Et voila! The crew just finished and is already cleaning up the boat, taking off sails, clearing the sheets etc. And the race, well close to 72 hours or 3 days for a 600 miles and a bit, Rán II finished after Esimit, 2nd boat passing the finishing line on the water. We shall have to wait to have the final result on IRC rating, since many boats are still at sea. To make it fair competition and not have the biggest boat winning by default since they are fastest, each boat entered in the race has a handicap rating which is used to calculate the time allowance for each boat. All results will be posted on the Rolex Middle Sea website. Everyone very happy on board. We are looking forward to nice proper lunch, change and rest! We hope you have enjoyed your virtual ride with Rán II during this Rolex Middle Sea Race 2011!

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The picture is showing the island of Gozo which we are passing on port before entering the channel going onto Malta. Sunshine in the morning. Sunblock out. Still very damp from last night. We are sailing at 9.5 knots, with a 11.5 knots of wind speed. Everybody happy on-board as we have never been closer to the end now!

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Sunrise this morning tuesday 25th October on the Mediterranean sea. We are approximately 25 miles to the finish. The wind is dropping but we are still going and now with a beautiful autumn sun, the finish should be spectacular!

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We are closing Monday 24th of October in the Mediterranean sea. We forgot how little we are in the middle of the open sea - well it looks open from where we are! We are still all alone on this water, the only visitor we had was a cute little turtle on her own. We could see her shell and her head popping our of the water when at the peak of the wave. At the trough of the wave, totally disappeared! For the rest it is water, water and more water! We are 50 miles from Lampedusa. Cross fingers for the breeze to hold so we can celebrate the 25th of october at Lampedusa. It is an island of approx 6000 inhabitants. Sadly we will not see it by light. We have not changed sails since 3pm this afternoon, a nice balance compared to the first part of the trip when sails were changed every so often! The wind has decreased just a little, still 12 or so knots of wind and we are sailing up wind at almost 10 knots. The sea state is not as choppy as this morning which makes the ride more enjoyable.
Who ever is not off watch down below or not helming and trimming the boat, are hanging off the rail on the wind ward side to keep the weight in the right place to keep her going! The trick is to tuck yourself so well that you can put your head down and snooze while on the rail. Just like a (side-way!) rocking chair... Well which you share with a good dozen people around - let's say a special rocking chair! And since there is nothing else at hand, enjoy it, and you never know, the company you get on each side when you sit, can be very entertaining!

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A cup of tea will be served in a few minutes on deck Rán II. Perfect timing after lunch which today was "chicken chasseur", chicken stew with couscous and little vegetables - really good. Plus warm!
We are still sailing up wind, the sea state is much quieter but still agitated. The calm moments of the beginning of the race are over, only in souvenirs until the finish, as it seems we will have an agitated sea. We shall see. The picture shows Pantalleria island, the last moments of it. After this island, we are sailing onto Lampadusa Island which we should round in 85 miles or so. So far so good, all happy and healthy on-board, dry for the moment, wind and no rain. We are sailing at 10 knots of speed and the wind is blowing 13 knots. How could this be better?! Ah yes maybe - imagine racing and being served a real good foamy Italian cappuccino like they must have them on those islands?! Wouldn't you say? Then life would be more than just perfect!

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We are now over half way between the island of Sicily and the island of Pantelleria - we have another 35 miles to round the latter to port. Since just after breakfast, around 7am, just after passing Marettimo, the sea state totally changed. Rocky, higher waves, and because we are now going up wind, the boat is banging on the waves. Being in the galley is now a challenge but much less than changing a sail on the splashed fore deck. Waves and up wind are synonym of wet and wet! One has to crawl on-board to make sure you don't loose your balance. But it is a real sunny and beautiful day other than that. We don't have much company, other than the few dolphins we saw early at sunrise or the helicopter who came to take a few shots. The rest of the fleet is back behind us, maybe 35 miles, to be confirmed.
We are sailing at 10.5 knots with a wind speed of 14.5 so far. Let's hope the sea will quiet down, but the winds will keep going strong. Despite all the discomfort, the more wind is always the favourite friend to play in this game!

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In the foreground of the picture are the Rán Racing passengers on-board enjoying their breakfast. The china is special for offshore race - it is colourful so one can see it easily in the galley area and not throw it overboard when doing the washing up. Most importantly it is very light (the lightest the boat, the fastest it will sail) and resistant to heat (our food on board is freeze-dried which means it needs hot water to be edible - just like a pot-noodle at home!) But hey! the pot noodle comes with a stable 4 legged chair when you have it at home - now try to swing left and right while eating it, and a little faster, there you go, just like on-board! In the background is the island of Levanzo which we will leave to port. After that, it will be direct line to the islands of Pantelleria (75 miles from now) and Lampedusa (another 85 miles) which are to be left to port, to the South Comino Channel keeping Malta to starboard and the Islands of Gozo and Comino to port (from Lampedusa another 95 miles). And lastly less then 10 miles after that, we will hit the finish line in Marsamxett Harbour in Valetta. So all in around 270 miles to go. Let's hope we keep this wind!

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Closing shortly onto 48 hours of non stop race, we are coming to our next rounding, which is the most Eastern point of the Island of Sicily, leaving the small island of Marettimo to starboard. After experiencing very little wind during the night and at some points very big gusts in our down wind sailing, we are now back up wind in 16.5 knots of wind and we are sailing at a speed of 13.5 knots. If you were driving a car, this would compare to about 25 km per hour approx. Slow you might think? Well with a carbon floating machine like this one and her heal angle when going up wind, you better hold on and forget about your nice hair-do! Rocky and fast is the description of the experience; Hold on and strap yourself! Still no rain instead a beautiful sunrise behind the hilly landscape of Sicily!

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We are getting close to half way in the distance of this race. We are 100 miles approximately to our next point. Boat speed is about 10 knots and the wind speed is about 9 knots. We have been sailing downwind for many hours and it seems this will continue. This is very pleasant as it keeps the boat relatively flat. The sea state is quiet so there is no big banging of the boat on the waves. So far no rain.
Behind us, our competition is creeping on us slowly as we can see on the race tracker. They have gained, it seems, 10 miles on us. On one hand it is relieving not to see competition around knowing they are following behind, on the other hand, it is very lonely at times to race in this empty sea! We then have to enjoy our own company: Happy troops on board, our menu tonight was a delicious Beef stew!

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Here is the last shot from on deck before going to our bunks for our off-watch time, next 3 hours. The team on watch and on stand by on deck will enjoy the sunset. Closing Sunday sunshine in the Mediterranean sea!

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In this picture, we are changing spinnakers. Since the wind has changed it has forced us to do the manoeuvre to the sail that best suits the new wind. With new or changing conditions, we always assess which sail we will use to maintain the heading and the speed. The aim is to always keep the boat moving in an optimised way. Therefore, we must use the appropriate sail (whenever possible of course: we take on-board the sails we think we will use during the race - so if there are conditions we did not expect we have to do with what we have!). The effort of having part or most of the team on board to change a sail to keep the boat in fast movement - as fast as possible - is well worth it. Whether it is windy, raining or during your off watch, if it makes the boat gain few minutes on the water... In this picture we are dropping a spinnaker via the companion way and not the front hatch.

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This picture shows the number of people which is needed to hoist a spinnaker. As many sailors as possible on the winches on deck to hoist a spinnaker. We are "peeling" - this means we are hoisting one sail in front of another sail, which in turn is taking down afterwards. The aim is to make sure there is always one sail up catching the air, and most importantly that it is the right sail up for the current wind condition. In this case we had one spinnaker of close 500m2 but since the wind decrease we "peeled" to a lighter/smaller spinnaker that will better capture the lighter wind.

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We are enjoying the sunshine cruising from our fabulous upper-deck after tea has been served with a little chocolate. So far no rain, it should come back tomorrow night when rounding east side of Sicily. For now we are enjoying a downwind sail - with a spinnaker, winds are coming from an easterly side for the moment. Sailing at 7 knots and over on a very quiet sea.
Enjoy the ride with us!

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We passed this island on port around midday Sunday.

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We have just passed Stromboli , the active volcano. Stromboli is a small island off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. We have just passed some of the Aeolian Islands, and Stromboli is one of them. The island's population is between 400 and 800. The volcano has not erupted while we sailing by but we could see smoke being spit from time to time. It is understood that the island's nickname is "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean" because of the eruptions. To continue the race course we also past on our port the tiny little island called Strombolicchio. It lies 2 km to the northeast of Stromboli island. It is like a big rock sticking out of the sea. There is a lighthouse at the top - it does not look very used. After rounding the volcano we are aiming back to Sicily island.
The wind is very gentle, just 7 to 8 knots. The sea state is also very quiet. Everyone has had lunch - chicken curry was on the menu. Cup of tea will be served in the afternoon. We have completed over 24h of race with a good ambiance on board. All good so far!

Oh and PS: the New Zealand team won the Rugby World Championship, but not without the French team giving them a hard time we understood from on-board! World Champion Kiwis!

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Today is the Rugby World Cup, France vs New Zealand, and we have 3 New-Zealand representatives on-board, here in the picture are 2 of them with their support stickers. The only French representative on-board does not dare to tell them that a sticker will not help, the French rugby team will win, isn't so?! Until then, back to work and sailing, Esimit is about 50 miles away ahead (the are 30 feet longer than we are so all expected!). The pack of the fleet behind is quite close to each other and we seem to be 35 miles ahead of Alegre.

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Here we are passing the Straights of Messina at 8.30am this morning, 21 hours after the start in Malta. Beautiful morning after rain and wind and eventually nothing around 3am. We had the 3 "eggs" - the 000 at the wind speed of the boat. The water was so calm it felt like we were sailing on oil. We still have the current with us, we are sailing between 9 and 10 knots. Passing the tip of the Sicily Island close to which many fishermen are at work or leisure fishing from their little boat. Onto the next rounding which is 40 miles north from Messina. We cannot see competition anymore. Esimit is way ahead, the crossing the straight during the night, the rest of the fleet is way back. Breakfast served at sun rise, mist disappeared. What a beautiful day!

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