Current record holder Dick Jenning’s yacht Pied Piper led the fleet of Great Lakes 70s through the shallow Manitou Channel at 7:15 PM EST, with Thirsty Tiger, Mirage, Nightmare and Evolution following close behind.  Mirage reported moderate 10 knot winds, and estimated their distance from the finish at approximately 70 miles.  This would place them at the finish at approximately 3 AM EST on Monday.

In the Open Division, High Priority 2 led the multihulled yachts past Point Betsie at 9:15 PM EST.  The entire multihulled fleet was struggling with light winds.

The Farr 81 Sayonara reports being about nine miles from Grey's reef light.  The boat is moving along at nine knots with a northeasterly breeze.  Expect to finish the race at about 11:00 pm tonight.  The crew predicts that there head to head race with Decision over pretty much the full course will continue through out the night.  Sayonara owes Decision a considerable amount of time in the end so it is unclear just which one of these two boats will come out on top of the other.  (approx 6:00 pm)

Muskegon, Michigan based Windancer is now in the Manitous with all the GL 70s withing about a mile of each other.  About 2:00 this afternoon the breeze changed to a northeaster and at that point there was a real consolidation of the boats.  Because of the close proximity to the other boats and since many of these boats in the pack owe them about an hour they feel they are in good shape with about 80 miles to go.  (approx. 7:00 pm)

The GL70 Mirage is working its way through the Manitous with most of the other 70's close by.  For most of the day, the wind was light and then at one point it became very very light.    Then came the shift out of the northeast and now Mirage is reported to be moving along pretty well.  The boat has found a use for most all of its sail inventory over the course of the race with the exception of the heavy air kites.  Now with about 70 miles to the finish the crew is looking back on the race so far calling it a pleasant ride.  "It has been pretty smooth so far, There have been an awful lot of sail changes and directional changes, but overall it's been a pretty fast race.  (approx. 6:00 pm)

Salsa, a J/130 reports spending most of the day reaching under spinnaker and making good time.  About an hour ago there was a 180 degree wind shift followed by just about dead calm for 45 minutes.  Just off of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the boat is calling its progress good with boat speed of 3.5 to 5 knots.  As of this report from the boat crew they could not estimate their time of Island arrival but were thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of Monday evening or early Tuesday morning.  The crew is a bit disappointed to hear of the other J/130s ahead of them but report a number of boats in their section to the rear of them.  In the first report of a fly problem during the race, Salsa's crew says they are out there ... and they are biting.  (approx. 7:00 pm)

Eagle, the Sydney 38 reported a position of just past Point Betsy about nine miles off of Sleeping Bear Dunes.  The skies are cloudy and there is a bit of drizzle but no significant rain.  We had the kite up most of the day and then had to change to the headsail when the wind shifted. That happened just a little south of Point Betsy.  Boat speed is currently just in excess of 6.5 knots.  (approx. 7:00 pm)