Rolex Middle Sea Race – Day 1
Skye full of stars
Saturday October 22nd
This is the day of the beginning of our RMSR adventure. After a couple of days teambuilding, getting familiar with the boat and being trained to push the Skye to its limits we were excited to go for the open sea. The plan for the next few days is to round Sicily, Stromboli, Favignana, Pantelleria and Lampedusa, and finally getting back to our starting point Valletta, Malta.
So we came together with the team at 8am to prepare the last things on the boat and leaving for Valletta Grand Harbour for the start of the race. As we were told it was crowded with the most beautiful sailing yachts and crowded of people getting ready for the big start. Seen from our perspective an impressive moment took place when, after the first starting signal and a short delay of our start, a canon shot was the sign for us to pass the starting-line. It appeared to be our first big challenge to get out of the port, being a big wind hole. Meanwhile we’re broadcasting a livestream on Facebook to show our fans back home (and on the rest of the world, let’s not be shy) what we were busy with. After leaving the port we had to round two buoys at the coast of Malta and then go for open sea, next land in sight would be southeast Sicily.
On open sea, reaching with our asymmetric, the kite tore forcing us to get the sail down and continue our race with the genoa. Slowly the sun was setting and again an amazing sight with sailing yachts on a mirroring sea was part of our sea racing experience. Just before the night fell our famous skipper Willem van Liebergen introduced our shift schedule, showing us who and when were going to be responsible for the boat during the race giving the other crew members the opportunity to get some rest.
Nautor’s Swan 53 – Skye
IRC5
