6th June Seisia - State of Origin at Fishing Club

Thursday 6^th June

10 degrees south latitude

142 longitude

We are anchored in a very pretty place, between a small community on the mainland (Seisia) and Red Island, one of the many MANY islands which are all along the northern tip of Australia.  It is all peachy but…the wind is horrendous!  It just roars, almost without cease.  (From a domestic point of view, the wind is very welcome – I have managed to wash and dry various items of clothing in record time.  Flappety FLAP!)

There are six boats here, all bound for the Indonesian rally – Settlement (Australia), Tiare Taporo III (NZ), Pedoja (Canada), Forty Two (Germany), Backchat (Australia).  Everyone is quite happy, preparing for the next step but…nobody is enjoying the WIND.  It makes going in to shore in our dinghies quite hazardous; none of us wants to get swept away on the swift tide, abetted by the fearsome wind.

Oh but one of the boats is not happy…they have a broken gearbox coupling and they need to get the spare part sent to Seisia, which is almost the end of the world… And the spare part has to be located in Italy… So far they haven’t even been able to contact anyone in Italy; it always seems to be siesta time, when they ring, or send emails.  They are being very philosophical but it must all be very stressful.  (I’m not saying which boatpeople in case they don’t want their sad tale to be publicised in cyberspace…)

We took the dinghy in to the beach in the late morning, before the wind built up too fiercely.  Another little community to explore, all neat and tidy and baking in the hot hot sun, with red soil, large green leafy trees, bright flowers.  We explored the delights of the supermarket, and then had lunch at the caravan park café, run by some very enthusiastic young Germans – delicious fish and chips! – with Jim and Gina (NZ.)

Last night we braved the wind and the waves and took the dinghy into the beach just outside the Seisia Fishing Club.  Andrew and Sue (Settlement) were the only other boatpeople to come, although I think the others had all been planning to attend this sumptuous event.  I think the population is 165; there were at least 200 in the fishing club pavilion!  Where had they come from?  Some from the caravan park, but others – from all around!  All very cheery and well behaved, with many small dark children playing around the edges with huge rugby ball balloons.

This is what we ate:

and no it was not yummy although Captain Pete managed to eat two…Fortunately we had had some delicious salmon dip on Settlement before setting off - Andrew and Sue are very hospitable - so my tummy was happy enough...

But it was all fun, and most people were riveted to the giant screen where giant rugby layers clashed and bashed.

Today we are heading further south, not quite sure where to, but on the way to Weipa.  It is all quite benign along this western coast of Cape York, no trickiness in finding anchorages, so it just depends on that pesky wind, and the potentially helpful tide, when (or if) we leave.