I have been following the Rolex Middle Sea Race with interest on the tracker that each boat is equipped with. On the official website I can see a status on every boat that is updated every 15 minutes.
By Sunday noon it was obvious that most of the smaller boats were retiring. I could actually imagine all the crews together at some Sicilian restaurant discussing the wind and the sea and having a nice time.
On Saturday evening Rambler was already on the forefront. At this present time (2000 CET) it’s still at the front in the Strait of Sicily followed by Atalanta II which seems to be hesitating in following Rambler and has been keeping back from entering the Strait for a couple of hours.
With Rambler going through the Strait of Sicily I went up to check the weather and it looks that although they are right now in force 6 & 7 winds they have a force 8 & 9 winds coming from behind. Probably they will be in the center of the very strong winds from 2100 CET till 0500 CET the following day - Monday.
As can be seen on the charts if Rambler doesn’t stop at Pantelleria then they would be in North Westerly force 8 & 9 wind for hours, almost the whole way up to Malta!
Will they stop to shelter in Pantelleria considering the very big advantage they have on the other yachts and the hesitation of the other participants to go straight into the force 9 winds or will they continue sailing downwind?
