Stromboli puts on a display, but wind still plays hard to get

The big three SuperMaxis may not be going very fast, but they're still going a lot faster than the rest of the fleet in the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Alfa Romeo led Morning Glory and Thuraya Maximus around the growling volcano Stromboli in a trickle of wind on Sunday afternoon.

At least they had enjoyed a trickle of wind. When ABN AMRO ONE reached Stromboli just before midnight, there was no breeze, not a sniff of it.

"It has been a bad 24 hours," said skipper of ABN AMRO ONE, Mike Sanderson.

"We could still see Morning Glory and Thuraya Maximus as we passed through the Strait of Messina."

However it was the stretch between Messina and Stromboli where the breakaway began, when the big SuperMaxis kept on rolling while the Volvo Open 70 rumbled to a halt.

"We reached Stromboli and we sat there and parked," Sanderson said.

One of those boats was Money-penny, the American Swan 601 owned by Jim Swartz. Despite overtaking the VO70, Moneypenny was also hurt by the lack of wind at Stromboli.

Sanderson was grateful for the change of scenery, although Stromboli was putting on quite a fireworks display - perhaps in answer to the lava spewing from Mount Etna the night before.

"We saw some mini-eruptions during the night, it was pretty incredible watching hot lava being thrown into the air," said the New Zealander, "but we're glad to be moving on now."

At one point it seemed as though the whole fleet had re-gathered at Stromboli ready for a restart.

Certainly the smallest boats - just half the length of the Volvo 70 - had moved to within just a few miles of ABN AMRO ONE before Sanderson and his crew finally got moving.

Untroubled Alfa

At the head of the fleet, Alfa Romeo has been largely untroubled although the prospect of breaking the course record is looking increasingly remote. With just over 220 miles to go at 13.30 hours yesterday, Neville Crichton's 100-foot canting-keeler would have to average 15 knots for the final third of the course.

There is no immediate prospect of the high-pressure system releasing its grip on the weather, so Crichton might well be thwarted once again in his chase for a record that has seen two previous unsuccessful attempts.

Behind him a close battle rages between Thuraya-Maximus and the slightly smaller Morning Glory. Paul Cayard took Maximus into the lead a couple of times during the early hours of the morning as they approached the Egadi Islands off Sicily's north-western tip, but Hasso Plattner and Bouwe Bekking were back in the lead by just a mile yesterday afternoon, trailing Alfa Romeo by about 30 miles.

Further back, the Stromboli effect has closed up the fleet and brought rivals back into sight of each other. For example the two Ker 11.3s, the Czech Republic crewed Moonraker and the German crewed Kerisma, were neck and neck as they edged along the northern side of Sicily, and the Maltese yachts were all within 20 miles of each other, with Strait Dealer holding provisional honours in a hard-fought race-within-a-race.

Despite the excruciatingly slow progress, spirits remain high among the 68 teams racing. Aziza's skipper Sandro Musu from Malta enjoyed another night in a windless but balmy Mediterranean.

"Again it was a magical clear night," he said. "Stromboli was very active at night and rumbling continuously. At least nature kept us smiling a bit."

Royal Malta Yacht Club Commodore Georges Bonello DuPuis, sailing on Primadonna, was upbeat.

"Yesterday was a bit frustrating as the whole fleet seemed to pass us at the Straits when we got stuck in a hole," he said. "Then we got wind and did the same to them. We are pleased to have rounded Stromboli at last."

Aquaranta was the last of the fleet to pass through the Straits of Messina at 11.00 yesterday.