Bianca Cook / Turn The Tide On Plastic

gender Female
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.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.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.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.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.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.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?Lucas, below: It's about setting goals, and you often have to readjust depending on where you are. To keep the morale up you set goals that you think you can achieve, and you keep chipping away at some bigger goals. We've set targest for each leg, and that's how you get better. Peel on deck. Frederico: Big challenge to manage your emotions while racing so many days in a row, so intensive. So many highs and lows. The very good sailors in this sport keep themselves stable. I struggle a lot; sometimes frustrated when things not going well. Shots of Frederico looking frustrated. Frederico: So yeah, something I've been working on. But the team always has the spirit to look forward, so that helps. Always improving, having fun. Francesca smiles in magic-hour light. Francesca: I'm a really competititve sailor. Short races, Olympic sailing, always to win. This race was different; knew from the beginning we had less experience. At the same time we have ability to sail fast, and have a good finish. Now is the time to show what we've learned and push as much as possible. Liz: Only reason we do this race is because we want to win... We're not going to win; we know that now. We can only do our best, nad we're doing our best against the best. Bianca: I feel really proud, proud of myself, and of our team. We've just sailed around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race. That's not something everybody does. We've proved that a mixed team can compete in this race at a high level. So yeah, I'm super proud.Lucas, below: It's an awesome feeling to sail into your home country. I had the same experience into Australia. And to take the only Swedish man back to Sweden in this race is a cool thing. Looking forward to getting him there; I'm sure there will be big smiles all around. Francesca talks to Martin on the stern. Washing machine. Bianca, below: I know how it feels to sail into your own home port, we're super excited for him. Hopefully we'll get a good finish. Martin, below: Coming back to Gothenburg is fantastic. Incredible honor to be sailing into Gothenburg tonight. I'm very happy about that. Martin on the helm.Brian in the hatch talks to the helm about Dongfeng and their course. He comes up and talks to Dee at the middle pedestal. Bianca, below, talks about it being frustrating that they don't have the pace the others have. Liz: Always more stressful when you have all the boats around you. Right at this moment we're going pretty bad, so it's been a pretty stressful 4 hours... We're getting overtaken... Bagging a sail on the foredeck. Ratcheting down the stack. Bianca, sounding emotional (or a little seasick. But I think probably just emotional): We've come close to getting podium finishes. Frustrating... As a team we've grown so much. We came together really late, and we've dedicated 10 months of our lives to trying to sail with each other. Really want a podium finish. Failing that, we want to get a couple of boats between us and Scallywag to move up in the standings. It's been fantastic sailing with this lot. And it's kind of sad coming so closely to an end. Have to make the most of these last two legs, because this might be the last time we all sail with each other. But it's been awesome. They're all family now. Bianca sprays water on Liz, then on herself. Helmsperson raises his/her arms. Liz, below: Going pretty good. Gonna be a pretty tough night. Washing machine shot through the hatch. Grinding. Liz: Finishing the race with Scallywag behind us... I don't wanna come last. We don't deserve to come last. We've been quicker on the water; just maybe haven't had as much luck.Bianca (I think?) in the cockpit talks about how they're holding onto 3rd place. Liz, on the helm, talks about going to the J0, explaining how they need to run another inboard sheet. "So if we need to furl the J2, let's get the sheet off it... this blue lead here..." I love how she's helming and explaining the maneuver at the same time. Washing machine shot. Slomo with crew at the mast.They're putting in a reef. Frederico comes back and talks to Liz about the maneuver.Bianca, below, in faster conditions: It's nice to stay up with the guys in front. Pretty awesome to be up here sailing with Dongfeng and MAPFRE. Want to get a few boats ahead of Scallywag... It feels amazing, doesn't it Liz? To be fast? It's a little like a firehose at the minute, but mostly flattish water. But yeah; good sailing.Liz on the helm. Vestas 100 yards ahead of their bow. Bleddyn explains that they're all heading out to cross the high pressure ridge. Close sailing. Frederico talking with Brian. Frederico explains the strategic issues of getting across the ridge. Brian: It's all very well beating Scallywag, but it doesn't accomplish what we want. Bianca talks about them wanting to put another boat between them [so they can pass them to get out of last place in the overall standings]. Brian talks about the upcoming rest of the leg. Frederico: I hope we can put all the learning from the last legs together and smash everybody. We have the potential. Gybe. Bleddyn: Pushing since the beginning of the race, but more since Hong Kong. Getting the podium finish would be great. It was super tight going around Fastnet Rock.Annalise points out the west Cork coastline. Apart from Brazil, this is the closest they've done to sailing along the coast of a country. Bianca: But what country is that? Annalise: Ireland! Fishing boats, land, islands. Vestas behind them. Frederico, forward: We passed Fastnet a few hours ago. He points out other boats. All very close, very nice, every puff makes a difference. Vestas passes them to weather with Fastnet Rock in the background. AkzoNobel a boatlength behind them. Brian: It's unexpected, but we are with all the other boats. We've been looking at them, judging what the wind is. I think we've managed to make some gains today. We're a lot closer to Dongfeng than we were a few hours ago. Getting the waves from the northerly breeze. That northerly is going to kick in sometime tonight. So a transition for that. Fascinating day so far, and more to come tonight.Sailing faster with Vestas behind them. Liz on the helm, getting headed. Bianca on the grinder explains what's going on with the other boats around them. Mentioned that Gitana sailed past them this morning. Shot of Gitana sailing past them. Oil rig. Vestas on their hip.Dock out. Dee waves. Liz steers. Looking at the chart below. Brian explains strategy before the start. Dee plays air drums on teh wheel. Bianca's boots and socked feet. Lucas goes up the rig to kick battens/look for wind. Grinding. Start, with Scallywag ahead. Cool shot out the pit. Francesca waves the protest flag; judge's blow whistle and penalize Scallywag. Watching other boats with helicopter noises and they slowly sail out.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.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.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!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?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.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.Spreader cam shot of cockpit. Dee, at the nav station, looks at the latest sched, and annouces it via PA to the cockpit. Dongfeng 3 miles ahead. Brunel 13 miles head. Skua flies over the boat. Martin, below: disappointment after the bad sched. Gives us motivation to keep tweaking the boat, and find some speed. Endless tweaking. Bianca talks about Liz being good about tweaking. Liz trims. Liz, below: I'm restless. Can't keep still. You think something could be better. Liz: Smallest thing you can tweak? Tack on a staysail. Taht's getting pretty anal when you start tweaking that. Shot of the skua overhead.Sunrise drone shot. Francesca: We're still leading, so this is good. Last sched was not the best one. We can see Vestas (gestures behind her). My parents had a cruising boat, 30-foot cruising boat. I was born in January, and in February I was already on the boat. Slomo of Francesca adjusting her cap. "They had this system of bungee that made a little bed for me." Shot of her left forearm tattoos of elephans. Francesca on the helm in slomo. Learned how to manage herself in the hard moments. Had some hard moments in the Southern Ocean. Was more like mentally tough than physically. Push myself, tomorrow will be another day, it will be better. Instruments on the mast. Dee by the shrouds. Dee: To see Frankie grow from the start of this project to now has been incredible. Came in with no offshore experience; had an Olympic background. But she does make you laugh, because sometimes she says yeah, yeah, yeah. But you realize she didn't understand any of it. [We see everyone in the crew saying hello in their native dialect.] Francesca tells a story of Frederico rescuing a flying fish that hit the board. Francesca: An amazing experience to sail around in the environment I love, with the group of friends. Worst thing: the freeze-dried. The food is not really nice at times. Sunset drone shot.Liz on the helm: They're trying to pick out a new theme song, and I think they need help. Stern cam view of Bianca singing and dancing Gangnam Style. Francesca: Sings "mananana". Henry: It's the Muppets that go... Lucas: I don't know the name of it though. Bianca: I feel good, I knew that I would... Henry: Dancing Queen. Something like that. Lucas: Once I was a very young man, a very young man but not too clever... Dee: I do let them know if I don't like it. Want something upbeat, deal with victories and losses, get us up when we arrive and when we leave. It's a tough choice.Slomo shots. Sunrise. Liz on the helm. Drone shot of TTToP sailing into a sunbeam. Liz: Doing really well. Winning at the moment, which is really cool. Upwind conditions, it's really gusty. Shots of Liz working the pit during a sail change. Liz: It's good being first, but then it's hard if you fall back. Hopefully learn from that. Lucas: Ups and downs are hard. But need to keep a level head. All a part of the game. Keep chipping away. Liz: Matching boatspeed with everybody, but you can see clouds coming up. And it only takes one or two clouds and you're out the back door. Sometimes you're at the mercy of the wind gods. Hoisting the J1. Dee: Got a big cloud to weather, increased pressure, so we switched from the masthead to the J1. Shot up the slot as they sail under the J1. Bianca: When the lead is changing this early in the leg, you can't get too wrapped up in it. It's awesome to be at the front, and it does make you feel a lot better, but you can't get yourself down when you're at the back. Liz: Couldn't get much more different from last leg to this one. We're in tee shirts, flat water. But the racing's just as intense. Whole fleet together; quite stressful. Drone shot from close overhead.Drone shot of TTToP going up wind with competitors in the distance. Then we see the same shot from deck level with Liz grinding. Bianca trimming. Francesca: I think it was a really good night. Good in-port. Now we are really close to Dongfeng and MAPFRE... we are really close. And at this moment of the race the boats are matching speed. "I think it will be a good fight to Newport." Sunrise. Drone shots. Rain in the cockpit. Light wind; Brunel flopping behind them. Hoisting, deploying the MH0. Dee: "We thought we were in pretty stable conditions, and then..." Squall, rain, all the boats are fighting to deal with it. "Have to sail your boat." Stacking forward. Dee: We've had really good races in legs 6 and 7. Talks about losing the podium in final miles in leg 6. Then finished fourth in leg 7. Want to threaten for the podium. Have had one night at sea, and are still in sight of everybody. And that's how this leg goes. Drone shot of competitors ahead and to leeward. Dee and Nicolas at the nav station. Nicolas explains: they're sailing upwind to Cabo Frio. Then doldrums, reaching in North Atlantic tradewinds, then North Atlantic high. Pretty unpredictable. He talks about strategy. Pretty straightforward in the first part of the leg. Don't want to be too close to the Brazilian coast. Fighting in the middle of the fleet.Liz, in the morning, points to the high pressure to starboard. "That there is the center of hell." Elodie says "good morning" as she climbs out the companionway. Lucas steers. Bianca makes a face. Bianca: "Pain. Lots of pain." Elodie: "Happy morning, Freddy." Liz does a puppet show with two red gummy animals (dinosaurs?): "Hello. I'm a diplodocus." "I'm a dinosaur too, but I don't know what kind I am." She eats one of the dinosaurs. "It's all getting a bit weird out here." Bleddyn eases the runner, making a loud noise. "Sorry Henry." He does it again. "Sorry Frankie." Bianca: "Cape Horn feels like it was weeks ago... As long as we beat MAPFRE it's fine." Below, Dee and Liz get the latest sched. Dee: "They were doing 5.1 knots." Liz (excited, dancing in her seat): "We were doing 9.6! We were doing 9.6!" Dee laughs. "Ah. How sad for them." They both laugh. In the cockpit, Elodie and Bianca ask Sam about the position report. Elodie: "How is it?" Bianca: "Are you gonna tell us how it was?" Lucas, on the helm: "MAPFRE, 20 miles in front." They laugh. Lucas: "Another 10 days out here, Sam." He pumps his fist. "Yes!" Dee comes up from below, putting on her sunglasses to try to hide her expression. She laughs. "I can't hide it. I tried to look really sad but I can't do it." She claps. "We were twice as fast as them!" She summarizes the current distances. 99 miles ahead of MAPFRE with 660 miles to go. Dee, below: "Nice to have some good news." She and Liz talk about AkzoNobel; Dee doesn't think they're going to get them. Rainbow, sunset.Setting moon behind the clew of the MH0 as TTToP sails on starboard. Camera pans to starboard to show the sunrise. Liz, on the helm: Slowly escaping the little ball of high pressure we've been stuck in. In the last sched MAPFRE was doing 3 knots slower, more stuck in it. On the bow, Bianca looks at a mess. "We've had birds go on the boat, but I think this might be squid ink. A bit of an explosion." Shot looking aft from the end of the bowsprit (go Sam!) as Bianca rigs a furler on the red tack line. Bianca: Unfortunately we got stuck in the high. On the pedestal, Brian talks about their narrow (possible) escape from the clutches of the high pressure. Graphic: What's stuck in everyone's head today? Francesca dances and sings: I'll follow you, deep sea baby... Henry sings, someone (Bianca? Whoever's trimming the main with her face concealed in a balaclava) sings, Francesca sings. Then Bleddyn recites: I'll follow you. Deep sea baby. Title: 743 nm to Itajai.Crew gets gear on below. Lucas: Out there it's pretty wild at the moment. 30-35 knots of wind; boat's doing 30-35 knots down the waves. Half the time you're not really in control. Just hanging on for dear life. But it's fun. Brian, getting dressed: Pretty spectacular downwind sailing. We're going to be sailing downwind for the next 2000 miles to Cape Horn. Pretty spectacular. Brian: Few things less fun than pulling off wet foul weather gear... Once they get on deck it gets a whole lot better. But the act of getting on the gear is not fun. Bianca: My hands are sore. My neck is sore... She gets her gear on. Lucas talks about how getting your kit on to go on deck is at least a half-hour operation. Like trying to get dressed standing on the back of a flatbed truck going 100kph down a bumpy road. Smallest moves become nearly impossible. Bianca: Pretty bumpy, pretty wet, pretty windy. But this is what we love doing. So it's pretty awesome to get up on deck for another 4 hours.Sailing south on port tack at sunrise. Washing machine. Bianca, in the cockpit, cheers they're having entered the Southern Ocean (she thinks). Dee: We're still winning. Enjoy it while we can. We had a great first 48 hours. Now have the fleet breathing down their necks. Sending it into the south. Isn't getting cold yet but it will be. Slomo washing machine cascade from the companionway.Shifting sails to leeward for a tack. Crew working on the foredeck with a hovering helicopter ahead of them. Slomo of Frederico grinding with Brunel and a New Zealand headland in the background. Bianca, below, talks about sailing away from New Zealand. Awesome going into the Southern Ocean again, going around the Horn. Thanks Auckland for the support, spectators, especially her family and friends. Frederico (I think?) in his bunk. Liz, in her bunk, recaps that they've sailed upwind a couple hundred miles from Auckland to East Cape, tacking, peels. Not much sleep; a lot of stacking. Went pretty quick. More slomo with Brunel in the background. Liz: On the southern highway, straight to the ice gate for us. About 48 hours... Way too wired to go to sleep. (She mimes going to sleep.) Bianca spills up spilled rice in the galley. "I want my mum." I haven't exactly found my sea legs yet. Lucas: It's not as bad as the time I spilled shit everywhere. That was a lot worse. Bianca asks Sam, "Were you on that leg? It was a full explosion." Lucas: "Nah; he was on another boat. Getting _ridden_." Lucas, brushing his teeth, talks about lack of sleep: You think everything's funny. You think everything's shit, or you think everything's funny. Bianca: Just let me clean up my shit... in peace. Lucas: She hasn't got to the funny part yet. [They laugh.] They keep talking (with Liz commenting in the background) as we see a drone shot circling TTToP sailing upwind under J0/J3. [Favoriting mostly for Sam's cool slice-of-life on board. Really feels like being part of the crew.]Shot of MAPFRE and Dongfeng closing. Nicolas talks about how far behind they were a day ago; now they have 8 knots of wind while TTToP is drifting. Bernardo talks about going asleep with them out of sight, and on top of the leaders, but then waking up and having the two trailing boats on their hip. They're fighting with each other; hopefully we can sail away and go for third place. Francesa takes a line off the clew of the MH0 while Bianca holds onto her. Dee talks about how it's a lot tighter than they expected. They tracked the boats in front down and got much closer, but then they got the breeze, and meanwhile the boats bdhind caught them. She'll be absolutely gutted if they don't get the result they deserve. Liz looking intense on the helm. Henry: We've been racing for three weeks, and we have a 100-mile race beween 5 boats. It's gonna be a big next 10 hours, and hopefully we can hold on and get on the podium... Two fastest boats in the fleet bearing down on us. Going to be an intense few hours.Liz looks through binoculars and reports on the boat ahead of them. Bianca talks about the intensity. Shot of AkzoNobel in front of land a mile or so away. Dee talks about how the boats behind have closed on them more than they thought. Drifting conditions, being in sight of the other boats is really hard work. Liz on th ehelm with other boats on the horizon behind her. Low-altitude drone shot of them drifting with land a few miles away.Bianca, in the pit with a headset on, talks about her job while sailing. Interview for the Daily Live? Or for Kiwi TV/radio? "Last night I got to sleep in my bunk for the first time in 5 or 6 days... We're all pretty smelly on board... Doing pretty well so far." Drone shot with birds. Dee: Did an interview on the phone, and took recommendations from other people. She lived up to the reputation. She didn't realize it had been so long since a female Kiwi did the race. So coming into Auckland there's a lot of interest. Bianca: I started sailing when I was 3. Talks about her dad sailing Laser, and her sailing on the bow of the Laser. Liz, on the helm, talks about how it's fun to have "the Cookie Monster" on the boat. She's getting pretty excited about coming into New Zealand. Shot of Bianca doing work in the cockpit. Lucas: "Absolute powerhouse she is. Works all day, good energy... Has a laugh every now and then, which is good. Really does a good job in the pit." Bianca describes her job in the pit. In charge of running sails up, down, furling, cleaning up messes. She talks about her history: classic keelboats out of Auckland, match racing, offshore... Now I'm here. Below, she talks about being excited sailing into New Zealand in the Volvo. A dream come true.Nighttime view up the main with the moon. A bird (from the silhouette it looks like a booby) perches on the head of the mainsail, then flies around near the masthead. Bianca talks about it. Henry: It's like the third bird encounter we've had. High drone shot during the day showing birds flying around them. Slomo shot of a booby (good view of it; I should check to ID it.) Lucas explains that they've just gone through the channel off New Caledonia's northwest tip. At the nav station, Brian and Nicolas talk about the passage, and about working out strategy. Brian focuses more on the next 6 hours. Dee, on the helm, says she doesn't know if having 2 navigators is a help or a hindrance. Brian jokes about them not fighting for the trackball. Dee talks about how it's good that they have a navigator looking at the strategic situation 24 hours a day, while still getting rest. Dee: So far it's worked out quite well for us. Below, Brian lies down to sleep while Nicolas continues at the nav station. High drone shot, again with birds. Nicolas talks with Annalise on deck. She wants some pineapple. Nicolas says they have some dried pineapple? Annalise: Yeah. And you're always pretty lucky if you get any. Annalise: Hopefully Akzo and Scally are in the 3-4 knots forecast up there (gesturing ahead). Nicolas talks about the wind.Rain. Slomo rain. Nicolas at the nav station. Looking quite good on the ranking; are first, but won't be going straight-line. Rain on deck. Henry, grinding, talks about the sched. Annalise in the background talks about the fresh water. Biance, other crew, showering. Later, in a calm, Liz works on a winch. On the bow, Bianca talks about it being a painful day. Should be leaving the doldrums later this evening. Some nice reaching into New Zealand, hopefully arriving on the 27th.Bianca, in the pit, says it's pretty exciting that they're about to enter the Southern Hemisphere, and closer to New Zealand. We then see a mastcam shot of her dancing at the aft pedestal. Back in the pit, she says, "Nah; I'm not that excited."Spreader cam view of the deck as they sail fast on port gybe with the J0/J3. Spreader cam view of the cockpit; washing machine. Dee eats at the nav station. Dee: "All smiles. Everyone is soaking wet, but it's really fast sailing." Cold front met them before dawn; gybed. Really fast boatspeed toward Auckland. No longer pointing at Japan. Should have 8 hours with 30 knots of wind, then dropping to 20. Annalise bails water from below with a bucket. Talks about it having been nice for a while, but now it's back to being rough and bailing out. "But it's not too bad, because we're sailing fast in the direction of New Zealand." Dee talks about hoping to have closed the gap a bit with the leaders. Slomo spray on deck. Liz talks about sailing fast with the J0 up. Sailing at 24 knots. Bianca: "Going home!" Liz calls her The Cookie Monster, because she loves cookies and cream. Bianca gets wiped off the pedestal by a wave. Slomo spray in Liz's face on the helm. More of Annalise bailing water from below. Nicolas at the nav station: Not so far away from the first 3 boats. Akzo and Scallywag not too far away behind them. Not a bad sched. Spreader cam view of deck.Bird (a Brown Booby, I think?) flies overhead in slomo. Shot of a sheet, the horizon through the lifelines, nav software. Nicolas talks about being close to Brunel, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng. But just had a very bad cloud. Think they were on the right side, but then were on the slow side with very light wind, and so lost 3 or 4 miles. Which is a shame because they're fighting to stay close. Nicolas on deck talks to crew in the cockpit. Bianca talks about being on pace with the leaders. Henry looks forward. Someone (Liz?) gives Lucas a massage by stomping on his back with her feet. Liz talks about being up with the leaders. Nicolas, below: "On the third day of racing are still able to see the leaders. So for sure it's better for the mood, to have more motivation to fight... Hopefully they can have also a bad cloud and we can catch them." Slomo of booby.Slomo on deck. Henry gets out of his bunk. Jokes about it being hard to get out of bed. Dee, below, talks about the difficulty of getting back up to speed in rough, upwind conditions. But good to have the energy provided by the crew who've been off for a leg. Lucas talks about it being a bit of a shock going offshore again; takes a while to get back into the rhythm. Bianca talks about struggling to find her sea legs. "But I've always been clumsy." She laughs. Nicolas: "Was good to have a leg off... I was quite tired... Enjoyed a bit my family; we had a baby on Leg 2... As a father I'm quite lucky." Henry: "I don't think I've missed the 3, 4, 5 wakeups a day you have to put up with." Dee: "I hope we did well. I've been driving... We're with the two red boats. And they always say if you're with a red boat you must be doing all right." She crawls into her bunk. Slomo on deck of Henry driving. Slomo spray.Bianca, trimming the mainsheet: "I always wanted to do the Volvo Ocean Race. I never thought it would be possible, but I always worked hard, and I tried to get as many sea miles under my belt and get qualified. Of course, you have to make a lot of sacrifices... but the biggest sacrifice you make by doing the Volvo Ocean Race is leaving your family behind. I'm really lucky in that I have a great support system with my family, and really looking forward to seeing them when I get to Melbourne." Liz, below: "I think if you thought too much about the sacrifices you wouldn't be here." Dee: "I think to do the Volvo Ocean Race is a massive commitment... When you're trying to put it together it's all-encompassing." Bleddyn: "After every leg you realize what you've done, and where you've sailed from and to. But during the leg you're so involved in it you don't think about it until you get downstairs and you look at the chart table." Francesca: "For me it's a dream to be here." She talks about doing two Olympics. Lucas talks about setting his mind on doing it. And long hard miles, and networking, and time in the gym. But he's happy it's paid off.On the stern, Bianca talks about helming the VO65. "I've had experience helming all sorts of boats. The biggest one I've helmed is about 220 feet. So this is a bit like a dinghy compared to that. You can really feel any wave hitting the side of the boat." She talks about the thrill of sending it down a big wave, needing to have trust in your fellow sailors. "It's just such an amazing feeling, the adrenaline's really rushing in you. I'm pretty sure the whole time I was steering I just had a massive grin from ear to ear. It's awsome." Martin: "It's important for evyerone to have a go. You can't go through the whole Southern Ocean without touching the helm. It was quite good to see Bianca; she did a good job. It was not easy for me to make the decision to let her drive as well. Might be a few more opportunities for her in the future." Below, Elodie says, "It's really important to try to involve everybody... for example, Bianca is working hard to learn to trim the mainsail every time I'm driving, so it's nice to give her the opportunity to drive a little bit too. It's important for the trimmers to understand how it feels when you are driving." Shot of Biana taking the wheel. and steering. Yeah, she's grinning. View from astern as she steers; rainbow on the horizon. She hands off the helm to Lucas, gives a big thumbs-up to the camera, and a fist-bump to Martin on the mainsheet. Cloud with crepuscular rays.Drone shots of TTToP sailing under MH0 and J3 in light winds. GoPro shot of Liz going to the masthead. At the masthead she holds Wisdom and voices him: "Hi everybody! Volvo... Ocean.. Race... 'm going flying, watch me! They're fixing a sail down there. Look, ther'es another bird. Hi! I'm going back in Liz's pocket now. It's scary up here." Back on deck, Wisdom talks about wanting to really fly. Dolphins under the bowsprit. Jérémie takes video of Liz taking a picture with her phone. On the foredeck, Bianca (?) works on repairing a sail. Martin and Frederico also repairing the sail. Frederico: "On my Finn boat it's just put some duct tape and that's it." Lucas paces in the cockpit. "Long way to Melbourne like this, I'll tell you that. Seven knots. We might be there by NEXT Christmas if we're lucky.... No matter how sloe we go, Christmas keeps getting closer." Nicolas talks about high pressure costing them access to the wind, could be 8 days to Melbourne.Liz is steering as TTToP sails on port gybe with full main in 15 knots of wind. Francesca trims the main. Bianca carries her gear to the stern where she gets dressed (maybe she was using it as a bathroom too?) Liz talks about how they're not THAT isolated, because they have the fleet around them. Also there are a lot of islands in this part of the Southern Ocean, so there is shipping and fishing boats. "It's the next part of the Southern Ocean where you feel really isolated." Frederico talks about isolation not crossing his mind much; too busy sailing the boat. In the companionway, Bleddyn brushes his teeth. Cabin shot of the crew on the stern, Elodie, trimming, calls "Main on." Wisdom tucked into the pit coaming. Below, Bleddyn (?) gets dressed. Slomo closeup of Bianca bundled up on deck. Slomo closeups of Nicolas, Francesca (who laughs), Dee, Lucas, Martin. Drone shot from close to the port quarter as TTToP triple-heads on port gybe. More cool drone shots with low sun behind them. Interesting that I think Jérémie managed to get everyone in the crew (other than himself) in this video.Dee, at the nav station, explains about how the ice limit has been moved since they started racing, and the effect of that is that they have different wind conditions to sail in. "To the north of us is a big high pressure, to the south is a barrier we can't quite cross, and it leaves us this very narrow corridor of breeze to sail in." She explains this is her sixth time in the Southern Ocean, and she doesn't remember sailing this far north in this area. Doesn't think she's sailed north of the Kerguelen Islands before. Talks about climate change as a possible factor in pushing the ice further north. Harder work to sail this way, but better safety. Screenshot of the ice limit and Kerguelen Islands. Stacking. Francesca does the Twist to pull a stacking pole from the deck. Franchesca on the helm. Crew plays roshambo. Slomo washing machine over Bianca (I think) on the aft grinder pedestal.Docking out. Liz on the helm. "Lot's of people." Footage of the start, other boats, with no audio. They race the inshore course, again with no audio. Dee steering; Francesca trimming the main. Bleddyn, on the rail, grimaces and then hikes out. Bianca works the pit. "Yeah; I'm on the lock!" Martin takes spray in the face. Liz, on the pedestal, makes a shaka sign and high-fives Dee on the helm. Martin grinds; shades his eyes to look up at the slot.Below, Lucas talks about the importance of catching waves when the wind isn't as strong (like now) to increase average speed. Drone shot of TTToP on port gybe in borderline-surfing conditions. On deck, Lucas talks about how he does more surfing than sailing. Liz, on the aft pedestal, talks in surfer dialecdt about his surviving the ECC ("east coast current"). Lucas sings: "Let's go surfing now..." Below, Liz talks: "Lucas is a natural with any water sports, who does all water sports and does them all very well." She talks about the first time she took him sailing on "one of these boats", and there were "massive waves; he jumped on the helm and absolutely sent it." Francesca and Bianca do an embarrasing/culturally insensitive wind dance in the cockpit. Dee: "We desperately need to arrive in Cape Town as soon as possible." At the nav station, Dee and Nicolas talk about the strategic decision to dive south to avoid the high ahead of them. Nicolas, laughing: "At least we all agree. Perhaps we are wrong but [we] agree." Dee talks about being surprised AkzoNobel didn't activate stealth. Dee, later, talks about how they've gybed, and AkzoNobel and Scallywag are on AIS but have not gybed. Later, closeup of AIS screen. Nicolas explains that AkzoNobel has gybed. "At least if I have made a mistake I will not be the only one who made it."Edited-down version of the previous TTToP video, intercut with drone shots at the edits, to remove the talk about filming Annalise peeing, and tighten up the remainder a bit.In the cockpit, Dee talks about the equator crossing ceremony. She wants it to be memorable, but she also wants it to be clean and tidy. So probably hair loss, she says. Dee: "It's quick, because I've got six of them to deal with. We've got a fleet to catch." Bianca, on the sheet: "Dee, what happened to you on your first crossing of the equator?" Dee: "I was on my own. And I was great." Dee [to Annalise, pulling her shorts up on the stern]: "We're filming you peeing." Bianca: "So technically you haven't been initiated by Neptune." Dee: "Not gonna happen. And any revolt will be punished 10 times worse. Just remember he's got the razor and scissors. Neptune does." Annalise talks about a girl at camp who got her eyebrows removed in a prank and they never grew back.Pretty low-altitude drone shot of TTToP sailing at sunset on port gybe. Drone moves in toward bowsprit, where a sailor is standing. Below, at the nav station, Liz, Dee, and Nicolas are looking at the computer. Liz plays with Wisdom. Dee explains that they've just received a position report and they are the furthest-west boat. She says they're discussing doing stealth mode. "I think we're gonna go for it." Liz has Wisdom explain (or explains to Wisdom; not completely sure) what stealth mode is. On deck, Lucas: "You watch. We're gonna come out of this, bang! Like a ninja!" Bianca covers her face with her hands, then flaps them open. "Stealth mode!" Martin: "Now you see us, now you don't." Wide, high drone shot circling TTToP in the evening with clouds.Martin on the stern as TTToP surfs on starboard gybe. Martin: "This is one of the best moments in the race. We've just left all the marks, all the shit (?)... stack is up, and now we're sending it; 30 knots." Major washing machine shots looking forward into the sunset, looking aft, mast-cam view of the stern and the wake with the person on the helm (Francesca?) working hard as they surf. Bianca on the cockpit sole being helped up by Liz after being washed off the stack, which inflated her PFD. Bianca, panting and dripping under the coaming: "So I just went to windward to go and get the halyard to tie it off, sat in front of the winch to try and clear it, just as the wave came and took me out. But I was clipped on, mom; don't worry." She laughs. Slomo shots of sending it, wide-angle shot showing Dee on the helm and another boat (Vestas?) crossing their bow; then changes to slomo shot of spray. Liz clipping in and climbing out the sheet to the clew of the Fractional 0; Martin helps her back on board. Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Slomo spray and grinding with sunset in background. Epic stuff.Bianca, sitting on the weather rail with Annalise ahead of her. Bianca: "We are heading to a palm tree in the middle of nowhere. We've got Brunel over here somewhere [gestures to starboard], a couple of other boats up in front of us... Sailing with the MH0, J3, and full main."Bianca: "It feels pretty unreal. It's been some pretty awesome sailing so far. We're up with the fleet... just had a port/starboard with Scallywag, managed to pass in front of them on port. We're middle of the fleet, and it feels good. It's great."