Joan Vila / MAPFRE

gender Male
Sophie on the rail: We are so close. We're coming up to the TSS, and we're gonna bear away. And we're 0.2 of a mile away from Brunel... we just gotta pass them. Joan looks at tablet, calls them being clear of the exclusion zone. Trying to punch through to leeward of Brunel. Drone shot of them gybing in front of AkzoNobel. Tamara, on the bow, talks in Spanish. Neti looks through binoculars. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Neti talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: We're pushing hard, we take the first chance to overtake them, and we take it. Now we have to wait and see what happens with Dongfeng on the other side. Hopefully we keep ahead of Brunel, and the guys on the other side. We'll see.Tamara, next to the stack aft, talks in Spanish. Mentions Dongfeng, light winds, changes, waiting for strong wind. Repeats in English: Now we are in the best position. It was a tough day for the rest of the fleet. Now we have to focus on our work, doing our best. We have a lot of miles, and all the teams want to win the race. And I think we have to work hard to try to keep leading this fleet to the end of the leg. Rob: Crossing the ridge to the west of Ireland was critical. Keeping east of the fleet seems to have worked out. Made a little extension. Now we're just VMGing down toward the Hebrides. Inside or outside; could split the fleet. Neti sleeping. Xabi at the nav station talking to Joan. Pablo on the helm. Blair grinding. Rob below, getting his foulies on. Sophie and Tamara stacking below. Gybe in the cockpit. Stacking in the cockpit. Rob and Joan at the nav station. Rob: Allright; VMG then. Crew in the cockpit. Xabi looking around.Sophie by the daggerboard. Last several hours in no wind, but have some breeze now; VMG downwind. Looked like other boats to weather were going to go around them. But have the pressure now, and look pretty even. Hopefully will gybe in a good position soon. (Her throat sounds scratchy.) Two other boats on distant horizon. Blair rigs for gybing. Sophie also rigs. Willy and Sophie rig for a sail change (J3 hoist?). Rob on helm with another boat 2 miles astern. Xabi and Joan talk in the cockpit.Xabi, on the bow, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: Tricky night, quite busy, sailing upwind in 12-16 knots with the J1. A few tacks, some big shifts with clouds. Ended up positioning themselves as the most north of the fleet. Pretty happy where they are. But still have to pass a small high pressure ridge. First one going out is going to stretch a lot. Hopefully the investment we've made in the northwest will work out. Have to see what happens. Neti, lying on the bow, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: Whole fleet is in a line. Waiting for the wind from the southwest. We are very nervous, as you can see. Xabi in the cockpit. Blair. Talking about Dongfeng. AkzoNobel three-quarters of a mile away. Joan in the cockpit. Crew lying down on the foredeck. Tamara resting. Joan sleeping. Crew sleeping in the bow.Willy talks in Spanish on the bow as they sail in light conditions. He repeats in English: 24 hours after the start, pretty much in the same spot they were at the start. Together with Dongfeng and Brunel. Three or four days to go. Forecast is to start going upwind. Probably the Volvo decided in the next 10 hours. Because after that the wind comes and it's harder to pass people. Drone shots: stacking aft, sailing with competitors in the background, rounding Irish headland, Blair aloft with Ireland behind him. Other boats all around them. Slomo of Xabi. Brunel and Dongfeng. AkzoNobel, TTToP, Vestas. Rob on the bow talks to Joan about strategy. Joan reads off his tablet about Dongfeng's status. Three other boats and Fastnet Rock. Dongfeng and Vestas behind them. Sophie calls to Rob: There's seaweed everywhere. Rob: Tricky race so far. Gave Dongfeng a 5-mile lead at Fastnet. Tricky transition. Akzo and Vestas coming from behind.... I don't know what we did wrong, but it was all very difficult. Now beating up west side of Ireland, around islands. Evening's been good so far, but it's going to be a long night. Last tacking exhange overtook Brunel; they're about 3/4 of a mile behind them, Dongfeng 3/4 of a mile ahead, and then Vestas ahead of them. Busy night with lots of tacks. Got some sleep on the first night. No one's resting today or tonight. Going to have to keep pushing hard. Keep the coffee coming and we'll see how we feel in two days time. Slomo of Xabi grinding. Stacking. Slomo spray on the bow. Tack. Irish coast. Xabi looking through binoculars: Yes, he has tacked. Drone shot of them sailing upwind with Dongfeng a quarter mile ahead. Beautiful drone shots with clouds and land, other boats.Sophie explains there is no wind, and plenty of current. And they have the anchor built just in case. Postponement. No triangle, sausage; just go straight out. Pablo, on the helm, talks in Spanish. Blair, sitting on deck, talks about the low wind and big current. Helicopter noises. Race committee boat with 2:05 to star. Rob and Blair calling tactics in the cockpit at the start. In the prestart, they come toward Brunel on starboard, then tack while waving a protest flag. Committee boat green-flags it; Pablo throws the protest flag down in frustration. After the start they are ahead and to leeward of Brunel and Dongfeng. Rob calls for weight forward; trying to accelerate. Brunel, AkzoNobel and Vestas to weather. Drifting conditions. Willy on the bow. Brunel crossing behind them. Vestas sailing to leeward. Blair: "Here they go. Nice, nice, nice." Blair and Joan talk strategy and wind on the bow. Xabi trimming. Vestas on their weather quarter, then crossing behind them.Pablo talks in Spanish on the weather rail as MAPFRE sails upwind in 10 knots of wind on port. Sounds like he's talking about the competition, the tricky last part of the race. Repeats in English: Finish in Cardiff will be quite tricky for all the boats. A lot of work to windward; we have some chances. We want Dongfeng to be as far back as possible, but it's not something we can control. Have to be fast and do the best we can and wait and see. A little over 100 miles to go. 30 miles to Vestas, so quite a lot of distance. Stacking. Grinding in the runner. Dolphins alongside. Slomo dolphines. Pablo, Joan, and Rob at the nav station looking at a sched. They discuss with Neti in the cockpit. Brunel still leading? Just. Rob: I'm just happy that Dongfeng look less likely to win the leg. Sunset. Drone shots of MAPFRE sailing upwind under MH0 and J3. Such beautiful peaceful shots. Low-altitude drone.Joan talks below in Spanish. Lots of mention of wind. Rob, below: Right now we're not in great shape. The leaders, first 3 boats, have extended quite a lot. That may change in the ridge. Dongfeng not that far away. Scallywag probably going to overtake us in the next sched. Dee not far away. Podium still a possibility, but we're going to have to get some luck with the upcoming ridge. Joan talks more in Spanish; discusses the limit of the Gulf Stream. Rob: Had a very cold night last night. Water was down to zero at one stage. Passed an iceberg; could see it on the radar. Water's probably 10 or 12 now. More Joan in Spanish. Washing machine shots of the cockpit from the hatch. Slomo washing machine. Neti grinding. Crew putting on foulies below. Stern cam shots of big spray. Sail change: Hoisting the FR0. Sophie wrestling the sail. Spreader cam shots of the sail change. Drone shots of them triple-heading wiht the FR0 and full main: Must be in lighter wind than some of the other boats. Looks like 20 knots of wind or less from the sea surface. Favoriting for those drone shots at the end.Pablo, on the stern, talks in Spanish about the current situation with the northern and southern boats. He repeats in English: Last few days quite intense. Some boats went south and some went north, and now we're converging. In the last few scheds we gained quite a few miles. Hope that continues. In one day and a half we'll converge completely, hopefully in front, but even behind as long as we're close and can keep fighting. Blair, trimming the main: Heading toward the ice gate. Dongfeng 30 miles ahead of them. Did well against them in the last sched. And that pack that rode the front a day longer than we did. We've done well against them for the past few scheds; now they've got the breeze. So... play on. Sophie on the pedestal in her cold-weather gear. Sailing fast. Slomo washing machine. Joan, at the nav statio, reads a sched in Spanish. Stern cam and spreader cam views of them sailing fast with a double-reefed (triple-reefed?) main. Spreader cam view of the foredeck.Neti, on the aft pedestal, talks in Spanish. Blair: Sailed well through the night. Dongfeng pulled away from us in the reaching conditions. Just got the sched, Dongfeng is 30 miles away. Rest of the fleet didn't come with us. Massive split. It's a little bit of a worry that Brunel has got separation from us. Because we did well we got further to leeward, and got out of the breeze and gybed. Just one of those things; you've gotta sail the wind you've got. Joan at the nav station, talking to Xabi about when to gybe. Pablo sleeping sitting up. Gybe on deck with Neti and Willy grinding. Stacking. Joan and Rob talking. Rob on the helm. Slomo washing machine. Drone shots of surfing with clouds. Super low-altitude drone shot from just in front of the bow.Xabi and Joan talk at nav station. Neti, on deck, reads out latest sched. "MAPFRE (us): third." Rob, on the helm as they sail in fog in light winds: Last sched sounds pretty good. Talks about the strategy getting through the front and timing their tack right. We were hoping just to get to fourth. Now we're up to third and Dongfeng isn't that far away. Got 200 miles to go. Gotta keep fighting. Blair, forward, clears a halyard. Crew working in the cockpit. Slomo grinding. Sail change. Pablo on the helm. Rob, gesturing to port: "Brunel's down here 17 miles." Pablo, below: The last sched was better than we hoped. He talks about the boats ahead. Will be very tricky at the arrival in Newport, light wind and current. Anything can happen. So go MAPFRE... The weather forecast opened a gate for us. It was a tough night, but we sailed very good, so we softened up some miles to the leaders, and then the compression was very good to us. Neti, on deck, talks in Spanish about thier change of fortune. "Vamos MAPFRE. Vamos MAPFRE." Crash cam footage from the night before of them broaching. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Sail change on the foredeck: Hanking on the J1. Hoisting the J1 inside the J0.Xabi, in the cockpit talks in Spanish. Wind is about 12 knots. Talks about Turn the Tide and AkzoNobel, the approach to Newport. Repeats in Spanish: The last 24 hours we knew would be very tricky. Last night had winds up to 35 knots downwind. Now we've passed the front and we're going upwind with 7 or 8 knots. Going to be a compression. Managed to pass Turn the Tide, and made some distance as well with AkzoNobel. Are now 8 miles from Vestas. Still some hope. A lot can happen. Crew stacks to leeward in anticipation of a tack. Working the jury-rigged keel turing the tack. Joan, Xabi, and Neti clustered over the nav station, talking in Spanish. Washing machine from the cabin looking aft. Rob on the helm; Xabi on the pedestal. As it gets dark, wind is lighter, Rob looks to starboard through binoculars. Willy forward for a sail change. Looks like going from MH0 to J0 or vice versa.Neti and Xabi working on the keel hydraulics. Joan talks to them in Spanish. Joan to the cockpit: "You don't have instruments, right?" He gives a thumbs up. Neti, below, talks in Spanish, apparently about the breakage and repair. They have a jury-rigged piece of string marking the keel position. He demonstrates releasing pressure, and then adding pressure. Closeup of the markings on the box under the string.Joan, on deck: Passing the equator now. To the east of the leaders, which gives MAPFRE some leverage. Doldrums don't look very bad. The fleet doesn't have a large separation, so everyone will have pretty much the same opportunities. After the doldrums, typical tradewinds and sailing around the Bermuda High. With a low coming in that creates some opportunities. In lighter wind with MH0 partly rolled up, Xabi on the foredeck. Then Willy stands on the bow and gives hand signals to guide them through sargasso weed. Crew in the cockpit. Neti on a halyard putting a patch on the MH0 near the clew.Closeups of B&G instruments with nothing displayed. Neti, below, explains that they have "No batteries, no systems, nothing." Neti and Joan working in the bottom part of the cabin. Pablo, on the helm, talks about the issue in Spanish. Shot of the compass binnacle. Xabi stands talking on the satellite phone, explaining the situation. Computer screen showing electronic schematics. Neti working on an instrument panel while engine runs. Joan and Neti talking in Spanish. Joan stands on the stern on the sat phone, holding it high for better antennae operation. Closeups of various components. Xabi talks about fuses blowing, the electronics breaking, the PLC (?) broken means they can't control the keel. Working on a workaround. Pablo talks in Spanish in the cockpit. Instruments behind him apear to have readings, though. Pablo, Neti, and Xabi below work on the keel box. Xabi, to the cockpit: 'It's moving. So what do you need now?" They laugh at the response. Neti: "It's 33 now; what works for you?" He manually opens a valve. "There. That's 30." They laugh. Looks like they're manually bypassing the fuse to operate the keel hydraulic pump manually. Neti, on deck, explains that they took a switch from the bilge pump, and rigged up a system where they can move the keel. It's tricky, and in windy conditions would be very hard, because one person would need to be below at all times to move the keel. He then repeats the explanation in Spanish.Closeups of B&G instruments with nothing displayed. Neti, below, explains that they have "No batteries, no systems, nothing." Neti and Joan working in the bottom part of the cabin. Pablo, on the helm, talks about the issue in Spanish. Shot of the compass binnacle. Xabi stands talking on the satellite phone, explaining the situation. Computer screen showing electronic schematics. Neti working on an instrument panel while engine runs. Joan and Neti talking in Spanish. Joan stands on the stern on the sat phone, holding it high for better antennae operation. Closeups of various components. Xabi talks about fuses blowing, the electronics breaking, the PLC (?) broken means they can't control the keel. Working on a workaround. Pablo talks in Spanish in the cockpit. Instruments behind him apear to have readings, though. Pablo, Neti, and Xabi below work on the keel box. Xabi, to the cockpit: 'It's moving. So what do you need now?" They laugh at the response. Neti: "It's 33 now; what works for you?" He manually opens a valve. "There. That's 30." They laugh. Looks like they're manually bypassing the fuse to operate the keel hydraulic pump manually. Neti, on deck, explains that they took a switch from the bilge pump, and rigged up a system where they can move the keel. It's tricky, and in windy conditions would be very hard, because one person would need to be below at all times to move the keel. He then repeats the explanation in Spanish.Neti talks in Spanish as they sail in 15 knots of wind on starboard tack. He then repeats in English: After a shitty night, they got stuck in bad wind. Have been losing the whole day. Hopefully we can catch up again. It's been a hard day for us. But it's what it is. Lost so many miles in 15 hours. We knew that Turn the Tide on Plastic was well positioned. We didn't expect to lose as much with Dongfeng and Vestas... Have to keep pushing and not give up. Cannot say we are happy with what happened last night. But we push, and we're here for racing. Shot looking forwar as they sail faster than they have been. Blair grimaces into the camera. Joan comes up and gives the latest sched. Willy trimming. Smiles. Joan and Blair at the nav station.Joan talks on deck: yesterday had big showers, had to take a few of them on starboard, and ended up left of the rhumb line. Got passed by Vestas and Turn the Tide. In a group of four boats with Dongfeng ahead. Xabi recaps the same events in Spanish. They're especially concerned about Dongfeng because of how close they are in the standings. Shot looking forward as they sail to weather on port under the J1. Rob on the helm. Pablo trimming. Shifting the stack to leeward in preparation for tacking. Then we see the tack. Tamara grinding. spreader cam view of the deck with the J1 flying. Night-vision shots with rain. Night-vision shot of the bow with spray coming over.Blair, sitting on deck in light winds, talks about how their goal for the rest of this leg is catching TTToP. Talks about high pressure ridge, and they got further away, unfortunately. Sailing upwind. Not good for them. Going to try to analyze and look for an opportunity later on. Sunrise shot. Trimming. Joan looking at the chart. Joan talking with Rob (I think) in the cockpit about their prospects for catching TTToP.Rob, on the helm in light air: Got the mainsail back up 24 hours ago. Did a couple of days with no main. Not sheeting too hard; I'd say we're at 95%. Joan talks in the cockpit in Spanish. Rob: Provisioned this leg for 19 days, and are a bit over 20. So basically we're running out. We're all right on freeze dried. But snacks are running out. Going to be a few hungry people when we get to Brazil. Bow. Drone shots as they sail with MH0 and full main.Below, Joan talks about approaching Cape Horn, and the conditions over the next few days. Trying to find a balance between safety and pushing the boat hard. Vestas and Dongfeng ahead of them; expect to be close to them as they round. Ñeti, below, talks in Spanish. He shows a piece of hardware (mast track car?). Ñeti and Xabi work to repair a fitting. Washing machine shots in the morning sun on deck. Gybe from the stern. High-wind drone shots as MAPFRE surfs. Slomo drone shots of crew working on the bow to hoist the FR0. Drone shots in very windy conditions: streaking on the water as they surf with just J2/J3.Joan talks about being at 52°S, near the ice gate. Can see a few boats; Dongfeng by them, and on their windward side Vestas. Will get the first front passing, and lows, and winds about 35-40 knots. Anticipate a few maneuvers to keep near the ice gate. When the wind increases being close to the ice limit will not be as important, with winds even north to south. Tamara, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Rob steering on deck, washing machine shots. Night vision shots of people working on the foredeck and in the cockpit as they make a sail change.Ugo hands Xabi something at the nav station: An envelope containing a photo? Then Joan also looks at an envelope containing a photo: "Mi hija, y mi padre." Xabi shows his photo, talks about it in Spanish. Joan talks in Spanish as well.Ugo hands Xabi something at the nav station: An envelope containing a photo? Then Joan also looks at an envelope containing a photo: "Mi hija, y mi padre." Xabi shows his photo, talks about it in Spanish. Joan talks in Spanish as well.Drone shots of sunrise (?) with islands in the distance. A competitor is 3 miles ahead of them. High drone shot of islands. Blair: Awesome seeing the Three Kings in the morning. Pretty surreal sailing down the coast now. Flyby by a helicopter, a fishing boat. A plane flies overhead doing acrobatics. A boat comes alongside. Another boat comes alongside with MAPFRE flags flying. Xabi: So hard to overtake Dongfeng. Pablo: Only 150 miles to go; we have them less than a mile in front. Xabi: Catching them a little bit. New Zealand flag on the backstay. Sophie going aloft. Dongfeng to leeward. Blair spots TTToP through the binoculars. Willy talks about compression being expected. Chance to pass them, but it's remote. Joan: Seeing the race leaders in front. Light air for a bit. Just saw AkzoNobel was winning the race; on the AIS only 7 miles. Willy: Last 100 miles you're all on deck. Xabi looks through binoculars. Xabi trimming. Rob on the helm. Alongside Dongfeng a few boatlengths away. Dongfeng astern. Other boats ahead of them and inside. Dongfeng close behind in the sunset. Sophie rigging the J2 for hoisting. Triple heading. Dongfeng close behind them. Sophie: This was our first good opportunity to get past them. Have had 80% of the race at the back of the fleet. The vibe on the boat hasn't been good. Being back up now, gaining these miles, and can see Akzo over there; it's really exciting. Not giving up, fighting to the end.At the nav station, Joan talks in Spanish about the doldrums, wind, the comeptition. Rob, on the wheel: Dongfeng 3 miles behind us. Leaders 100 miles away off their bow. Brunel and TTToP off their port bow. But weather is changing dramatically. Light air between them and New Zealand. Uncertain. We're optimistic. Hoping the fleet's going to compress. Anything could happen. Fleet is spread quite widely, with 150 miles separation, so it could go either way. About 1200 miles to Auckland; 5 or 6 days. Quiet shots of them concentrating in the cockpit, trimming. Drone shot of MAPFRE with an atoll a few miles to starboard of their track. Drone shots.Everyone answers the question: What is MAPFRE's secret weapon? Tamara: Answers in Spanish. Willy: Answer's in Spanish. Louis: Xabi. Xabi is the secret weapon. Blair: Willy. Willy: (With Dongfeng behind him as he trims): Answers in Spanish. Pablo: Answers in Spanish. Rob: Our optimism. We're all very hopeful. Tamara: Talks in Spanish. Rob: Coffee, and looking forward to your next sleep. Willy: In Spanish. Xabi: In Spanish. Pablo: In Spanish. Xabi: In Spanish. Sophie: Talks about how the fact that you're racing keeps you going despite the fatigue. Joan: Talks in Spanish. Blair: Staying positive; trying to keep the boat going as fast as you can.At the nav station, Xabi talks in Spanish about wind, the competition. Then he talks on deck, still in Spanish. At nav station, Joan talks in English about weather forecasting. Tricky to find a balance between staying with the fleet and believing their own weather routing. When weather is more uncertain, keep an eye on the fleet more. Other times have more confidence in your forecast. Xabi at the nav station. Stacy triming. Rob grinding. Dongfeng close astern. Drone shots showing both boats in the sunset.Below, Joan explains that they have just passed the Phillippines, and have about 370 miles to go to the finish. Tricky, because there's a lot of traffic (oh yeah) and they don't always have lights. Sophie on deck: "The most enjoyable part of this leg for me was the start. Was sad to leave home, but it was really cool to go down the bay, and then turn left and go down the coast where I grew up surfing." Willy talks in Spanish. Louis: "There hasn't been a best part of the leg, man. THIS is the best part of the leg, because we're a day from the dock." Támara talks, laughing, in Spanish. Blair talks about the tradewind sailing, that being the highlight. Louis: "The worst part of the leg was when we came out of the doldrums and pretty much were dropped by the entire fleet." Willy talks in Spanish. Sophie: "Some of those days in the doldrums. They were pretty tough." Blair talks about the doldrums. Támara talks in Spanish. Sunset. Gybing with land behind them. Rob, on the helm, smiles. Islands. Drone shots of them sailing past islands.Joan, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish as MAPFRE flops with no wind under cloudy skies. Rain; slomo of Sophie, Joan, Xabi grinding in the rain. Sophie and Támara on the bow in the rain. Moving fast in the squall, and... becalmed again. Crew looks for wind; Xabi discusses it. Blair hauls the clew aft.Standing in the galley, Joan talks in Spanish. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. I'm picking up "hot" and "tired". Louis, below, shirtless and sweating: "It's really hot at the moment. It's very difficult to sleep." He shows the spritzer and spritzes himself with water. Támara, lying down in the bow, talks in Spanish and laughs. Sophie looks down through the hatch, talks about shade being important. Blaire, trimming, talks about heat and sun protection. Below, in the galley, he talks about the fresh water being warm, and the fact that the watermaker is getting much more of a workout than in the Southern Ocean. On the foredeck, Támara talks in Spanish, I think about her drinking water being hot. She and Blair construct a sun shade from the stack and an outrigger. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. Blair puts on sunscreen. Below, Louis spritzes himself. Late in the afternoon, they get some wind and start moving. Everyone is looking to starboard. The view shifts in that direction, and we see why: AkzoNobel, less than a mile away to leeward and slightly ahead; behind them, two more boats: I think Vestas to the left and Dongfeng to the right. Night shot with AkzoNobel just a boatlength or two behind them.Joan talks in Spanish about the Solomons, wind, squalls, complicated strategy, Dongfeng ahead, and the other boats behind them. Xabi talks about how they've been in this situation before, lead by Dongfeng through much of the leg. "Now we've gained as much as possible, and wait for our opportunity." Talks about the doldrums coming up. Night shot of distant lightning silhouetting the helmsman. In the day, Xabi in the pit. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them and to port with an island below them. Stacking. Green island to leeward. Pablo grinds with an island below them. Stacking forward. Shot astern with a whale surfacing; then slomo of the whale surfacing. AkzoNobel behind them. Dongfeng ahead and to weather. Light winds. AkzoNobel close behind them. Willy looking through binoculars. Drone shot of a fishing boat with a purse seine and MAPFRE in the background. Circling drone shot of MAPFRE with Dongfeng visible in 3 miles away, ahead and to weather.Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the competition. Joan, below, talks in Spanish. In the cockpit, Blair lies on his back to turn the middle pedestal handles with his feet, Team New Zealand AC-style. Ñeti does it too. Drone shot from close to the bow of the J1 being hoisted, then of crew clearing the old sail, then drone shots from low altitutde, coming really close to getting dunked by a wave, on the starboard quarter as MAPFRE reaches on starboard, then a drone shot pulling away to higher altitude.Below, Joan talks in Spanish. He then translates: They have a pretty steady breeze, and a reach with increasing wind, so they estimate finishing in Cape Town Friday afternoon or evening, 1700 or 1800 UTC.MAPFRE sails on starboard gybe. Xabi talks about how they've been sailing around the St. Helena high, and last night gybed [to starboard] to go southwest to hook into the front and head for Cape Town. Ñeti, trimming the main, talks in Spanish about where the other boats are. Xabi says he thinks they have a good position despite gybing quite early. He and Rob talk about the other competitors' positions relative to them in the latest sched. Joan reads from the tablet, telling Rob, on the helm, where the other boats are. Joan talks in Spanish about the other boats. Sunrise. Sophie trimming the main. Blair and Xabi grinding. Shifting the stack. Shot of the bow as they are triple-heading on starboard. Translations here: https://youtu.be/LqY11k_IjCI.Sophie brings a wrapped present from below and leads the crew in singing 'Happy Birthday" to Joan. Joan talks at the nav station in Spanish. Rob talks at the nav station about the equator and King Neptune. Blair talks to Ugo about how they're both pollywogs. Ñeti talks in Spanish. Támara talks in Spanish.Joan, at the nav station looking at a display of a chart showing the leg, talks in Spanish. Closeup of the chart as he zooms in on the Cape Verde Islands. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy and the other boats. He repeats it in English. Xabi: "Everyone's happy. We just overtook two boats last night. We just hope to catch Dongfeng. We will fight very hard with these two guys, with Vestas, and with Dongfeng of course." On deck in the dawn, Ñeti sits, Tamara grinds the aft pedestal, and Pablo steers. Shot aft, through the wheel, of Vestas a few miles behind them. Slomo shot looking up at Xabi on the helm. Slomo shot of Sophie during a sail change taking spray on the bow.Rob, at the nav station in red light, talks about strategy. Getting south, far enough west away from the Canaries. Rob: "We've been gybing the last 48 hours to try to stay in pressure, and get west whenever we can... Difficult shifts to predict, cloudy and stuff... Vestas did well, they got across our bow, about 10 miles in front of us." Joan, below, talks in Spanish. Xabi, below (now in daytime), talks about doing the hard job of lots of gybing and maneuvers. Xabi: "And now we have all a drag race, racing south." Joan talks more in Spanish. On deck, MAPFRE sails fast on starboard gybe, triple-heading. Crew shifts the stack aft, with the helmsman (Pablo) calling the cadence and giving one hand to pulling the sail. Interesting that they don't do the "two-six-heave" chant. Just "one, two, three" (moving on "three"). Downward mast cam view of the deck, then relatively high-wind drone shots of MAPFRE sailing fast on port gybe. Looks like the wind is around 20 knots; triple-heading with Masthead 0, J2, and J3.Joan, below, talks about how windy it has been, with up to 30 knots. Got lifted as they headed offshore, then gybed to the south. Xabi, below in red light, talks in Spanish. In the background, Sophie preps a metal bowl of food, then sits and eats it. Joan: "At the moment we're ahead in terms of distance to Cape Town, but that doesn't mean much."Wide drone shot of MAPFRE at sunset as they were approaching the virtual waypoint on the evening of October 26. More cool drone shots. Ñeti talks about how the virtual waypoint was good for them, because they did well against the other boats. (I think.) Blair working the pit. Xabi grinding. Below, Joan talks in Spanish about the approach to Lisbon. On deck, Ñeti talks about the tricky approach to Lisbon, and how that will be their best chance to catch up with Vestas. Blair and Ugo discuss who's in focus (first Ñeti, then Blair, then Ñeti again).Sophie, Blair, and Xabi in the cockpit as MAPFRE sails fast on starboard gybe; spray. Joan (?) eats below.Drone shots: Distant shot with sunrise; very low-altitude shot overtaking boat from the starboard quarter. Shots on board of slatting sails, instruments with low-wind/low-speed readings. At night, Joan and Xabi talking in Spanish at nav station about a position report. Then, in the dark, we hear Joan (?) relaying the position report in English to Rob (?), talking about how they're doing vs. Vestas (ahead of them) and the peleton (behind them).Red-light shots at night: stacking, sails. Joan (in Spanish): talks about rounding Cabo de Gata, wind. Sunrise drone shot, circling MAPFRE. Early morning light shot of Scallywag ahead of them with A3 and J2 flying. Shot of Sophie on MAPFRE on port watching Scallywag pass behind them on starboard and Brunel passing in front of them. (This was the big gybe in toward the Spanish coast where Vestas went before the other boats and took the lead.) Shot of Joan with MAPFRE now on the starboard gybe talking (in Spanish) about strategy. In the background, Xabi and Rob talk strategy (in English), mentioning Akzo, Vestas, and Brunel.