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Firefly - 50th Birthday celebrations, diving and why we are still in Fakarava



Those studying our progress on yellow brick might have wondered why we do not appear to have moved for the last five days. There are a number of reasons for this; it is a beautiful place with lots of welcoming people, we needed a special place to celebrate Paul's 50th Birthday and we decided to do some Scuba diving. David has dusted off his existing qualification while newcomers Paul and Peter signed up for a 3 day course to obtain the PADI open water qualification - qualifying us to dive to 20 metres. After 3 days of intensive diving (6 dives), with early starts, we have just completed the course and are now certified. We have dived both the North and South passes of the atoll which are acclaimed to be two of the best dive sites anywhere in the world; so what better place to learn? Every day we have enjoyed more challenging and spectacular dives with huge expanses of coral and aquatic life. The highlight has been this morning's dive when we dived the South Pass (Passe Tetamanu) and drift dived along the edge of the pass and coral reef 21 metres below the surface, watching a wall of sharks, literally hundreds of them, swim above us, in procession in and out of the current. We are now totally exhausted and really pleased to have experienced such unique dive sites. The school we used are called 'Top Dive', they were first class with a great instructor (David) and staff.



The diving experience has been a great birthday present for Paul and wedding anniversary celebration for Peter although we are both disappointed that Susie and Jane were not able to be here with us. However, a number of the World ARC fleet have been with us to join in on the diving and help celebrate Paul's birthday - Brizo, Chez Nous, Seaduced and now Starblazer. On the day we had tea and birthday cake on board Seaduced (thanks Jane and John). Jonathan, Donna and Ivan on Chez Nous had caught a freezer load of wahoo on the way here from the Marquesas and later on board a rapidly 'cleaned up' Firefly we had a fantastic birthday 'pot luck' fish supper with each boat cooking wahoo in different ways from curries, satays to risottos.



The birthday celebrations continue tonight at a local restaurant a short row from where Firefly is anchored (another cake has been arranged) and will also mark our new diving qualifications and Peter (and Jane's) wedding anniversary.



Tomorrow we will sadly have to leave Fakarava - we will be bound for Rangiroa, about 140 miles away and we already thinking about more diving there! Plus we will be having a rendezvous with Skyelark who have also promised to bake a 'late' Birthday cake as they were unable to make it to Fakarava.



Paul, Peter and David

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