The 46th edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race started in the Grand Harbor between Valletta and Birgu. We hooked up with Tony, Linda and Dion in Valletta. We didn’t quite make it to the bus stop across the street on time, so they were a little ahead of us, but with WhatsApp, we coordinated our meeting and found each other just outside of Valletta where all the buses dump their passengers.
I thought a good vantage point to see the race would be around the Siege Bell and the War Veterans Memorial. I knew Upper Barrakka Gardens would be very crowded so an alternative was necessary. We hopped on a minibus to get to that area. The big Malta Transport bus would never make it around Valletta, so this one was small enough to manage the tight streets. We got off before we wanted to, only to find out that the Siege Bell and Memorial are being renovated and the entire area was blocked off. Oh well, best laid plans. We walked down the street past the construction area and found a place where we could sit on a rock ledge to see the race. Christine took a seat a bit away, but she was next to a guy who worked in aviation, so Christine had a good time talking with him about flight simulators.
We had a bit of a wait for the start of the race, but we had a nice view of the harbor and over to Fort St. Angelo, Kalkara Bay, and Bighi. Bernadette was asked to participate in a sponsored event to take photos of the race. She got to try out some Canon camera, so she was thrilled to have the opportunity.
There were 119 yachts entered into the race. There were 7 different groupings with starting times 10 minutes apart. An airhorn sounded as a 5 minute warning and then a canon from the Saluting Battery fired for the start. I jumped every time the canon fired.
The yachts were various types, single hull and mult-hulls. Surprisingly, most of the sails were black. I learned that new sails are now made mostly of carbon fiber and that black sails are more aerodynamic, so it is the color of choice for most yachts. Truth be told, though, it made for a boring watch – no colorful sails to see. And even the boats themselves were not very colorful. The ones that were, a yellow one and a red one, stood out.
For an hour we watched each group of boats, as few as 8 and as many as 14, cross the starting line and head towards the harbor entrance. The race course is from Malta, around the island of Sicily, to Lapedusa (a tiny island south of Sicily and west of Malta), and back to Malta. The course is 610 nautical miles (702 land miles). The fastest winner did the course in 33 hours 29 minutes in a multihulled boat. The fastest time for a single hull boat was 40 hours and some minutes.
There were some American boats entered, but I didn’t notice which ones. Many countries had entries from all over the world, including the first ever representing China. Our Aussie’s shouted out an Oi, Oi, Oi when this boat sailed by.
After an hour sitting on the rock ledge, I was ready to get up and move around. The Aussie were off to have their own adventure. Christine and I walked back through Valletta to the bus station. Along the way, we saw a parade of men in period costumes marching down Republic Street.
We rested for the afternoon until time for dinner. We had arranged a 7:00pm meet up at Peppi’s with the Aussies. I sent Bernadette a message asking her to join us. She and her partner David accepted the invitation.
It was a lovely evening with everyone together. Lots of stories were told, photos shown, and we laughed a lot. It was a great way to end the day.
