Given the unpromising start to the day, the three frontrunners in the Rolex Middle Sea Race are probably delighted to be fast approaching Stromboli, and expecting to round it by 1900 this evening. Rosebud (USA), Moneypenny (USA) 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 with a deficit of only 4.5 nm. Then comes Whisper (IRL) all on her own with a chasing pack of ten yachts also through the Strait. The pack of ten yachts are 4 miles away from Michael Cotter's 78-foot mini maxi and 14 miles off the pace of the leaders. It all looked very different first thing this morning and both the competitors and organizers, the Royal Malta Yacht Club, will be relieved at the way the day has panned out.

At 08:00 this morning, Jim Swartz's STP65 Moneypenny and Andres Soriano's Mills 68 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, with Maltese sailor Christian Ripard onboard 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, another STP65 popped out of the Strait at just after 13:00 this afternoon, Moneypenny and Alegre were moving again and seemingly in more pressure.

Passing through the narrowest part of the Strait about thirty 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, the stalking horse RAN which has Adrian Stead on tactics with Tim Powell and Steve Hayles adding their experience to the decision-making process, was making promising progress up the mainland side of the Strait. At one point she almost went up onto the beach at Reggio di Calabria to make the best of the wind and the tides.

Niklas Zennstrom's TP52 also stopped during the morning, but countered this with sustained speeds up to twelve knots at times. Ran was third through the Strait, almost an hour behind Rosebud and forty minutes ahead of Michael Cotter's Whisper.

According to a crewmember on Whisper, "the crew is in good form, despite frequent sail changes due to the equally frequent wind changes. We are further ahead than we had thought we would be."

Dining on shepherd's pie has kept morale good as had having Rosebud in sight on the horizon for much of the morning. Cotter's crew has reason for good cheer. According to the latest corrected times from the Messina transit, Whisper lies in third overall with RAN in second place and Arik-AB Fibre (ITA) in first. There is of course a long way to go and with only 39 boats through the Strait plenty will change.

Those which have left the tricky waters of the narrow channel are on the long march north to Stromboli and the second volcano on the course.