While Tom was enjoying his morning coffee while reading a book in the cockpit, he noticed an outrigger race that was about to begin. The starting line was right in front of where we are anchoraged. First, came the women's race, with about 10 girls. Then came the men's race with about 9 guys. The racing track was straight and about 500 yards long, just a quick sprint for them. During the 2nd run, double the distance, of the men's race, we saw one of the outriggers flip over in the water. I thought they were designed to not let that happened. Anyway, the guy easily got it turned back over and rowed right along. The racing announcer and crowds of people gathered at the concrete wharf. We could hear and see it all from the boat. After about an hour, all the racing was over and the lagoon became quiet again. It was a neat way of starting our day.

We finally went snorkeling yesterday!!! After the racing was done and we had breakfast, we went ashore. We purposely waited until about 10 am so that the sun would be up enough to light up the beautiful turquoise water. We snorkeled for an hour or two, enjoying the water, drifting along with the swells and current, looking at all the coral and watching the different fish. Tom had on our Hero camera and we did an underwater movie, which turned out pretty cool. Oh, and when we were walking past the Fakarava Dive Center, we stopped and talked to the couple that helped us out yesterday. They pointed out that a brand new Wi-Fi antenna had just been installed. So, the last day we are here, we have internet! Yeah!!

After snorkeling, we dinghied over to another beach for lunch. While approaching the beach, carefully navigating around the coral heads, we passed right by a nurse shark. The shark was swimming in very shallow water and just a few feet from the beach. We passed alongside him where I felt like I could have reached out and touched him. It's always very cool to see the sharks!

Today we are heading to the southeast side of Fakarava, about 40 miles away. This spot is known for excellent diving and snorkeling. We're both very excited about it!!! Watch for an upcoming post, and hopefully good pictures about it. The tiny village has a population of like 11 people and no services so we will have no internet while we are there.