Slow progress better than no progress

Given the unpromising start to the day, the three frontrunners in the 2008 Rolex Middle Sea Race were probably delighted to be fast approaching Stromboli and expecting to round it by yesterday evening.

Rosebud (US), Moneypenny (US) and Alegre (GBR) have been locked together for much of the race so far and it looks as though this pattern is set to continue.

Behind them, the much smaller RAN (GBR) is chasing hard.

Then comes Whisper (IRL), all on her own, with a chasing pack of ten boats also through the Strait that were four miles away from Michael Cotter's 78-foot mini maxi and 14 miles off the pace from the leaders.

It all looked very different first thing yesterday morning and both competitors and organisers, the Royal Malta Yacht Club, will be relieved at the way the day has panned out.

At 08.00, Jim Swartz's Money-penny and Andres Soriano's Alegre got themselves stuck in a wind hole just off the coast of Sicily and some way short of Messina.

Meanwhile, Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud started the day in third place on the water. She was positioned further offshore, never stopped moving and effectively sailing round the other two yachts. It must have been galling to watch a hard-earned lead slip away in such a fashion, but the day was not over and the next twist was yet to come.

By the time Rosebud popped out of the Strait, at just after 13.00, Moneypenny and Alegre were moving again and seemingly in more pressure. Passing through the narrowest part of the Strait, about 30 minutes later, Swartz and Soriano piled on the effort, both steadily increasing their speed during the day to, at times, over ten knots. Not great, but enough to reel in Rosebud.

Further back, RAN was making promising progress up the mainland side of the Strait.

At one point she almost went into the beach at Reggio to make the best of the tides. Niklas Zennstrom's TP52 also stopped during the morning, but countered this with sustained speeds up to 12 knots at times.

RAN was third through the Strait, almost an hour behind Rosebud and 40 minutes ahead of Whisper.

According to the latest corrected times, Whisper was third overall with RAN in second place and Arik-ab Fibre (ITA) first.

There is, of course, a long way to go and with only 39 boats through the Strait plenty will change.

First Maltese boat on the water for much of the time yesterday was Gasan Mamo Comanche Raider before it was overhauled by former race winner Strait Dealer.

At the back of the fleet, Cordelia was in last place, with Zizanie and Geisha just in front.

All three were just shy of Syracuse, so some way behind the main body.

The forecast winds for the next 24 hours remain light. It is a sobering thought to think that to beat the existing course record, the first boat would need to be home at around noon today. Clearly not possible, but equally it is hard to imagine it ever was.