12:01 PM: Sandy beach, blue water, Hawaiian music, outrigger canoes … it’s a little bit of aloha right now on Alki, east of the bathhouse, as the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club‘s “Da Grind” day of racing continues. The men’s long-course racers (to Blake Island and back) are scheduled to head out soon; the women’s long-course racers got going around 9:30 this morning; short-course racers (about 4 miles along Alki and back) are scheduled around 2 pm.

Spectators are welcome and are in fact lining the seawall as the canoes go by; the club has numerous tents on the sand, too.

The racing is scheduled to continue until the awards ceremony around 3:30 this afternoon.

3:31 PM: More photos added.

The races weren’t held last year because of what the club calls a racing-schedule change.