The night we joined the Rolex Cup race :)

Isle of Giraglia (off northern tip Corsica) little did we know that this isle is the midway point for the St Tropez to Monaco Rolex yacht race!

The yacht is flying a spinnaker sail.

After we cleared Giraglia the wind was on our nose and the sea was building against us as we sailed north west into the Ligurian Sea. We saw one, two then three massive racing yachts to Starboard bearing downwind towards Giraglia. As night fell more and more yachts came on our starboard. Then more. We were on constant watch as many of the midfield yachts did not have AIS and several were sailing on anchor lights only! All were flying massive spinnakers which hid their navigation lights fr0m us. One yacht crossed our bow at very close quarter which they are perfectly entitled to do.The slower boats sometimes came from Port. They looked strange in the night sky,  like giant Darth Vaders silently coming at us. We had to sail hammering into the wind with typical short steep waves of the Med. Our boat is very plucky and sailed well but at times it felt we were either hitting a brick wall or falling off a cliff.