Even though we won't be leaving the Torres Straits for several days, we are starting to work off our pre-departure list. Refueling seemed like a good task to do early. If you're a boater or driver, you assume that you pull up to a pump, fill your tank, empty your wallet, and move on. That's not the protocol here for several reasons: First of all, there is only one dock and one pump. Secondly, large (and I mean very large) ships pull up to that dock, and it takes awhile for them to refuel.

So, armed with this info, Captain Ken called the fuel dock manager and made an appointment to bring Moonbeam to the dock at 8 AM this morning. Ken had estimated that we would take approximately 80 gallons (300 liters). Some of the other rally boat skippers needed fuel, as well, but in much smaller quantities so they asked if they could bring their 5 gallon jerry cans onto Moonbeam to get them filled instead of bringing their own boats to the dock.

Two of our buddies, Dennis and Bill, accompanied Ken, Ann and me on our mission and how fortunate was that! OMG! Ann and I would have had a bear of a time getting Moonbeam tied to the dock had Dennis and Bill not been on board to do 'the tough stuff'. The fuel dock had huge nasty pilings. The actual dock was about 20 feet above the deck of Moonbeam. We had to tie our dock lines together so they would be long enough to reach up to the dock level. Rob, the dock manager, informed us that this was the worst dock in the entire Australia...and that was an understatement by a huge order of magnitude.

Yesterday, one of the other boats radioed us and asked us to secure a reservation for them to get fuel, since their cell phone was not working and they couldn't make the call. Ken called on their behalf and Rob, the dock manager said he had a big boat coming in after us today, but that he would squeeze these people in between...just another example of how accommodating the Aussies are. Well, as we were getting our fuel today, they radioed us in a panic to say that their dinghy engine wasn't working and they wouldn't be able to bring their jerry cans to the fuel dock on time. In a New York minute, Dennis yelled down to me to say he would run our dinghy over to their boat, pick up the jerry cans and bring them to the dock for fuel.

What a great group of boaters we have joined up with!