Leg 11

Charlie, on the starboard rail, looks forward: "We think we see Dongfeng, having won the Volvo Ocean Race. Nick (I think), jokes: I don't wanna talk about it! Charlie: Apparently we don't wanna talk about it. SiFi is smiling with a tablet at the back of the boat. Jeremie: You don't want to talk about it? Charlie: They certainly deserve it. They've been the most consistent, they saved the best for last, always bounce back, a strong team, big risk. Looking good. TJ, by the helm with binoculars, is talking to SiFi about what he's seeing: Dongers. A bunch of other sailboats.Drone shot of Vestas gybing, wind farm, close up of a windmill.Sophie on the rail: We are so close. We're coming up to the TSS, and we're gonna bear away. And we're 0.2 of a mile away from Brunel... we just gotta pass them. Joan looks at tablet, calls them being clear of the exclusion zone. Trying to punch through to leeward of Brunel. Drone shot of them gybing in front of AkzoNobel. Tamara, on the bow, talks in Spanish. Neti looks through binoculars. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Neti talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: We're pushing hard, we take the first chance to overtake them, and we take it. Now we have to wait and see what happens with Dongfeng on the other side. Hopefully we keep ahead of Brunel, and the guys on the other side. We'll see.Charlie and SiFi look at the chart. SiFi: Right now if I was a betting man I'd say that Dongfeng is pretty good. They're 7 miles behind the leading boat, which is MAPFRE. And they're laying in doing 14 knots. Three other boats to weather.Witty, below, puts talcum powder in his foulies. "Look at this: I apply the talcum powder like Bes told me." He shakes talcum powder all over himself. This is the best theory. You just get as much of it as you can, and you just cover yourself. This could almost be for the last time. He pulls on his foulies. About 6 hours to the end of the VOR. The V-O-R. He jokes about throwing beer in each other's faces. Annemieke, in her bunk: It's sure he will do it again.High drone shot showing the three boats all in a line: AkzoNobel, Brunel, MAPFRE. Peter, below by the hatch as Nina moves coiled lines. Peter: AkzoNobel's proving to be a bit of a roadblock. Drone shot with RIB in the foreground. MAPFRE astern. Bouwe to Capey: Continue? Bouwe: MAPFRE there, and the roadblocker, Akzo, in front of us. And they're not too fast. But that's sailing. Peter in the pit. Low drone shot. Bouwe: Not too tight on the bit sail? Closeup of the chart showing the exclusion zones. Abby talks about how difficult it was to get past Akzo. Gonna be a tense 30 miles. MAPFRE coming up on their weather quarter; Carlo looks forward. Sam: What are you experiencing right now? Carlo: It's pretty tight racing. I'm getting a little annoyed by our Dutch mates on Akzo. I imagine MAPFRE isn't too happy with them either. We're pretty close to being home, so that's good. But it's pretty nerve-wracking. Brunel: MAPFRE gybed, and we still think this is the right way, so lets just cross our fingers that it's the winning move. AkzoNobel crosses in front by 100 yards. Kyle (I think?) calls a tongue-in-cheek "Starboard! Get out of the way." They gybe.Drone shot of Vestas triple-heading on starboard gybe. Drone shot of peeling to the MH0, furling the J0. SiFi, below: Last night was important tactically. Explains taking the offshore option. Made the choice we made because we thought we might get ahead of MAPFRE and Dongfeng that way. As it turns out, MAPFRE joined us. Now the overall of the race is resting on who made the right choice on which lane. We've seen one boat pick one, one pick the other, and one sort of waver between the two. Roy Disney, Jr. on deck. Charlie on the helm. Stacey grinding. Tony fiddles with the clew of a sail. Drones shot of lowering the J0, pulling the tack of the J0 off the bowsprit.Annemike, trimming: Battling here. Don't want anyone between us and Plastics. Very important few hours. Witty: Looks like a photo finish, doesn't it? What other way would you want to finish the Volvo Ocean Race? He describes the position of the boats. Describes the possibilities of how the finish could play out. This has been an amazing mental, emotional roller coaster this race. In 47,000 miles not one thing has changed. As critical as I have been of the boats, and I will stand by that, this is the most amazing round the world race I've ever seen. For a whole bunch of different reasons. Antonio and Trystan grinning on the weather rail.Charles and Pascal scowl at the computer. Looking at a sched? Charles chews on his neck cowl, rubs his eyes, talks to Pascal in French. Charles goes up, and Pascal moves into his spot. On deck, Horace says, "keep pushing." Carolijn asks about the other boats. Charles explains that the others are closer in mileage, but they have a straight line while the other boats have to gybe. So could be very close.Tony, below: As Nick just said, could be ever. Nick: Not ever. Tony: Who knows? [he laughs] Good and bad. The race has been a blast. Full on. Windiest race ever. As a team we had our ups and downs, had to battle on, come through it... It's my sixth race. Finishing my sixth lap of the planet over 20 years. Nick's just sniggering away up here. He knows I'll be back. Nick: I'm still going back to sleep. This could be my last watch on this boat. Which will have just completed two laps around the planet on, because this was Alvimedica on the last race. The old girl. Tony: I think Nick's gonna buy it. He's gonna put it on a vacant lot somewhere in Newport, and he's gonna live on it. Because he won't know how to live in a house. Stacey: Can put a sprinkler system on it... We joke about it, but I'm a bit like Tony. Hopefully this is my last time. I think I said this last race as well. Who knows what the future will bring I guess. On deck, Phil takes off his neoprene hood and rubs his hair: Last watch. Not gonna lie I'm pretty excited. I really want to get home. Time to start being a dad again, I guess. A few more hours, try to catch these guys, and then get home and start planning the next Volvo Ocean Race. Jena laughs. Tony: She's just dreaming of racing again, next time. Jena: Next time. I will enjoy it, have a little meal with Phil, a romantic breakfast. And then a little lie down in the bunk. You'll probably see me in 5 minutes setting a different sail. SiFi: We are enjoying our last day of offshore sailing. Beautiful sunny day in the North Sea. Not too sunny; if it gets too sunny it will get lighter. Below, Phil looks at a food pack. Eats at the nav station next to Jena. Phil sneezes, says to the camera: Brian [Brian Carlin, head of the OBRs mayabe?], Jena says there's never any mail for her. Charlie, on a pedestal on deck: Miss the most? Waking up every day with one goal. When it's over you wake up and don't know what to do with yourself. The direction is nice. What am I going to miss the least? Water pressure. Stacey: Probably, the challenge every day. And soon enough you don't have that, and you have to figure out what your next challenge is. SiFi: Miss the most? Other than the entertaining conversation with the OBRs? Hanging out with all of these guys I reckon. Working with some good people, learning something new every day. Don't know what I'm going to miss the least. Looking forward to my newfound freedom. Tony: Some of the stopovers were great. I'm going to miss that. Looking forward to going sailing again without getting blasted with water. TJ, on the helm: Miss the most? Like SiFi said, the people of course. Fast flat water VMG sailing. Miss the least? Probably that forward upper bunk. I'm looking forward to never having to climb that one again.Marie, below: Big surprise at the end because we took a different option from Brunel and MAPFRE. So we don't know for the moment. We will have a position report in 40 minutes, so we will see how they are going. So a bit stress, eh? We cross the finger. We have good wind at the moment. We hope they don't have the same. So we wait and we wait. Horace: Almost 42 nautical miles to the finish. Hopefully the weather forecast is like they say, the offshore choice will have less wind. So we can have a chance to overtake them. We still fight for that, and try everything we can, push the boat faster to have the best VMG speed to arrive the finish line. Everything will be happening at the finish line. Always believe it.Sailing down the Dutch coast with Stu on the helm and Marie trimming. RIB comes alongside. Marie waves. Carol takes a picture with her phone. Spray. Daryl trimming.Annemieke, below: Plan is, we're gonna bear away, and catch the whole fleet and finish first. Simple plan but it will work out. Witty: It's like leg 2 into Cape Town, the middle of the bloody Southern Ocean and we're gybing on top of each other. Nothing's changed. I think the boss is quite surprised at how tight and close it is. 100-footers were close but nothing like this. I don't want to look at the AIS ever again in my life. I'm sick of looking at the AIS. We've sailed 40,000 miles and we're still watching the boat next to us to see if they moved a sail a meter forward or back... I think now everyone's at the realization that tomorrow we never have to get on one of these things again and put ourselves through this. I think everything's coming home to roost of just how agonizingly frustrating and mentally tough it is, and we're now counting down the hours. I think if you thought like this any earlier in the race you wouldn't have been able to get yourself mentally right to do the next leg. Owner talks about the course from the cabin to the cockpit. Annemieke: I think as Witty always said, we're a bunch of good lunatics. But yeah, I think we've really bond. Everyone will not say to each other, but I think we're gonna miss each other. We went through so many highlights and major... disasters. Losing Fish. And I think Fish is a big part of the crew, he's with us, you know. Talking for myself I think about him every day. I miss him, and I think that counts for all of us. I think that's a big thing.Bouwe, trimming the main, talks about doing well over the night where they were the first to change sails from J1 to MH0, and did a good job, and later when AkzoNobel did their change they did it poorly and lost ground. And then they sailed over the top of MAPFRE. He talks about how Dongfeng went east. They're hoping the wind stays the same so they (Brunel) will need to gybe downwind. "Nothing we can do about that; they chose that route we chose this route." Nina: A bit nervous. No idea what Dongfeng is doing. We're just trying to hold MAPFRE now. Bouwe: Had a bit of a tough start. Kyle, on the helm: Not over till it's over. Bouwe, walking below, shows Sam his fingernails are all intact. Capey, below: Que sera, sera. Sam: What's that mean? Capey: What will be will be.Xabi, in the cockpit, trims the main and talks in Spanish about tactical situation. Repeats in English: 70 miles to go, very complicated really. Yesterday we were going east down the Danish coast with Dongfeng, but the last weather forecast changed a little, and we decided that the westerly option was better. Unfotunately they are in front of us, and Akzo. Still a good downwind of 30 miles today, but we will keep fighting and see what happens. Brunel and AkzoNobel ahead of them. Joan at the nav station. Blair on the helm. Willy, Sophie, Blair and Neti on the bow. Xabi: Main on. Hold. Blair's salty hands. Two boats closer in front of them.High drone shot of AkzoNobel with Brunel and MAPFRE behind them. Martine grinding as they peel to the MH0. Martine: after the mark in Aarhus, being so far behind we didn't expect to be in this position. But after a lot of flat out, no-sleep watches, here we are. Brad trimming with the other boats behind them. "Last day of it all. I'm feeling a sense of relief, but it's all on back there. No thought about resting tomorrow; next eight hours is going to be flat out. No eating no sleeping no drinking for the next eight hours. It's all on." Low drone shot from ahead.Tanker on the horizon; Dee talks about watching it to see if it changes direction. Dee gets her hat on and goes up. Slomo steering. Francesca, below: It's a real tough leg, it's short, but a lot of corners, different sails peeling, different conditions, full Volvo style, 30 knots, now we are sailing in 18 knots, so it's quite changeable waeather. It's quite nice. We were able to put more distance between us and Scallywag, and we can see Dongfeng in front, so everyone is really close. Bianca grinding on deck. Dee trimming. Slomo grinding by Liz. Scallywag behind them. Francesca: We have to beat Scallywag and put a boat between us and them. We'll try to catch the people in front. Maybe not in our hands; if someone wants to finish behind us it's perfect. Liz, on deck, talks about trying to keep the staysail happy. Nicolas at the nav station. Bianca and Dee in slomo.Pascal rubs his eyes at the nav station. Charles looks on. They talk in French. Pascal: Honestly, for the moment we are far behind, but they have to turn around 40 miles before the finish line and come back. I hope the next wind's on us, a lot. But we will see. It's a bit crazy we have been racing for 9 months and it's only the 40 last miles of the last leg is going to decide who is going to win the Volvo Ocean Race. It's crazy. Charles gets dressed and talks to Pascal in French; something about "a cyclone and we flap flap flap!" He tells Martin: If they get some light pressure we can come back. We win or not in one hour but not two hour (?). Wait and see.Grinding in the sunrise. Libby, below: We just peeled from our MH0 to the J1. Now wobbling along the northwest edge of Europe. Three boats have taken this route... Surprised to see the leaders split like that. Map screen showing the split. She talks about the western group. After a shot in the cabin hatch, the same clip of Libby is repeated. Libby calls up fleet positions from the nav station. "Struggling a bit with our speed... Hats off to Turn the Tide. They've got some good moding. A few peels to go; we seem to be better at peels, we gain a bit when we do that. So it's never over till it's over."Washing machine shot from inside the cabin. Martin driving. Stern cam of spray coming over the cockpit. Dee on the helm. Slomo washing machine past sthe cockpit winches. Martin grinding.Blair, below: So, real interesting one. Final appraoch to the Hague and the end of the race, and we knew it would be the case, but there's these TSS's that are a massive exclusion zone. Have to make a choice off Denmark which way to go. We were lining up to go on the inside, down toward Germany and along the beaches on the top of Holland; made a late call to go to the west. As a result we lost quite a lot on Brunel and AkzoNobel who had decided to go this way earlier, and doing so we split from Dongfeng who were carrying on down. It's a tricky one, but at the end of the day we have to do what we think is right to get us there fastest, and both the boats we had to beat are going different ways, and we feel this way's fastest. Got Brunel about a mile above us now, so we're gonna have to fight to the end. But that's the way it is. All good really. Wouldn't want it any other way. Not long to the finish now, definitely in the final sprint. Probably no sleep now for sure. Not that there's been much sleep. There's gonna be compression toward the finish as well. Lot of light stuff and gybing... Plenty to play for. Just glad we're here and in the fight. It's been a busy few days, just looking forward to finishing off well. Black and white shot of the cockpit. Mast cam view of lowering the J1. Loud shot of the cockpit. Conversation between Blair and Joan at the nav station. Xabi in the pit. Slomo. Blair on the helm.Spreader cam of the cockpit. Mast cam of spray on the bow. Stern cam of major washing machine. Liz: This is definitely one of the things I'm going to miss about the race. It's pretty cool to spend the last 24 hours like this. It's a good way to end the race. Washing machine in the pit. Stacking. Bagging a sail (?) on the floor of the cockpit. Liz: Gaining on Scallywag the last 2 hours, and everyone's pretty geared up to stay in front of them. So the fight is on. Lowering the J1 on the foredeck.Bernardo on the rail lashes the stack. Scallywag is visible a half mile behind and to weather. A coastline is visible behind them and to starboard; is that Norway? A German or Dutch island? Keel shot. Rudder shot. Nicolas: We are going offshore; in a few hours will have 30 knots (yeah, this is off Norway). Bleddyn works on the outrigger. Dee steers. Dee grinding. Reefing the main. Stronger conditions; washing machine. Liz, below: Pretty gnarly. We're sending it across the North Sea from Norway down to Denmark. 32 knots of breeze, pretty bouncy sea state, and we're sitting on speeds of between 24 and 27 knots. Really really fun.Black and white. Night. Abby works the pit. It's super loud as they surf on starboard; some maneuver is going on. Water cascades into the cockpit. Abby coils. Below, Peter, from his bunk, asks Capey about the sched. Capey: It's half and half; could go either way. Looks like they're going inshore. [Talking about MAPFRE and Dongfeng, I assume.] Peter, in his bunk, explains to Sam: Just peeled to the J0. "So we go the J1 off, which is always nice. AkzoNobel seems to be going pretty quick with the J1, Vestas is down to leeward, a little bit behind. We're not very sure if MAPFRE and Dongfeng are going inside or outside; we're obviously going outside. Hope to find some good speed with the J0 and get to Holland."Dongfeng on port gybe, Carolijn trimming. MAPFRE to starboard. Daryl. Hoisting the J1. Charles grinding on the forward pedestal. Stu on the helm talking with Kevin. Spray. Sunset. Waves. Reefed main. Stacking. Pascal at the nav station. Charles at the nav station. Stu: If we had to gybe it though, we could run one. Stu: We've chosen a path inshore. So there's lots of tricky navigation. Sand banks, separation schemes, wind farms. It's going to be an interesting night.Slomo washing machine from the cockpit. Kyle, below: Just broke the padeye that holds the port outrigger on, lost the forward outrigger, snapped the end off it, and it took a big gouge out of the daggerboard, and had to replace that, which was pretty horrible in 25 knots power reaching. So just spent 45 minutes under water with Carlo trying to replace that. And we did that, and lost quite a bit, unfortunately, about a mile and a half to AkzoNobel and the rest of the guys. Back underway, and hopefully make some gains on those guys soon. Spreader cam shots of Kyle and Carlo working on the broken outrigger. Reefing the main.TJ suits up and goes forward wth a GOPro (Garmin) on him. Working at the base of the mast to put in a reef.. He takes spray in the pit. Crash cam from the stern shows him taking spray; SiFi talks on the PA about an upcoming exlcusion zone. He clips in the reefed tack, comes back to the pit. Spreader cam view of them pulling the main back in. TJ, below, talks about putting the reef in. Charlie comes down: When you have to go up for two seconds sometimes you don't put your gear on. Which is stupid. TJ: We reduced the sail, and then we were like, let's go faster. And put it back up again. Charlie, spraying water on his face: And we were the victims. Us.Drone shot of Carlo working the bow; looks like the end of a peel to the J1 from the MH0 (or J0). Below, Carlo takes off his foulies. Sam: How's it going? Carlo: It was tough. Feels like we've gone through about 20 transitions in the last day. Lot of peeling, and not a lot of sleep. It's a bit frustrating. It's a tough leg. Bouwe, in the hatch: Who has got such unbelievably stinky feet? (Sees Carlo.) Ah, the cloggy! You should wear clogs instead of boots. Carlo: That's what you get when you do hard work on the bow, mate. Bouwe: We've dialed it up quite a bit. We've got leverage on them now. They're probably four miles ahead, so everything to play for. There's always opportunities, so you just have to keep chipping away. Big call will be to take an easterly course, or outside. That's the big choice we have to make. Sam: Anything you want to say to your Brunel fans out there? Bouwe: Talks in Dutch.Drone shots of Scallywag sailing upwind wih TTToP a half mile away. Parko, below: We've basically been match racing with them since the start of this leg, and the position between us has changed a half dozen times now. I don't think anyone's going to change to a smaller sail, and after a couple of hours the breeze should lighten up a bit. Crew working in the cockpit in rougher conditions. Annemieke and Seng Huang Lee on the pedestal. Parko, below: Going through the moding, and you have to laugh sometimes; all the sails are flapping and you're still going 20 knots... Last chance to drive these boats hard before the Hague, in this edition. Slomo washing machine. Parko: It's always amazing toward the end of these campaigns. Amazing events, getting to compete against the best in the business. I think we're going to be close to them the rest of the way; I wouldn't be surprised if our position changes again before the finish. Drone shot.Xabi talks below in Spanish. From the noise and movement it sounds like they're getting into the stronger wind. Repeats in English: 25 - 30 knots from west to northwest. Last night passed a light wind transition close to Norway. Now they have Dongfeng 2 miles to leeward and astern. So very happy, and hopefully we can keep this position. Still a lot to go, obviously. Rob talks to Pablo, on the helm, about tactics with Dongfeng (who is to leeward and ahead). If Dongfeng tacks, then MAPFRE can sail low and fast to get into a controlling position (?)(Something like that.) Pablo: They are tacking. Rob: Okay. Speeding it up guys. Dongfeng approaching. Patch on the J1. Rob: We don't really want to sag down to them. But we do want to pull some bearing. So higher and faster please. (Chuckles.) Slomo of Neti on the helm. Stern cam, spreader cam of stacking aft. Washing machine. Spray on the foredeck as the wind builds.Drone shot of Vestas tacking with the J1 and land in the background. Charlie in the cockpit: Little bit of a situation when we passed the virtual mark and the breeze died, and we ended up on the wrong side of the TSS. A little disappointing. But it's going to make some fun racing on the last night of the race. Drone shots: stacking, sailing upwind. Mark and Charlie sailing in the cockpit. Phil grinding. Drone shot from overhead.Flopping. TTToP crossing them a half mile away. Drone shot of the two boats. Ben: Pretty frustrating night. A big game of luck almost, who can pick the right shifts. We just went around a virtual mark. Can't seem to shake Turn the Tide yet. Drone shot. Ben: It's a massive undertaking, this race. It's relentless. It's never-ending... It really shapes your character. Relentless mentally and physically. A good test of the person and of the team.Slomo of Dee grinding. Liz on the helm. Slomo. Tacking the MH0. Drifting conditions. Scallywag bare-headed flops on the horizon. Nicolas looks at his tablet. "It's a flapping sail." Stacking. Dee and Bernardo. Bianca. "We have passed the mark." Everyone cheers. Sitting forward. Francesca: How many miles to the Hague? Bernardo: 400. Bianca: 400 miles to the finish line. Francesca: 6 days. 10 days. We don't have enough food. Dee: But it's not just the finish line, Franky. It's the ultimate finish line. Francesca: The extreme finish line. Life at the extreme. Bianca: Look at us we're blasting along now. Furling the MH0 for a gybe. Scallywag a half mile away. Dee and Francesca talking on the rail. Dee explains that they've just rounded the virtual mark, and expect to finish Sunday evening... It's felt so far like the longest in-port race ever.Below, Pascal studies the computer, chews his nails. He announces to the cockpit over the PA that in (something) minutes they can furl the J3 (I think?). Marie responds on deck. Pascal: Standby tack. Okay, tacking! We hear the sound of the tack. Chart screen shows the exclusion zone rounding (I think?). Pascal explains being in the new wind, and getting the shift, and being able to go directly to the south. Sleep? I think we are going to sleep well when we arrive in The Hague. But that's life. We have a little bit more than one day until the race is finished. I think it is good that we can go on pushing. And we will see.Capey at the nav station, chin in hand. Peter sitting below, shirtless, eating and scowling. Closeup computer screen showing their positioon and AkzoNobel's AIS symbol just ahead of them. Pans down to show courses diverging around an exclusion zone. Bouwe on deck explains the traffic separation scheme. Breeze shifted so much that they had to sail down to miss the traffic separation zone. And they'll lose Akzo as well, because they tacked well before. Bouwe: "Can't change it."High drone shot of Dongfeng with MAPFRE a half mile astern and to weather. Low drone shot. Both boats under MH0 in light conditions. More drone shots.Nicolai gets out of his bunk: "That was 20 minutes. That was good." Martine: I don't count time anymore. I don't count hours and minutes. Nicolai, agreeing: No. Grinding on deck. Jules calling course changes while looking at his tablet. Nicho talks about winds ahead. They talk about which way to take the exclusion zone. Nicho talks about rounding the virtual mark. Now we can see the guys in front of us. Need another compression and parkup. Have a reasonable lead over Scallywag and Turn the Tide, but need to get into the guys in front. Another boat in the distance ahead of them (Vestas?).Carlo, below: It's very light. So it's an opportunity to catch up on the two red boats. And on sleep. He gets in his bunk. Peter, on deck: Pretty light. Working our way back up to Norway. Stretching the course, which is good for us... Can see the boats ahead of us, bit of a compression. Kyle, on the helm: Of course the dream is still alive till it's over. Some good gains... Keep plugging away and hopefully catch them in the next 24 hours. AkzoNobel behind them. Dongfeng and MAPFRE heading south. Peter and Capey talk about current and the virtual mark. Peter: Wanna wake everyone up? Two miles? Capey: I think that will do it for me. (Calling layline.) They tack. They come into the virtual mark, with Capey calling the bear away. Abby on the bow talks about them having rounded the mark, and traffic separation scheme coming up. Sam: How is the mood on board right now? Abby: It's good. Still in good spirits. Still a long way to go, gotta keep plugging. As much as we would like to be down there, we just gotta keep trucking. Shot of the two boats ahead of them.Blair preps a sail patch below. "Too many sail changes, and the [something] which attaches the sheet to the sail, went through the J1's... So a quick repair before the next sail change. Endless... He and Neti apply the patch on the sail near the bow. Willy, on the foredeck, talks in Spanish. Repeats in English: If there's another team besides us in this race that deserves to win it's them. We've been stuck behind them for the last 2 days. We had our chances to pass them. We did pass them, but they always come back strong. They're just under half a mile. We're just catching them up now in the next half hour. Compression and transition. Plenty of chances. Blair below tells Tamara, "Two hours". Then says "Nahh..." Maybe he was joking? Rounding the virtual mark, with Dongfeng heading south and dthen them following them. Chasing Dongfeng south with Vestas (I think) approaching them.Ben and Trystan go through food packs by the galley. Libby tells them 10 minutes to the virtual mark. Witty asks how far. Libby: 4.7 miles. Fleet compressed; at one point everyone was within 6 or 7 miles; now they've spread out again. Might be able to get past Turn the Tide. Will see in 40 minutes. Boats around the "mark" are going slower than boats still going upwind, so wind is light. Witty calls to be ready for a tack. "Hopefully get across Plastics." They tack. Owner on the grinder. Drone shots of them converging with TTToP, both sailing very slowly.Dongfeng and MAPFRE sailing south from the virtual turning mark. Jena: MAPFRE! SiFi talks about the approach, passenger ferry. Jena slaps at someting. SiFi checks his tablet. They all seem exhausted. Charlie on the helm. Simon calls it, and they tack to round the virtual mark. TJ: Are we around it? SiFi: Yeah. We were a bit in tight, out wide. Charlie, on the helm, hoists his cup: This is for you Bill. This is for you.Knotmeter on mast reads 5.7. Stacking amidships. Francesca: Of course it's a mix of emotions. You want to push, because it's the last leg, and you want to gain a position on the leaderboard. But in a week and a half it's over, and you need to work out your work plans, dream plans... it's a bit weird for everyone. I think we did some good legs during the race. Maybe we deserve something more than to finish last in the race. This leg seems quite open. MAPFRE and Dongfeng had a big lead yesterday, and they lost everything in this light patch. Every thing is open to the finish line. Everyone is quite tired. But the other boats are in the same position as us. Cannot complain, and just do what we know to do in the few hours we still have of this Volvo Ocean Race. Bernardo: I think we didn't sleep one straight hour... Lucas: My eyes are bleeding. Slomo of Bernardo, Bianca, Bernardo and Lucas eating below. Grinding.Flopping at sunrise/sunset. Nicolas looking for wind. Mast instruments showing 0.7 knot. J1 flopping throug the foretriangle with the (furled) MH0 next to it. Crew sleeping on the bow. Lucas: Bit tired this morning. Been a couple of restless days. But now we've gone into a parking lot with the whole fleet. Dongfeng and MAPFRE are both within our sights now. Dee on the helm. Clew of the sail. Lucas: NO, we're not moving. Going backwards. Flappy flappy flappy. Francesca on the bow: Pretty tired. Two days of no sleep. Lot of maneuvers. Don't have time for eating, for sleep. Short leg but it's quite hard. Crew lowering the J1 in the morning light. Paolo Mirpuri helps pull it down.Drifting in light conditions. SiFi talks about wind. Stacey: The standard Volvo Ocean Race compression has happeend. We busted our butts to get somewhere and then (hits her hands together) we all end up together. Mark and SiFi looking around. MAPFRE and Dongfeng 3 miles away. TJ talks about a spectator boat motoring out to see them. Nick puts on an abdominal wrap. "I got this from an even older, and more damaged bowman; Neti, right there (pointing). He puts on his foulie pants over it. "Kind of feels like a diaper though." Charlie calls from the bow: Dongfeng looks like they're getting the better of... Nick: High pressure clouds... It's gonna be a good day. Stacy grinds. Tony on the helm points out MAPFRE sailing with strong wind. TJ: They're heeled over. So we compress and now we're expanding. Bungee. SiFi and Charlie talking at the nav station. They all sound loopy as hell.Kevin carries a stacking pole. Jack on the helm with MAPFRE in the background. Charles, Marie, scowling. Light air tack. Stu. Horace. They all look exhausted. Tacking the MH0. Pascal. Carolijn: Aarhus, a bit crazy in the marina but very fun. Waypoint not as far north as the last one. Been through a light patch; hopefully that will be the last of it. MAPFRE to leeward, had a bit of a battle in the transition. And allowed other boats to catch up. Can see Vestas. Battling it out with MAPFRE at the moment.Neti talks in Spanish in the morning light about wind, the fleet, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: Busy night. Pretty tied with Dongfeng. Not too far from the top mark. Last evening had upwind and reaching condiions in medium breeze. Now compression, Dongfeng and us have escaped from the other guys before, now we have to keep in front of them. Loud footage of foredeck work, darkness. Then drifting conditions in the pretty gorgeous sunrise with Dongfeng a quarter mile away. Slomo sailing with Dongfeng behind them. Willy sleeping on the stack forward. Blair, through the hatch, puts his hands up: What?Amazing sunrise drone shot with AkzoNobel sailing across in front of it. Luke on the helm: I'd say everyone is shattered. It'd be a good word. This has probably been the longest stretch of sleep for people. Unfortunately Brad and I are on watch while everyone else is getting this great sleep. I think in total we've probably had an hour since the start, of solid sleep. But that's the race; it's a short leg. It's part of what we do. Lots of corners, lots of places to see, different countries. Stacking. Drone shot of pulling J1 forward for a sail change. Brad, hanking on the J1, talks about not having sleep. Getting up able to see all the boats. Almost a restart. Feeling hopeful as well. Simeon: Back in the same spot we were 24 hours ago. All compressing in. Leaders are just 5 miles in front, hitting a wall of no pressure. Drone shot with sunrise. Luke: We keep on pushing because if we're going to take the effort to be out here, might as well push and try to win the leg. Doesn't mean too much for overall points for us, but if we're all going to be together and do our last race, we'll do the best we can. Sunrise.In the semi-dark, sailing with Scallywag a half mile behind them. Passing a buoy with two boats ahead of them. Martin, on the helm: Got Scallywag behind us, and have Brunel and Vestas just ahead. Sunrise silhouetting Vestas and Brunel ahead of them. Wind is dropping a lot. Have to change the mode quite a bit on the boat, probably change the sail as well. A lot of work for us. (Sounds super tired.) Boatspeed: 10.3. Folding a furled sail on the foredeck. Competitor on the horizon ahead.Bouwe. Peter: Doesn't look like many of these shifts are going our way at the moment. Carlo's very positive. Once we turn the corner here, Brunel will be like a good racehorse. Vestas in the background. Going into Aarhus with AkzoNobel just behind them. Nina trims during a maneuver, then runs forward. Crowd on the quay. Rounding the turning mark with AkzoNobel just boatlenghts behind them. Sailing fast with the A3. AkzoNobel crossing behind them. High drone shot of the two boats. Low drone shot from in front of the bow. Distant drone shot of the two boats with a lighthouse in the foreground. Go Sam. Carlo trimming with the sun behind his yead. AkzoNobel ahead of them. Kyle: Just went through Aarhus. Didn't do so well; AkzoNobel got ahead of us. Wind farm to starboard as they sail fast with the main reefed. Abby below, eating. Holds up her hand and makes a "meh" gesture. Talks about it being painful to sail past the leaders but sailing in the wrong direction. Can hope we find a passing lane somewhere, or have a bit of a parkup between now and the finish. Sam: Are you remaining optimistic? Abby: I'm trying to... It's going to be hard to pull any positions back. But keep pushing; never give up.TTToP sails a hundred yards away on their port quarter. The boat owner is on the helm again, gripping the wheel like he thinks someone's going to try to take it away from him. Witty at the nav station: Have you realized the boss is the king scallywag of all scallywags? It all flows from the top down. It seems really happy to have him on board for the leg with all we've gone through and stuff. I think we can pass a few boats and get a good result now with him on board. Nav screen showing other boats around them. Witty talks about what's happened in the race with them lately. Still pretty confident. Only a mile between the back four boats. Nothing to get too worried about at the moment; still plenty of passing lanes. One thing the boss did notice, is people just work harder when things get hard. It's a big thing that I'm proud of with this team. We don't give up. Don't throw the towel in and just work harder. Slomo washing machine. Witty talks about the less experienced crew: Pretty big step up for Alex and Nipper, guys like Parko have been fantastic helping them along, teaching them the ropes. Trystan Seal joined us halfway through the race. They're all cut from the same cloth. Bessie is mad as a cut snake (?), the toughest human I know, and the most positive human I know. And a life friend of mine now, for sure. Couldn't be more proud of her. I think she's the only person in 55,000 miles has never said a negative comment, never got angry at me. When you pick people to be part of a team, you judge them on their character before you judge them on their ability. When you go the other way around you might end up with ability, but you don't end up with a team. One thing I've learned you probably can't be all one way, can't be all the other. Probably need to be more in the middle. But the Scallywag family is growing pretty fast, and the boss has plenty of plans, and plenty of boats, and plenty of stuff to do. So I'm sure the guys that are new to the team for this leg will be around for a long time to come. And I'm sure there's going to be plenty more Nippers and Alex's to come along. It's one of the biggest kicks I get out of doing it. Sunset. TTToP sailing ahead and to leeward.Rob, in the midnight sun: In and out of Aarhus today. It was hard. It's been nonstop all day. In fact this whole leg's been nonstop. Got out of phase, a bit shifty. Was pretty good to see all the people on shore. Just been fighting, fighting, fighting. Waiting for a chance to get by. Be patient. Wait for them to make a mistake. Keep nibbling away. Pablo: Talks in Spanish about being tired, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: We're tired, like eveyrone I guess. The important thing is to keep the boat fast. Couple of hours of sleep. We are with Dongfeng; they are very close. Have been fighting all day. Meter by meter. Hopefully we can take them over tonight. More discussion in Spanish. Pablo: We have been doing a lot of maneuvers. And in my case I have been on the wheel. Good fun; with Dongfeng we have been fighting. Slomo of RIB alongside. Willy. Joan with his tablet, looking at Dongfeng. Spectator boats following them. Tack. (Oh, this is their Aarhus footage.) Crowd cheering. Xabi in the pit. Vestas crossing their bow. Tamara talks in Spanish while trimming. Slomo of Dongfeng ahead of them. Blair on the foredeck looking SO punchy. Xabi looks through binoculars. Lowering the J1. Slomo of Xabi in the sunset.Tony on the helm with sunset as they sail toward Norway (again). Helm controls. Tony: Closed up, which is good. Quite a bit of racing this leg. Lot of mark roundings; very little sleep. Everyone's running on nothing at the moment. Everyone's hoping to get an hour or two of sleep. Sailing the midnight sun. Never really dark. SiFi just said we're 3.7 away from MAPFRE, and 4.2 away from Dongfeng. Mark makes dual shaka signs. Expecting a header. 85 miles from the mark. Two boats ahead on the horizon.Charles, his eyes closed at the nav station, looks like he's sleeping sitting up. Wake shot with MAPFRE astern. Stu on the helm, looks back. Charles' voice on the PA saying something... Passing a small buoy. Jack on the helm in the sunset. Charles looks to starboard. Below, at the nav station, Kevin talks in French about other boats, the race.Someone (Martin?) sleeping below. Sailing past land in lighter conditions. Nicolas and Bernardo look at Nicolas's tablet. Stacking below. Tacking in the cockpit. Bernardo and Bleddyn on the forward pedestal. Scallywag 100 yards ahead of them. Entering Aarhus. Nicolas looks at his tablet. Nicolas: We are going to go inside the harbor. Winds are very tricky. We are fighting with Scallywag. Three boatlenghts. Have to be ready to do everything. Spectator sailboat motors alongside with Danish flag. Tacking. Nicolas: We are almost layline now. We have to tack guys. Bleddyn, on the helm, calls the tack. Scallywag crosses ahead on port. Sailing past a 12 meter in the harbor. Repeat of earlier Nicolas clip explaining the upcoming harbor transit. Passing the lighthouse. Scallywag exiting above them. Spectators along quay. Tacking around the buoy. Exiting past the crowds. Annalise: A little bit tight in there; wind was a little funky. Had a few messups with our Masthead Zero. Nearly heading to the finish. One more mark by Norway. Loads of people there, which was really cool... I think everyone's pretty tired on the boat. We're now on the home stretch... Sleep when we get to the Hague. Gybe. Scallwag to port. Lumpy furl of the MH0. Liz: Have to drop it. Wrestling with the badly furled sail on the foredeck. Scallwag gybes ahead of them. Lucas fiddles with the sail. Lowering the J1.Slomo of Brunel sailing a half mile away on their port quarter. Justin, to Jules: He's still got a zero [J0] up. Jules looks. Furled. Brad: Good to get past Brunel; we've been battling with them all day. Jules nailed the layline, and they screwed it up and had to do another gybe, and that was our passing maneuver. Slomo of Martine grinding with Brunel behind them.Sailing into Aarhus as MAPFRE exits below them. Brad on the rail. Nicolai on the helm. Brunel crosses ahead of them. Brunel tacking directly ahead of them; 3 boatlengths away. Entering the marina with helicopter overhead. Rounding the mark right behind Brunel. Nicolai: Amazing day for me, sailing into my home port. Hope we put on a good show. Hopefully we can pay them back now wiht a good result. Brad lowers the J1 on the bow with spectators cheering. Sailing fast on the exit. Emily, below: Exciting to have fans cheering. Shattering; no sleep, and then lots of sail changes. Luke, on deck: Good to have the support of the Danish people. Certainly was full on for us; lots of maneuvers, lots of sail changes. I'm sure they got a sight they can take home and remember for a long time.Drone shot of Scallywag triple-heading. Libby: I'd be pretty keen to split the stack now, so we have options. TTToP a few boatlenghts behind. Libby: We didn't do to well coming in. Turning in a marina which is always pretty exciting to watch. Close rounding, bit of a frenzy. Passing lighthouse. Rounding the turning mark. Libby: A3 up as soon as you can. Libby: No rest, lots of corners, lots of sail changes. We're just trying to get to the Hague. Witty: I haven't been in Denmark for 20 years. There you go; that was in and out. Done.Sailing into Aarhus (I think). Crew work in the cockpit. Jena. Windsurfer. TJ makes a peace sign at a foiling kitesurfer. Charlie on the helm. Jena: We're here in Aarhus. I'm so excited. So many people are here, and we're not even in the harbor yet. My mom and dad, sister, friends. Close to the new sailing center. Dongfeng exiting as they keep going in. Jena is doing her live interview on the headset. Nick: Anyone want to see MAPFRE? They wave at MAPFRE as they go by. Spectator fleet. Jena grinding with Roy Disney, Jr. SiFi with his tablet: Anyone see the mark yet? Jena waves. Jena: I'm so close to home. Right there! (she points). She waves both arms to the crowd on the quay. Tacking around the buoy. Jena: I'm so happy, so proud to be Danish right now. This is the largest amount of people we've seen at any stopover or flyby or anything. I think it's so spectacular. I'm so moved and so touched. I saw my family and friends. Thank you so much, all of Denmark. It was amazing. Thank you. Mark: Pretty cool, leaving Aarhus. You can tell this country loves sailing, and a lot of support for Jena. Jena wipes away tears on the stern. AkzoNobel and Brunel coming in. TJ coils on the foredeck as they sail past them. "Gotta keep pushing hard. There has been no sleep on this leg."Kyle, on the rail: Approaching Aarhus. Got Turn the Tide, AkzoNobel, and Scallywag behind us. Vestas ahead. MAPFRE and Dongfeng are quite a ways ahead; hoping for a parkup. Not the greatest position, probably 13-14 miles short of where we want to be. We're still confident we can come back in this leg. Pushing hard. Hopefully it will swing our way. Peter below lies down in his bunk. "I'm for a nap." Sam: How we gonna get em, Pete? Peter: I don't know. Depends on the opportunities. Had a bit of a peeling frenzy this last hour: Masthead to J0 to Masthead to J1 to J0. We can see Vestas again. Hopefully the leaders are slowing up. Bouwe, below: So far it has been pretty much as predicted. Have done pretty well against Akzo and the boats behind us who have sailed in the same water. Sam: You're behind the red boats. Does that worry you, and how are you going to get them behind you? Bouwe: It worries me *shitless*. Because they have a really good lead, 11 miles dead upwind. If they turn the corner that 11 miles will be 25, 30 miles again. But luckily we go through the virtual waypoint. Chance of a parkup, and hopefully can catch them up. It will be difficult. After we come back past Denmark there's a lot of exclusion zones, traffic separation zones, wind farms; of coruse we're going to try to sail our own course. Might take a little bit of a flyer because we're relatively far behind. High pressure pushing in, so there's a chance for a buffalo girls sail the outside. So let's cross our fingers that's happening.Dongfeng sails with two RIBs alongside; MAPFRE beyond. Approach to Aarhus, maybe? Carolijn can be heard discussing their sail configuration. Daryl. Carolijn: And then back to Norway. MAPFRE astern fo them. MAPFRE sailing to leeward. Coming into the harbor with helicopter sound Stu asks Pascal if his waypoint is close to the marina. Carolijn shouts a conversation with someone in a RIB alongside. Tack. Sailing into the harbor with cheers. Tacking around the harbor buoy. Passing MAPFRE, who's still coming in. More cheering crouds. Passing Vestas. Daryl makes some comment: "...was MAPFRE and now it's Brunel." Stu: They banged the left corner. That's certainly a challenge when racing 24 hours and we're further away from the finish than when we started. There's something not quite right about that. Pascal: Less wind here guys. Stu: Wait a bit for puff to roll through here, and loose cover MAPFRE? He points out pressure. Daryl: Still a couple of big opportunities for a big parkup. Above Denmark, getting up to the next mark. And then the finish depending on the timing. Can only cover so much; have to keep doing what we're doing for the first part of this leg.Liz steers as Scallywag sails a quarter mile to leeward. Scallywag in front of the wind farm. Francesca grinding in front of Scallywag and the wind farm. Scallywag a hundred hards on their port quarter. Slomo of Scallywag behind them with Dee scowling in the foreground. Liz: Not a lot of ocean going on in the Volvo Ocean Race at the moment. Have to sail into a harbor, sail back out, sail back up to Norway. Not much sleep. Have been dueling with Witty the whole race. [Re: beating Scallywag]: I ould not describe it. It would be perfect. Slomo foredeck, grinding. They look exhausted. Bleddyn, Bianca grinding. Liz stacking with Scallywag behind. Clew of the MH0. Scallywag 100 yards ahead and to weather. Rolling up the J3.Nicolai, Martine, and Emily wrestle a big sail (the MH0?) down on the foredeck.Drone shots of Vestas sailing upwind with a lot of heel. Jena in the cockpit. SiFi with his tablet. More of Jena grinding. SiFi: We've had our final course. We'll be sailing into the marina at Aarhus. And then a virtual mark off Norway. Which is going to put us through a transition line on the way up, and again on the way back. They're making the course longer. Drone shot. J0, with J3 hoisted but furled. Foredeck work. Jena in the cockpit again. Stacking aft. Birds flying (geese?). Mark (I think?) coiling in the pit.High drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing past the wind farm. Nicho talks to Brad about getting rid of the J3 and bring the J2 in a bit. Brad does that. Jules: Not doing too well at the moment. Didn't have too good a run from the buoy up at Norway. Brad hoists the MH0. Simeon, with binoculars: Pretty disappointed. Off the pace; out of sync. Peel. Simeon: Still a long way to go. Everyone's working hard. Getting a little bit of rest now. I don't think anyone slept longer than 40 minutes. This afternoon we'll get into Aarhus, then back up north again. Drone shot with wind farm.Scallywag on their starboard quarter. Grinding. Slomo gybe, steering, stacking. Annalise triming, not even paynig attention to the low-level washing machine. Bianca grinding. Martin: A tight race with Scallywag. Got closer and closer on the downwind leg. Heading over to Denmark. Bleddyn: The main thing for us this leg is not only to defeat Scallywag but get a boat between us. We're ahead of them; try to catch AkzoNobel or Brunel, in front of us, over the next day. Haven't had much sleep. Can sleep after we get to the Hague. Scallywag to starboard. Bianca yawning. Gybe. Stacking.MAPFRE in their wake. Charles: After this mark we go upwind. Charles driving. Carolijn trimming. Stu: Where's this mark?.. What's the bearing... 214? Pascal comes up and looks around. Charles: Can we go up? Pascal answers in French. Jack on the foredeck. So far I've had two lots of 3 and a half minutes (sleep). Went downstairs at one point last night and got about 3 minutes before I got called up. Won't be a chance for sleep for some time. Going into Aarhus; lots of maneuvers. Maybe on our way up to Norway again, we'll get a chance to chill out a bit. But I don't think so.Drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard. Drone shows TTToP to weather of them. Alex: Turn the Tide. We've been next to them the whole time. We're just reaching along, boatspeed the same. Happy with how we're going. You go the same speed most of the time, then you have your moment when you're quicker. Both boats waiting to capitalize on a mistake; tension is pretty high. Pretty stressful. Drone shot of triple-heading wth the J2 flapping. Alex: Yesterday we were ahead; now we're even. Just gotta have patience. Drone shot as J2 is furled.Blair, by the runner, talks about the competitive situation. They've stretched out on the boats behind on this downwind stretch, but have managed to stay close to Dongfeng. As we've come in toward Denmark now we've compressed a bit. 1.5 miles behind them. J0 ("joe") reaching at the moment. All's good, but hopefully we can catch these guys some more before the Hague, and catch them. Everyone's running on 20 minutes sleep; I should go below and get some sleep. (Asked about Brunel.) Good that they're 20 miles behind, but they need to keep focused on the guys in front. Beautiful drone shot of them surfing with the sun behind them. Drone shots of them triple-heading. Blair on the helm. Slomo of someone taking spray on the foredeck. Wind farm. Spreader cam shot of Dongfeng ahead of them.Drone shot of Vestas sailing fast. Wind farm. Charlie: Sailing to Aarhus in Denmark, home of Vestas wind systems. Drone shot of the wind farm. Jena: Almost home; woo hoo!Trystan and Ben go thorugh the food stores in the galley. Trystan: Baby food. Libby at the nav station. They ask her how long on this gybe. Ben: Lots and lots of gybing. Lots of short gybing. Not much sleeping. Slomo washing machine on deck. Ben: Looking back on it in a couple of weeks time sitting on the couch watching Netflix you'll be going you know what, it would be pretty cool to go back out there and send it. Slomo on deck. Gybing in about 25 minutes. Hopefully enough time to have some freeze dry. Slomo on deck. Alex: Whoever gives up earliest. Gotta do what you've gotta do. Slomo washing machine. Since yesterday afternoon it's been nonstop. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Alex: Look fondly on these memories in the future.Mark explains the current situation. Trying to enjoy the moment, only have about 48 hours more sailing together. Stacking to leeward. Charlie calls and initiates the gybe. Phil rummaging in gear below (or maybe stacking below?). Someone (TJ?) talks with SiFi at the nav station about what other boats have done. Shot out the cabin at the helm while we hear a stack chant.Dee explains that they got to the mark close to Scallywag and had a bad mark rounding. Martin in the pit as they round the Norway turning mark. Scallywag next to them inside, then ahead of them as Liz pulls down the J1 on the bow. Dee on the helm: Know the order everyone is in, and sadly we are at the back. Lowering the J1, motorboat following them, Scallywag to leeward and ahead. Sunrise. Dee: A little tour of Scandinavia. She talks about sleep, and people forgoing it, and their positivity. Nicolas talks to Dee about gybing around the TSS. Stacking. Scallywag behind them, a little.Marie laughs below about the lack of night. Still leading. Doing 20-25 knots downwind. Cockpit with Charles steering.Epic slomo washing machine shots with the newly risen sun behind them. Annemieke does a slomo shaka sign.Grinding in the cockpit. Bouwe on the helm. Other boat on their starboard quarter. Grinding. Gybe. Land. Peter talks about approaching Aarhus.Night shot on deck. Stacking to leeward on the approach to the Norway buoy, I think.Drone shot of AkzoNobel in the near-darkness below. Drone shots of them sailing downwind triple-heading. Crew trimming in the cockpit. Another boat to port: Brunel. Brad: 1:00 in the morning, sun's coming up. In the lee of Norway. Will likely be building soon. Brunel behind and to windward; doing all right on them. Just ahead is Vestas. Drone shots of them surfing with the dawn behind them.Jena trims as they sail upwind toward the Norway turning mark. Hoisting the A3 in preparation for the rounding. Other boats already having rounded. Stacey: Arriving at the first mark on the coast of Norway. It's midnight and the sun's coming up. The cherry red boats have just rounded, and Akzo is just behind us. SiFi points out the buoy. Stacking to leeward in preparation for the rounding. SiFi calls the time to the tack: 1:10. Charlie calls the tack from the helm. Buoy wiht the moon behind it. Charlie calls the deploy. Sailing downwind with the sunrise behind them. TTToP on their weather quarter tacking for the mark. Tony fiddling with the outrigger. SiFi laughs about the midsummer night, relates the events of the beat up. Happy to have got out in third, and slightly faster than the boats ahead at the moment, so it's all good.Xabi, heading south in the pre-dawn, talks in Spanish about Dongfeng, Vestas, and Brunel. He repeats in English: Just going through the first night here, even if it doesn't look like it, 3:30 local time. After a not very good start of the day we've recovered quite well. Just passed the waypoint for Norway 2 hours ago. Now going downwind to Arrhuus. We were second there a half mile behind Dongfeng, and Brunel is a couple of boats behind, 8 miles upwind. It's going well. Hopefully we can get in front of Dongfeng soon. We see them rounding the buoy and deploying the A3, then see it again from the stern cam. Dongfeng on the bow ahead of them. Small powerboat alongside. Sophie bagging the J1. Dongfeng ahead and to starboard. Night vision shots of the crew on the bow, in the cockpit. Xabi talks with Sophie; trims the main.Tack in the semi-darkness. Mark rounding. Someone (Annemieke?) counts down to the mark. Someone else shouts "deploy, deploy, deploy..." TTToP behind them. Libby: We're just off the coast of Norway. Half a boatlength between us and Turn the Tide. But we did a better peel inside them, so we got better distance on them. Witty gives the owner instructions on the helm. TTToP a few boatlengths astern of them.Night shots of Dongfeng near the Norway turning mark. Powerboat alongside. They round the mark and unfurl the A3 (I assume). MAPFRE rounds just behind them. Daryl explains that things are going well. "We had a wobbly patch where we thought we were caught between the two breezes. But in the end it's worked out really well. Sailed well against MAPFRE in the last little section coming up. Glad they're behind us here, and let's hope it can stay like that. It's going to be a battle, that's for sure. Charles, on the helm, looks at other boats. Akzo, Vestas, Brunel.Sailing into the twilight. Peter says something about the stack. Hoisting a sail on the bow. Vestas passing them with the moon behind them. Ooh; this is the mark rounding off Norway. A motorboat cruises alongside. TTToP passes them still going upwind. Bouwe: Just passed the mark at Norway. Not the position we wanted to be in, but still a lot of the leg to go. I think the sun is coming up again, even though it's 1:30 or 2:00 at night. It's just one of these things that we remember, how fortunate we are that we can sail in these kinds of conditions.Neti, on the rail, talks in Spanish with the sunset behind him. He repeats in English: Quite a tricky afternoon. Lots of tacks, cloud, right-hand shift. Now we have Dongfeng ahead of us, and the others on our transom. So we are in the fight, and pushing. Good stuff for us. We made a mistake on the leeward layline. We took the first opportunity we have... now we have to make the less mistakes possible. Very tricky leg. We knew also with the watches that after the top mark in Norway it's going to be full on. Hopefully we can have some sleep. He interrupts to drop the J1. Other boats to weather: Brunel, AkzoNobel, and Dongfeng. Stacking. Xabi grinding. Slomo stacking. Rob: Lefthand phase still to come, and then it will build right. Is that right, Joan? Neti and Willy on the bow laughing about something. Packing a sail on the foredeck. Slomo grinding. Stacking uphill. Tack. Dongfeng ahead and to leeward.Sailing toward the sunset and clouds. Grinding. Bernardo points out whitecaps coming down. Tack. Stacking below and on deck. Scallywag to port. Sailing into the sunset. We see the blown covering tack by Scallywag from TTToP's perspective. Bernardo: We are sailing upwind with 22 knots. Put us back on the fleet again. Game is on; we have Scallywag really close to us. Time to get our heads up and fight for our position. The game is on. They want to do it the hard way; it's not going to pay off. Shots of Scallywag on their weather quarter. Sunset.Scallywag tacks a boatlength to windward of TTToP in the sunset. Not a great tack; takes a while to get the sail in, and it looks to me like TTToP escapes to the lee bow. Jack, below, describes it. "A mid-ocean lee bow... They came in with plenty of pace; had a bad tack." All pretty tight, with Akzo and Brunel not too far in front. Shot of TTToP on their lee bow.Louis grabbing his gear below. Sam: What's going on, buddy? Louis: The boats ahead of us got a header, and they have tacked. So we've gotta tack as well. Stacking on deck. Bouwe: Just got a big windshift; basically a 90-degree windshift. Sunset. Bouwe talks about the tricky conditions, clouds and big shifts. MAPFRE has done the best. Abby below. Peter in a bunk. Peter talks about being hurt by a shift to the left; hoping for a knock back to the right. 'This update brought to you by...' Sam to Capey: You want any coffee? Capey: Oh yes please that would be good. Sam hands the cup to Abby, who fills it, then he gives it back to Capey. Sam: So what's the dinnertime update. Capey, raising his hand to the lens: No camera... [I think this is a running gag based on that Pascal meme.] No; lot of racing to go... Drone shot. Capey: Dongfeng are doing good. Leading right now. AIS screen. Drone shot of Brunel sailing against the sunset. Bouwe on the helm. Drone shot.Drone shot of Vestas furling the J0 (I think) with the J1 set under it. Rain clouds and sunset on the horizon beyond. Crew on the weather rail looking at the other boats in a line to weather. Clouds. Gull flying overhead. Tony on the helm. Rain coming toward them. Charlie: Should we dump some water here? Nick talks about sailing really lifted, and now it's a bit tougher. Boats to weather doing well against them. Big rain cloud coming here. Drone shot of them sailing toward rain under J1. Rain comes down toward them. SiFi as the rain hits. SiFi checks his tablet.Drone shot of Brunel to weather and astern, then AkzoNobel in the foreground. Shot with Nicho driving and Brunel behind them. Slomo Martine in the sunset. Martine: It's a pretty cool sight. Today's the longest day of the year. Which means we'll have the longest night. Was forecast 35 knots, upwind and cloud. It's actually quite nice. A bit slower. It did change quite a bit in the beginning. Now on a big line with that group there, Dongfeng and MAPFRE, our group here, us and Brunel, and those down below. Drone shot with AkzoNobel silhouetted by the setting sun.Libby looks at her tablet. Witty: I've told you many times over the last 12 months: Nothing good comes from a cloud... Not in great shape, but the boat we need to keep ahead of [TTToP] is back there [points behind them]. MAPFRE went from miles behind to leading... gutsy move. TTToP sailing below them. Sunset. Ben: Always nice to get a good result, a podium. Need to stay ahead of Turn the Tide to avoid the wooden spoon.TJ, on the cabin, recaps: Beating upwind in 17 knots quite nicely. Always knew there would be this big transition, didn't expect it to be this abrupt. Wasn't ideal for us. A lot lighter than we expected. On the masthead zero. Nice peel. Norway's close. Might be an interesting tricky night. Lot of clouds around. Stacking. SiFi: Craziness. Big wind shifts. Helicopter noise. Other boat with sunset and helicopter. Charlie talks with SiFi about their position. SiFi gives speeds of other boats. "Probably wouldn't hurt to set it up." TJ puts way binoculars. Hoisting the MH0 with the J1 up.Doing a sail change in the cockpit; furling line gets a knot in it (?). They scramble to fix it. Deploying the MH0. Nicolai takes the sail bag forward to bag up the J0 (I think?) Brad fiddles with the halyard. Simeon looks to starboard. Jules: He's only gonna go if Brunel goes. Nicho and Jules talk about when to tack over to port.Trystan passes up "toasties". Lightweight frying pan, ham and cheese. Annemieke jokes about being far down the queue. Annemieke: End of an era. Scallywag in the Volvo. Trystan cleans dishes. Gives Annemieke a toasty. Trystan: Everyone's talking about how much we're going to miss the sailing. All the spectator boats. It's a great race, and I'm for sure looking forward to doing the next one. That's my goal. Libby eats her toasty, talks to Trystan about her favorite version. "Next race."Stu on the rail with a hand-bearing compass. Clouds. Kevin: Okay to tack without stacking? Pascal talks about the course. Charles is on the helm when they tack. Horace, below: A big right, so everybody is tacking. Nav station. Kevin, below, talks about how Pascal had them tack quite early. "We have now to be fast. Pushing, pushing, pushing... First big step of this leg." Carolijn: Pascal, when you can can you give us some info on AIS modes compared to the other boats? Pascal looks at the computer.Charlie on the helm in the prestart. SiFi: One minute to go. Charlie: Racing! Other boats. Jena grinding. Jena: Goodbye Gothenburg! This is the last leg going into the Hague. Almost 20 knots. Ready to rock and roll! Brunel pokes a bow above them as they round th elighthouse. Charlie: Right on the edge right now. SiFi: A little more high please. TJ in the pit. Stacking. Phil speaks with a fake Dutch accent about going to the Hague. Start was good; a bit of a frenzy. Got rolled by a couple, managed to hold the lane... Bow forward and off to Norway. Rounding the big daymarker; Brunel, TTToP, and MAPFRE behind them. Stacking to leeward. Slomo tack. Bearded guy grinding on the aft pedestal (American accent): I've been following this race since '73. These guys are all heroes to me. Every one of them. Slomo shots of crew.Bianca, below: I think as a team we've grown massively. Talks about their needing to develop a playbook. Unfortunate that we're getting to the end of the just as they're getting to that level. Talks about trying to get a boat between them and Scallwag. Bernardo talks about the tactics of the start. Believes there will be three boats fighting for the committee boat end. They plan to start clear of that and farther down the line. Bleddyn on the helm at the start. Dee: Last chance. Last chance to stand and deliver. Keeping my everything crossed at the moment. Not where we are in 24 hours, but where we are in 72 hours when we cross the line. Want to give them their moment of glory and moment to shine. Bleddyn on helm with Bernardo calling tactics. Bernardo: Max left... meas we can lay our gate from the pin. Nicolas calls time. Start. Bleddyn looking nervous on the helm. Francisco: We're racing, full speed guys. Liz calls about the runner. Sailing upwind. MAPFRE behind them. Lucas: That's not good. MAPFRE closing behind them. Bernardo: Wind shadow starting in the next minute. Passing a lighthouse. MAPFRE below them. MAPFRE above them. Ah, I see what Pablo was upset about. He tried to stick their bow up to weather of TTToP when rounding that mark, but they didn't give him room and made him go to leeward of them. Helicopter. Martin easing a sheet. Martin below: Very even I think. Behind on the reach, but we've caught up quite a lot, and are fighting to be first boat to the north. I think it's going to be very tight. Don't have to go too close to the Swedish rocks. Quite well-known for crashing boats. Liz, on deck: a couple of hours since the leaving mark. Talks about the other boats. Waiting for a header so they can all tack. Martin climbs into his bunk below. Dee on the helm. Bianca in the pit. Nicolas comes up and gives an update from AIS on how the other boats are doing relative to them.Prestart with 5-minute horn. Rob: About 40 seconds sailing, a minute sailing back, below layline. Start with Dongfeng, TTToP to weather, Tacking below AkzoNobel and Brunel to make the pin end of the line. Behind the other boats. Slomo spray. Jumper jumping. Slomo of Neti hiking. Going past the daymarker/tower. Pablo's upset on the wheel: Fucking hell mate. Rob: Yeah. Might have to just press through. [Looks like he's upset about TTToP right on their bow; chooses to dive below them.] Slomo of Brunel crossing them, TTToP crossing them. Pablo on the helm. Sophie: We got a bad start, weren't in line with the pin, and had to tack, and had to give Brunel room. Last over the line. We've tacked out now, and we're above everybody, so hopefully we can gain back on them. Plenty of opportunities, so we'll see what we can do.Dockout. Witty: Feeling pretty good. We've been sailing well. Haven't been getting the result, so we're due for one. Got the boss driving... [Seng Huang Lee, I guess?] The minute you start trying not to run last, you run last. We're not having that conversation. Libby: Bit of a battle on, you realize that an epic journey is coming to an end. Does play on your mind a bit. But ultimately it's gonna be a fast and furious two and a bit days. Alex previews the leg. Sounds excited. Parko: The non-sleeping Olympics. We'll get to Norway around midnight, and next mark a couple of hours after that. Start. Owner actually is driving the boat, though he's not mentioned in the official site's Crew page. Witty tells him where to point the boat. Parko: These legs are pretty special. Finishing the race for Fish, that's pretty special in itself. Might be the last time we get to sail with the same crew. These are the moments in our sport that don't come around too often. Shots of the owner on the helm. TTToP to port. Dongfeng ahead nad to leeward of them. Trystan and Ben on the foredeck. Owner is gripping the wheel like someone's trying to steal it. Owner: It's very exciting. I haven't sailed in two years, so it's good fun. Always good to spend time with the crew. I'm a little bit of the monotony after ten legs. Looking foward to spending a few days with everyone. [Now I'm wondering if he had to go through the certification all the other racers did. Sounds like he didn't.]Prestart with TTToP behind them. Peter on the helm: Tacking here. Other boats: MAPFRE, Vestas, Scallywag, AkzoNobel. Start with Peter asking for traveler up. Mark rounding with MAPFRE a boatlength behind. Other boat: Dongfeng. Abby on the rail: Pressure building now. Peter and Bouwe on the stern. Passing a lighthouse close to shore. Capey and Bouwe talk about not tacking at the mark, but rather just hardening up. Other boats crossing behind them. Scallywag and Dongfeng cross ahead of them. Shifting the stack to leeward for a tack. Abby, eating below: Didn't have the best start. Had to pinch to make the pin end. MAPFRE didn't make it and had to go around. So we did better than them. Peter, eating below, explains where they are with respect to the other boats. Dongfeng had a pretty good start. We'll have to see again in two hours.Saying goodbye on shore in a cafe/breakfast tent setting. Abby hugs someone. Bouwe: We're going sailing! Going to the Hague, going home. Parade. Nina, hand in lens: No photo, no photo. Capey on the dock: Time to go. Sam: How great is this part? Capey: This is bad. This is boring. It's dull, isn't it. Hanging around, waiting for the big event. I'd rather get into it. On the dock, Peter and Carlo are talking with Blair Tuke. Peter: I'm dying, I need to get off. Bouwe comes up and shakes hands with Blair. Capey comments on Dongfeng's dockout. Bouwe has to make a big step onto the boat. Peter steps aboard. Dockout. Kyle, below: Five years ago we had a great comeback in the America's Cup. Unfortunately we weren't able to repeat that in Bermuda a year ago this weekend. But we're hoping to achieve a similar thing in the Volvo Ocean Race. Back in Auckland five months ago we were in second-to-last place, since then we've worked very hard. We've had a lot of fun with it, hope to keep the ball rolling, be on top of the podium when we get to the Hague. Nina, looking at MAPFRE motoring out ahead of them: I know that we're gonna beat 'em. Capey: Good people, nice boat, same as ours. So we have to outsail them. Bouwe on the helm: I've sailed around the world two times with them. They're good friends, so it will be nice to beat them. Sam to Carlo: Do you have some nerves today? Carlo: I have a little bit of nerves, yeah. But that's every leg start, really. Usually have nerves for an hour before the start, and then takes about two hours before that's gone. Sam: When you see the red boats what do you think? Carlo: I think good luck, but you're gonna be behind us. Hope you have a good leg as well, just not better than us.Crew is in a room talking about the upcoming leg. Abby asks how far they can go in at (somewhere). Bouwe answers: Potentially all the way inside of the harbor. Bouwe asks if anyone else has anything. Kyle: We've got no pressure on us, the other guys do. The only thing we need to do is keep doing what we're doing. Don't change anything, just do everything a little bit better. Everyone sticks to the process. The woman next to him says, "You can have my glasses because you just did my job." Bouwe has one thing to say, "One final thing. The last leg is always a little awkward. But just kick yourself and say, Fuck, we had fun this race, we did well. And just enjoy it, the moment. The moment you leave everybody goes their own way, some see each other, some don't see each other. These are the last miles we'll sail together... We had a pretty nice campaign. And that might make a difference.Xabi signs a woman's program/magazine. Woman: Good luck. Xabi: Thank you. Woman: Kick some ass. Xabi: We will try. Xabi leaves (hotel?) loads gear into a car. Driving in the car: Xabi: Going to the base now... Looked at the weather. Slept as good as we could. Had a breakfast. Joan is waiting. Have some lunch. Say goodbye to some freinds, and go out... Tamara signs a banner in teh base. She talks in Spanish. Sophie signs the other side of the banner. Neti talks in Spanish near the dock. He repeats in English: Has been quite crazy, all the support. All around the world, especially in my case with the Ñeti fans, since the start of the race, and even more now than ever. We'll push as good as we can. In Spain are a lot of good sailors in the Olympics, but it's true that the Volvo Ocean Race is one of the few things left in Spain. Glad to be part of this, and have the chance to give this trophy to Spain. Xabi and Bouwe talk with someone in a Dongfeng jacket. Dee comes up and gives Xabi a hug. Xabi points to Charles and asks her something. She replies: "Nah. I said, 'You're going down, Charles.'" Xabi hugs Witty. Xabi takes a photo with a woman; she turns him around and points to the "XABI" on the back of his jacket. Team photo on the dock. Xabi steps aboard, waves during the dockout.Carolijn in the parade. Charles in the parade. Dockout; Charles steering, Pascal waves his hat. Jumpers jump off. Fist bumps before the start. Kevin: 45! Start. Stu: Pressure in 5. Higher, slower than Scalliwag. Other boats: Brunel, TTToP, AkzoNobel. Marie says something in French. Mark rounding. Big daymarker/tower. Charles on the helm. Tack. Pascal says something in French. Carolijn below: The war has started. So far so good for us. Had a good start, came out of the Gothenburg river in second place behind Akzo. But obviously the fleet is really close together. Now tacking up the Swedish coast to Norway, battling out the shifts. Going to be an intense afternoon and night ahead.Slomo parade. Simeon, Nicolai, Luke, Martine, Emily, Jules, Justin (carrying a small child). Dockout. Simeon: This is where I learned sailing. It's going to be good fun. Nicolai on the helm in the prestart talking about their approach. Simeon: "3:20!" On the line, Brunel, Dongfeng, TTToP nearby. Jules calling nav on the upwind with his tablet. Other boats: MAPFRE. Dongfeng just behind. Nicho: Just be a blocker for the next 3 days. Good start by Nicolai. Now get up the coast and probably match these guys a little bit. Good start; just keep trying to put the best foot forward. Jules: Going better now, Nicolai. Nicolai on the helm.Early in the leg, Jules looks at a tablet. Nicho calls "main on". Boats behind them: Dongfeng, TTToP, Scallywag. Pan across the cockpit showing crew sailing the boat upwind: Nicolai on the helm, Martine and Emily (I think) grinding. Justin trimming the J1. Simeon in the pit. Luke sitting just forward of James (the OBR).Pre-dockout mingling and parade. Henry in the tent. Lucas pushes Bianca playfully. Dee brings up the rear. Slomo parade. LIz, Martin, Annalise, Dee, Nicolas. Martin does an interview as he's walking. Dee says goodbye to well-wishers; gets a kiss from a child. Annalise talks with Stacey Jackson about waffles. Dee and Stacey shake hands. Dee: I'll buy you waffles.... Winner buys. Bleddyn hugs someone. Lucas: Final time to dock out for an offshore leg. Their goal: To put a boat between them and Scallywag to move up from last place in the standingss. Martin interview: Fantastic week in Gothenburg. Very emotional send off now. Handshakes in a line as they thank well-wishers. Francesca dances. Lucas does an interview. Dockout. Bleddyn waves. Wisdom steers the boat (courtesy of Liz). Interesting that I thought I saw Henry Bomby hanging out in crew gear, but then he's not on the official site's "Onboard" crew list?