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VolvoOceanRace.com

David Witt

http://vor.jbcsystems.com/person/david-witt

David Witt / Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

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.

Scallywag blasting in windy conditions with reefed main / J3. Antonio on the stern: Come and do the Volvo and see the world! He gestures at the waves. Witty at the nav station: Rubbish. We're last again. Three lasts in a row. Plus a did not finish. So basically we haven't got any points since New Zealand. So since we were third on the table we haven't got a point. Reaching on deck. Slomo wake. Witty: In 196 miles I get a cold beer, and a piece of steak I can use a knife and fork with, and I get a cuddle from Lynnie. Anniemieke on the stern rubs her hands. "If your hands are warm, your head is warm, your heart is warm." Witty: 30 years of yachting. I don't think I've ever seen a harsher penalty for one very small error, that could have actually not been an error as well. [Thought at first he was talking about Fish. :-( ] 10 miles maybe, even 50 miles wouldn't have been harsh. But we lost 100 miles the first 6 hours of the race, and we're going to finish 25 miles behind them. Slomo spray, wake. Witty: Quite a lot of traffic coming into Gothenburg, ships and stuff, separation zones. So my job the last two watches has been to sit in front of the computer and make sure we don't run into a tanker. Because that would put the icing on the cake, wouldn't it? Massive seas, raining, can't see 6 foot in front of you. 195 miles to go man. Slomo spray on deck.

Slomo grinding. Annemieke easing the mainsheet. Witty on helm. Witty at the nav station: Just gybed, heading toward the top of Scotland. Everyone's gybed at the same time. Others are about 25, 30 miles to the west of us. It's anyone's match. In tennis terms it's 2 all, end of the fifth, and started to rain. So the best player with the best wet-weather footwear will win. Slomo grinding. Witty at the nav station: If the meterologist next to me has gybed at the right time we'll win. If she's gybed at the wrong time we'll come last for the third leg in a row. So really it's all on her shoulders. How does that sound? Libby: Bring it on. Witty: Bring it on. See? Scallywag, bring it on, never give up. All good; be positive. Breeze will fill, breeze will head. Scallywag will be first at the top of Scotland and reach into Gothenburg. Slomo shots on deck.

Drone shot of Scallywag sailing in light conditions. Annemieke: In a transition zone... It's really light; super tricky. Parko on the helm. High drone shot of the boat passing just under the drone in glassy conditions. Bowsprit. MH0 flopping. Witty on the bow: This leg far from over. As we say, we never give up. Last sched we were only 13 miles behind. I think it's 100% changed me. More good than bad. But changed me in a bad way too. The good stuff is I'm more tolerant and definitely more patient. When you can be part of the development of someone like Nipper, or you go through the loss of like Fish and that's like circumstances or other things that have happened... if you're 5 minutes late to work you get caught in traffic or... your priorities change. My priorities have changed a hell of a lot. You realize you can't control anything. You can prepare better than you have in the past, but you can't control anything. Libby at the nav station gets the sched: We're third. I don't really understand the sched. We made a 3-mile gain on the fleet. they're in very light winds. We were the fastest boat by half a knot. As they flop, Libby: At the moment we're smashing the [bleep] out of it!

Witty reads off a sched while we see shots on deck: Only 13 miles behind... Should be able to almost see 'em. Witty at the nav station: Tricky transition coming. Hopefully we'll do okay in that. Back in the hunt. 970 miles to go. He sounds tired. Witty: All about the next transition, next 3 hours, 4 hours.

Drone shot of them sailing in glass conditions. Trying to stay in the pressure. Sunset. Witty points out other boats. Witty: Considering the terrible start I had, we're in pretty good shape. Witty: Dee's just lifted massively. Libby: Gotta get into that. Witty: Where's the keel? Helmsman: Center. Alex on the bow talks about how they've dropped out of the pressure and everyone else is in it. Tacking. Witty cursing. Ben: We've run out of every bit of pressure we had. It's like we put the handbrake on. Did some tacking back and forth because there was no breeze. We're now 6 miles behind when we were 6 miles in front of some boats. But hey; that's yachting. Trystan: We can't be behind Turn the Tide. He curses. Trystan: Trying to stay focused, not get too dishearted. Drone shot with sunset.

Witty sits despondent. Libby talks about the penalty at the start. Slow and no wind at the start. Doing different directions... heading out to some pressure out here. Think there'll be some anchor-building. Ben on the bow talks about lack of wind. Looks like there's more pressure where they're heading. Witty: Shitty light air.

Trystan, in the prestart, talks abut the glorious weather. Trystan: We know we have the ability. Libby talks in the cockpit about the upcoming conditions. Trystan: Once they clear the southwest tip of Ireland should start to build. Try to stir the leaderboard up a bit, salvage a bit of self respect. And prove to everyone we still can do it. Libby and Witty at the start. Witty: Probably the most magnificent day I've ever seen in the UK. Alex at the start. Judges flag them with a penalty. Witty gestures: "what?" They spin; Parko grinding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Libby and Witty at the nav station. Peter watches. Sched. People smiling. Everyone is looking forward to the leg being over, it looks like. Ben: Expecting the pressure to build. 30 plus knots. We'll be reaching into Newport in the early hours of the 8th. Slomo washing machine with crew smiling at the back of the boat. Sunrise with crepuscular ray.

Grinding. Slomo washing spray with Witty on the helm. Libby below: 3 or 4 days to the finish. But a lot's going to happen. Heading toward the high pressure. Going to have to gybe. Leaders will go into lighter breeze, so we'll gain. As much of a realist I am, I think it's going to be hard to overtake anyone, but we'll get back in touch with the fleet. You can never say never. Antonio bailing. Spray on deck. Bagging garbage. Washing machine shot of the hatch from inside.

Blast reaching with a reefed main. Washing machine shots from the stern. Peter, trimming the main on the stern, talks about it. We do that for 4 hour lots in the day, and at night - here we go, here is a crack (as a wave washes over) - we only do 3 hours at night. Witty, at the nav station, reads a sched over the PA: We are consistent. We lost 12 miles to everybody... Keep up the good work. Peter scowling in his bunk. Libby explains that they were faster, but weren't in the lifted pressure. Starting with the next sched should start gaining on the fleet.

Ben explains that they broke the stopper on the daggerboard, so they thought they'd have some afts and crafts in the afternoon and fix it. Witty reads the sched: We were 70 miles behind the leader; now we're 24. Peter: It's been light overall. J0 to the MH0. Frustrating really. Started the day badly, got hit by a lot of squalls. Hard for everyone last night. Stemmed the daage, but frustratingly light. Witty explains the situation. We don't want to go left, because left pressure left, more pressure right. Flopping. Night shots of them working the foredeck and cockpit.

Wrestling the J0 on the foredeck; stacking it. Pole shots: outboard, rudder, bow, keel. Crewmembers tired, sleeping. Parko: So, over the last two scheds we've been the most western boat. The other boats are pushing down over the top. Clouds... Tough night, quite a few sail changes. It's been a rough one. We've lost quite a few miles. Lost the strong position we were in. Fighting to work east a little bit, to get back in a position where we can tack again. Witty reads a sched from below. Repairs to the top of the daggerboard (I think). Mixing epoxy, applying it.

Witty, on the helm, talks about strategy with the exclusion zone. Tacking now to cover the boats behind. A high percentage play. Not what he really wants to do. Tacking the MH0. Slomo grinding. Slomo stacking. Lowering the J1. Libby and Witty at the nav station. Witty: "Vestas is 1.7 miles behind the leader. That would mean the fucking Scallywags are leading... Well done all." Peter, on deck, explains that they've gone north and the rest of the fleet has gone east. It's a bit risky. Parko, on the helm: It's nice to be taking the lead after a shaky start. A couple of new faces on board, and took us a while to find our feet. But there's two different breezees right now and it's anyone's game. We've only just started. Sunset. Sailing as darkness falls.

Drone shots: High overhead, overtaking to weather, circling the bow. Another boat (MAPFRE?) astern and to weather, and another boat astern and to leeward. Shot of a red boat (MAPFRE?) crossing their bow. Witty, on the helm, points out the other boats all around them. Witty: "Let's get the sails over guys." (In preparation for tacking.) We see the tack onto port. Trystan explains the Brazil exclusion zone. Dongfeng ahead, MAPFRE to leeward. Our position with the fleet is quite good. Stacking.

Rain in the cockpit. Witty in the hatch jokes that the boat should have been designed longer and higher, so it would be more comfortable. Libby talks about tacking. We see the tack. Annemieke: "There's another breeze coming." Slomo stacking. Stacking below. Another tack on deck. Libby at the nav station talks on the PA: "Yeah, that's Akzo on the bow." Ben below: Another tack? J1 going up, with Ben then hauling on the furling line to furl the MH0 (or J0). Parko, below: That was a four-hour frenzy. Plenty of tacks. Plenty of MH0 to J1, and moving all the equjpment. We can see almost everyone in the fleet, so pretty much restarting. Libby: This is racing like people race at their club. Nip and tuck. And we're doing that for 20 odd days at sea. Sunset with clouds.

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

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

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

Pre start. Libby calls time. Brunel close astern. Witty: We're gonna go under Vestas. They tack right after the start, head to the right side. Trystan calls wind. Close tack under Brunel. Close duck of AkzoNobel. Lowering the J1 with four boats ahead of them. Ben: Always a bit of a frenzy the first lap before going offshore. It's a bit lighter out here than what it was inshore. Just peeled from the J1 to the MH0. Next stop: Newport. Stacking forward. Light conditions.

Annemieke, trimming the main on the stern, and Ben, steering, shout, "Point Nemo!" as waves wash over them. Below, Annemieke explains about Point Nemo: Farthest point from land on earth. Fish, below: "Not many people come to such remote spots on the planet. So, you know, it is a weird thing, but it's not something we dwell too much on to be honest." Washing machine shots on deck. Fish: "The cold is one thing that affects people in different ways. Some people struggle and go crazy with it. Others battle through. I think Bessie's used to the harsh winters of Holland. She seems to always be with a smile on her face. Which is quite infectious. But others are struggling, to say the least. The Antipodeans, they don't like it." Witty, below: When I grew up my mother had three brass monkeys on the windowsill in the kitchen. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. "And it's that cold, it's frozen the balls off a brass monkey." Alex talks about how it was 3°. "Bloody cold." Talks about spending short little stints down below, 15 minutes, to have a breather and warm up while on watch. Washing machine shots of grinding in the pit.

Witty, below: "We had a Chinese gybe, at about 53 South, at 3:00 in the morning, pitch black, with freezing water." Ben, below, talks about the incident. He was on the helm, and someone went down to leeward, but he didn't know the person was down there, and was sending it down a big wave when he caught a glimpse of the person to leeward. Tried to fall away to flatten out, because you don't want to risk someone getting washed over the side. And pulled away a little too hard and ended up doing a Chinese gybe. Crash cam footage of the gybe. Witty, in voiceover: "Initial reaction is to go through the process, look after the people, make sure everyone's on board. And look after the boat... But once you get through it, get back up and running again, you understand the enormity of the job all the skippers in this race have got. Skippers in any race have enormous responsibility for all the people on board. We'e tipped it over in the middle of the Southern Ocean and the closest thing is a satellite." Ben: "No one got hurt; no boat's broken. It could have ended worse I suppose. You have a Chinese gybe or someone fall over; you'd rather have a Chinese gybe." Witty (?) off camera: "If you fall over the side you're dead, right?" Ben: "Yeah. So, one of those things. Live and learn. Hopefully won't let it happen again." Witty: "More importantly, I just feel for the guys on board. Because it was a pretty big thing. We've had a breakage. Our guys don't give up. They just keep working harder. They deserve a result in this race... To go through all this and never give up. They deserve a result." Fish dances a merengue in the cabin as the crew laughs.

Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.

Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.

Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"

Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.

Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.

Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"

Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.

Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.

Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"

Washing machine shot. Witty, below: It's difficult at the moment because everyone's in a straight line. Drag race; same sails. Just boatspeed. Sunset. It will be pretty technical after the Horn; Libby will need to pull a few rabbits out of the hat. Drone shots of them sailing fast on a sunny day. Libby: Champagne sailing, except that the temperature drops steadily. Hopefully they'll get some compression. In 3 days time in 40-45 knots. It's gonna be pretty cold, and I remember from last time when we had 50-55 knots, the waves were just going flat and the wind was firing the top of the waves into your face. We've got the helmets this time which will help. Trystan: Going to get pretty windy, 50/60 knots. Mentally preparing for that. Survival mode I think. Drone shot. Alex, eating: when it's that windy you can't push the boat that hard; just trying not to crash. When it gets shiftier after the Horn, that's when the gains and losses can be made. Drone flyby at masthead height. Alex, eating by the companionway: It's getting colder. Favorited for that last drone shot. I'm a sucker for those.

Slomo foredeck action beating out from Auckland. Slomo grinding. Slomo sunset, headland. Witty, below: Had a bad start, so pushed really hard to catch up. Haven't had any sleep, really. Slomo shot of land. Witty: We can see everyone. At the top of the Bay of Plenty. Drone shot circling Scallywag as they sail upwind. Ben, below: Upwind for almost 24 hours. No one's had much sleep. Get right into it, huh? Ben stacking below. Like the Cape Town start. He talks about Tom, the new crewmember: Tommy's great. Unreal. New bit of fresh energy for the team. Tom: A bit of a baptism of fire. Nine years since I did the last race. Not as fit and agile as I used to be. Shot of him moving he stack on deck. Drone shot of Scallywag pounding to weather. Tom, below: Balance between not dropping off the pack, yet not busting the boat. High drone shot with East Cape (I think?) in the background. Favoriting mostly for the first drone footage of the leg, flying the drone in stronger wind.

Slomo foredeck action beating out from Auckland. Slomo grinding. Slomo sunset, headland. Witty, below: Had a bad start, so pushed really hard to catch up. Haven't had any sleep, really. Slomo shot of land. Witty: We can see everyone. At the top of the Bay of Plenty. Drone shot circling Scallywag as they sail upwind. Ben, below: Upwind for almost 24 hours. No one's had much sleep. Get right into it, huh? Ben stacking below. Like the Cape Town start. He talks about Tom, the new crewmember: Tommy's great. Unreal. New bit of fresh energy for the team. Tom: A bit of a baptism of fire. Nine years since I did the last race. Not as fit and agile as I used to be. Shot of him moving he stack on deck. Drone shot of Scallywag pounding to weather. Tom, below: Balance between not dropping off the pack, yet not busting the boat. High drone shot with East Cape (I think?) in the background. Favoriting mostly for the first drone footage of the leg, flying the drone in stronger wind.

Parade. Conch-blowing. Witty blows a kiss as they dockout to "Beautiful Day." Witty on the helm: Good turnout, isn't it? People are finally starting to realize they can do it. Prestart. Tacking. Alex calls the angle on Vestas and TTToP to leeward. Ducking AkzoNobel. Annemieke trimming.

Parade. Conch-blowing. Witty blows a kiss as they dockout to "Beautiful Day." Witty on the helm: Good turnout, isn't it? People are finally starting to realize they can do it. Prestart. Tacking. Alex calls the angle on Vestas and TTToP to leeward. Ducking AkzoNobel. Annemieke trimming.

Antonio: Finally, with the sunset the wind is here. Last 70 miles will be fast. A bit afraid because Dongfeng and MAPFRE are catching up very fast. They're now 6 miles behind. Stacking aft below. Crew in the moonlight. Lights on shore. Marcus: If we can keep this up, a few more hours of downwind sailing. Maybe slide past the guys in front. Got a jump on the guys behind us. Still gunning for that top spot at the moment. Witty on the helm in the moonlight. Near broach. "Ease, ease, ease! Mainsheet! Mainsheet!" Sailing fast. Fish recaps: Cloud line came through earlier; Akzo got it first and extended a little. They've managed to hold off TTToP, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng. Just trying to challenge Akzo for the win. Libby at the nav station. "It's all action here. 30 miles to the finish. It's all on in the last miles."

They sail in light wind very close to some rocks. Alex, trimming: "I think we should get closer to these rocks." Talks about how the whole fleet is right here. Trying to eke out any advanage. Marcus, on the helm, points out possible new breeze line. Witty from the foredeck: "085, mate; 085!" Marcus jokes about needing to avoid having the rock named after them. Witty: "Can't believe Donfeng and MAPFRE are here. No justice in that." Libby and Trystan talk about 5 boats being within a few miles of each other. Great shots of the land. Trystan talks about the boats around them: TTToP, Brunel, MAPFRE, Dongfeng. Witty does play-by-play commentary. "Got some breeze back." 1 mile behind Akzo, 100 miles to go. It's been a tough day. "More than happy to take a second and then run away and hide." Ben on the helm; Witty on the PA: "We have gained one tenth of a mile." Ben talks about how intense it is.

Antonio looks through binoculars at AkzoNobel, sailing in light air a quarter-mile ahead of them. AkzoNobel a quarter-mile to leeward. Witty calls for crew to get out of the forepeak and right on the bow. At the nav station: Witty says "238 miles of this rubbish... Wait for the right opportunity. Patience..." Sailing alongsisde Akzo. Alex trimming. Witty: "Just press in the puff." Trystan: "Full on, isn't it? We'll keep changing watch; keep the fresh people going... They just got nudged ahead." Libby, looking at her tablet, calls the angle on the other tack. Tacking the MH0; AkzoNobel three-quarters of a mile ahead of them. Antonio: Tight to the end. Libby looking through binoculars: "Pretty patchy out where Dee is." Libby explains that they got too focused on Akzo, maybe, and didn't pay enough attention to TTToP. Marcus discusses whether they'll be able to stay ahead of TTToP. 100 miles to go. "Not having a meltdown just yet." Shot of TTToP on the horizon.

Sailing in light air in the moonlight. Witty at the nav station talks about how anything could happen. "It is entertaining and it keeps us all awake." Sunrise: We see AkzoNobel on the horizon. Crew talks about how it's insane that they're a mile away. "We've been further away in in-port races." Trystan on the helm talks about the competition. "It's all on." Shot of the land as they sail quietly past. Marcus: Almost there. "Cool sunrise." Annemieke on the foredeck points out AkzoNobel. "21 days of sailing, and you're in a match-race battle... Can't be more beautiful." Shots of AkzoNobel drifting a mile away. Witty trimming witih New Zealand shore behind him. Quiet, intense sailing.

Sunset. Stacking aft in lighter wind. Moon. Witty, at the nav station, explains the details of why Akzo will not show up on the next sched. He sounds frustrated. "How did I round up some of the dumbest human beings on the planet?" They get the sched. Dee's only 9[ miles behind us. Antonio and Ben look astern and argue over whether they're seeing a container ship or Dee. Witty: That means Akzo's somewhere between 10 and 25 miles. Antonio looks, doesn't see them. Witty uses the binoculars in the last light to look for them.

Marcus, on the helm, talks about going into stealth mode. Hasn't really paid off. Libby at the nav station: Akzo's always been in better pressure, so they've been okay. Marcus: Next passing lane's the top of Auckland. Akzo is arriving an hour before them, tide against them and lighter wind. So a chance to catch them there. Antonio: All well-rested. A lot of peeling, sail changes, at the end of the leg. Alex will be full-on. Alex: We'll have Akzo on our bow and Turn the Tide on our stern. Trystan: It's gonna be carnage, I think. Witty: Seriously, I don't really care any more. I just want to get in. Horrible... Boring... leg. Wonder what they're doing on Brunel. Measuring their fingernails. Let's just get to the finish. Hopefully we can pull a rabbit out of our hat, a lizard out of the drain, a dolphin out of the sea, and get ahead of AkzoNobel. Annamieke, trimming, waves to the camera as Witty grinds the runner.

Libby grinds the runner. Crew working on the foredeck. Alex on the bowsprit. Ben: Got a Hobart to go. Final push. Nav software. Annemieke grinding - still in those goggles. Alex talks about pressure, how you just race the race you're in. Always expect it to be tight at the end. Witty, below: Next to Akzo since Taiwan. Roll the dice. (He sounds exhausted.) Sail change. Coiling. Wake. Alex: Everyone's keen to get in. Sail change will hopefully help. Witty annouces a sched on the PA. Trystan talks about how they're ahead by a mile in the latest sched. Witty and Libby at the nav station talk about stealth mode. Witty: "We're still in front." Fish, on the helm in the sunset, talks about stealth mode. Witty talks about the benefits of them going into stealth mode.

Red light shots at night. Light conditions. Fish talks about how they were heading round the reef at the top end of New Caledonia. Only a few miles from Akzo, and a cloud came between us. Witty: good thing is that they're out of AIS range. For the last 20 minutes literally going nowhere. They're going 13 knots. That whole distance is just one cloud. Fish: Just one of those very frustrating hours. Want to pull your hair out. Witty talks about how they almost had them. Bird (I think a Blue-footed Booby? Something like that.) Witty announces the latest sched on the PA. 7.8 miles behind Akzo. Annemieke talks about how they're all in one lane now. Sunset. Birds. A booby on the bow pulpit.

Glassy conditions. Sunrise. Ben cranks the runner. Annemieke on the helm. Flopping. Sailing in rain. Marcus on the bow talks about a bad sched, and TTToP slipped through. And Brunel had a breeze from the east. Still in touch with everyone. A long way to go; can't get too hung up in the emotions of one sched. Pole shots. Trystan stands on the boom looking ahead. Libby and Witty talk about "dot to dot." Witty: I'm going to the bow; I've heard enough. On the bow, he talks about the luck of the draw. Sounds discouraged. Pole shot of the keel underwater. Instruments.

Shot of Alex up the rig. Gybing the MH0. Sunset. Talking to him about the wind. Ben jokes about leaving him up there. About the only space on the boat you get personal space. Alex talks about the sunset. Rain on the horizon. Trystan talks about having a tough day trying to gain on AkzoNobel. One bad cloud and back to square one. Keep on pushing. Witty talks about getting around a cloud. At the nav station, Witty talks about it being tough. Snakes and ladders. Not much sleep.

Witty, at the nav station, points to his rubber bracelets. Not the kind of guy who normally does this, but he's wearing this one (the pink one) for a family in Capetown, SA, who's sun Rowan is battling leukemia. It means never give up. Shots of other crewmembers wearing the wristbands. One on the bulkhead they're taking around the world. The other is for autism awareness. His nephew has been diagnosed with autism. Still photo of a little boy (Witty's nephew?) in Scallywag team gear.

Slomo spray. Looking up the slot. Annemieke trimming in goggles. Ben makes the shaka sign. Ben talks with Marcus about them doing well strategically, for a change. Fish steering. Talks about the importance of the every-6-hours sched. In about 10 minutes time. Fisheye lense views of the cockpit. Witty at the nav station. He gives the sched via the PA. They've gained 20 miles on the leader; just 20 miles behind. Below, he eats. His favorite meal is probably the been stroganoff. More shots of spray as they sail fast on starboard. Below, Witty reads a new sched over the PA: They're now 6 miles in front. "Patience is a virtue." Witty talks with Marcus about the strategic situation. "Keep it rolling." Marcus talks about the pictures of clouds on the computer. "I don't know what it means." Witty: "I don't know what it means either... My son had to teach me how to play Minecraft."

Witty on the helm in stronger wind. Ben gives the shaka sign. Washing machine. Witty at the nav station: Very good 24 hours for the Scallywags. Have left the fleet 232 miles behind them. Witty: Just dumb luck. "Point and shoot." A little bit early days for the two red boats to think they've got it locked up. But time will tell. Washing machine. Sailing fast on starboard gybe. Libby: "There's very little you can say about the weather that's fact." Witty: "That's coming from a meteorologist." Libby talks about how this wind they're in was something they were planning for for a long time. But it then fizzled away as they were heading toward it. (But now it's here.) Washing machine. Antonio on the helm, then below: "It's great. We put all our cards on this one, and it paid off." Still a long race to go. Still the other doldrums to pass. Obviously it's good to have a 200 mile lead. But you never know. Slomo spray.

They sail on starboard toward a rainstorm in light conditions. Drone shot circling them with the MH0 up. Trystan explains what the doldrums are with rainstorms on the horizon behind them. Alex: "It's a shitshow." Rain. Witty: "Roll the dice time." Cloud management. Can't really worry too much about what the other guys are doing. Rain on the horizon. Sped up drone shot circling the boat. Light conditions. Fisheye lens. Libby on the helm; Annemieke wearing goggles (why the goggles?).

WItty and Libby at the nav station look at a sched (I think?). Witty: "When was the last time we had this much separation in a Volvo race?" He annouces the update via the PA. "Akzo did pretty well." Night shot on deck. Antonio doing something near the clew in the red light. Instruments show them going 11.4 knots.

Witty and 3 other sailors (Ben, Fish, and I think Marcus?) wish happy Chinese New Year to their supporters in Hong Kong: "Gung Hay Fat Choi!"

Drone shot of Scallywag approaching. Washing machine shot from the cabin. Witty with glasses at the nav station. 415 miles to the doldrums. Roll the dice. Would be nice to have a 15-mile lead instead of a 28-mile deficit to Akzo, but it's still going to come down to how they play the doldrums. Slomo washing machine. Antonio eating. "It's been relentless every day... Tough conditions." Looking forward to drying out in the doldrums. Haven't been dry in a weak. Slomo of Witty taking spray in the face on the helm. Closeup of the winch. Marcus talks about how he hasn't been across the equator yet. A little bit nervous. Witty: "King Neptune might be on board but it's not me." Ben grinding. Witty on the helm as they sail fast.

Drone shot of Scallywag sailing upwind under the J1 on port tack with an island in the bakcground. Witty on the helm. "I like to be in front, everyone likes to be in front, everyone likes a winner. Long way to go, though." Witty reminisces about racing in the good old days; not with this freeze-dried food. Cocktails. Drone shots. Doubleheading in strong wind. Washing machine. Trystan grinding. Alex on the helm. Slomo of Trystan (I think?) spraying water on his face. Water in the cockpit. Fish getting drenched in the pit. Annemieke wearing ski goggles while trimming. Marcus (maybe?) grinding in slomo. High drone shot looking down.

Fish, on the helm, to Witty: "Happy Valentine's Day, David." To the camera: "Happy Valentine's Day to Kirsten, the woman that makes me the man I am, for supporting me with everything I do." Other Valentine's wishes: Witty: his mum, his daughters Piper and Summer, to Abby, and to Lenny. Ben: I don't have one. Next. Marcus: The love of my life, Suzie. Thanks for being amazing, for being awesome, and when I called you up and said can I do the next leg of Volvo in a couple of hours, you just said go for it. So thanks for being awesome. Happy Valentine's Day.

Trystan on the helm (might have been mixing him up with Marcus; would be nice if the Volvo site team page had photos for either of them). Drone shot of Scallywag sailing toward the sunrise on port gybe. Witty and Libby laughing at the nav station. Witty: "You're starting to come around!" They seem happy about how they're doing on the other boats. Witty talks to Ben about how it's a balance; they've got "fugazi" (pointing to Libby) and "non-fugazi" (himself) and it works out pretty good. Witty: "We have just absolutely smashed them." He laughs. "All these other guys do the fugazi, and listen to the computer, and we sort of point where we want to go, and it seems to be working quite nicely." In the background, Libby is rocking back and forth, laughing silently. Witty: "It's only yachting mate, it's not science, it's not that hard... Libby Greenhalgh, she's done it again! We should have shares in Libby Greenhalgh!" Libby reads the sched on the intercom: MAPFRE doing 6 knots. (Meanwhile, they're sailing at 20.) Alex, on deck: "I heard a little rumor going round that we've actually done well. Apparently we're in front. We've got a better line down here... Long way to go. Fingers crossed we can keep on gaining... Still gotta go through the doldrums." Shot of sunrise. Drone shot of them shifting the stack on the bow. Sunrise drone shots.

Circling drone shot in 20 knot winds showing Scallywag sailing fast on port gybe. Looks like they're double-heading with the J0 and J3? Witty, at the nav station, points to a weather screen on the computer. "This is a grid file." Shows them as the southernmost boat pushing along with the front. "But really, the whole thing is smoke and mirrors. Navigators make it up so they can charge me money. Really it's just a bunch of pretty pictures, and whatever happens happens. It's all bullshit. All I know is we're now pointing at New Zealand instead of pointing at Japan." Shot of routing software; Witty lounging at nav station. High drone shot of them sailing fast. Fisher in the pit. "Just another day in the life of Team Scallywag." Pressure down a bit, so less firehose. Cleaning up. Keep with the plan. Ben works his way aft in the cockpit. Below, Alex watches a movie on a phone in his bunk. Ben eats, says the food isn't that bad. "Got a hybrid; mix a couple of freeze-drieds together, get a hot sauce... It's quite good." Witty at the nav station: "Go to bed, get up, steer 110." Cockpit shot; drone shot. Ben on the forward pedestal Libby at the nav station points out the current strategic situation, and how they have an opportunity to stay with the breeze a bit longer than the leaders. "Watch this space; 12 hours." Drone shot.

Washing machine shot of cockpit. Slomo spray. Marcus, below, talks about how wet the boat is. "I've never seen boats like this. They are just So. Wet. It's epic. It's good fun though. Nonstop spray in your face; no reprieve." Fish, below, talks about fast sailing. Slomo spray on deck. More spray. Annemieke talks about holding on, it's pretty bumpy. Slomo spray washing over Annemieke. Alex at the nav station, with Libby behind him, makes a wrap with a tortilla and something in it. "It's almost like normal food." To Libby: "Cutting the corner again." Witty talks about food, mangoes. Libby talks about how the northern group will get into some lighter winds and they'll be able to close some distance. Shots of nav software. Fish: "It's all to play for. Like we saw in the last leg going the other way." The nav team is pretty happy with where they are and where they're going, and he has every confidence in them.

High drone shot of Scallywag and AkzoNobel sailing a quarter mile apart on starboard gybe. Low-altitutde drone shot of the same. Ben talks about the leg win being a confidence boost, but now they need to back that up. Pressure to do well coming into Auckland. Marcus on the helm. John talks about wanting to win a leg, but the competition is too good to just expect to do it. "If we have the opportunity again we will do. We'll try and take it." More shots of AkzoNobel, drone shots. Witty: "Yeah, we regret it. Grid file is a little different than we thought. Grid files said that the other guys would fall into a big hole, and then once we made the decision to go up, the grid file changed... It's fugazi, fugazi... It's not real." Drone shot of AkzoNobel. Fish-eye lens view. Scary-looking clouds. Witty: "Meteorologists get very excited about this stuff. This is weather." Antonio talks about the wind change, being near Japan, needing to head for New Zealand. Libby talks about the weather: Not quite salvation, but this is the front they've been waiting for. They got caught in light winds and the others didn't. But they'll probably all converge in 7 days anyway. Witty puts on his foulies in the cockpit. We see a gybe from the cockpit with Witty on the helm. Annemieke working in the pit. Stronger wind, washing machine as they sail on port gybe.

Drone shots of Scallywag sailing upwind on port tack under cloudy skies. Someone on the helm; think that must be Marcus. Antonio, below, talks about being almost in second place. Lost some gauge when clouds passed. But still in the fight. Ben at the mast during a reef. Marcus on the helm. Witty on the helm. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty talks about how they're doing fairly well. Libby is talking in the headset (to the cockpit, I assume) giving real-time updates on how they're doing vs. a competitor on AIS (I think). Drone shot circling them with a competitor in the distance. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag from astern with MAPFRE and Dongfeng a half mile ahead and only a few boatlenghts apart. Shot from on deck of Dongfeng and MAPFRE dueling ahead of them. Trystan, sitting on the stack forward in light, sloppy conditions, talks about the wind changes and trying to use the boats ahead of them to figure out what to do to gain in the transition. Shot of instruments as they sail in stronger wind. Shot of John Fisher grinding with Brunel to leeward of them. Circling drone shot showing MAPFRE to leeward of them.

Libby, wearing a GoPro (that really is a Garmin) in the prestart: "20 to burn; 1:10 to go." Witty, on the helm on the final approach to the line: "Deploy the MH0 guys! When you're ready deploy the MH0. Go, go!" Libby: "No burn time." We see the MH0 deploy. Libby: "No burn time; we're late." Close action as they're tacking out. Witty: "Nice to wn the start in our home town." Tacking out with other boats close. Slomo grinding. New crewmember Marcus talks excitedly about the good start. Marcus, grinding: "I"m still feeling it. Didn't get much sleep on the plane, so I'll be looking forward to getting a bit of sleep tonight. I doubt it though." He laughs. Libby on the LIbby-cam: "J1 on the next tack." António smiles in slomo. Witty steers.

David Witt talks to the crew in the cockpit. He sounds like the caffeine is really kicking in. "We're gonna have to just take this on, right? I don't know what's gonna happen. We're just gonna have to take this on all night." Alex talks about the routing being different than reality; some big choices on how to route through the Phillippines. Witty talks about Parko saying a smart thing before, you have to think about what SiFi will do on Vestas. He doesn't know where we are, he doesn't know we're still leading. He'll want to say in front of "the Feng". I think he'll want to put himself between them and the finish. Witty: "And I just completely confused myself again." Discussion in the cockpit. Fish-eye shot from the bowsprit looking aft. Witty below at the nav station obsesses over the chart, current, strategy. "About 20 minutes from our final gybe into Hong Kong. Getting close." Stacking below. Witty: "It'll be the greatest yacht race I've ever won if we can pull this off. For a whole bunch of reasons... A smart man told me once that the way you win yacht races is you eliminate the ways to lose them. And we kept coming up with ways to lose it and then fighting back. That's probably what will make it the most special if we can pull it off." Witty on the helm; washing machine. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty announces the sched over the PA. Dongfeng is farther back in the latest sched, so he thinks it's a fair bet Vestas (who is in Stealth Mode) is further back, too. Witty: "Our rate of improvement is pretty amazing, really." Talks about the amount of hard work. "You've gotta believe in yourself first if anything's gonna happen."

Drone shot of Scallywag bouncing while triple-heading on starboard. Nav station shot of nav software with clouds. Libby talks about the wind dropping to 7 knots, but they know there is a line of wind ahead. High drone shot of Scallywag running in lighter conditions under cloudy skies; possible rain in the distance. Libby: "It's all good, because we were getting a little bit twitched about no breeze; there was a little bit of drama. [She mimes: 'Aaaaahhhh!'] But... it's here." View from the stern of spray, washing machine. Witty, below, talks about if they can do 3 more scheds today without a loss... Talks about the bad seaway, pushing hard with up to 35 knots. "One sched down, got three to go. If we can get through the next three scheds without a loss, there won't be enough runway left for them to catch us." Talks about sending it - but not breaking it. Drone shot of bad seaway. Luke: "You pick your times to push, and we pushed pretty hard last night." Annemieke: "It's so nice to have four people on deck, because we can really send it now." Compares it to the Southern Ocean, with only three people on deck. "The retrieval of Alex was one of the highlights. I'm so proud of how quickly we got him back." Morale is really high. "I think we're a pretty happy team at the moment."

Sunrise shot of the stern. Below, Witty and Libby are at the nav station. Libby: "As much as we had the cloud of doom three or four days ago, in hindsight it probably turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Because it gave us a more westerly approach to the following clouds; it gave us this lane." Grant sits next to her, holds up three fingers: "Only three Sidney-Hobart races to go to the finish." On deck, Luke steers with the sunrise behind him. "Every sched that they don't gain it makes it harder for them to catch us... It's all up to everyone on board now to execute as a group." Below, Trystan eats with Luke behind him also eating. Trystan talks about how they can't relax, because everyone is so quick behind, still a lot of choices to be made. Grant, on the helm: "Cha-ching!" He explains that Witty (standing behind him) has a deal where when they can hit 20 knots of boatspeed on course, they get a payout, $100. "Problem is the steering's a little too accurate lately, it's gonna cost him a fortune." Witty talks about how they've had emails from supporters and sponsors, and expectations are super high. Talks about the level of stress with 1,400 miles to go. Not wanting to let down the people who put them there.

John talks about their comeback. "It is more positive not being off the back, for sure. But it can change." "Hong Kong is hometown for the skipper. It's also the hometown for a major backer... So for us to get a good result... it would be everything." Drong shot. Shot of routing software on the computer. Grant says the leaderboard shows them dropping back from first into second, but it's only by .6 mile, and the guys they're looking at are 70 miles north of them. "So they're only ahead on paper." Shot of Libby and Witty looking at the computer. Grant: "Thing that helped us a bit more is the model wasn't quite reality." Being north was not as big an advantage as it was supposed to. Couple of islands they have to miss, but in pretty good shape. "Pretty happy to be here. Better this end of the fleet than the other."

Drone shot of Scallywag against the late afternoon sun shimmer. Ben sits on the foredeck. "We've lost contact with all the boats we found the other night. And we're a fair few miles behind, which is a bit shit." Still in the doldrums, though, so there's always a possibility, he says. Talks about working hard and getting close, and then you "have a bit of a whoopsie"... Below, Alex eats and talks about the competition. Shot of the wind map. Alex talks about Libby's predictions, chances of making gains in the approach to Hong Kong harbor. "It's not bad, Thai green curry." Drone shot. On the helm, Ben talks about how King Neptune was a bit ill during the equator crossing in the Atlantic, so he's had a bit of a holiday, and is going to make an appearance here. Grant emerges from the cabin as Neptune. (Not gonna win any Best Costume Design Oscar for this one. It's a... sheet wrapped around him? And an unadorned boathook as a trident?) Looks like the victims are Annemieke, John, Alex, and Trystan. "Where are the children of the South?" Neptune sprinkles water on people. "Do you wanna be welcomed to the North?" They mumble "yes" in reply. Witty walks by with spray-on hair color and sprays them. Then he throws a disgusting bucket of something on them. Annemieke explains that Neptune has made sure they are safe in the Northern Hemisphere. Shot of the bow-tie pasta in the green slime on the cockpit sole. Alex, covered in goo, says, "No more bad juju. It's done. We're good... We're gonna clear every cloud now and win the race." Below, Grant and Witty at the chart table pull up the sched. Grant does musical accompaniment. Witty: "Sun Hung Kai leading." Grant: "Hey!" Alex, on deck: "Hopefully we can hold our position here. But it's still only 6 knots of wind, so... still some clouds around." Shot of the sunset. Alex: "...and you can go from a rooster to a feather duster in the space of a sched." Alex says there's 7 days to Hong Kong, and they're back in the fight again, so that's good. Sunset with John on the helm.

In the morning light, Ben stands on the boom to look through binoculars ahead of them. Ben: "We've seen a sailing boat with a square-topped mainsail and a masthead sail, so we think it might be one of the other Volvos." Have been following them in the sched, and now have seen them in real life. Below, Libby calls out the latest sched. Sounds pretty happy. "Spotted Brunel about 40 minutes ago off our windward bow." Crew eats breakfast on the bow, talking about it. Witty: "One or two days ago we were a hundred miles behind the leaders." Ben: "We had to fucking work pretty hard the last two days." John talks about how they've worked hard, so to get where they can actually see and identify a yacht is cool. Witty talks about not giving up, keeping trying. "It's a really important leg for us. It would be catastrophic to come in last." Night shots of lightning. Witty on a PA tells the crew about Brunel being 9 miles away on AIS. "We're winning the sched for the first time, so well done lads." Talks about a rain cloud. "We've got this rain cloud which looks [BLEEP] horrendous." Beautiful shot of the waning gibbous moon rising through clouds behind the helmsman, silhouetting him. Next day, Witty talks on deck sounding despondent about getting stuck in the rain cloud with no wind. We see Libby at the nav station with Grant looking at Expedition's "Strip Chart" display. Libby: "True wind angle's at 120 here." Grant [pointing]: "So all this is starboard gybe..." Witty talks about losing 50 miles when they got stuck in the cloud and the other boats didn't. "probably lost 10 of the 30 miles there, and then we lost 20 of the 30 miles sailing 170 degrees off course... "We just did one of the stupidest things ever and now we're 30 miles behind running last again... We're the ones letting ourselves down. It's not bad luck; we're just being idiots. And we deserve to be here at the moment. And I'm just concerned that you don't get too many chances in this quality fleet to go from 30 miles behind or 100 miles behind to back in the lead. Somehow we've got 3,000 miles to figure out how we're going to do it. Again." He and Grant sit on the bow discussing it.

Mostly dark sky. Drone shots of Scallywag sailing in the doldrums. Alex below. Libby and Witty below at the nav station, checking a sched. Libby: "Made gains on the fleet. Fastest boat; going a whole 4 knots." Drone shot of sunrise. Witty: "We're worried about finding a passing lane between here and Hong Kong. Because we can't finish here into Hong Kong." Libby talks about another 250 miles of light stuff. Annemieke in the bow: "Boring!" Annemieke in the bow. Alex talks about his messy roommate, Bessie. Talks about the heat, difficulty sleeping. Shot of crew sleeping on the bow. Annemieke talks about the difference when they're moving vs. when they're not. She feels like they're doing well.

High drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard gybe with a small island 3 miles to port. Think it's Mwamwako, the island just south of Ghupuna. Parko, shirtless in the cockpit, says it's quite a good milestone for them and the fleet, going past the Solomon Islands. More high drone shots, now showing the rest of the island group the boats rounded: Gupuna, Makira (San Cristobal). Parko: "Not many people ever see this spot." Trystan, on deck, talks about how being in this race has been a long-term goal. Says there are the big three: Olympics, America's Cup, Volvo. Hopes that after they get to Hong Kong he'll be able to stay with the team. Witty: "He worked in the boatyard, he knew the boats very well. He was a big strong guy. And for me, he was a rugby player... Nine out of ten guys I've ever played rugby with always put the team first." Witty talks about how the sailing is as grueling on the body as he thought it was. The demand for teamwork is even more than he expected, and he always knew it was the toughest team sport in the world. Parko: He enjoys the challenge. Special memories. John talks about growing up, loving sailing, seeing the Whitbread start at the Solent. "It isn't for everyone but you should always challenge yourself." In a rain squall, Witty takes a shower under the boom. Grant, on the wheel: "Needed to clean up his act a bit." John explains that they were able to have a quick freshwater shower in the squall when the wind was light. Witty explains that it's hard to find a great sailor and make them a great person. Easier to find great people and turn them into great sailors. "That's what we do on Scallywag."

Grant, on the helm, makes the shaka sign. "Beautiful day. Tasman Sea at its finest." Drone shot of Scallywag from high overhead. Libby sits at the nav station looking at routing. "Pretty good sched for us." She talks about how for the next few days they should see a gain (due to compression). Shot of Parko on the helm with the sunset behind him. Liz at the nav station talks about letting the crew know what to expect, so they know when to expect a lot of effort and gybes, vs. when to expect straight-line sailing. Annemieke grinds on the pedestal. Pretty sunset shot. Witty at the nav station waits for the sched. Pretty drone shots of Scallywag with a squall in the distance. Drone shot. Witty: "We've gained, but not a lot." On the helm, Grant takes his hands off the wheel and lets the boat sail itself for a few seconds. Sunrise drone shot wth rain.

Drone shot as Scallywag sails on starboard gybe with the Australian coast visible beyond them. At the nav station Libby explains that there's a big split, with 3 boats offshore, Brunel in the middle, and them inshore. Teams offshore have had more pressure and have made a bit of a gain. Shot of Scallywag sailing upwind from slightly outboard; Konrad must have the camera on a pole. Low elevation shot alongside the boat; wave hits the camera. Below, Libby talks to Witty at the nav station. Libby tells Konrad that it's been helpful to have Witty and Grant, who have lots of experience in these waters, to go with the weather model information. Libby talks about how impressive it is that new team members have been integrated so effectively. More pole shots of spray alongside. Below, Witty eats while talking to LIbby: "I'm making a point of not making you feel like I'm looking over your shoulder. Is it working?" [Libby laughs.] Witty explains that they don't have big egos. Everyone is part of the team. Washing machine shot of the cockpit. Witty talks about picking good people. Says Libby's fitting in well. He jokes that she's gotta get in front of her brother (on MAPFRE) before she gets a Scallywag tattoo (I think he said? Before she's fully accepted, I assume he's saying.) Drone shot of Scallywag with Austrailian coast in the background.

Scallywag reaches on starboard tack with J1 and J3 in fairly flat water. TTToP is 1/4 miles away, ahead and to windward. I think this is probably from the afternoon of the first day of the race, around 2018.01.02 08:48:50 UTC, when they had exited Port Phillip Bay and were heading SE along the coast. Witty steers and wipes spray from his face; the low coastline is visible to leeward. Witty talks about what's coming up. "Scallywag's in reasonable shape." Points out the other boats around them. Washing machine shots in the cockpit. Shot of the stern with the sunset. Witty talks about strategy, not reacting to the other boats. But seeing the other boats around them is reassuring. "Pretty sure we're going the right way then." Shot of Libby with a tablet. Grant, panting: "I'm slightly out of breath from grinding. I've been pushing electric winch buttons for the last 15 years. It's much easier. But this does keep you warm." Witty: "Should have had full crew numbers from day one I think. Certainly makes it a lot easier. Trystan's a big strnog guy, which helps. Warry's been doing a good job driving, Libby seems to be a bit of a class act so far, so it's all good. Talk to you tomorrow. See where we are tomorrow. MIght change my mind!" Gybe in the cockpit. Shot of MAPFRE to leeward with the sunset behind them.

Dockout as "Beautiful Day" plays. Witty on the helm. As they motor out Witty explains that Antonio broke his arm, so they got Trystan Seal to come in. Worked for the boatyard as part of the refit. Young UK guuy. We see him grinding a winch. Then he talks about how excited he is to be on the boat. He looks about 17. "You never know if you're going to like it or hate it until you do it. It should be good." In the background Libby is talking to Witty. Witty explains that Tom Clout "got quite sick", so he had to "call on an old mate, Grant Wharington, a bit of a yachting legend." We see Grant steering. Grant: "I'm really happy to have got a call up from David. He's an old mate of mine." We see Grant on the helm. Witty explains that Libby will help them be at full strength rather than being a person short. Shots of start with Witty on the helm and Libby talking to him. After the start, Witty talks about it. There was a 20-degree pin bias and they tried to do a port-tack start, which was tough. But it's all good. He jokes about getting rid of the jumper, who we then see jump off.

Drone shot of Scallywag reaching on starboard with the MH0 and J2 in 12 knots of wind. Witty, on the rail: "I think MAPFRE and Dongfeng and Brunel got in they're own little fight there. Gotta worry about AkzoNobel [?] and we did our 'buffalo girl around the outside'. So just all trying to zoom south at the moment. But Scallywags are in a pretty good position here. Long way to go though. Quite nice, really, We're just sorta sailing our own [something], making our own decisions. Got a couple right. We'll get a couple wrong soon... We're actually further south than them now [looking at tracker, not sure what he's talking about], so we gotta defend our psition for a bit. Tomorrow night we've got 50 knots. Gotta get through all that unscathed and see what happens. But I think this is the last time we'll be sitting in the sun on the deck and talking." High drone shot of Scallywag with sun behind them.

Spreader cam view of foredeck with Scallywag sailing way off the wind. Witty at nav station, talks about having "grannied" (tacked around, presumably) twice instead of gybing, because of having heard that AkzoNobel broke their mast track while gybing. Wants to keep the boat together here and finish fast. Jokes about the ice limit as a fence the Volvo people built in the ocean. Talks about having a week along the ice gate. Spreader cam shot of the boat surfing. Witty: "I told Parko to sail at 95%, not 100. He's doing 29 knots, so he must have taken a knot off. He si a full-blown lunatic." Crash-cam view of Parko being blown off the wheel by a wave while surfing; jumping back on the wheel. Parko below: "Yeah, I drove for a little bit with no hands there. Didn't Chinese and we didn't tack, so it's okay." Bow cam of spray. Alex, below, talks about steering. "Yeah, it's pretty difficult. I probably only do a half an hour at a time... It's tricky now, because the waves are so big that you don't want to go down some of them. But sometimes you kind of have to go down them... It's a bit of an art to go fast, but not go down the wrong waves and break the boat." Parko talks about it taking energy, having just done a gybe, it saps up all the energy from your little naps, it's gone after you have one maneuver. Time to eat some food and recharge, and be ready for the next one when it comes.

Witty, on the helm, gives a thumbs up and points forward as Scallywag sails fast on port gybe in windy conditions. Washing machine. Witty talks about the Southern Ocean. "Why do we all come down here?... I'm over the Southen Ocean." Witty, on the mainsheet: "Main on!" He takes spray in the face, turns to Konrad. "Beautiful Southern Ocean."

Nipper grinds while Annemieke calls trim. Witty explains that there was a problem with the water; too much chlorine caused a few crew to throw up. (Presumably he's kidding about seasickness.) He gestures at Tom, on the helm. "Clouty's just come on deck for the the first time since the start." Shot of another boat (Vestas?) on port on their weather quarter. Witty talks about hanging onto the leaders, should gain when the wind goes right. Two competitors ahead of them and to weather: Brunel and Dongfeng? Witty talks about how only one thing happens when you go in this direction: It goes nuclear. Below, Antonio eats while looking at the computer. He says to Konrad: "I managed to eat something properly. Gaining my sea legs. It's good." He puts on his foulies. Talks about the big transition coming in three hours' time. Grinding on deck. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Parko talks about their preparation on shore. Witty, with AkzoNobel continuing on port behind them while they stay on starboard, talks about the good prep from their shore team for the current wind condition. Witty: "Being a little more proactive witih our decisions rather than reactive. I'm sure we'll get it wrong soon, but it seems to be working at the moment."

Drone shot passing close over Scallywag's mast as they sail on port gybe in 10 knots of wind with the MH0 (?). Alex, in the cockpit, says they should finish around midnight tomorrow. Expecting light winds coming into Cape Town. Drone shot from the weather bow showing Scallywag triple-heading. At the nav station, Steve talks about how close it's going to be, and what great racing it's going to be. And hoping they're not last. Witty, on the stern, pointing to the leeward bow: "Turn the Tide's 2 miles; Akzo's another 2 in front of them; 4 miles between three boats. We're at the wrong end of the three boats. Hope we're at the right end by the time we get there." Witty quotes Churchill: "Remember this: We will fight them on the beaches. We will fight them in the sand. We will never surrender, and we will never give up." He points ahead. "We are coming for you two, right now."

Drone shost of Scallywag sailing close-hauled on port tack with the MH0 in 8 knots of wind. Steve, at the nav station, talks about making mistakes, taking your losses early. Shot aft from the cabin with crew silhouetted after sunset. Closeup of Alex on the helm with the waxing crescent (southern hemisphere) moon above him. Wake after sunset. Witty, at the nav station: "The Plastics are 2 miles directly on our bow." We see a shot in the morning with TTToP ahead of them. Witty talks about AkzoNobel being close as well. "So basically it's 3 miles between 3 boats... with 570 miles to go." Shot of TTToP ahead and to weather. Witty on the helm. Witty: "It will probably come down to a bit of luck more than a bit of management. And we don't seem to have any of that these days. We'll see what happens." Parko on the helm with TTToP ahead of them. Parko: "Less than a hoedown to go, gentleman." (?) Witty, below: "We haven't had much go our way this leg, so we might get a bit (something) when we need it." Talks about getting ahead of Akzo, then losing it. Crew trimming and steering in the cockpit.

Steve, at the nav station, talks about the strategic situation with Witty. Witty, to Konrad: "It's an extremely difficult situation which looks like a lose-lose for us either way." Shot of computer screen with routing visible. Steve, to Konrad: "It's obviously the most complicated thing I think I've seen. I'm not shitting you." Witty, looking tired, talk about how they've fought to get ahead, and now it looks like it's actually going to hurt them. "This leg is getting more and more... We've worked so hard to get from nowhere to where we've got to, and now we're acutally being handicapped... It's like beating my head against a brick wall." Steve talks with Witty about the decision [to gybe south?]. In the dark, we hear a maneuver happening. Shot of routing software. On deck, we see the cockpit with two crew grinding in morning (?) twilight. In the morning, Witty, on the weather rail as they sail again on port gybe, talks about the decision to gybe south. Says the other boats went earlier, while they went later, and that it gave them (Scallywag) a little jump on the competition. Annemieke: "And we are again on the same tack, as if nothing had happend in the last 24 hours." Witty talks about how they have two more scheds of stealth, and when they come back online they'll have made a jump on the other boats, which will give them a psychological advantage.

At the nav station we see an AIS screen (I think?). Steve talks about how they did a good job overnight holding onto the "big sail", and have stayed in the front, making a 7-mile gain on TTToP. Also, AkzoNobel has been farther to the south and has made a big loss. Steve: "We've just made an 18-mile gain on them." Shot out the cabin of Alex and Parko (steering) in the cockpit. Below, Witty talks about how they've done well, looking forward to finding out if it's continued in a few minutes. After getting the sched, Steve announces that they're ahead of AkzoNobel. Witty: "Yes!" In the pit, Ben says he's happy about it.

Spray over the bow. Closeup of routing software at the nav station. Steve and Witty are talking as Steve looks at what looks like a wind forecast map. Steve explains that they're at risk of dropping off the front at the back of the fleet and falling into a hole. Steve; "So we could end up with an enormous split forced on us..." Talks about the risk/reward decision: go all out for a big gain, or try stay in front of TTToP. Witty makes a meal, talks about the conservative call of just trying to stay ahead of TTToP. Witty: "It's the most effort I've ever seen go into a sixth place in my life... Let's just get this leg over and done with. And start again." Witty goes on deck.

TTToP, sailing on starboard gybe, is silhouetted against the dawn as they approach Scallywag, on port. Scallywag gybes in front of TTToP. (Same gybe we saw from TTToP's perspective in their video from 08:40:01 today.) Steve, with TTToP visible a few boatlengths behind them: "Sort of can't shake them off at the moment; they keep coming at us. But that's all right. It's good two-boat testing." Witty, on the helm, looks over his shoulder at TTToP even closer behind them. Steve talks about how when they were reaching toward Cape Town it was easier. Now, running, the strategy is more difficult. He explains that they're both sailing away from Cape Town at the moment, and TTToP is technically closer to the finish than they are. Steve: "Technically they're ahead of us. Which seems a bit bizarre." Awesome first-light drone shot from astern of TTToP looking forward to see both boats. Steve: "There's a very clichéd saying in sailing, boatspeed makes you a tactical genius. And it does. If I can sail away from these guys it's not that hard. If we were a little bit quicker, my job becomes quite easy." More awesome two-boat sunrise drone shots.

High drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard gybe in the afternoon. Witty on the helm with TTToP behind them. Witty, on the helm: "I just feel like this is ridiculous, because all we're doing is getting further and further behind the rest of the fleet. But no one wants to be last, do they?" Drone shot of Scallywag with TTToP behind them. Steve and Witty talk at the nav station. In the cockpit, Steve explains they want to split and get south and west [of TTToP]. How even though it's a terrible heading, it's setting themselves up for 12 hours' time. Sunset. Stacking in the sunset. Dusk. Ben, in the cockpit at dusk with TTToP visible on the starboard quarter behind him, talks about how it's been a busy day, "gybing back and forth with the Plastics, who are behind us... Yeah; been a pretty enthusiastic day." Shot of Witty on the helm with TTToP visible next to him with their red masthead running light.

At the nav station on port gybe, Steve talks strategy with Witty. Steve explains the strategic situation to Konrad: The boats ahead are going to be doing well against them, but they're focused on beating TTToP to the gybe. There's a call from the deck: "They've gybed behind us guys" and Witty and Steve immediately jump up and head on deck to gybe. We see the gybe to starboard happen from the port cabin hatch. Looks like it's fairly early in the day; I think this is the gybe that happened around 2017.11.18 07:28:10 UTC. On deck, Witty talks about strategy, and how he thinks they need to split to the west to set up for more wind later, and have a chance of catching one of the boats ahead vs. settling to just keep battling TTToP. But then he second-guesses himself, saying they've spent all this time clawing their way ahead of TTToP; it would be foolish to throw it away now with a rash decision. Shot of TTToP on port gybe behind them. Parko, standing at the forward pedestal, relaying information from below: "Halesy really thinks we should gybe." Witty: "Okay; let's gybe." Parko: "Yeah. [turning below] Okay, we're gonna gybe Halesy!"

Drone shot approaching Scallywag from leeward. Witty gets up and is happy to see that "the boys" have gained half a mile on TTToP in three hours. Witty: "So good to wake up and not get hammered." Witty slaps people in congratulations. Witty: "It's the little improvements that will fix this... That's a big little improvement." Drone shot.

Twilight shots of Scallywag sailing on a close reach on port. Spray. Parko, calling from the cabin about the latest sched: "Turn the Tide: 3.7 miles." Voice in the cockpit: "Where?" Luke: "At 155." Maybe the 2017-11-16 1300 sched? If so that's not twilight as much as a dark cloud cover. Witty, on the helm, talks about the competition with TTToP, the clouds. Shot of TTToP to port. Ben talks about TTToP, about how seeing them has kept the crew's energy going. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag at an altitude of about 90 feet. Appears to be under J0 and J3? Steve, at the nav station, talks to Witty in his bunk: Steve: "Honestly, with the FR0 I think we'd be dog-slow as well. I don't know that... I just think they're a bit quicker." Witty, from his bunk: "Guess I'll get up and see what I can see." Jules: "Parko wanted to have a chat." Drone shot at altidude of 30 feet as Scallywag appraoches and passes underneath. Parko talks with Witty that he thinks TTToP is faster because they have more people/gear/stack, hence more righting moment. Witty points out that they're gaining on everyone else as well. Witty: "This is their time to shine and our time to hang on." He and Parko joke about how he sounded quite sensible. High drone shot looking down on Scallywag. Parko: "That's a keeper, that one."

Sunrise (wonder how many more OBRs are going to open their video with that shot?) Witty on the helm, John on the mainsheet. They seem kind of glum. Below, at the nav station, Steve talks about the sched with someone off-camera. Steve: "We were one mile further on Akzo but they were five degrees higher, but other than that we had the equal/worse run. The Plastics have the best run again of the whole fleet." Steve, to Konrad: "We had pretty good vision on them yesterday, and then they started moving really quickly. And we've just been bleeding miles to them ever since." Steve talks about TTToP having more people, making them heavier and that might be helpful in current reaching conditions. Witty, below, looking tired: "We don't have enough time in the boat, sailing at certain angles. Costly lessons." Witty pours hot water into his insulated bowl. Witty: "It's a new place for our team to be in, getting our head kicked in sched after sched and not really knowing how to fix it, not knowing what's wrong. Just gotta keep trying, mate. Becoming a little bit embarrassing. Hopefully the next sched will be better. Just gotta keep looking forward. Stop the bleeding, and then think about how we're going to gain. It's quite hard. Bloody hard, this race. And the opposition are bloody good." Oh, Witty. Don't make me have feelings for you. Witty sits at the nav station and puts on his reading glasses.

Pretty drone shot: Scallywag reaches south on port in 10 knots of wind while silhouetted against the sunrise. Annemieke on the helm. Witty, in the cockpit, asks deadpan: "What is stealth? Stealth bomber? Is Dee all right? Are they okay?" Below, at the nav station, Steve explains stealth mode, and that TTToP have engaged it. Witty, below, explains the he thinks it's not a good time to have used it, since all the boats are pretty much sailing directly south in steady wind. More drone shots. Witty: "It's a bit like poker... You need to know when to bluff and when not to bluff."

Pretty clouds before dawn. Witty, on the foredeck, coordinates with the cockpit on sail trim. In the cockpit, Witty jokes about having ADHD: "I'm like a cat chasing its tail. Like a little baby cat chasing its tail." Annemieke checks sail trim. From the pit, she talks to Konrad about sailtrim. Shot of her trimming before dawn. Annemieke: "You have to really adapt quickly. If you hang around too long on a certain setting, you can lose a few miles on the rest of the fleet." Witty: "Clearly, I actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just lucky the ropes are different colors." On the foredeck, Witty helps stack the sails forward.

In early mornnig Steve steers. Winds are about 7 knots with Scallywag on port gybe. Witty stands next to Steve and does narration for a mock TV show, the "Steven Hayles Breakfast Show." Witty: "Lovely morning here on Scallywag!" He introduces the crew: "the definining chin laws Tom Clout" (?) (on mainsheet), Alex Gough. Witty: "We also have our raging psychopath safety officer, John F-f-f-fisher." Camera pans to reveal Fish wearing what looks like a muzzle as he stands at the aft pedestal. Witty: "From the northern beaches of Amsterdam, Dr. Clogs!" Annemieke, wearing a false gray beard, gives a thumbs up. Steve asks Dr. Clogs: "Our skipper David has a rash on his scrotum, and I would like to know how these two are meant to apply the Sudocrem." Annemieke is unable to answer. [Edit: Video appears to have been removed, presumably by VOR media people in response to the Rule 69 protest referencing it? Dunno.]

Witty, below, stages a mock cooking show by Humphry B. Bear. Stirs in water, closes up the container, then opens another one to show the final result.

Drone shot of Scallywag sailing on port gybe with A3, J2, and J3. Looks like it's near sunrise, with pretty clouds. Audio is Steve and Witty talking at the nav station. Witty: "Crossing us?" Steve: "Not crossing us... We're probably 20 miles ahead of him?" Steve, talking to Konrad at the nav station: "We're being as proactive as we can, trying to be smart abou where we put the boat, but... the doldrums can create an awful lot of mixup, and for sure these leaders are going to start losing miles. So what we're losing right now, we'll definitely get back a chunk of that if not more. Basically it's two days of really keeping the faith here now. A day from now I think we'll really have a different feeling on board in that we'll be gaining rather than losing. This sort of slow, steady loss is hard for everyone on board to swallow... At the moment we're not happy with where we are, but we will make gains. There's a very long way to go in this race." Shot of pre-dawn sky with crew silhouetted on the stern. Another drone shot like the opening shot. Witty, in cockpit: "Every time Steven Hayles comes on deck on another sched and says we've lost they have to put their trusty Leatherman away so they don't slash their wrists. It's quite depressing for 6 to 8 hours and find out that you've lost." Shot of Alex on the helm. Witty: "It's not all over. There's still a bloody long way to go. As they say, 'Keep plugging away.'" Drone shot from above.

Sunrise shot of the helm as Scallywag surfs on starboard gybe. Shot of the foredeck as they hoist a sail. They have three headsails up already (Fractional or Masthead 0, J2, and J3, maybe?); this looks like they're hoisting the A3 to replace the Code 0, maybe. Washing machine shot of the helm. Witty, in the cabin, talks to the crew in the cockpit. Witty: "I just said, do you want me to find something else to put up? You're triple-headed, are you?" Witty, below, talks to Konrad: "We've got every piece of sail up you could get up here in over 30. Problem is they've just been a little bit lower than us, so we thought we'd fix the problem and put everything up. We are now definitely sailing the lowest." Washing machine shot of cockpit. Witty: "It does sound quite horrific, doesn't it? [Laughs; adopts mock-gravity voice.] Man your battle stations, lads. Get ready for disaster."

Cockpit looking aft as Scallywag surfs. Looks a little less hectic than yesterday. Below, Witty sits, looking tired, as Ben walks forward past him toward the galley. Witty: "Good. Nipper's about to cook me some dinner. And I have a couple of favorite words in the dictionary. One is 'ointment'. That means it's too serious for cream and it needs ointment. And that is gonna be my bum in the next few days if it doesn't dry out. And the second one is 'moist'. That's all I can do to describe the last 24 hours is very moist. Fast, and moist." Washing machine shot of cockpit. Witty: "Dongfeng and MAPFRE are a little west of us, but we're a little detached from everyone else... We're all heading west at the moment. Doesn't really mean a hell of a lot... Twenty-four hours into a marathon. Nobody wins it in the first 24 hours... Either I sleep soon or I die. Pretty simple. I can't do 19 days of this; no one can. But the forecast is we only have a couple more days of this. Just tough it out for a couple of more days and see how we go."

Mast cam shot of the cockpit as Scallywag surfs on port gybe. Washing machine. Witty, at the helm with big reflective bug-eye goggles, sticks his tongue out at the camera.

Cockpit looking forward into sunset with the boat sailing fast off the wind. Washing machine. Ben rigs a sheet on the foredeck with the sun setting ahead of them. Witty, mugging into the camera in the cockpit: "Sending it. Away from Lisbon. And straight at Madeira. Cape Town here we come." Waves coming over the bow.

Witty, on the helm: "Good morning, Lisbon! Here come the Scallywags of Hong Kong! We have Steven Hayles from the Steven Hayles Breakfast Show. We have Tom Clout from developing chin lines. And our favorite psychopathic safety officer John Fisher sucking down the porridge from behind. From behind!" John talks about where the different boats are in the race, to be shouted down by Witty. Witty: "You're boring! You're never gonna be a guest on the Steve Hayles Breakfast Show." Steve brushing his teeth; Steve: "The arrival?" Jérémie: "Yeah." Steve: "We're thinking of just keeping going. A practice lap. We're just gonna around again. Because we didn't do it right this time." They joke about the position of the pockets on Steve's jacket. Steve: "It's always been easy to predict the past, I find. The trick is predicting the future. I don't know where to put my hands."

Witty, on the rail: "I'm looking forward to Lisbon... It's been our training camp. Looking forward to seeing Lenny on the dock. Looking forward to having a nice dinner with Lenny, and having a load of cracked pepper. After dinner. For dessert." Jérémie: "You're looking forward to get on the podium as well, right?" Witty: "Yes, yes; we'd love to get on the podium. But we'd love to just be fourth or even fifth at the moment. We just don't want to go back any more... A smart man told me once, Jérémie, it's not the first hundred yards that counts. It's the last hundred yards... No one's going to win the race in Leg 1... MAPFRE are fast. But I think throughout the race there will be lots of race winners. The boats are pretty close. Who knows, even the Scallywags might get there. Sooner than you think." Night shots with competitor's stern light ahead of them; pretty sure that's from the night before, before the virtual waypoint rounding, with the competitor being Dongfeng. Night view of mainsail's glow-in-the-dark tapes and stars overhead. Different crew grinding.

Witty, sitting in the cockpit, to Tom: "Can you not tell John Fisher that I fucking think he's a fuckwit? The safety officer?" Tom: "I don't think he heard you." Witty: "He measures the length of his fingernails before he goes to be every night. What sort of a psycopath does that?" Tom: "No." Witty: "Yeah, he does, I've seen him. The safety officer." John, smiling: "It's a good atmosphere on board. Everyone gets on pretty well on this team. There's a lot of frivolity and a bit of joking and mickey-taking. It helps break up the tension and serious moments. It's a good thing... I think we're all pretty happy. The realization is it's a hard race. The boat's are all very equal. You fight for every mile you can get, and every time something doesn't go quite right you lose miles." Witty grinding, mugging for the camera. John joins him on the handles. Witty: "What are you doing? Fuck off. *Fuck* off." Laughing. Shot of Scallywag sailing into the sunset.

Witty on the helm: "The pin's come out of the furling unit under load and the sail's dropped in the piss. I don't know how. But we recovered really nicely; could have cost us three spots. Boys did a good job. Boys and girls." (Tom takes helm back from Witty.) Witty: "Still don't know how the pin comes out under load; that's a bit of a mystery." Crash-cam night vision shot from stern looking forward. Masthead 0 suddenly comes free and falls over the side. Crewmember: "Oh, fuck!" Tom (?) (on the helm): "Everyone up! Gotta get (something) lowered. Gotta get the MH0 on board, J1 up. Everyone up!"

Annemieke on deck, looking tired. Annemieke: "We didn't have a lot of sleep last night. So everyone is trying really hard to stay fit... It is nice on this team, because sometimes your teammates just say hey, maybe you should catch up some sleep. Better for everyone." Witty: "You want to beat someone in a sport, you want to beat them fairly with fair play. You don't need to go to extremes. That's not what sport's all about, whether it's amateur sport or professional sport... You get brought up by your parents with a set of values, always do the right thing, to be a sportsman, have a sense of fair play, a sense of values, and that's what you do." Night shot of John (?) working the pit, getting a halyard on lock, then crew grinding to furl. Audio continues over daytime drone shots from above Scallywag. Shots of Ben, and then Tom, working on deck.

Video metadata curated by JBC – many thanks!

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