24th September

At 6am Imagine started jerking at her lines. A massive thunderstorm hit the harbour. Lightning illuminated the early dawn, thunder crashed above and buckets of water fell from the sky. In a brief lull I dashed out in my trunks to empty the dinghy of water. An hour later all was calm and we dried off and took the opportunity to hoist the genoa which we had taken down yesterday because of equipment failure. Later we went to a small market, wandered briefly around the old town and returned to Imagine for lunch. Tomorrow we're meant to go to Pantalleria, an open water sail there of 60 miles and up to 100 miles to come back. Two of the boats have mutinied and won't do it. Instead of a tough few days to finish the rally we've now got a gentle cruise in prospect. We're not too disappointed.