We have just about to pass the active volcano Stromboli, a small island off the north coast of Sicily. It is one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. Behind us, we have the rest of Aeolian Islands, as well as Stig, our direct competition, just half a mile behind, as we took them over 20 minutes ago. We will wave to the 400 to 800 people estimated on Stromboli island just before the sunset of day 2 of the Rolex Middle Sea race 2012! We saw 3 smoke eruptions from the volcano also known as “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean” because of the eruptions. After this way point, we carry onto port towards the tiny little island called Strombolicchio, 2 km to the northeast of Stromboli. Just a big rock sticking out of the water! At the rate we are sailing, that is 8 knots boat speed right now, we will not see it during day time. We are soon getting to complete 1/3 of this race, another approximate 400 miles still ahead.

All good on ‘Dinah’ ten miles south of the Straits of Messina. Incredibly hot and sticky in these light airs downwind conditions. I hate to think of how uncomfortable it must be fully crewed. We made some good calls last night in the dark and moved up within the fleet. Now we have to hang on to the pack of bigger boats we are in. Great for us to have so many bigger boats around to pace against as it keeps us pushing hard all the time. We’re lining up nicely for positive current through the straits, and doing ok against the other double handed boats so far, but on this race that can all change very quickly.
We’ve been joined by quite a few small birds, some of whom are strangely tame like the one in the picture. This one decided to leave when his perch was shaken during a gybe. Strangely for this part of the world, we have no marine life sightings to report so far.
Wish I had more exciting news to share, but everything is happening very slowly out here for now.

After an eventful and entwining start with close quarter manoeuvring, we enjoyed a friendly rivalry with some of our closest and dearest friends. Following a fast fetch to Sicily, we were relieved that the main had’t fallen down again! This was followed by a night of playing the shifts that saw us draw even with Quokka and Noonmark.

We had a 20knot blast spinnaker reach out of Messina, which consolidated our favourable position with the rest of the fleet. Local rockstar Artie is now firmly in our sights and the dolphins are long gone!

Now chasing the leaders under a pack of white sails with a gentle breeze it will be a tactical night of hunting for wind up to Stromboli.

Andrea Mura, skipper of Vento di Sardegna:

Aswe slowed after the strait in no wind, the team had a swim off the back of the boat.The sea is 24ºC ! We are now refreshed and ready to get back to work catching the fleet after a hot shower. Perhaps a magherita would be nice?!

Looking for RAN – At 1300 Esimit Europa 2 have picked up good breeze after going out from the Strait of Messina – app. 15 knots. But wind dropped down in next few hours, at the moment they’re facing just 2 – 4 knots. Ran is just few hundred meters behind. Very light conditions expected also for the further progress.