's Water Police, said police were examining clothing and identification found by merchant vessels in the search area.
Sergeant Bartlett said survival time would have been "very limited in [the] conditions".
"Hypothermia would limit their capability of survival," he said."
Search for man who fell overboard from Spirit of Tasmania
"The rescue mission was hindered by massive swells and darkness with the man eventually disappearing under the water.
It is understood he was last seen swimming towards the large ship, rather than the emergency craft, and was sucked under the boat. An extensive 12-hour search failed to find him, leaving authorities to presume he drowned.
Witnesses have told how the man was chatting with other passengers on the top deck just after 11.30pm on Friday when he swore and then jumped over the rail. 
Passenger Kent Scannell described the frantic scenes that ensued. He said the man was in the water for over an hour as the crew tried to rescue him with an emergency boat and threw him ropes and an inflatable device.
“I was on deck acting as an observer to keep an eye on him. He was screaming for help and I looked him in the eye as he drifted past,” Mr Scannell said.
“The crew were doing everything they could but in the end they were endangering their own lives. They circled and circled and the life raft was getting smashed against the ship.
Mr Scannell said the man was wearing a life jacket when he jumped. Another passenger said they believed the life jacket had been thrown to him from the ship.
Items of the man’s clothing were found in the water by a merchant vessel. But his body could not be found." 

My 'Spirit of Tasmania' ferry ticket
from Devenport to Melbourne

Remember that post I wrote yesterday about Anchors, hope and hopelessness?
Tattoos and Tokens of Hope and Hopelessness

Anchors and hope?

Looking out of my car across the sea
from Devonport June 23rd, 2016

I also find it ironic (yes, I know I use the word ironic a fair bit here, ironically;-) that I wrote a post a while ago about Jessica Watson, Tasmania, and finding Point Nemo and that I would see the sequel to 'Finding Nemo' in Devonport, Tasmania.
More Down-under (Tasmanian) Syncs

Jessica Watson: Finding Point Nemo

Point Nemo is about halfway
between Tasmania and Brazil

But on another eerie "just keep swimming/Finding Dory" sync, the front page of the Sunday Tasmanian I read a few days before I got to Devonport featured a story about a Tasmanian backpacker who had drowned swimming from an island off the coast of Brazil to the mainland of Brazil.
Rye Hunt died from 'dehydration or drowning' during 800m swim from Brazilian island
"Tasmanian backpacker Rye Hunt died from either dehydration or from drowning as he swam from a small island near Copacabana beach, Brazilian police say.
Police confirmed yesterday that a body found washed up near Rio de Janeiro last week was missing Australian backpacker Rye Hunt but due to the advanced stage of decomposition they were unable to determine a cause of death.
Forensic investigators now say the 25-year-old died during the 800-metre swim from the island of Cotunduba off Copacabana Beach.
Rio police investigator Elen Souto said the circumstances in which the body was found suggested Mr Hunt died during a psychotic episode.
"According to our investigation … the location of the body supports the investigation that Rye went to the island of Cotunduba during a psychotic episode, coherent with the state of someone who is running away from a danger created in their minds," she said.
"Certainly because of his physical debilitation, probably because of dehydration, he must have tried to leave the island and not have had enough strength or health to get to land."
Police had said they believed Mr Hunt disappeared after suffering drug-induced psychosis."

The spread in the Sunday Tasmanian,
June 19th, 2016

Sometimes though it's best not to know when you go with the flow, because if I had of seen this news story below about 'The Spirit of Tasmania' I never would have booked my holiday of a lifetime in Tassie.
Ferry rough night on Spirit of Tasmania leaves trucks, cars smashed 
"Huge swells and high winds made for a rough journey on the Spirit of Tasmania on Tuesday.
A large semi-trailer was turned on its side and cars smashed together during the journey from Melbourne to Devonport.

Video filmed on board shows huge swells battering the ship, before the person filming is knocked to the ground.

Great place for food, warmth,
drinks and conversation in Devonport

I spent the rest of my day in Devonport visiting the visitor centre, casting my vote in the up-coming federal election in a polling booth in the main street (as I was going to still be away from home come voting day) and spending a few hours in a lovely coffee shop/restaurant/bar just up the road from the ferry terminal, until it was time to board the ship. 

It was a bit like an adventure in Alice's Wonderland eating in this cozy little cafe by a nice warm fireplace and chatting to the owners and customers (many who were waiting to board the ship, as well).

A trip to Tasmania is certainly a trip through the looking glass, and I'm not just talking about the entrance to the MONA art gallery through a fun-house mirror. 

The fun-house like mirror entrance to MONA

I hope that I can flow back to Tassie come next Dark Mofo weekend in 2017, as Tasmania feels a little more like a second home to me now.