A video clip of Rambler near Pantelleria
Rambler 88 sailing past Pantelleria, which everyone knows is the Island of pantelones or long pants.
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Phosphorus
Just passed through the north of the Messina Straits. A busy 24 hours up the eastern coast of Sicily. We saw plenty of changes in wind direction and speed, resulting in a series of sail changes – mostly J1, code zero and A1. Now heading towards Stromboli on the A1 with a pleasing amount of wind. Can’t say how much because our wind instruments are not working (was an unresolved issue pre-race). Last night around 10pm we caught something on our keel so had a couple of back-downs to get that free. No other major issues, but it is definitely trickier judging sail cross-overs without windspeed and direction!
Wild Joe
After a good start moving away from Malta our aim was to stay as close as possible to the leading group – Rambler, Phaedo3 and Momo – in the same weather system.
Approaching to Sicilia we caught a 20 litre plastic can with some ropes wounded on our forward rudder and keel. We had to stop later on at night to cut it off losing 1 mile against our opponents. Unfortunately some rope remained on our fins and that caused heavy vibration. After the sunrise when the wind has dropped at Taormina we had to stop completely and start diving to get rid of the ropes.
Due to this action we’ve lost our good position and 3 boats easily overtook us (B2, Varuna, Mascalzone Latino).
There were very light and tricky conditions with fast changing current. We had to do our best in the building southeasterly breeze to catch them at Messina. Only B2 has still some advantage.
We’re sailing near to Stromboli right now (20:00 local time) in a 8 kt southeasterly with 1A. Our aim is to lead the chasing group and keep the good position in IRC and ORC.
We hope that the breeze will keep on and there will be no more unexpected issues.
Posted in Day One, Day Three, Day Two
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Dorade
It’s been very slow today, not only for us but also for the majority of the fleet. The wind has shifted nearly 200 degrees in the past 12 hours, going from two knots to a max of 11. However, the 11-knot breeze was short lived. We are now approaching the start of the Strait of Messina in about three to four knots.
All is good on board, and Ben has done a fantastic job of preparing the boat and has continued to work nonstop at managing the boat and perform his sailing duties. Matt Wachowicz and Shaun Pammenter are sharing weather knowledge. John Hayes is back bringing his years of experience to the Dorade program and Richard Mason adds a youthful enthusiasm. Matt Brooks continues to question and hopes we are getting to the maximum speed all the time.
Time to get some rest, as it’s going to be an interesting night getting through The Strait.
– Mike Giles
S.Y ‘EH01’ Global Yacht Racing
18th October
So, it was an interesting evening, as predicted the weather was not as predicted!
We had a few sail changes going from the A1 to the J2 and back again, then back again, and now have the J2 and cruising at a reasonable 5 knots as we try to make our way through little to no wind and changing directions. But all testament to the crew sail changes went without a hitch, “no drama’s” as the skipper would say. The trimmers are plugged in and tweaking constantly pushing the old girl as best we can.
In the graveyard shift we were cheering when we got 2 knots, around 6 we were cruising at 8 so the winds have been a bit up and down as have the crew, high side, low side, on the coach roof, its fair to say we have covered every inch of EH01 in an attempt to go faster. Keeping spirits up Andy breaks into song every now and then, as do some of the crew…. Kasabian’s “where did all the wind go, I don’t know, I don’t know” top of the pops!! Currently thinking of making a Middle Sea playlist for everyone to remember the race by.
We are all getting to know each other as we sit on the rail, with lots of deep and meaningful chat taking place. Then as everyone wants to jump up and do things when needed some have been playing rock paper scissors to decide who does what. However, with some jobs we aren’t sure whether if you win you don’t have to do it and the loser does, e.g. the daily head clean perhaps… hmmm?!?!
24hrs in to the race, 100nm done, 500nm to go….. we are all praying for a little bit more wind!
S.Y ‘EH01’
Global Yacht Racing
Arkas Sailing Team
Finally some good wind..
So far so good. Our new code zero has kept us in touch with all our class rivals proving extra deadly today, after Mt Etna caused the fleet no end of troubles in the early hours this morning, we managed to cut through scores of small holes changing angle from 60twa to 120twa at times allowing us to pass Otra Vez, our Ker 43 rival. However in the very light spell that followed she did a great job of passing us …
We now have good winds and hoping the straights prove fine for us this afternoon .. we have just received the great news that our efforts have pulled us to 8th overall but more importantly to 1st in our class .. (the ultimate team aim for 2015).
The crew have been brilliant this far working tirelessly on this their first major offshore over 200 miles .. I see no end in their enthusiasm long may it continue as we approach Stromboli this evening and the mental strain that another park up may bring .. fingers crossed we maintain our class positions.
The food program with this team is not your usual freeze dried affair .. so far we have had parmesan and chorizo cooked breakfast and for lunch today my first taste of falafel which I must say was delicious .. I wonder what is next on the menu.
Martin Watts
Arkas Sailing team
Posted in Day One
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Jivaro
With a huge sigh of relief we got moving again at 7:54pm … after the morale had sunk to its lowest since the start of the succession of stop- and-go endured since we reached the first patch of calms in the lee of Etna at 9:27am.
We started the day quite high as our choice to aim for the catabatic winds supposedly flowing down the Catania Valley in the late hours of the night seemed to have worked well, allowing us to catch up somehow with the leaders of our class. We watched gleefully the boats to our right slow down and then hit the calms first.
But then what next ?
How could we avoid the calms to come ?
Right or left ?
Keep to the coast of Sicily or aim for the possibly more stable breeze off the coast of Italy ?
The two looking quite equivalent, we chose to stick to the left.
Alas (I skip here a few episodes – more than 10 hours) we finally discovered that the boats who had chosen the right side had done much better than us. And the morale further dropped when we saw the boats both on our right and our left start gathering speed while we remained becalmed in the middle !
That’s just how frustrating racing in light winds can be …
From the crew of JIVARO, well rested and fed owing to our shore support, and eager to fight back !
Rambler
George David on Rambler’s Rolex Middle Sea Race Record
George David hold’s the Rolex Middle Sea Race record since 2007 – in this video clip he reminisces about that experience
Posted in Day One
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Unica
The view from the cabin might be amazing but the lack of wind is another story.
Posted in Day One
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