Over the top
22 May 2011 | Seisia
Michael and Jackie
We sidled out of our anchorage in the Escape River with some trepidation. You have to go a long way up the river through acres of buoys marking the oysters of a pearl farm, through shoals which appear to have moved since the charts were drawn to a quiet spot by the mangroves. Our guide to N Australia anchorages (authored by Don and Anne of Harmonie) warned that they had become entangled in an old fisherman's anchor at this spot, and lo and behold our fishfinder scanned the bottom and showed what looked remarkably like an old anchor covered in weed and barnacles at exactly the spot. Luckily our departure was not delayed by the anchor and we glided out of the spooky river. As we got to the mouth the boat bumped out over the waves caused by the tide receding and the wind blowing in. There is a long bar of only 2 to 3 metres depth here. Then we set sail for the Albany Passage, a short cut to Cape York, going between the mainland and Albany Island. As you approach you can see large red anthills on the shore which look almost man made. The tide changed as we arrived at the passage and we were soon making good progress through the attractive channel which is doted with small sandy beaches. No crocs to be seen but we did see some people. The channel opens out and soon you are passing Cape York itself where a small white plaque can be seen commemorating, naturally, Captain Cook who claimed all this land and left through the Endeavour Straits for Batavia.
Curiously later that evening we listened to the adventures of another sv endeavour, the space ship endeavour in a BBC adaptation of Rendezvous to Rama. The captain of the fictional space ship is Australian and keeps quoting from Cook's diaries about the places we have just visited. In this sparsely popluated area Cook would see little change from when he first visited the area. One of the great benefits of technology is that if there is a 3g phone signal you can listen to the BBC in this case Radio 4 extra. Our evenings have included numerous tribute programmes to Bob Dylan, a John Le Carre play, and various ancient BBC comedies like Rumpole, not to mention the excellent World Service News
We rounded the Cape and headed a few miles South to a small settlement called Seisia. The population of just under 200 people rely on a cargo ship which docks twice weekly for all their supplies. It crosses 2m shoals to get to the wharf to unload. Most people other town are classed by the Australian government as indigenous (75%), about 30% speak Torres Island Creole, and just under 30% speak either an Aboriginal dialect or another language described as Kreol. We went ashore to buy some fuel and supplies- not having a mainsail means we are going to have to use our engines whenever the wind is in front of the beam. The Torres Islanders and the white Australians were friendly. The aborigines tended not to respond to smiles and would look away rather than talk. Interestingly almost everyone is employed, wages are average and most people work for the council. A few are involved in tourism, a camp site and ferries to Thursday Island.