OBR Raw Content

VolvoOceanRace.com

Leg 9

http://vor.jbcsystems.com/leg/09

Leg 9

Scallywag flopping in the sunrise. Slomo flopping. Annemike: I see not so much wind at the moment. Hopefully some breeze later on. Not really what we expected. Rolling up the MH0 as a windseeker. Radio forecast with light variable winds forecast. Libby: Right now we're somewhere off the southwest tip of Ireland, not far from Fastnet Rock. Alex is excited about rounding it. Leaders are finishing; we're about a day behind. Unfortunately with these shorter legs you can get behind and not have a chance to catch back up. Later: There's Ireland! Sunset. Dolphins. Alex: Sun's going down, plenty of dolphins on the bow. Just need Fastnet Rock over there. Just two more nights and we'll be in. Nice afternoon sail. Fun. (He nods to himself.) We see the light on Fastnet Rock (I guess?) blinking.

Night shot of the moon. Instruments. Marie trimming, silhouetted by the moon on the water. Kevin, in the galley: 2 hours for the finish line. For the burger it's 5. We have no more food. He talks to Pascal at the nav station in French. Charles: Will it be a good or a bad surprise? Who knows? Pascal reads the sched: windspeed and distance for the boats ahead. Jack does an interview at night on deck: So we are currently t-minus 20 miles from Cardiff. (Marie's voice: Tacking! Tacking!) Jack raises a finger and gets up to help with the tack; Jeremie chuckles. We see them tack the MH0. Jack: It's quite light; quite upwind. But we have the current with us now which is great. Still pretty tedious now, actually. He and Carolijn talk to Jeremie on the bow. Carolijn: Hopefully, Akzo will catch Brunel. Jack: Turn the Tide catch MAPFRE... We're golden. (Carolijn laughs.) Carolijn: Scallywag... Jack: Scallywag roll everyone. Charles with a headlamp talks to Jeremie: Would have been better to be first. But Brunel and Akzo did a better leg than us. Sometimes in the Volvo it's not the best offshore team win the leg, eh? We have seen that in Newport. Jeremie: Maybe you should do more inshore sailing. Charles: Maybe. The Volvo is about the last 20 miles. Pascal: I don't know why but I think there is more wind here. It is more dark. Chuckles. Tacking in the dark.

Night drone shots with the reflective branding standing out. Interesting that the drone has a light source. Moon.

Pablo talks in Spanish on the weather rail as MAPFRE sails upwind in 10 knots of wind on port. Sounds like he's talking about the competition, the tricky last part of the race. Repeats in English: Finish in Cardiff will be quite tricky for all the boats. A lot of work to windward; we have some chances. We want Dongfeng to be as far back as possible, but it's not something we can control. Have to be fast and do the best we can and wait and see. A little over 100 miles to go. 30 miles to Vestas, so quite a lot of distance. Stacking. Grinding in the runner. Dolphins alongside. Slomo dolphines. Pablo, Joan, and Rob at the nav station looking at a sched. They discuss with Neti in the cockpit. Brunel still leading? Just. Rob: I'm just happy that Dongfeng look less likely to win the leg. Sunset. Drone shots of MAPFRE sailing upwind under MH0 and J3. Such beautiful peaceful shots. Low-altitude drone.

High drone shot. Drone shots in glassy conditions. Jack: Silky smooth. Pascal: Worst case is at one point no wind, and anchor. And I want to be as close to the shore as possible when we tack. They pass a lobster buoy, Charles points out the current; running a knot or two against them. Sunset. Low-altitude drone shots. Abby: Akzo and Brunel have 20 knots. Charles: Shit! Chalres bangs something in frustration. Daryl, from the helm. How far are they? Charles: 18 miles, and 20 knots of wind. Charles looks at the computer and mutters to himself in French. Charles: Allez; come on, I need some wind! Carolijn: it's coming up. Thomas, on the helm: It could be temporary; a rain cloud or something. Carolijn: Need to worry about Vestas. And MAPFRE, they're currently 80 miles behind. Charles: Wind is going to drop... We have to stay ahead of MAPFRE. I lost 3 hours in this bay. I say nothing to Pascal!... We catch some wind, no? It's good! Allez! Kevin below in the nav station. Pascal stands in the cockpit. Glassy conditions. Sunset.

High drone shot showing Brunel leading AkzoNobel past Lundy Island. Alberto talks in Italian. Alberto eases the runner. Close up of the island. Alberto: It's a very nice island. Super-low-altitude drone shot. Bouwe: Still have 10 knots of breeze. Slowly starts heading, and the current is pretty slack right now. In 1 1/2 hours it will probably run 4 knots against us. Drone shot of a buoy in the foreground with about a half-knot of current, and Brunel in the background. (That's a sweet shot.) Bouwe talks about how the finishes in the Volvo seem to go like this. Floating balloon. Gulls. AkzoNobel close behind them. Sam: What's going on horse? Someone wearing the horse head nods. Drone shots. Bouwe: Well, we just did a little frenzy. We dropped out of the breeze. Akzo tacked behind them in the drone shot. We were in the midst of a live X conversation with a full stack forward. Went into a sudden tack with an uphill stack.

Low altitude drone shot. Brian talking to Dee on the helm about the wind. They pass some floating trash, and comment on it. Bianca stacking below. Martin: A tack coming up. Hopefully the last Code-0 tack in this leg. Stacking. Martin, on the helm: Okay let's go. We see the tack. Lazy sheet hangs up for a second. Drone shot.

Time lapse footage. Dolphins swimming alongside. Slomo dolphins. Dolphins under the bow. Kevin: Quite a few. Pretty nice, out of the fog, sunny. Sliding up to the finish, and still pushing hard, and things may happen in the river. Dolphins alongside. Stu laces through the lifelines and goes max-hike. Stu on the helm: Every result from here is going to be super important. Every team is going to be working as hard as they can. If it finishes like it is now it closes up the leaderboard a lot. Instruments.

Bouwe: Beautiful sunny day in Wales. Normally it's raining; something's wrong. AkzoNobel is visible on the horizon behind them. Peter on the helm. Bouwe: Roughly 100 miles to the finish. Current is with us now, but will be 3 to 4 knots against us by the end. So a restart. Not what you'd expect for an ocean race. And AkzoNobel 0.8 miles behind us. If the score stays the way it is now, we have a good chance of winning the race. So let's hope it stays the way it is now. Abby looks through binoculars at Akzo on their starboard quarter. Bouwe: It's like any yacht race. You're competing for winning. I've sailed it 8 times; 3 times I've been second, so it's time that we win. Alberto: All I'll remember of this leg is the pancakes. Carlo: It's stressful with Akzo not far behind, and Dongfeng not far behind. Going to be like Newport. Everyone's a bit on edge because of that. Below, Capey at the nav station: No more. Sam: Why do you say that? Capey: I don't know; I'm still young and good. Enough's enough. I've been lucky. Had a good run. Sam: Do you say that at the end of every Volvo? Capey: No. Never. This is a first. You've done a lap of the planet. Sam: How many laps have you done? Capey: Eight. Sam: And you really think this is it? Capey: Yupo. Stick a fork in me. Sam: Do you have any reflections you want to say? Capey: It's been a great run; met a lot of nice people, had a lot of great times. But I think it's time to put a line under it. Sam: Do you have any closing remarks? Capey: No. None. Go Team Brunel. Sam: It's a team effort. Capey, nodding: It's a team sport.

SiFi at the nav station. Reads out the latest sched. Gains on the boats ahead. Had a good transition into the northerly. Got ahead of the schedule on the routing. The guys in front are still a decent chunk ahead. But have made some gains, which is encouraging. So we're optimistic for what lies ahead. Things will get lighter and more complicated, more tidal, in the Bristol Channel.

Rob: Talks about transitions in the leg. Compressions. First boat in slows down and the others catch up. It varies. Sophie sits silent behind him. Rob expects they'll see more compressions, tidal compressions, in the Bristol Channel. Blair: about 24 hours out of Cardiff now. We're in pretty big trouble. We're in fifth place at the moment. Vestas is 30 or 40 miles ahead of us, and the others further than that. Looks like there won't be a complete compression. We'll keep going, but not on that good a shift at the moment. Sailed a few too many miles. We'll keep going; never give up. But not great at the moment. Pablo says something in Spanish; Blair steers behind him. Tamara looks serious. Sophie on the bowsprit hooks up a new sail. Looks like they're peeling J0 -> MH0.

Drone shot of AkzoNobel on a glassy sea. Someone (Nicolai? Nico?) looks through binoculars as Konrad films him. "I feel like someone's watching me." Emily, on the bow: Hopefully within the last 24 hours. Brunel is just over there (she points to starboard). We see a drone shot with AkzoNobel in the foreground and Brunel ahead and to starboard of them. ...about 2 miles away. Wind is going to be up and down, not a lot of sleep, a lot of tacks and sail changes. Overhead drone shot. Sail change. Martine: We're not in a great position right now, but overall still good. In a good position with the fleet, and with a 24-hour record. But Brunel is the closest boat to us on the scoreboard. Stacking forward. Martine: Right now we're focusing a lot on Brunel, but we have to be protective of the fleet. Drone shot.

Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in misty conditions. Brunel on their starboard beam. Jules talks about how it was unlucky we went into 7 knots of wind... Justin interrupts: It's not unlucky it's just [bleep] light. Simeon looks at Brunel through binoculars and talks about their sail combination. Jules: Trying to defend our lead, which is very slim at the moment. Slomo crew work: Grinding, foredeck, steering, stacking. Jules: Still with 350 miles to go you don't wanna get too involved in a straight match race. You don't want to give them free reins to sail past. Staying with him, minimizing the risk, but also sailing the plan to get there as quickly as possible. Slomo crew work: Hoisting a sail. Drone shot.

Jules at the nav station: Talks about Brunel, strategy. Stacking below. Jules: They're closing in behind us; we've hit the lighter air first. Dongfeng only 20 miles behind us now. Red light cockpit work. Jules: We'll park up again in another light area ahead of us. Whoever gets the wind first will win the leg, either Brunel or us. Or even Dongfeng if they catch up some more.

Title: "Word of the Day". Louiis: Intense. Capey: Great. Nina: Close. Carlo: Pancakes. Kyle: Matt Knighton. Bouwe: Foggy. Alberto: Pancakes. Pancakes, pancakes. Yeah.

A ship on the port quarter in the fog. Slomo of Kyle and Bouwe grinding. A competitor in the fog (Akzo). Peter: Every now and then they appear out of the fog. Abby: So, we have a match race on our hands. It's pea soup fog, but we can see them on the AIS. Expecting a header. It's all to play for. Nina puts her hands in front of the camera. "I don't know what to do with my hands."

Charles mimes throwing dice in the cockpit. "Double point. Casino." Jack, on the helm: "Roll the dice." Masthead. Carolijn in the cockpit: Pretty foggy, misty, bad visibility. We've reached the coast of Ireland. We're looking at possibly having to anchor as we get closer. Trying to find some opportunities to get closer. Newport didn't go our way; hopefully in Cardiff it will. Never give up. Shots of them sailing in the fog.

Drone follows a Northern Gannet with Dongfeng in the background, sailing slowly on port tack. At one point it passes over some alcids, too.

Stacey: 2 days left. it's been a tough leg. forecast didn't work out. and took a bit of a beating. and a lot of drifting and tide. Not many miles but a lot of hours on the race track. Phil drives. Instruments on the mast. TJ eases the runner. "Straightening her up. Creating a bit more power, hopefully. Or the wind might come back and I'll put it back on... Small gains." TJ: Two days. Looking for a first place. Interesting weather coming up, some games to play. The bungee cord will pull everyone back in, and play some jungleball at the end. Stacey: We did the physically tough bit; now we have the mentally tough bit. Potential passing lane. Which is what we need, because we're sat back in fourth place now. Kind of hoping for a lottery, to be honest. We're pretty good in the light. Proved that crossing the doldrums in leg 4. Build the anchor early.

Dee reads a question: Would you rather have a bad short-term memory or a bad long-term memory. Would you rather have unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos for life. Who said, I'll have one of what she's having. Elodie gets it: When Harry Met Sally. More trivia... Bleddyn talks about something he saw Carolijn do in a video off Dongfeng from the last leg. Bleddyn: Started racing at 8 or 9 years old in a Merit dinghy, sailing with my dad in the local sailing club at Anglesea (sp?). Then Toppers (plastic boat) and just followed in my brother's footsteps. He was 3 or 4 years older than me. When I was 14 years old I thought sailing was what I wanted to do, but my parents were good about keeping my feet on the ground. At university had some opportunities to do some professional sailing. And then had the opportunity to join an America's Cup team. The degree definitely came in handy. The Volvo: I knew about the race, but a type of sailing I'd never experienced before. Dee approached me after the America's Cup finished in Bermuda. So I went along and had my first night offshore in a Volvo 65. And my first race was Leg 0 in the Volvo. Definitely not the background most Volvo sailors have had. Always fun to learn a new boat. One design; we're all learning very fast. And in the last leg we're competing more with the more experienced teams. Very special to have the race ending in Wales, in Cardiff. Would like to be higher in the standings, but that's the way it goes. Looking forward to arriving and meeting my family. Dee, below: It makes me laugh when I think back to a year ago when he came to trial, he'd never been offshore before. Very intelligent, very analytical. At the beginning he didn't know how to live on a boat. He's now one of our key trimmers and drivers, and does all our data analysis at the end of each leg. And now he's our Welsh hero, heading into Cardiff.

We look into the hot chocolate with protein powder cup. Peter: "It's kind of summing up the last day." Started out with so much promise when you get handed a coffee mug. And now I"m just left wiht a very confused cup. Is it a protein drink? Is it hot chocolate? Do you want it?" Richard: No. Peter: Here's to Neptune. (He tosses it over the side.) Changing sails on the foredeck. Trystan: Yesterday was a pretty dark camp aboard Scallywag. High pressure ridge; last to enter it. Hoping for a bit more compression. Got 10 knots of breeze, and moving nicely. Having just come on watch it's a happier place than it was 6 hours ago, that's for sure. Stacking below. Stacking on deck.

Sunrise. Witty at the nav station. "214 miles behind. Imagine what the next sched's gonna be like." They flop. Peter, on the helm. Latest sched just in. (shakes his head) Leg over. Everyone else is doing 20 knots. We're doing 3 knots. Not even pointing at the finish. Unbelievable. Shots of empty milk jar below. Parko: We don't have any milk. We packed protein powder instead of milk powder. The shocker! We all make mistakes. Peter, on the helm. I packed protein. My name's Pete, and I packed protein. Laughs. Annemieke: I put protein powder instead of milk powder in the hot chocolate. I think It's pretty nice. Peter tries it. "Oh [bleep]." Laughs. "You did that on purpose?" Annemieke: No, no, no.

Sign taped to the aft side of the doghouse: "National Wine Day". Has wind forecast for each various times throughout the day. DTF 670. Libby: It is. It's National Wine Day. Libby at the nav station with Witty. Witty reads out the gains on the other boats due to the comression. Peter on the helm. Drone shots in light conditions. Foredeck. Slomo telltales. Antonio: 600 miles from the finish. Having to cross the light conditions. Libby and Witty at the nav station. Libby yawns. Flopping with the MH0. Slomo flopping. Antonio talks about the ETA. Flopping. Antonio: Still a bit far behind to talk about catching someone. If it were windy it would be harder, so it's good to have these conditions now. Peter shakes the main to try to pop the batten. Sunset.

Nicolai below: Still battling with Brunel; never-ending story. Simeon at the nav station: Gaining a bit, losing a bit, different pressure. Trying to get the best sail setup. Trying to cover and hold on. Same old same old. Drone shot with sunset of them peeling to the J0 in strengthening wind. Triple-heading. Bagging the MH0 on the foredeck. Nicho, below: We've lost a little in the last 24 hours to them. We've coughed up a little; that's part of the game in trying to put yourself between the other boat and the mark. Looking like a long match race to the finish. We're in a good position; just need to consolidate it a little in these next few hours. Drone shot circling AkzoNobel under cloudy skies.

Capey, walking on deck: Gotta get through the ridge and then we'll be winning... Getting closer, which is good. Who needs a world record, when you can win the leg. Peter: It's a little annoying they're (Akzo) there, but at least they're close. Still trying to win the race that matters. Kyle, on the helm: It's light, it's pretty cold. There's only one thing that could lighten the mood, and that's having Matt Knighton as our OBR. Sam: So you don't want pancakes? Sam, below, makes pancakes. Peter, what are we calling this kitchen? Peter: Sam's Diner? Because he's American? We see a shot of the head, and the title on screen: "I also needed to make up for breaking the toilet legs during the level 11. downwinder yesterday" We see the whiteboard, which says: "Do not SIT on the toilet Hover! It's legs are broken. Port toilet wall broken. S.G." Carlo eats something. Sam squirts oil in an actual pan. He cooks a pancake. "For the spatula we've been using this paint scraper." He hands a pancake to Capey, who approves. He hands one to Peter, along with some syrup. "Thanks mate. It's not every day your OBR brings you a hot pancake on board." Kyle, off-camera: "Unless you have Matt Knighton on board." Peter tries it, gives a thumbs up. Sam: You don't taste the paint chips at all. Nina tries one: Best thing I've eaten since I left. Carlo, in his bunk: "Thanks. This is a wake up. It's going to be gone pretty quick. That's the only thing I'm sad about... Almost makes up for breaking the toilet Sam. Almost." He gives one to Alberto with tuna. Carlo: It's the best meal we've had on the boat. Only bad thing is we don't have a toilet. Abby likes it, Louis likes it. Louis: What a treat. Sam: What's going on with the racing right now? Louis: Well, we've sailed into the transition zone, so that's why everyone's in the bow. Kyle, on the helm: What? Is that for me? Delightful. Bouwe gets one with "Brunel" spelled on it with syrup. "Ooh, America! One bite for me, one bite for my daughter, one bite for my wife, and the last two for my dogs." Nina: We just got through the parkup. We lost the lead to Akzo, but we're close and we'll fight back. Bouwe: They got the breeze before us, which was painful, because we'd just got the bow out, and they got ahead of us. But have more wind, and will hopefully get in Monday night/Tuesday morning. We can have some more days off." Kyle takes the lazy sheet off the MH0 clew. Nina wears the horse head. Sam: Hey horse; what's the news? She whinnies.

Libby, below: Sailing into some light winds, so probably about to peel to the MH0. Fleet will compress and we'll probably come out in slightly better position than we are now. Front two guys have a solid lead. The rest of them are still in touch. She talks about how they dropped off the front of the fleet and then it's hard to get back in touch. Parko and Annemieke grind on deck as they peel to the MH0. They roll up and lower the J0. Peter, similing on the cabin, talks about laundry day now that the rough conditions have passed. Clothes laid out to dry on the cabin. Libby: Announces the sched. "Good one for us, yay! Gained 35 miles on the leaders." Muted enthusiasm... Peter: Shame that we've dropped back so far. Want to go into Cardiff with a good position.

Sophie, on the bow in light conditions, talks about the compression that's happening. Knew it was coming, but it's super good to see the other boats. She points out Vestas and Dongfeng in front of them. Xabi, on the bow, talks in Spanish. He talks about Dongfeng ahead of them, and points out Vestas on the port beam. He repeats in English. 600 miles to go to Cardiff. He talks more in Spanish, repeats in English. After this leg hasn't gone well for them, this light spot is important to try to make a change. Hopefully they will be close and have more options south of Ireland. Making numbers all the time and they don't look very good for us right now. Dongfeng ahead, and have a boat between us. Going to be a big fight all the way to The Hague. Neti trims and talks in Spanish. Slomo shots of crew in the cockpit. Rob throws a coiled line. Sophie on the bow. Blair looks through binoculars for another boat. Xabi trimming. Vestas on the horizon. Dongfeng on the horizon. Crew on the bow.

Sailing through the ridge. Wake. Martin's light touch on the helm. Crew on the bow. Instruments on the mast: doing 8 knots. Bowsprit. Cutwater. Bird flying away from the boat. Bernardo, on the bow, asks what day it is. "Saturday already?" Whale off their stern. Looks like a sperm whale, maybe. Have to ask my whale-kowledgeable sister. Crow on the bow in flopping conidtions. MH0 clew. Sails fill. "Look at that. Look at that." Partially rolled-up MH0 as a windseeker. Bernardo trims.

Horace, bailing, talks about how awesome it is to sail fast. That's why he came to this race. I hate the life on board, but I love fast. Kevin looks through the endoscope and sees something below. He gets the swim gear on and dives in from the bow. Big piece of seagrass on the keel that he gets off. That loooked cold! Drone shot circling the boat in light conditions. Horace interviews Pascal on the bow: We're going to arrive the day we arrive. Marie: Maybe three more days, eh? Stu: Both are stressful. I find the heavy weather more stressful, especially when you're driving at night. Pascal on how difficult light conditions are. Stu: I'm going to right about how hard it is to have a shit on the toilet when the boat is sailing 30 knots. Carolijn below, brushing her hair, comments how the person on the boat who doesn't have any hair made a comment about her appearance. On deck, she gives some of the hair she pulled out on Kevin's head. Daryl, on the helm, talks about sailing into the high pressure ridge. Big line of clear blue sky ahead, where there will be zero wind. Pascal and Charles talking on the bow in French. Glassy conditions. Kevin to Pascal: We don't see them on AIS? Pascal shakes his head. Bird flies over. High drone shot. Other boat (I think Vestas from the tracker) on the horizon behind them as Stu steers in light wind. They tack the MH0 onto port. Low drone shot approaching from far away.

Crew sits forward. Nick: The change is so welcome right no. I've never been so happy to be in three knots of wind. Mark, on the helm: How quickly things change. Yesterday I got blown off the wheel, my life jacket exploded (crash cam footage of the life jacket deploying), and now we've got 5 knots of wind and we're drifting; well, not drifting, but it's dry. And I think everyone's enjoying the ligher conditions. Shot of socks and gloves drying on the cabin top. Nick: It's warm, and a bit sunny. And we're coming into Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's coming into us. And the whole fleet's going to pile up and restart. Shot of Dongfeng, 5 miles distant on their starboard bow (I think?). TJ and Jena in the cockpit talk about something having to do with food. Jena: I would put raisins in, to have the sweetness. TJ scoffs. Charlie, below on the PA, says something about [something] tasting really good. Charlie: "156 at 6 knots." He and SiFi discuss tacking. He points out Dongfeng on their starboard beam; have done a good job closing in on them from 11 miles to 2 miles. Waiting for a shift to make a tack. Phil steers.

Flopping in glassy, lumpy conditions. On bow, Emily jokes about how they're no longer going for the 24-hour speed record. It's weird to think that a day ago she was wearing her crash helmet. Though she could use it now to not be hit by the (flopping) foot of the jib. Simeon, on the bow: Quite radical, from some pretty good conditions to basically nothing now. Clouds. Bouwe is right next to us. We see Brunel a few miles away. Justin: It's actually quite pleasant. And everyone's getting it (i.e., the other boats are stopped too). On the helm, Nicolai: It's not too bad. We've been in it before... You can't stress about it. You're not going to go any faster if you hoist every sail on the boat. Have a cup of tea and go again tomorrow when the breeze fills in. Pretty sure no matter what happens, Bouwe's not going to do 600 miles in 24 hours. I'll take that.

Stern cam footage of washing machine. Cockpit washing machine shots. Pole shot outside the rail. Trystan, below: It's good, it's wet. Averaging 23, 24 knots. And current, so doing 25 knots over the ground. Alex, below: It's like getting a firehose in your face for 3 hours. And then going back down to go to sleep for 3 hours and then doing it again. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Toweling off below. Getting in a bunk. Spreader cam shot of major whitewater in the cockpit. Trystan: Pretty relentless. Just takes it out of you. Pretty energy sapping. But conditions are pretty stable, not gybing a lot. Not too bad. But relentless. Cockpit washing machine. Slomo. Alex: It's probably the last long leg where we have long periods of just sending it as hard as we can.

Jules at the nav station: Going to come to a grinding halt... Will get a bit of breeze Sunday from the north to get us to the southwest tip of Ireland. And then a very messy situation in the Celtic Sea. Going to take us 2 days to get into Wales, and no obvious way to get in. Might see a restart in the race. But we'll see what hapens. Drone shots of AkzoNobel sailing in lighter conditions under the MH0. Brad: As expected we're sailing in lighter conditions... All these boats are moving in behind us and getting closer. Closer in distance, but should be about the same time-wise. Can see Brunel again; about 6 miles. Keep pushing, through this ridge and out the other side. Drone shot circling AkzoNobel in the sunrise.

Mounted camera on the starboard rail by the helm as they surf fast on starboard gybe. Washing machine.

Washing machine shots out the hatch as they sail fast. Moving below. Epic washing machine on deck. Alberto getting geared up below. "It's too hard, to find the balance. Trying to put the gear on. It's only a few days." Slomo washing machine shots out the hatch. Bouwe, below: This isn't normal. Just putting your jacket on is difficult. Sam to Bouwe: What are you thinking about right now? Bouwe: About going outside. Peter, below: It's beautiful. Nice and warm. Slight slamming motion now and then; makes it hard to walk. But hey the boat's going fast. So it's what we live with. Abby, in her bunk: Impossible... Lurching around. Doing about 25-30 knots of boatspeed. Constant acceleration, deceleration. Just moving around the boat it's pretty hard work just trying to do anything normal. Abby bailing in the stern. Alberto: It's very dangerous. It's very easy to lose the balance. Peter and Abby move trash bags below. They get out the research buoy and deploy it. Sam: Oh no; the cable. Peter below getting geared up. Epic shots out the hatch, super loud, as dusk falls. Slomo washing machine from astern looking forward. Nina carrying a bucket and emptying it out the hatch. Kyle gets in his bunk. Abby eating. "Nothing on board is normal. I'm eating my meal. Someone could be on the toilet 6 feet. Kyle's just had a pee behind me. So nothing's normal. It could be worse. Could have been Nina the other day who got the poo bag exploding all over her." Shot from behind of someone peeing into a pee bottle. Carlo chuckles: "Life at the extreme."

Spreader cam views as they stack forward in the falling wind. Peeling J0 (or FR0?) to MH0.

Surfing in big wind. Sophie trims on the stern: "Main on!" Neti grinds for her, then (I think) passes a piece of something to eat. Major washing machine shots. Slomo of Sophie making the shaka sign and grinning. Neti hugs the pedestal to withstand the water. Later we see Neti driving, Willy standing behind him, and Sophie sitting down behind the steering platform, facing aft, to drink from a water bottle. Favoriting mostly for that one slomo shot of Sophie.

Crash cam from the stern as MAPFRE surfs in big wind. Suddenly Blair, on the helm, points forward: "Whale! Big whale!" Neti jumps up to look, and they pass the whale, which surfaces a half a boatlength to starboard as they surf past. Someone (sounds like Tamara) shouts a greeting to it. Ridiculous!

Sam: It's blowing 30 knots outside, and we're going 30 knots, so we're gonna try to launch the Phantom Pro in these conditions. He launches the drone. Amazing footage of Brunel surfing in 30 knot winds from the drone. Major stuff of the bow. Title (as the picture goes wobbly): Finally the camera gimble starts shorting out from salt and moisture. Drone comes in for the recovery, but the crewmember with a chest camera waiting to catch it misses it and it goes back aft toward Kyle, who makes a one-handed catch of it while continuing to HELM THE BOAT WITH HIS OTHER HAND. Thank you and good night.

Dee, below: We're in the last of the 30-knot stuff. And tomorrow it's going to be like hitting a brick wall. Trying to figure out where to cross the ridge. Tomorrow life will be very different on board. No more hosing on deck... Is a bit on the edge, and a bit tricky to do things safely both on deck and down below. Going to need to dry out the front of the boat. Because we're going to be sleeping up there. Bernardo and Liz getting geared up. Goes up with goggles. Liz: I don't think we've seen the sky in, like, three days. Learing it's Friday, she jokes about going dancing. Brian joins in. Dee: It's Friday night, party night, we're going out dancing. Shot out the hatch of the boom being dragged through the water. Liz: Whoa; action! She runs out. Bianca waves from the cockpit. Squeegeeing off Bernardo's goggles, Martin's camera housing. Intense stern cam, spreader cam shots of major washing machine. Annalise (I think?) bundled up on the stern holding the mainsheet. Bernardo explains that the Cunningham on the main broke, so theyr'e trying to use a second one. Liz at the mast works on it. Lucas and Martin getting geared up below. Sounds so violent! Dee looks out the hatch; they joke about how Bernardo (I think?) is gripping the wheel. Bernardo eating below; Liz says something and he laughs.

Washing machine on deck. Sailing fast. Slomo. Spray. Jack, below, is eating. You have to spend about half your watch thinking about nice stuff. When you think of this stuff you think it's what you want to do, but when you're in it it gets tedious pretty quickly. Moving around the boat you're crawling; in your bunk is the best place, but even there is hard. And on deck you're getting thrown around. Driving is two hours of having your eyeballs assailed by salt water. Hard work. Slomo spray. Charles, below: Ahead a big light spot, and I hope compression. For the leader there is a wall of no wind. I don't think anyone will be able to cross it, because it is moving with us. A big compression, a big mess, and then the winner of this leg will be the most lucky boat. Slomo spray.

Slomo washing machine on deck. TJ on the stern. "Thirty knots of breeze! Trying to go fast!" Jena below, at the galley: "It's tricky. The race? Or holding on? Everything's a little tricky now. We keep trying. And we're still in the game. We need a little more speed... Trying to hold on, and make food." She climbs into her bunk. "See you in three hours." TJ, in the galley, sprays water on his face. Stirs up his food. "Plenty of hot sauce." Plenty of wind, fast sailing. Unfortunately not as fast as we would like. Had the wrong sail combinations up. Ripping now... It's going to get lighter and lighter... Charlie absolutely nailed the meal. Charlie, at the nav station, talks about not wasting propane. TJ: Sleeping is hard. Launching off waves, you can hear the foils cavitating. Nav screen: Sifi talks about the ridge coming up. SiFi: Pretty fast sailing over the past 24 hours. Wind's just starting to moderate now. First time in a few days when the wind has been under 30. Pretty wet, pretty cold, everyone's been getting firehosed on the deck. Charlie looks at the nav screen. SiFi: Looks like at least one boat will do a new Volvo 65 record. Unfortunately it's not going to be us. But we're optimistic; we get to the ridge and can make opportunities. TJ on the stern: Challenge is moving around, eating, trying to sail fast all the time. That's what I enjoy: the challenge.

Slomo washing machine shots of and in the cockpit. Fist bump.

Nicho, below: I would have bet the house you couldn't do 600 miles in one of these boats. Everything has to align perfectly to bust a record at this level, to break it the amount that we have (shakes his head). You know it can be broken again, but I think it will stay for a while. Probably more than what you drive your car in a day. What an effort. I'm so happy for the whole team. Good work everyone.

Simeon, in the pit: For sure Martine is excited, so she can call her father Captain Slow at the dinner table. Also Jules has a nice grin on his face to redo his own record from Ericsson 4. But we just want to be first in to Cardiff. Weather is still a bit challenging... It's great of course to be the fastest in the race, especially in this kind of conditions where we can do it pretty safe, and big compliments to the shore crew to maintain the boat so well, so we have the confidence to put the hammer down. It's pretty cool. It will be hard to win the race overall, but at least we won't be the slowest, hopefully.

Jules at the nav station: In the 2008 race we almost topped 600 miles in the Ericsson 4. That was in the South Atlantic on the first leg. Had a few sail changes. This was more straightforward. This is really good what we've done here. Think we've topped 600 miles... keeps us in the front of the fleet. You always try to line your boat up, but you need so many things to come into line. Had some help from the Gulf Stream in this one. Boat stayed in one piece. On Ericsson we damaged a rudder and started sinking. But in this case the numbers keep coming.

Simeon, in the pit: For sure Martine is excited, so she can call her father Captain Slow at the dinner table. Also Jules has a nice grin on his face to redo his own record from Ericsson 4. But we just want to be first in to Cardiff. Weather is still a bit challenging... It's great of course to be the fastest in the race, especially in this kind of conditions where we can do it pretty safe, and big compliments to the shore crew to maintain the boat so well, so we have the confidence to put the hammer down. It's pretty cool. It will be hard to win the race overall, but at least we won't be the slowest, hopefully.

Jules at the nav station: In the 2008 race we almost topped 600 miles in the Ericsson 4. That was in the South Atlantic on the first leg. Had a few sail changes. This was more straightforward. This is really good what we've done here. Think we've topped 600 miles... keeps us in the front of the fleet. You always try to line your boat up, but you need so many things to come into line. Had some help from the Gulf Stream in this one. Boat stayed in one piece. On Ericsson we damaged a rudder and started sinking. But in this case the numbers keep coming.

Martine, below: We just broke the 600-mile record, for 24 hours. Really stoked for that. The last record in the Volvo Ocean Race had been by my father. So now I have something to talk to at the dinner table. I'm pretty sure he'll be happy for us. But I'm not sure about taking his record. We'll see. (She laughs.)

Brad, at the nav station, grins and gives a thumbs up. "Beauty! Just got the 24 hour record Just got the confirmation from the boss." Simeon, in his bunk: Let's see if we can get over the 600. Brad talks to Nicho in the cockpit about beating Ericcson's record. "You gotta give me a fist for that." He holds out his fist. Nicho pulls his fist away and they laugh. Nicolai in his bunk: This is what it's about. It's hard and exhausting, and you're tired but it's why you want to do the race. Go as fast as you can for days and days, there's no limits... She's a fast boat, this purple bus. She's got some pace to her. I like it. She's a good boat. It's pretty cool; I didn't know that. It's good news to wake up to. Our main focus is still the leg. Gotta keep ourselves in line for the podium. Helmsperson raises his fist, make a peace sign, then a thumbs up. Martine laughs on the pedestal.

Pablo, below: On board we are all quite good. Not the best place to be, but there's still a long way to go. A few days left. And especially it's coming light winds in a few hours, so anything could happen. As we saw last leg, the leg doesn't finish until the boat crosses the line. We're not thinking it's going to be as good for us as last time, but we do the best we can... Talks about five boats breaking the speed record from the last edition. Is quite amazing what these boat's can do. Not sure if the Ericcson record can be broken (It was, by AkzoNobel.) Talks about the Comanche record of 618 nm. We are quite close to that. The boats are super fast, especially compared to a 100-footer, it's amazing what these boats can do. Dongfeng and Brunel are the closest to them on points. They are further away than they would like; 90 miles and 60. But weather is changing; let's see. Anything can happen. And hopefully they don't put boats in between so we can still fight for the lead. In 6 or 7 hours we will leave this front, and wind will be light and ahead. Upwind to the finish. Still a few days, but they will be very tricky days. We will keep pushing the boat and trying to do our best. We'll see. A long way to go.

Bouwe, below, reads the latest sched: Three tenths slower than Akzo. Akzo sailed 601 miles in 24 hours. Bouwe: That's a pretty nice effort. They're now 10 miles ahead of us. So that's the biggest news of the day. There's a big impact; he looks around concerned, then settles down. Sam: Are you disappointed? Bouwe: No. I said it yesterday. Records are made to be broken. I think we had yesterday 2 hours without 20 knots of breeze. That's how it is. It's all right. It's all about the leg, who wants to win the leg.

Slomo shots of rough seas. Martin on the helm exercising his cold hands. Bernardo scowling. Winch drum. Liz in the pit getting soaked. Everyone in neoprene hoods. Lucas in a helmet with faceplate. Dee on the pedestal. The usual "slomo washing machine from the hatch" shots, but the slomo and the focus on the faces really works well. Bianca coiling in the pit. Bleddyn ducks to take whitewater over his head. Dee and Liz are heads-up, keeping their eyes on everything. Great stuff. Bernardo comes below, pulls off his hood. Bernardo: "It's pretty wild. We just came out of 30 knots, did a peel to the J0, and the waves are quite messy. Just sorting everything out. And get ready to go back on the bunk for a 2-hour nap." Bleddyn: Do I enjoy it? Yeah, it's good! It's nice to get a bit of breeze... This has been the breeze we've been waiting for for a while, will take us most of the way there. Cardiff here we come." Shots on deck of the big seas. Bianca dancing at the pedestal. Liz joins her, dancing on the helm. Bernardo, trimming on the stern, pulls his hands across his eyes John Travolta-style. Liz, tucked under the coaming, does her tube stance. "This is a barrel tube!" More washing-machine shots. Crash cam shot of a triple wipe-off: Helm, trimmer, and pedestal all knocked down by the wave. Epic!

Joan talks below in Spanish. Lots of mention of wind. Rob, below: Right now we're not in great shape. The leaders, first 3 boats, have extended quite a lot. That may change in the ridge. Dongfeng not that far away. Scallywag probably going to overtake us in the next sched. Dee not far away. Podium still a possibility, but we're going to have to get some luck with the upcoming ridge. Joan talks more in Spanish; discusses the limit of the Gulf Stream. Rob: Had a very cold night last night. Water was down to zero at one stage. Passed an iceberg; could see it on the radar. Water's probably 10 or 12 now. More Joan in Spanish. Washing machine shots of the cockpit from the hatch. Slomo washing machine. Neti grinding. Crew putting on foulies below. Stern cam shots of big spray. Sail change: Hoisting the FR0. Sophie wrestling the sail. Spreader cam shots of the sail change. Drone shots of them triple-heading wiht the FR0 and full main: Must be in lighter wind than some of the other boats. Looks like 20 knots of wind or less from the sea surface. Favoriting for those drone shots at the end.

Witty and Parko talking below about making the sail change. Fixed-camera shots of making the change. Stacking aft. Heh. Richard is going nowhere near any of this (not that I blame him). Annemieke coming below. Parko, below: We've put a bigger sail up. We're a bit lifted. Going 2 knots faster. Which is good, but means we should have done it earlier... It's super frustrating when you realize we could have been on a different sail sooner by an hour and a half. Probably lost 3 or 4 miles just on sail selection.

Spreader cam view of the cockpit with crew huddled on the stern. Washin gmachine. Bow cam. Stern cam. Survival mode in the cockpit. Witty on the PA from the nav station. "We were 23 behind Turn the Tide; we're 9 behind now." Still last. He talks with Luke and Libby. Luke: Talks about following the fleet. In two days we're going to run into a ridge and just stop... Trying to decide which sail to run with. It's difficult to change, because we have to slow down to limit the water over the boat. Have to choose which is quicker: Slowing down to be able to make the change, or staying with what you have?

Slomo line-handling in the cockpit. Horace in the pit: Amazing! This is an offshore race. Very strong weather, downwind. Never stops. Intense. And fast! [He raises his fist.] Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Stu and Horace grinding in the pit. Carolijn below: Very, very wet.

Stern cam, spreader cam shots of sailing fast with massive washing machine. Nick on the face plate: It was pretty fogged up. But I think he needs it. I think we all need it. Slomo washing machine. Nick: We are totally miserable out here. He points out other crewmembers. Not sure where they are right now; picked up a meander in the Gulf Stream, probably. Sea state worsened. Tony on the helm. He gets off the helm, faces aft. Takes off his face shield: "Here you are. Good for nothing." Talks about it being 45, 46 knots of wind. Tony comes below, talks about how his life preserver inflated. "Well, the automatic part works." SiFi at the nav station talks about playing with the Gulf Stream. Helps push them, but also messes up the sea state a little. Pretty cool phenomenon, the Gulf Stream. Apart from saving Europe from being a frozen icy tundra. Also gives us a lot of current to play with when we're racing. Charlie: Because sea surface temperatures all over the world are rising, there's less of a gradient, and the Gulf Stream is flowing slower. Which means it is pulling less water out of places like Chesapeake Bay. Will contribute to sea level rise there over the next 100 years. Slomo of crew falling down in the cockpit. Nick, in the cockpit: We stand here, basically 2 hours at a time, getting the [blee] beat out of us, all for a freeze-dried meal.

Slomo washing machine. Slomo of Nicolai's face with red eyes. Nicolai below: It's fast and furious these two or three days now. running and reaching with big sails. Brunel is doing it the same. Are pushing it. Full on. Driving is a little bit hard, and your eyes are bleeding every time you go off watch. But that's part of it, it's good fun. The faster the better and the more fun it is. Hopefully one more day of fast sailing before the wind drops off. Slomo washing machine. Nicolai: Currently sitting in second, fighting with Brunel. And it's the same on the leader board. They're not going to give up and neither are we. Footage from the stern cam, mast cam looking forward, spreader cam looking at the cockpit, as they sail fast. Nicolai takes his clothes off below. Nicolai: It's pretty heinous on board. It's actually worse down here than it is up there. You don't want to walk around; you'll get hurt. Get some food and jump in your bunk pretty quickly. Nicolai eating, getting in his bunk. Simeon at the nav station: Everyone is in some good breeze. Last 6 hours we did 147 miles. So that's pretty big for these boats. We're going pretty well; had some current with us that helps a bit. At the moment the boatspeed doesn't drop below 24 knots. This is the last chance in the race. After Cardiff won't be doing this. Nav station.

Parko in the cockpit. Crew on the foredeck making a sail change. Peter on the helm. Sunny, with lighter winds. Witty on the helm. They talk about setting the J3. Libby, from the nav station, reads the sched on the PA. Second-fastest boat. Everyone looks similar wnid strength and direction. Trystan tidies lines in the pit. Spray in the slot. Slomo spray. Annemieke in spray works on a jib lead. Crew on the bow; hoisting the FR0, maybe? Grinding. Wrestling sails on the foredeck, bagging and stacking. Peter, below, talks about his snack: This is regressing to be like a five year old. You need a tub of Nutella, and a carrier. The carrier is the wrap. And you shove it in your mouth. My girls would be proud of me.

Rough, windy conditions as they sail fast on starboard with the stack aft. Washing machine. Brad grins. Martine gets food. Luke: Fast and furious. In the mid 20s. Flat sea state, so no big nose dives. Fun. More shots of driving fast on deck. Martine gives an "okay" sign. "Brazilian weather. But not." Luke, below: Ideal conditions for us. We've got some good fast drivers on board who like to send it. And perfect conditions for that. Reefed main drags in the water. Luke: Holding onto Brunel. They are notoriously fast in these conditions. Spray in the pit. Man it looks fast. Luke: I think it's a bit like childbirth. You must forget about the bad bits to do it again. Kind of sad now getting to the end. Just enjoy every moment of it and see what happens.

Libby talks about the big unknown: When to gybe. Turn the Tide looks like they're in bad shape, but they could actually do better. Dongfeng and MAPFRE; we chose a longer route, but better pressure all the way. But generally you don't know. Sunset, clouds, washing machine on deck. Slomo water running along the deck. We see the gybe at night from the stern camera. "Big grind guys."

Witty and Trystan at the nav station. They talk about the sched due in a half hour. Witty reads the sched over the PA. Annemieke and Ben grinding in the cockpit. Spreader cam view of washing machine. Nav station with boat tracks. Libby: Quite a big split in the fleet for quite long, which is quite unusual. She talks about holding onto the frontal system longer than they thought they should. The cowboy in me would have gybed at 8 this morning, but I resisted. But I'll probably gybe in the next hour. And it will be interesting to see how everyone manages to wiggle through the area of light winds.

Charlie and Mark get geared up for going on watch. Mark talks about it getting colder, bumpy, and windy. Broad reaching in 25/30 knots. Converging with the other group they had the big split with. Trying to maximize this wind while they have it, before they hit the high-pressure ridge.

Sailing fast under cloudy skies with a reefed main. Trystan gets buried in the washing machine. Below, Alex takes his foulies off. Talks about the wild ride on deck from going through the Gulf Stream. But making good progress toward cardiff. Stern cam footage of washing machine. Foredeck view fro mmast cam. Cockpit view from spreader cam. Alex: AkzoNobel 2 and a half miles behind, us on our stern. And Turn the Tide another six miles. And in front of us just to leeward, Vestas, and Brunel, nine miles ahead. Witty: Terrible. Gulf Stream. What a [bleep]. Trystan, below: Still in the fight with the pack. Decision now is when to gybe. 25-30 knots of breeze. 25 knots of boatspeed. Making some miles.

Nina, to Sam: The secret, as an OBR, to get Capey to talk to you? Um... from my personal experience, making him a coffee when he looks a little stressed. Crack a few jokes. Sam asks Capey: Capey, what time is it? Capey: Coffee time. He holds up his mug. Sam takes it from him. Sam: In exchange, how'd the sched go? Capey: Good. We didn't lose much to Dongfeng; gained some on the boats to leeward. Lost some on the guy next to us, that happens. He gives thumbs up. Sam: Waht do you want? Capey: A little bit of chocolate. Sam rummages in the galley, gets a chocolate bar, gives it to Capey. Capey: Oh, champion, mate.

Peter, below: Not sure what happened, but the polars seemed down a bit. Just before, we saw this strange horse on deck. Sam launches a drone out of the hatch, sails along the weather rail, where a person is wearing the horse mask on the helm.

Peter and Capey talk at the nav station. Capey rubs his eyes. Peter: We were just discussing the plan for the next two days. We just need to sail slightly quicker than the other guys for that period of time. There's a big low forming to the west of us, giving us some nice downwind conditions. Just deciding what sail configuration we're most likely to run. Also a good chance of a 24-hour speed run for the race. Should be interesting. How to best get through it, making our lives nice and easy... Same concerns as everyone else: Going from the quickest portion of the race to pretty slow, where everyone can see each other again. Then light upwind to the end. If you can get a small lead, can probably protect it. Go quicker than the boats behind us here, and get over the top of Dongfeng, and then protect the lead into Cardiff.

Elodie grinding. Martin, on the helm, talks about crew weight forward. Elodie laughs. Bernardo on the helm. Drone shot of them reaching fast with a lot of heel, double heading with the J0 and J3. Elodie on the helm. Drone shot. More shots of Elodie driving with Bianca (I think) trimming. Drone shot. Sail change: Taking the J0(?) tack forward, hoisting it, with the J1 up. Elodie, below, eating. She talks about her first time on a boat, 2 or 3 years old. Going sailing on a cruising boat on a lake with her family. First time she got involved this year, was her sister getting involved i 2013, said they were still looking for big girls. So I did a try out in Lanzarote, and got picked, which was a big surprise for me. But I think knowing how to work well with a team was good for me. I think what I like about offshore sailing is the rhythm. Getting away from everything in the world. Sailing in different conditions, different skies, different sea states. Learning every day. Because Dee told me she wanted an extra girl to do rotations. So every time I'm on board one of the girls is taking a rest. Francesca is getting a rest now. I'll do 4 legs. It was really what I wanted; I didn't want to do the whole race. Really good team, nice sailors, nice people. I'm really happy with the choice I made to join this team for the race. I think when you are doing the race for the first time, there are so many new things there are a lot of things you don't see. I think this race will be like a big experience tick for me, compared to the race before, where everything was new you felt all the time a bit behind. But this time is different. Really nice to feel different, push more and more all the time. Bianca working in the cockpit at night with red lights; Bernardo comes below. Stacking below, it looks like?

Pablo, on the stern, talks in Spanish, rapidly and at length. Sounds like he's talking about different boats, different parts of the race? Not sure. My high-school Spanish can't keep up.

Pablo, on the stern, talks in Spanish about the current situation with the northern and southern boats. He repeats in English: Last few days quite intense. Some boats went south and some went north, and now we're converging. In the last few scheds we gained quite a few miles. Hope that continues. In one day and a half we'll converge completely, hopefully in front, but even behind as long as we're close and can keep fighting. Blair, trimming the main: Heading toward the ice gate. Dongfeng 30 miles ahead of them. Did well against them in the last sched. And that pack that rode the front a day longer than we did. We've done well against them for the past few scheds; now they've got the breeze. So... play on. Sophie on the pedestal in her cold-weather gear. Sailing fast. Slomo washing machine. Joan, at the nav statio, reads a sched in Spanish. Stern cam and spreader cam views of them sailing fast with a double-reefed (triple-reefed?) main. Spreader cam view of the foredeck.

Drone shot of Vestas triple heading with the sunset behind them. Phil: I'd rather NOT tell you how it's doing with Akzo today. Below, Charlie: Had a pretty good exchange with Akzo about 24 hours ago. And when we finally got across this wind it wasn't as forecast. Shot of AkzoNobel to starboard. Phil: It's been one of those frustrating days on the Volvo Ocean Race you try not to have too much of. Charlie: Wind shifted, they got out of phase with us pretty nicely. They've been going well. But now we're on their line, which eliminates differences from wind and current. We've stopped the bleeding. Hope our southerly decision pays off. Soon we'll be drifting around in high pressure. Be patient. Shot of AkzoNobel on the horizon several miles ahead of them. Phil: Tomorrow's another day. Only lost a few miles. We'll be all right. Drone shot with Vestas silhouetted by the sun behind them.

Charlie on a sheet. Nick talks about nicknames. "Chaz? Chunkle?" Phil: Like Captain America. BeChazzled is probably a good one for Charlie. Chaz Michael Michael. Mark: Peking Duck. Peeking out. Phil: Is Charlie good at sitting still? No. Mark: On a scale of 1 to chill, Charlie is more toward the 1 side of the scale. Nick: Charlie can't sit still. Stacey: Charlie doesn't sit still. He doesn't know the meaning of sitting still. Phil: The nice way to say is he's got ants in his pants. Tony: Flutters around like a bee. Mark: Too much coffee sometimes. Nick: Doesn't know what to do with his hands most of the time... Pirouetting, going back and forth. Charlie: If we all wore pedometers I might have the most. Which is unusual given that I'm at the back of the boat. but most of my steps from from the nav station back to the helm... Some of it's probably fidgety. Why?

SiFi mixing a coffee in the galley. "Morning coffee to charge up. Actually afternoon coffee now." He talks about the two groups of boats; it's getting interesting now. Big area of high pressure in front of us. The new low pressure is coming in from the west. Going to be a question of whether we can get across their bow before the front catches up with them... In the next 24 hours the wind will build; 30, 35 knots. Likes his coffee black. "With a decent amount of cold water in it so I can drink it straight away."

Louis: So, Carlo we call The Horsey because he's strong as a horse. He eats like a horse. And he acts like a horse sometimes. Shot below of Kyle (it turns out) with a horsehead on to mess with Louis in his bunk. Louis laughs. "I was not ready for that one." Louis tries it on. Kyle laughs. Kyle took out a very funny mask, so Horsey's happy today. Carlo comes out from below with the horsehead on. Peter: We seem to have a horse.

Washing machine from the hatch. Jules looks out. He talks to the sailors in the cockpit about the routing, strategy with respect to other boats. He talks to Brad below. They're discussing when to gybe onto starboard. He looks at a sched. Brad explains: We're gybing. Vestas is heading north, for the shift, so we want to do the same thing. So it's a rush gybe. We see the gybe through the hatch. Jules at the nav station talks strategy while Nicolai and Martine stack below. Nicho: We'd been on about a 250 wind direction now for a day. But beyond that, we want to stick with Vestas and Brunel. Pretty sure all of us are pretty comfortable on this gybe. Should head down, and then tack over, get set up for some more breeze in a couple of days. Washing machine. Nicho: Going to be a couple days of decent breeze and fast running. Both Vestas and Brunel are very good at that. Brunel maybe the best in the fleet at J0 reaching. And then light air at the end; it's going to be quite a problem.

Charles, below, talks about getting the wind, finally. But less than forecast, so they lost a lot to the fleet to the south. Now they're in a better position, though, for the next 6 hours, and the 6 hours after that. Fleet could join again. Pascal at nav station: 2 or 3 days everybody is going to arrive quite at the same time at the corner of the exclusion zone. 35 knots of wind with close reaching coming up. Charles: Next 24 hours are going to be very complicated to manage. Lots of wind. Not possible to always have the good sail; have to manage, to be smart, to always make the good call.

Bouwe eats below. Talks about the split. An ideal scenario for Brunel: if the southerly route pays off they can be ahead of the two red boats with lots of boats between them. We see Peter run out barefoot as Kyle gets his gear on. "Gybing" he says sleepily. Sam, to Capey below: What time is it Capey? Capey: Gybe time. We see the gybe through the hatch. Peter, below: Talks about the scheds being good, where the northern boats were light. They'll get the new breeze first; hopefully we'll be able to keep some of the lead. Kyle talks about hitting something. He's going to try to sand the leading edge of the rudder. Bouwe jokes with him about doing it naked. Kyle: Too cold. He tapes the sleeves of his survival suit. "Safety's no accident Sam." Pole shots of Kyle going over the side, sanding the leading edge of the keel. Drone shots of him ridding the tiller like a bucking bronco. Sam casually stands on the stern running the drone. Kyle, back on board. "It was so pitted." He jokes that the guys last night saw a fin the size of the mast. "We kind of think it was the Megaladon." He explains how there was a chunk out of the leading edge of the rudder. Shot of Peter, i slomo, grabbing something along the leeward rail while getting hit by waves. Noting that he wasn't clipped in. Sheesh.

Jules at the nav station talks with Simeon about stragy. They tack in the dark. I think we actually see the tack from a nighttime drone shot. High drone shot of them sailing. Brad, in the morning: Busy night last night, lot of tacks. They're neck and neck with Vestas. We're on J0, they're on J1. We see Vestas to port. Brad: Always good to have a boat next to you. Sunrise. Drone shots. Brad: Next 12 hours we should get a lift. Should get another sail in and start triple-heading. Drone shot showing both boats.

Xabi summarizes the first 2 days of the leg in Spanish. Discusses the complicated conditions, the relative positions of the northern and southern groups. Tamara, on the bow as they flop, talks in Spanish. Xabi repeats his summary in English. First time they've seen such a big split in the race. Very slow for them and Dongfeng and TTToP. The fleet in the south always kept in front of the front. They have a lot of work to do now to get to the north. They look quite strong. We need to wait and see. Tamara repeats her comments in English: In a transition. Hard to wait for the wind. Hope they'll be sailing fast soon. Xabi trims. Sophie and Blair grind. Stacking forward. Flopping. Xabi rubs his head. Instruments show them doing 3 knots. Drone shot of them floopping from above the masthead, then low and alongside in very flat water.

SiFi at the nav station says they've finally punched through the front. And as expected on the other side things are more complicated. Doing tacking, having a bit of a battle with Akzo, and Brunel on the horizon. Hopefully we can get going north properly now.

Slomo spray, grinding. Drone shots of TTToP. Other boat on the starboard quarter (Dongfeng, I think). Bianca: Annalise came up and told us we've overtaken MAPFRE and we can see Dongfeng on AIS. And we can see them down here. It's a nice surprise for breakfast. Dee jokes about Dongfeng being astern them: "Maybe they just want to look at my bottom when I take a pee. Pascal will be up with binoculars." They laugh. Bianca dances? Poses? Not sure. She practices with Annalise, who tells Martin to stop filming. Bianca: Professional. Need some practice. Before we arrive it will be perfect. Sail change (J0 to MH0?) Folding up the sail on the bow. Another boat to leeward. Liz crawling into a sleeping bag in the bow; waves to Martin. Light conditions. Brian: I can see Dongfeng up there has a big lift. So we'll probably be getting that soon... Very shifty at the moment. We can see Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's not far. Got an interesting race on our hand. Brian, on the bow, discusses the latest sched. Lucas goes up the mast to pop the battens through. Flopping with dolphins. Looking through binoculars at Dongfeng. Drone shots of TTToP sailing in light air; flopping. Shot of them passing the drone wit a partially rolled up MH0 as a windseeker. Sunset.

High drone shot of Dongfeng sailing in light winds. Low drone shot. Kevin on the helm: We know we have two groups of boats. One going south in front of the front. Three of us who have gybed. Now we know that the ones who stayed in front of the front are doing better than us. Now we're working hard. We took this position; we'll see. Pascal and Stu argue about effects of current if they bear away or not. Marie and Kevin talking. Horace: Last night was a bad dream. We almost stopped in the ocean. He looks up at the main. "More mainsheet?" Kevin driving. Stu: I find there's nothing productive in getting upset about stuff you can't control. For example, the other guys who are cruising off, with a nice breeze, there's nothing we can do about that at the moment. The best we can do is to sail well with the wind we have. As long as we're doing well with the boats around us, that's all we can do. Might end up a day behind, but it won't be through lack of trying. Marie talks in French. Nav station: Pascal looks at routing. Closeup of a winch grinding. Another boat a few miles away ahead and to leeward: Looks like TTToP (yup; tracker confirms). HIgh drone shot.

Tony cleans a dish in the galley. He explains that it's the lasagna dish, which is the messiest because of the cheese that sticks in the bottom. He mentions that he owns the 24-hour monohull record and the transatlantic monohull record from sailing Comanche. Charlie puts his boots on. SiFi at the nav station. Charlie and he look at how they're doing against AkzoNobel, which makes them happy. Charlie talks about doing a fair amount of trans-Atlantic racing in the past few years. In the cockpit, we hear SiFi read the latest sched. He starts with the most exciting news: Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and Dee are all in 5-7 knots. Nick: That's so disappointing; I feel so terrible for them. Mark talks about having done two previous transatlantic crossings with this team. He points out AkzoNobel about a mile to leeward. Is actually the 6th transatlantic this boat has done; he's done all of them with Charlie and Nick. Tony, he says, has done 17 transatlantics. Tony, below: I reckon I've done the transatlantic this way 16 times. Every time is different. I'm still looking for the perfect crossing, but I think I've already had it on Comanche. We see him finishing his dishwashing.

Abby in the hatch: Last night sailing in 20-25 knots of breeze, doing 25+ boatspeed. Appears we must have hit something with one of the rudders, and broke the tiller arm. Abby and Louis in the stern working on repairing the tiller arm. "Try some mallet?" Abby taps with the mallet. Louis: I was off watch, and got woken up that we'd broken the tiller arm... Two boats have sheered. Came back with Abby and put the spare one on from the emergency kit. Nothing major, but probably lost a mile or so, sailing with only one rudder until the leeward rudder was fixed. Abby: At first light this morning we checked with the endoscope, and it looks like the rudder is not damaged. A reminder that there's lots of stuff we can hit.

Drone shots of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Martine: Today is a beautiful day, with boats in sight. Shot of another boat to starboard. Martine: And we are expecting a gybe for the last 2 days. More wind, so we're going faster than expected. Drone shot. Martine: We're going to have quite a bit of breeze two days from now. So still have to keep our eyes open. And then reaching the UK. So I guess we're gonna have to enjoy this. It's not gonna last too long. Nicho: Should have good breeze for a while longer, then gybe. Have been thinking we'll gybe for a day now, but the breeze hasn't shifted. Drone shot. Nicho: Had a pretty honest debrief after the last leg. And then a bad in-port race, and another debrief. We've needed it for some time. It's a challenge: Step up or get left behind. Drone shot with clouds.

SiFi at the nav station: A day and a half, and still on the front that we expected to drop off the first night. If you gybe north too soon you lose wind, if you gybe too late you sail too much extra distance. Got Akzo a couple of miles behind. 50 miles inside us we've got Brunel. And about 40 miles behind is Scallywag. A couple of hundred miles to the northwest we've got MAPFRE, Dongfeng, and Turn the Tide. At the moment it looks pretty good (down here), but we'll have to see.

Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Hard to recognize people with everyone having their heads down. Sunset.

Pascal at the nav station blinks at the computer. Crew on deck in the dark with red headlamps. Flopping. Charles looks at the computer with Pascal watching from behind. Chart shows boat position surrounded by Gulf Stream. Pascal looks frustrated.

Neti, on the aft pedestal, talks in Spanish. Blair: Sailed well through the night. Dongfeng pulled away from us in the reaching conditions. Just got the sched, Dongfeng is 30 miles away. Rest of the fleet didn't come with us. Massive split. It's a little bit of a worry that Brunel has got separation from us. Because we did well we got further to leeward, and got out of the breeze and gybed. Just one of those things; you've gotta sail the wind you've got. Joan at the nav station, talking to Xabi about when to gybe. Pablo sleeping sitting up. Gybe on deck with Neti and Willy grinding. Stacking. Joan and Rob talking. Rob on the helm. Slomo washing machine. Drone shots of surfing with clouds. Super low-altitude drone shot from just in front of the bow.

Neti talks in Spanish. He and Willy talk in Spanish. Discussion of what day they'll finish: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Rob, on the helm, chimes in. "Are we talking UTC or local?" Tamara talks in Spanish, laughing.

Bleddyn: 24 hours after the start. Lots of fog. Haven't seen other boats. Split this morning; we've gybed heading more northeast. Other guys are still going southeast. Expect they'll come north at some point. We're in lighter breeze, but we're going in the right direction, which is a positive. Crew in the cockpit talks and laughs about Welsh. Bleddyn gives langauge lessons to Bianca. Lucas, trimming the main, talks about hearing Bleddyn talking on the phone in what he thought was English, but then not being able to understand any of it. Lucas: "Wave. Main on." Surfing. Lucas sings "Surfing USA". Dee comes up with the latest sched. Everyone else is still sailing together in the better pressure. We fell out of the pressure, and we have the shift so we had to gybe. Hopes they'll come together and have a restart. Lucas talks about going north, and splitting, which will be cold. Annalise: Not looking forward to the cold. So it better work out for us. Bernardo working in the pit, tidying lines. Stacking forward. Liz slaps Bernardo on the back. Liz: "Nice one." Bernardo: I started sailing in Portugal when I was 8 years old. I wanted to start before that but my parents didn't allow me. So when I turned 8 I started straight away sailing the Optis. My background was always dinghies: Optis, 420s, 470s, a bit of Laser, then did the Olympics (London 2012) in 49er. Then did Youth America's Cup, World Match Racing Tour, and chasing a little bit this world, more big boats. I tried to do the last race. I couldn't make it. And fortunately this time I got my chance, my opportunity. And this is a lifetime opportunity, a dream come true. Not only a challenge, the toughest race on earth, but it's a ride with a big team, where the teamwork makes a big difference. Most is how to manage yourself. It's a challenge in a lot of different ways. That's what makes me wake up every day. Best memory: Arriving in Lisbon, in my home port. Getting home on the first leg of the Volvo means a lot. Toughest moment: When we lost John Fish. It's hard to believe and understand that he's gone. That was a really hard and a sad moment. Liz: Why did we choose Bernard? Mostly his good looks. We needed a charmer on board. Someone who could sell ice to Eskimos... Needed people who have their mind on the game, looking for the next step, on the right side of the shift. A key person to have around.

Pretty sunset behind Marie. Someoen sneezes below. Nav station with computer screen. Pascal: Don't want to change the way you sail because double points. You always want to sail the best you can. He talks about different routing options. "It is not easy to choose." No special plan for us. The plan is to sail well. That's it. He talks about doing the crossing in 2009, not the same boat, 3 days 15 hours. Last leg we were leading the fleet and finished fourth. I don't think about the finish of the last leg. I focus on the finish of this leg in a few days. It's enough. He talks about the ridge coming up, restarts, complicated choices. Pascal in the nav station. Stu on the helm with the sunset behind him. Fish-eye lens view of the sunset, the wake.

Phil: Atlantic is important to us. It's been good at times, bloody difficult at times. Drone shot. Stacking aft. Slomo washing machine. Phil: If we can get into Cardiff we'll be in good shape. Points are irrelevant to us. Showing that we were always here, always a contender. That's more important to us. Drone shot, slomo spray of Phil on the helm. Phil: Just to show to our sponsors and ourselves that we belong in the top few in the fleet. It's gonna be a busy 8 days for us. Drone shot.

Drone shot of AzkoNobel triple-heading under gray skies. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Martine gets doused at the pedestal. Below, Nicho, Jules, and Simeon look at weather models on the computer. Jules: Mixed bag performance wise. Had some good spells and some not so good spells. Crossed a bit of the Gulf Stream. Radar, AIS; he was short on sleep all night. Drone shot. Spray by the shrouds. Simeon getting greared up below. Some good moments, some difficult moments. Keep the hammer on. Nicho takes slomo spray. Major whitewater near the mast looking aft. This is when the boats are most powerful. Jules at the nav station looks at routing. "Still a long way to go, changing conditions. The forecasts not really lining up." More slomo washing machine, drone shot of AkzoNobel surfing.

Drone shots of Dongfeng triple-heading. Jack, below: Always hard before the start because you want to leave. And then the first days are hard because you can't sleep. But good to get away. Very important leg for us. Going to push all the way to Cardiff. Gybe in the cockpit. More drone shots. Carolijn: Always knew this was going to be an important leg. Our speed was good overnight. Made some good decisions. If we can just keep doing that, and being smarter and faster than our opponents... Now that we're in front just have to stay in front. Pascal at the nav station. Night shots of the deck. Carolijn pulling a sheet, looking tired. Marie comes below. Marie on deck: It's always good to be first. Horace: We see after a few days who has made a good decision... Main on! Stu: Right now the goal is to sail around 55 to 60, fast. Not lower than 60. Below, Pascal sits in the nav station talking to Stu. "You cannot see without your contact?" Stu shakes his head. High drone shot.

Kyle before the parade, talks about the fog and cold and wind. Peter gives a peace sign. Abby in the parade. Bouwe in the parade. Kyle eating a burger. Peter unpacking gear below. Docking out. Jumper jumps out during the motor out (due to fog, I read on the SA forums). Start with Peter on the helm. Good start on starboard just above MAPFRE. Other boats near them. Ducking Vestas. Spectator fleet, bell buoy. Sam: How was that start Abby? Abby: Probably not our best. We sandwiched ourselves a bit and couldn't build up speed. Split on the run, crossing ahead of AkzoNobel. Calls starboard on Dongfeng. Brunel rounds the leeward mark in the lead. Going under the bridge. Spectator boat chanting "Bru-nel". Bouwe on the start: Basically got out of jail. Sam: What's next? Bouwe: Have to clear a couple of marks. And as you can see it starts getting foggy... Then we'll be out on the ocean.

Jules, from below, tells the helmsman what course to steer. (Sounds like they're skirting the exclusion zone in the fog.) Sail change in spray on the foredeck. Foggy wake. Dark below. Nav station, the sound of the hydraulic pump. Luke talks about the sun coming up. Still foggy, but not as thick. Probably 4th. Target is to try to win the leg and win maximum points. Nicho: Not quite in touch with the leaders as we needed to be at this stage. The two red boats have got some fast modes. Brad talks about Brunel. Nicho: Low coming with wind up to 40 knots... We're in the front of B grade at the moment. We need to step it up and get to A grade again.

Parade. Dee hugs Trystan; they joke about the race of the Welshmen (Bleddyn and Trystan). Witty's goodbye kisses. Dockout. Ben talks about the fog. Trystan talks about coming from Wales, a stopover in Cardiff. Was always in his mind to do this leg. He talks about Bleddyn, and how there's a rivalry between the two. Libby: First few days is about wriggling throgh exclusion zones. All the boats in a line. Then building breeze over the next few days. Libby with her tablet in the cockpit. Witty: Really really cold, and really really cold, and really really cold. Just stay patient and stay with the fleet and grind it away. You won't see the Scallywags doing anything different this time. He grabs the wheel. Start. Antonio on the rail with the boats lined up for the start.

Drone footage *in the fog* of Brunel sailing upwind. Go Sam! Abby coiling in the pit. Capey with a tablet by the aft pedestal. Closeup of the chart showing routing. Peter calls up: MAPFRE's only half a mile behind us. Below, he talks about the fog, exclusion zones. Dongfeng in front, MAPFRE just behind. Low-altitude drone-in-fog shots. Now Sam's just showing off.

Parade. Dockout. Annalise waves. Bleddyn: Pretty exciting leaving Newport. Can't wait to get home. Gonna be exciting. Start. Scallywag below them. Gulls (Great Black-backed Gulls?) Close action upwind. AkzoNobel crosses them. The close tack with Vestas. I think they were always clear astern. Nerves of steel, that Dee. Going under the bridge. Dee on the helm. Going into the fog with Scallywag ahead. Slomo bow work. Dropping the J1 in spray on the bow. Martin does something at the clew. Bernardo, below: Start worked pretty well. A nice beat. Made a mistake on the top mark, delaying the tack too much and we had a penalty, which took us to the back of the fleet. And it was hard to recover. Still in contact; keep our heads up, move forward. Hopefully we can catch up with the fleet. Liz: We're completely lost in the fog; we have no idea where we are. Brian, at the nav station: It's a complete mystery. We're in the Bermuda Triangle. Sailing in the fog. Brian: Cold front behind us. Can choose to stay with the wind ahead of the front, but eventually that wind will die out. It's a balance between taking the light air earlier to get the new wind earlier. Watching how it develops. That's north vs. south in the routing.

Washing machine in the pit. Pascal at the nav station talks on the PA. Horace grinding in slomo in the fog. They get doused. Horace talks in Mandarin as he coils in the hatch. Slomo winch drum turning. Nav instrument screen.

Xabi, at the helm motoring out, talks in Spanish. Sophie: Super nice to be back on board. Not fun sitting on the sidelines. Gonna be pretty windy, and that's exciting. And we all realize how well it is to do well on this leg. Rob: This is probably the most important leg of the race for a lot of teams. So we'll be giving it everything. First time to the UK since 2005, which was his first race. Looking forward to arriving; hope they arrive in daylight. Slomo parade with wacky slowed-down audio. Xabi says goodbye to young boy, who puts his hands over the lens. Spectator boat with MAPFRE on the side waves and blows horns. Sailing upwind with Dongfeng to leeward. Slomo of Tamara tailing. Dongfeng on their weather quarter with the A3 up. More slomo grinding. Brunel crossing astern on a downwind leg. Sailing past the bridge. Slomo behind AkzoNobel heading into fog as someone (Blair?) gets doused on the bow. Dongfeng on their hip as they reach in the fog.

Parade. Simeon holding a little girl. Justin kissing a young child he's holding. Dockout. Nicho: Double pointer, only 8 days. People think it's short, but if you push it hard you feel it. Start. Brad: "Good breeze here." Other boats behind them. TTToP crossing astern at mark rounding. (Think that's the port-starboard between Vestas and TTToP behind them.) leeward mark rounding. Vestas astern. Nicolai on the helm going downwind under the bridge with MAPFRE and Dongfeng (and Brunel, invisible) ahead of them. Vestas 3 boatlengths to starboard. Simeon: Thinks they did well, except at the top mark. Felt my heart beating in my throat there. Now out of the bay into the fog. MAPFRE behind them. Jules: third place at the moment. Just trynig to wriggle our way around the exclusion zone. Discussion of J0 vs. J1.

Slomo dockout. Mark talks about it being a double-points leg. Weather tricky in the first few days. Nick: it's incredible looking at all the boats given the weather. Start. Dongfeng crossing behidn them. Yelling starboard at the weather mark. (Looks like TTToP was clear ahead to me.) Setting the A3. Lowering the J1. Rounding a buoy. MAPFRE luffing them; F-word from Mark. Stacking aft in the fog as SiFi tells them 12 minutes from turning up. SiFi: Hectic start. Fog cleared up to do the lap in the bay, but now it's socked in. Near the other boats; fast reaching to Nantucket Shoals. "Gonna have to stay on our toes."

Dockout with the fans on the dock singing Happy Birthday (to Daryl?). Stu, below, talks about how it's the last double-points leg. Only around 9 days. Everyone's going to push really hard. Start with Dongfeng ducking the fleet on port. Then they tack onto starboard. Shot of them watching Brunel continue on port. Vestas on their weather hip. Vestas and Akzonobel tacking behind them on layline. Rounding the mark with lots of boats behind them. MAPFRE ahead. Dropping the J1. Pascal tailing. Daryl trimming. Approaching the leeard mark with Brunel in the lead, then MAPFRE, then Dongfeng. Lowering the J1 after another weather mark rounding. Running toward the bridge. Gybing the A3. Hoisting the J1 on MAPFRE's stern. Kevin, below, talks in French. Sailing upwind with Vestas behind them. Passing the committee boat; well wishers should "have a great trip!" Carolijn talks about taking to Pascal about the heading. Spray dousing the crew as they sail upwind. Sailing in fog. Daryl on the helm talks about it being hard to leave on his birthday. Hope they can do well and take the lead.

We see instruments in the nav station. VHF on channel 77, GPS with the position and time (position is just off Fort Adams in the entrance to Narragansett Bay). Xabi says they're leaving newport, telephone off, and the phone goes in a sealed plastic box. Ah, apparently this is official "I sealed my phone at this time and place" documentation.

Grinding. Trystan on the foredeck hauling down the J1. Witty on the helm: I can't see how they're lifted and we're not. Peter, below, talks about the clouds. Shot of the cloud ahead of them on deck. Stacking below in prep for a tack. They tack onto starboard. Stacking aft. Witty on the helm. "Well, at least we're going to where Newport is." Trystan talks about how the gauge they've gained has not really helped out. So now we're the first to tack to starboard. Witty at the nav station. Talks about how MAPFRE must have tacked. Sunset, rain clouds.

Sunrise. Alex on the helm. Clouds. Alex: Massive header. Ben sleeping against the stack. Witty at the nav station: Not very good. Brunel got a bit of speed and got through to leeward of us. Decision on where to tack today. Computer screen with routing software. Parko looking through binoculars. Annemieke: We have our moments when we do well; other times we struggle. Difficult conditions. Very choppy sea state, and the windspeed is up and down. You see it in the whole fleet. Rain showers to windward. Peter on the helm. Witty talks to Parko about what the boats to leeward are doing. "We might not get over all of them but we'll get at least some." Ben wrestles the MH0 (I asssume) aloft on the bow.

Witty: If the support we got is any indication we should win by a week. It's a little strange for me; this is the first time in 12 years I've sailed a yacht race without Fish. Libby: It's been a bit of an emotional thing for me; I've struggled quite a lot. Pretty hard.

Video metadata curated by JBC – many thanks!

Not in any way associated with or endorsed by Volvo Ocean Race
All video and photo content Copyright Volvo Ocean Race 2017–2018