23/10/10 23:50
Video sent by satellite link from Mike Slade’s 100ft Maxi – ICAP Leopard during the first day’s racing in the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

23/10/10 18:00

Class One: Esimit Europa 2 is in pole position on the water with ICAP Leopard stalking them a mile astern. Alegre lead the chasing pack. Black Pearl has taken up the most easterly of the entire fleet. The wind close to the Sicilian shore is due to fade as the night sets in. The leading boats will be looking to get through this area as quickly as possible before it does. If they make it through to the Strait of Messina, the could well be a funnel effect strengthening the wind

Class Two: Pace leads the class and is beginning to take a more offshore line. Lucky and Cantankerous are also passed Capopassero. It is unlikely that all of the yachts in Class Two will have any chance of getting through the calmer waters that are forecast to make the Strait. Varuna has taken up the most easterly position of the class, presumably to take advantage of more offshore breeze later on tonight.

Class Three: La Foresta del Mar is the clear leader with Mandalino second place on the water. Ars Una is the most easterly yacht in the class. Virtually the entire fleet is east of the Rhum Line.

Class Four: Artie and Ton Ton Surfside are virtually abreast at the front of the class, many more of these boats have taken up an easterly position, some however may decide to ‘cut the corner’ and hug the coast of Sicily. These smaller boats can get right up to the shoreline and may benefit from wind draining off the land in the cool of night.

As the sun sets, the crew of the 76 yachts competing in the race will be checking lines and sails in the last light before their first night at sea.

Email from John Brinkers aboard E1.

“Its 6pm and we’re reaching along in light air on starboard with the Furling A1 up with Capo Murro di Porco in front of us. To port is the island of Sicily. We can see a bay (its not named on our map) which we’ve named The Bay of Death as I’ve been told by so many sailors to avoid it at all costs. Apparently lots of boats get trapped there in light air, but so far we’ve avoided it.

Dinner (hot stew) has been served, and its fired the crew up to give chase to Alegre, about 1.5miles ahead. We can also still see Esmit Europe and Icap Leopard about 6 miles ahead. We are just tidying up the boat now, getting ourselves ready for the night ahead. JB”

Esimit Europa have reached Capopassero on the southeast tip of Sicily. ICAP Leopard are just one mile behind. Both of these leading boats are beginning to slow, a little, as they encounter the land, but are still achieving over ten knots under spinnaker.Alegre lead the chasing pack, just over six miles behind the leader. 76 boats made the race start, just two short of the race record, set in 2008.

Maltese entry, Sandro Musu’s Grand Soleil 40, Aziza at the start making good speed of over 7 knots.

Message from Vladimir Prosikhin’s Volvo 70, E1

Setting off on the Middle Sea Race this morning, its one of the ‘must do’ classics. 610 miles, with light air forecast for the first 70% or so, then a relatively solid front coming in from the west with 20 to 30knots of breeze ready to blow us home. Our routing software is telling us we will do it in 2 days 14hrs, but a little more or a little less breeze makes a massive difference to this prediction.

I’m looking forward to sailing on our chartered Volvo 70 which has seen a lot of miles but seems to be fairly well sorted.

We’ve got an international mix of crew aboard, with Russians, Brits, Slovenians, Welsh, Australian and a token Dutchman.

Signing off now, will try and keep you updated as we go along!

JB
(John Brinkers – The token Dutchman)

At 1100 local time, the Saluting Battery high up above the Grand Harbour blasted the Rolex Middle Sea Race into action. All five starts got off without a hitch, however several boats were called over and had to restart the race. The light winds inside the harbour gave way to a gently building breeze offshore.

As dawn broke this morning, sunshine filtered through the scattered clouds to give a magnificent sunrise over Valetta.

At yesterday’s skipper briefing Mr. Galdies, Chief meteorologist for the Maltese international airport, painted a complex weather picture including a huge wind range and direction during the first few days of the race. Ian Moore, navigator for Bernard Xiberras’ Marten 49, Speedy. confirmed that it is a complex outlook and forecast that wind speed would be in just about double figures, once the fleet had left the shift confines of Grand Harbour. It looks like the start of the 2010 Rolex Middle Sea race will be a light wind affair, after that, anything can happen.