Sunday in Seisia, Far North Queensland

Before shifting across to Seisia, we topped up the fuel tanks with  the remaining fuel in the  gerry cans.
We had chewed through an incredible amount of fuel- the most of any leg so far. When we anchored last night, we had precisely 42 litres in the port tank and 45 litres in the starboard, so had consumed 370lts of fuel getting across 740nm, against the damn  current. That is easily the worst consumption figures so far.
Now with all the gerry cans emptied into the tanks we would hopefully be able to firstly  top up K'Gari and finally  refill all the gerries at Seisia. Shouldn't take too many runs to do that !

Seisia located on the western side of the tip of Cape York.

We anchored off Seisia about lunch time after the last few miles across from our overnight anchorage.
There weren't many boats anchored, and the resupply barge arrived after us, mooring alongside the jetty.

Although I have spent time at both Thursday Island and Weipa, in my working life ,I had never been to Seisia (also known to seafarers as Red Island). It is the supply port for the residents on the mainland of the very far north of the continent. Most of the goods are shipped to Thursday Island from Cairns and then fed across in smaller barges, although I believe the small ships that service Thursday Island may also still berth in Seisia.

Most importantly form our point of view, is they would have diesel at the service station, which is the most northerly located servo on the continent. I wasn't sure if we would be able to access  diesel on a Sunday at TI (Thursday Island ). A couple of other reasons we opted not to actually visit TI, a past stamping ground for both of us, were the ferocious currents which are present and the new (since my last foray to these parts) Quarantine rules, which have been introduced I guess to try to slow down the arrival of more pests.Japanese encephalitis has already made its way from PNG, which is only a stones throw, or fast boat ride, away.

The information I could glean is, that the servo is about 400m up the road from the jetty , and the lovely folk there, being used to yachties ,will happily  run you back to your dinghy with your full gerry cans. Simple all we needed was 360lts, so that was three trips ashore as I only have 120lts of gerry capacity.

Did I mention it was Sunday and about 35 degrees? Possibly not.

So having arrived at Seisia with empty gerries, we lowered the dinghy, loaded up the empties and tootled ashore.  We have 4 x 25lt and 1x  20lt gerry cans, and between us only 4 hands! Empty, that arrangement was manageable.

Did I mention it was quite warm, and Sunday? Oh yes I did, but it's worth mentioning again , as, as luck would have it on Sundays at Australia's most northerly service station, there is only one staff member in attendance and so there was going to be no opportunity to scrounge that lift back to the beach , as he was unable to close up the servo and drive us the 400m down the road.

No matter, how heavy could two full 25lts gerries be?
 Extremely after 400m!!

We left the 20 lt one at the servo and returned to the beach. I stayed at the beach and Peter doubled back for the last one.

Out to K'Gari, decant into fuel tanks, between downing substantial quantities of water. Call it quits, thinks me, we can wait until the morning to do the rest, as at 0700 there will be two people in attendance at servo, as well as their trusty ute. Alas no, quick calculations mean  another trip is required today, for  if we did two loads in the morning, the tide would be against us for the transit  through Albany Passage.

Back we go, this time with my trusty tiny set of trolley wheels, which Peter debates wont be of any use at all when the tiny wheels hit the first lump of bauxite, which is everywhere.

Rather beautiful and not exactly crowded.

Being now older, hotter and with slightly longer arms than a few hours before, we ask the attendant if he happens to have a trolley (furniture moving style) that we could borrow for a few minutes. Brilliant idea! This trip back to the boat is far quicker and my arms don't stretch any further. The trolley is returned to the servo. Decanted into the fuel tanks, that is definitely it for the day.

Up betimes the next morning and at the service station for the 0700  opening , having as a precaution taken my baby wheels along for another outing, we refill for the last time  120lts . Borrow the trolley from the attendant, as number two hasn't shown up yet, we trundled the load back to the beach. I load them into the dinghy whilst Peter returns the trolley. Back on board, the fuel is stowed in the locker and with absolutely no sign of any wind ,and in stifling humidity we weigh anchor and set off for our passage around the "tip" and through the Reef.

0715hrs  and on the way back to the dinghy with the final load.
6km to Bamaga-the 'regional centre '. I don't care 400m, was far enough with this load!