Whale Shark

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Another day sailing thru the Maldives. It started out the same, head to a sandbar and snorkel. More beautiful fish and warm waters. I started to take more pictures but the underwater camera was acting funny so I stopped and just swam some. When I got back to the boat, I tried to figure out what was up but to no avail. I think a bit of water may have seeped into the camera. I lay it all out to dry and hope to get it back soon.

Our next stop was another sand bar but this one was the turtle sandbar. oh, no, the camera is not working. we snorkel and see turtles. I found the one we all swam around. Luckily one of the other people on the sailboat had a camera in a bag and was able to capture a few pictures.

After this the captain took the boat into the open sea between the atolls looking for a whale shark. The seas were rough. He spotted one and told us all to get on our gear. We climb onto the dingy and then the captain points to the dingy driver the location of the whale shark. Up and down over the large swells we go as we chase the whale shark. Soon we are upon it and out of the dingy we go. Whale sharks are the largest fish (non mammal). We are now swimming with this one. What a thrill. This one was small at around 18ft long. We all tried to stay behind it. We spent about 10-15 minutes swimming alongside of it. what a thrill.

Back to the back and then the captain took us back into the atoll where the waters calmed. Next we headed to an island with a small village. This is the first village we have visited. It was quit with a few shops. After a small bit of shopping we saw the captain and first mate and they took us on a tour of the island. (oh the captain had said it was going to rain hard so I had left the good camera on the boat since it seems I might be down to one camera). I'm so sad I didn't bring it, the captains tour was great. They gave us fruits to taste from the trees, we saw school children playing (the girls with their scarfs on their heads), the old mosque,.... I'm so glad with caught up with the captain.

Back to the ship and Jamin brought out his Ipad and speaker and we picked a movie, To Rome with Love. We started watching. Seems when he copied the movie it left off the subtitles. Sigh a good portion of the movie was in Italian. But then Cecila then started translating. This is great our own Italian translator. She did a great job.

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