Jules Salter / Team AkzoNobel

gender Male
Nicolai on the helm. MAPFRE and Brunel in their wake. Nicho: You're in the lead, but they're so close it's not really. Gotta sail as fast as we can, mode the boat, hopefully that will be enough. But it's going to be on, all day; here we go. Hasn't' been much sleep the last few days. Carlo talks to Jules below: Where's the Dongers? Jules explains how they went inside. "Could pay off for them; could not. Models aren't particularly clear." Nav screen shows them entering the little gap in the exclusion zone. He stands in the hatch and shows Simeon the route on a tablet. Simeon: Pretty good. [He sounds half asleep.] "Good feeling to be in home waters." Shots of Brunel and MAPFRE behind them. Nicho: Stress. You can cut it with a knife back there between those two boats. Still have Dongfeng... not as strong a position tactically, but can't tell. He talks about the exciting day ahead.HIgh drone shot in low-light conditions. Nicolai stacking below. Jules in the cockpit talking about wind with Nicolai and Nicho. Jules: Got a little complicated there. Models had a big shift. Trying to time that, and dealing wiht the TSS. High drone shot of Akzo with Brunel a quarter mile behind them. Emily stacking uphill below. Jules at the nav station talking to Nicho. Nicolai getting his gear on below, talking to Jules about the upcoming wind. Nicho talks about changing to the J0; confirms with Nicolai that the outrigger is already set up for it. Nicolai to Nicho: Set up J1, J3, outrigger? Slomo washing machine on deck. Brunel behind them. Drone shot of both boats. Nicolai below, his face covered in freshly-applied sunscreen: Day 2? Day 3. Rounded the virtual mark off Norway. Transitions... Talks about the stress on the three boats with a chance to win the race. "Stress is on them. We just want to sail as fast as we can and win the leg."Nicolai gets out of his bunk: "That was 20 minutes. That was good." Martine: I don't count time anymore. I don't count hours and minutes. Nicolai, agreeing: No. Grinding on deck. Jules calling course changes while looking at his tablet. Nicho talks about winds ahead. They talk about which way to take the exclusion zone. Nicho talks about rounding the virtual mark. Now we can see the guys in front of us. Need another compression and parkup. Have a reasonable lead over Scallywag and Turn the Tide, but need to get into the guys in front. Another boat in the distance ahead of them (Vestas?).Slomo of Brunel sailing a half mile away on their port quarter. Justin, to Jules: He's still got a zero [J0] up. Jules looks. Furled. Brad: Good to get past Brunel; we've been battling with them all day. Jules nailed the layline, and they screwed it up and had to do another gybe, and that was our passing maneuver. Slomo of Martine grinding with Brunel behind them.High drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing past the wind farm. Nicho talks to Brad about getting rid of the J3 and bring the J2 in a bit. Brad does that. Jules: Not doing too well at the moment. Didn't have too good a run from the buoy up at Norway. Brad hoists the MH0. Simeon, with binoculars: Pretty disappointed. Off the pace; out of sync. Peel. Simeon: Still a long way to go. Everyone's working hard. Getting a little bit of rest now. I don't think anyone slept longer than 40 minutes. This afternoon we'll get into Aarhus, then back up north again. Drone shot with wind farm.Doing a sail change in the cockpit; furling line gets a knot in it (?). They scramble to fix it. Deploying the MH0. Nicolai takes the sail bag forward to bag up the J0 (I think?) Brad fiddles with the halyard. Simeon looks to starboard. Jules: He's only gonna go if Brunel goes. Nicho and Jules talk about when to tack over to port.Slomo parade. Simeon, Nicolai, Luke, Martine, Emily, Jules, Justin (carrying a small child). Dockout. Simeon: This is where I learned sailing. It's going to be good fun. Nicolai on the helm in the prestart talking about their approach. Simeon: "3:20!" On the line, Brunel, Dongfeng, TTToP nearby. Jules calling nav on the upwind with his tablet. Other boats: MAPFRE. Dongfeng just behind. Nicho: Just be a blocker for the next 3 days. Good start by Nicolai. Now get up the coast and probably match these guys a little bit. Good start; just keep trying to put the best foot forward. Jules: Going better now, Nicolai. Nicolai on the helm.Early in the leg, Jules looks at a tablet. Nicho calls "main on". Boats behind them: Dongfeng, TTToP, Scallywag. Pan across the cockpit showing crew sailing the boat upwind: Nicolai on the helm, Martine and Emily (I think) grinding. Justin trimming the J1. Simeon in the pit. Luke sitting just forward of James (the OBR).Stern cam / crash cam of AkzoNobel reaching in strong conditions. Nicolai, on the helm, calls out, "Big wave. Hang on." and a big wave slaps off the side of the boat, sending spray in the air. Martine getting geared up below. "This is what they call summer. I can't believe it. We need winter gloves in summertime. Although we're only two or three miles away from everybody it's very bad visibility, very bad weather." Nicho comes below, talks to Jules: Consensus on deck is J1. Jules talks with him about the course. What's the best compromise? Nicho to Brad in his bunk: Bradley. You know how it's your off watch? We're gonna go to J1 now. Is that funny? Brad: Eh, not that funny. Nicho: I actually think it's reasonably funny. Brad (half asleep): You just doing this for fun? Brad talks about his lucky (red) socks. Kiwis... Nicho, below: We thought we had a terrible watch, not on our numbers, but Brunel was the only one that gained on us. We have the wrong sail up, so probably everyone has the wrong sail up. So we're gonna change the sail. Slomo spray on deck. Jules looks at an actual paper chart. [I love real charts.] Jules: Just about picking your right sail... Barometer's rising now, so the wind's going to shift right and drop at the same time. Exclusion zones... And get around the Skaggerak, which is the top of Denmark. Thread the boat at the fastest speed through a narrow straight line, which should be quite simple, but it's always easy to make complicated.Stern cam at night / low light conditions. Six grinders; doing a peel? (Yeah; hoisting the J2, turns out.) Spreader cam view of crew taking a sail bag forward. J1 coming down on the bow. They're doing it bare-headed after hoisting the (furled) J2. Chart screen at the nav station. Jules: It's Thursday morning. Talks about the their position: fifth, just ahead of TTToP. Two reefs; just did a change from J1 to J2, which is always hard in a seaway. More wind to come; tough 24 hours ahead. Howling wind sound.Spreader cam view of the foredek as they haul down a sail - maybe J0 to MH0 peel? Or vice versa? Brad grinding on the aft pedestal: Had a rough night last night. Reckon we had something on the keel; tried everything and ended up having to do a back down. That cost us 4 miles, dropped us back in the pack. Justin driving. Jules and Nicolai talking below about sail combinations. Jules in the nav station: We are very close to 5 miles off second, and third, fourth, and fifth are all within 2 miles of each other. Pretty good wind, not good visibility. Can only see them on AIS. Pretty crap couple of hours. Just about going around the top of the Hebrides in the next couple of hours, and then heading for the Orkneys. Chart screen.Drone shot of Akzo flopping with the J1 as a windseeker. Jules, standing on the mast: Best breeze is through there. Nicho, with binoculars: They're all on port with zeroes. Other boats on the horizon. Nicolai on the helm talks to Simeon about the wind. Nicho: Fastest we've been for about half an hour. Crew sleeping in the bow. Luke: talks about broken sleep because of maneuvers. Going to plug in some music and zone out. Low-alttitude drone shot of Akzo in drifting conditions. Nicho talks to Jules about best heading. Justin: Gotta get out to that line, don't we? Nicho responds about the ridge. Flopping with MH0. Jules: Might be our turn now. Simeon: You wanna come down on this? Other boat (MAPFRE) to starboard. Justin: Just catch it before it dies. Nicho: That way (points ahead) 20 miles there's good southerlies. Talks about MAPFRE next to them; different scenarios as the breeze fills in. High drone shot of the two boats.MAPFRE sails on their weather quarter. Martine stacks below. Competitor on the horizon to port. Nicho: Most of the boats are pretty much in a line southeast to northwest, coming into the ridge. Hoping things will be better for us crossing the ridge to the right, to the north. I don't think anyone really knows where they need to be. But this is the plan we've had, so we're happy. Talking now about how we change sails crossing the ridge to the finish. That's going to be key: Will have to change sails, but doing it fast and getting back up to speed as soon as we can. Jules talking about competition; talking about Dongfeng's (I think?) strategy. How they're the fastest reaching. Luke, from the helm: Not the fastest Volvo boat ever though. (Referring to Akzo's speed record from leg 9.) He grins.Slomo of rocks with sea birds flying around them. Sunset. Simeon looking at sunset. Nicolai: South tip of Ireland, beautiful... Bit of a chess game. Can choose to go around, or go between. Talk about wind shadow, tide. Flopping. Dongfeng in sunset light to starboard. Nicolai: We just went outside a small group of islands while the rest of the fleet went inside. Shot of Vestas emerging from behond the islands. Jules talks about wind. Sunset with a competitor ahead of them.Drone shot alongside as AkzoNobel sails in 15 knots of wind. Looks like they have a J0 and J3 up; MH0 and J2 (maybe?) are up but furled. Maybe shifting gears in expectation of falling wind? Brad goes out to the MH0 clew to take the lazy sheet off. Nicho talks about them expecting lighter winds as they approach the Irish coast. Beautiful drone shot with grassy hillside in the foreground and AkzoNobel and two other competitors (TTToP and Vestas, I think, from the tracker) behind them approaching the coast. Jules talks strategy in the cockpit. Jules: It's pretty rugged, and the water's pretty fresh and clean, and there's lots of granite that's been weathered by lots of storms, so there's lots of caves and arches. Drone shot flying through a sea cave (!) with AkzoNobel visible beyond. Then another shot of a small opening in the rock with a red-sailed boat (MAPFRE?) beyond. Jules: Pretty green because it rains a lot. And there's lots of good pubs. That's why I like it. He talks about the fleet, and compression; first 6 boats all within 3-5 miles of each other. Emily: Quite cool to see the geography of Ireland. Usually the wather's bad so you don't see it that much. Justin on the bow with Fastnet rock behind him. Drone shot with ridge and AkzoNobel beyone. Nicho: third or fourth at the moment; same as we are overall. Way forward for us to score as high up as possible, but certainly conditions ahead could have boats doing damage. We need a little of that to help us get on the podium overall. Just keep pushing the boat and sailing as quick as we can.There's a glitch with the video; it's listed as 3:44 in length, but stops at 1:40. Not sure what's up with that. (Ah. it's a duplicate of the subsequent, corrected video.)Slomo parade with kids waving flags. Slomo dockout with Simeon waving from the wheel. Luke: just coming out of the Cardiff lock, just coming down to sea level... Exciting toward the end; "thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening." Start sequence in drifting conditions. Jules and Nicho talking about a competitor getting a helicopter puff. Jules: Trying to make use of the turning tide here. Sailing offshore into the middle of the channel. Sailing with better wind.Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in misty conditions. Brunel on their starboard beam. Jules talks about how it was unlucky we went into 7 knots of wind... Justin interrupts: It's not unlucky it's just [bleep] light. Simeon looks at Brunel through binoculars and talks about their sail combination. Jules: Trying to defend our lead, which is very slim at the moment. Slomo crew work: Grinding, foredeck, steering, stacking. Jules: Still with 350 miles to go you don't wanna get too involved in a straight match race. You don't want to give them free reins to sail past. Staying with him, minimizing the risk, but also sailing the plan to get there as quickly as possible. Slomo crew work: Hoisting a sail. Drone shot.Jules at the nav station: Talks about Brunel, strategy. Stacking below. Jules: They're closing in behind us; we've hit the lighter air first. Dongfeng only 20 miles behind us now. Red light cockpit work. Jules: We'll park up again in another light area ahead of us. Whoever gets the wind first will win the leg, either Brunel or us. Or even Dongfeng if they catch up some more.Jules at the nav station: Going to come to a grinding halt... Will get a bit of breeze Sunday from the north to get us to the southwest tip of Ireland. And then a very messy situation in the Celtic Sea. Going to take us 2 days to get into Wales, and no obvious way to get in. Might see a restart in the race. But we'll see what hapens. Drone shots of AkzoNobel sailing in lighter conditions under the MH0. Brad: As expected we're sailing in lighter conditions... All these boats are moving in behind us and getting closer. Closer in distance, but should be about the same time-wise. Can see Brunel again; about 6 miles. Keep pushing, through this ridge and out the other side. Drone shot circling AkzoNobel in the sunrise.Simeon, in the pit: For sure Martine is excited, so she can call her father Captain Slow at the dinner table. Also Jules has a nice grin on his face to redo his own record from Ericsson 4. But we just want to be first in to Cardiff. Weather is still a bit challenging... It's great of course to be the fastest in the race, especially in this kind of conditions where we can do it pretty safe, and big compliments to the shore crew to maintain the boat so well, so we have the confidence to put the hammer down. It's pretty cool. It will be hard to win the race overall, but at least we won't be the slowest, hopefully.Jules at the nav station: In the 2008 race we almost topped 600 miles in the Ericsson 4. That was in the South Atlantic on the first leg. Had a few sail changes. This was more straightforward. This is really good what we've done here. Think we've topped 600 miles... keeps us in the front of the fleet. You always try to line your boat up, but you need so many things to come into line. Had some help from the Gulf Stream in this one. Boat stayed in one piece. On Ericsson we damaged a rudder and started sinking. But in this case the numbers keep coming.Simeon, in the pit: For sure Martine is excited, so she can call her father Captain Slow at the dinner table. Also Jules has a nice grin on his face to redo his own record from Ericsson 4. But we just want to be first in to Cardiff. Weather is still a bit challenging... It's great of course to be the fastest in the race, especially in this kind of conditions where we can do it pretty safe, and big compliments to the shore crew to maintain the boat so well, so we have the confidence to put the hammer down. It's pretty cool. It will be hard to win the race overall, but at least we won't be the slowest, hopefully.Jules at the nav station: In the 2008 race we almost topped 600 miles in the Ericsson 4. That was in the South Atlantic on the first leg. Had a few sail changes. This was more straightforward. This is really good what we've done here. Think we've topped 600 miles... keeps us in the front of the fleet. You always try to line your boat up, but you need so many things to come into line. Had some help from the Gulf Stream in this one. Boat stayed in one piece. On Ericsson we damaged a rudder and started sinking. But in this case the numbers keep coming.Washing machine from the hatch. Jules looks out. He talks to the sailors in the cockpit about the routing, strategy with respect to other boats. He talks to Brad below. They're discussing when to gybe onto starboard. He looks at a sched. Brad explains: We're gybing. Vestas is heading north, for the shift, so we want to do the same thing. So it's a rush gybe. We see the gybe through the hatch. Jules at the nav station talks strategy while Nicolai and Martine stack below. Nicho: We'd been on about a 250 wind direction now for a day. But beyond that, we want to stick with Vestas and Brunel. Pretty sure all of us are pretty comfortable on this gybe. Should head down, and then tack over, get set up for some more breeze in a couple of days. Washing machine. Nicho: Going to be a couple days of decent breeze and fast running. Both Vestas and Brunel are very good at that. Brunel maybe the best in the fleet at J0 reaching. And then light air at the end; it's going to be quite a problem.Jules at the nav station talks with Simeon about stragy. They tack in the dark. I think we actually see the tack from a nighttime drone shot. High drone shot of them sailing. Brad, in the morning: Busy night last night, lot of tacks. They're neck and neck with Vestas. We're on J0, they're on J1. We see Vestas to port. Brad: Always good to have a boat next to you. Sunrise. Drone shots. Brad: Next 12 hours we should get a lift. Should get another sail in and start triple-heading. Drone shot showing both boats.Drone shot of AzkoNobel triple-heading under gray skies. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Martine gets doused at the pedestal. Below, Nicho, Jules, and Simeon look at weather models on the computer. Jules: Mixed bag performance wise. Had some good spells and some not so good spells. Crossed a bit of the Gulf Stream. Radar, AIS; he was short on sleep all night. Drone shot. Spray by the shrouds. Simeon getting greared up below. Some good moments, some difficult moments. Keep the hammer on. Nicho takes slomo spray. Major whitewater near the mast looking aft. This is when the boats are most powerful. Jules at the nav station looks at routing. "Still a long way to go, changing conditions. The forecasts not really lining up." More slomo washing machine, drone shot of AkzoNobel surfing.Jules, from below, tells the helmsman what course to steer. (Sounds like they're skirting the exclusion zone in the fog.) Sail change in spray on the foredeck. Foggy wake. Dark below. Nav station, the sound of the hydraulic pump. Luke talks about the sun coming up. Still foggy, but not as thick. Probably 4th. Target is to try to win the leg and win maximum points. Nicho: Not quite in touch with the leaders as we needed to be at this stage. The two red boats have got some fast modes. Brad talks about Brunel. Nicho: Low coming with wind up to 40 knots... We're in the front of B grade at the moment. We need to step it up and get to A grade again.Parade. Simeon holding a little girl. Justin kissing a young child he's holding. Dockout. Nicho: Double pointer, only 8 days. People think it's short, but if you push it hard you feel it. Start. Brad: "Good breeze here." Other boats behind them. TTToP crossing astern at mark rounding. (Think that's the port-starboard between Vestas and TTToP behind them.) leeward mark rounding. Vestas astern. Nicolai on the helm going downwind under the bridge with MAPFRE and Dongfeng (and Brunel, invisible) ahead of them. Vestas 3 boatlengths to starboard. Simeon: Thinks they did well, except at the top mark. Felt my heart beating in my throat there. Now out of the bay into the fog. MAPFRE behind them. Jules: third place at the moment. Just trynig to wriggle our way around the exclusion zone. Discussion of J0 vs. J1.Drone shot of AkzoNobel going through sargasso. "Massive patch to leeward." Emily: Just crossed the equator and have just gotten into the Sargasso Sea. Brad, below, shows the endoscope. Underwater shot of Brad flossing the rudder. Jules: The only way to get it off is to physically stop the boat and make the boat sail in reverse. Drone shot of them doing a backdown.Luke, on the pedestal: Had a good sched, back in the hunt. Tradewinds on the other side of these clouds. Taking off the miles; everyone's happy on board. Emily: We were gybing every hour. Have to make a go of it. As much coffee as you can take. Brad, on the mainsheet, talks about the transitions. Jules, in the hatch, talks about this gybe vs the other gybe. Windier conditions with spray coming over the bow.Time lapse of the cockpit from the stern at night. Jules, at the nav station, explains that they're trying to negotiate some current, but didn't do as well as the boats ahead of them. Emily, below, sprays water on herself. Jules: Using larger sails, VMG running. Less concerned about the current, more about the clouds. Unstable wind; lots of rain.Drone shot of the rig. Closeup of the outrigger. Nicolai: Talks about one design, same sails. It all comes down to how you set up the sails, small adjustments. Maybe gain 0.01 knots of boatspeed. But over a week that's going to pay off. Shots of the sails. Nicolai explains the outrigger. He explains that it's like an airplane wing: At high speed want it flat, at low speed/low wind want it deep and powerful. Simeon: Look a lot at the heel trim. The longitudinal trim. And the shape, the amount of wetted surface. But also the stability. In light air we're not planing, so we want that fat ass out of the water. So we trim forward. Nicolai talks to someone below about the stack below. Simeon talks about the foils, keel, lift vs. drag. Like how we trim the sails, we basically trim the hull as well. Stacking below, close drone shot. Stacking sails forward. Jules talks about the other boats, and then the instruments, as the gauge they look at. Art vs. science. Helmsman's feel.Jules: Starting to approach Cabo Frio and there's quite a bit of cloud. Especially this time of day it gets quite active. He and Nicho look at clouds. Brad on the foredeck. Peeling J1 to MH0. Nicho on the helm: Just had a section of clouds, and got a split of Vestas and Turn the Tide on one side of the cloud, and us on the other. So we've had to do a bunch of tacking and stacking... Took a couple of miles out MAPFRE and Brunel. Dongfeng had a nice slot through the clouds, so they've gained. Drone shot with sunset behind AkzoNobel's masthead. Drone shot with sunset and crepuscular rays.Time lapse from the stern cam as darkness falls. Simeon, below, talks about the wind dropping and going right. Probably will do the stack and get on the hip of those guys. Below, Martine and Brad stacking. Jules at the nav station. Night shot of stars, moon. Luke, in the dark, explains that they're right on the crossover of the J1 and the Masthead 0, and it's difficult to know if they should change or not, if the better sail will pay for the loss incurred in the sail change. "Where we are in the fleet at the moment we can't afford to make any losses."Cool nighttime drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in light wind under a cloudy sky with lightning flashes visible behind them. In the dark, Jules talks with Simeon about it. Jules explains that they have a supercell behind them. Are concerned about the plate on the keel giving way and letting lots of water into the boat if they go over 20 knots. "It's an interesting evening." Nicolai: "I think it's too early for the J2." He talks about getting a proper thunder cell to get them to the finish. More drone shots. Favoriting for the beautiful drone photography, mostly.Closeups of water leaking out from something below. Simeon explains: He noticed when he was going to light the fire for cooking. Water was squirting out of the cover plate of the keel box. Nicolai talking with him. Brad gets out gear to go for a little swim. "Just jump in for a quick swim and see what I can find." On deck in the pre-dawn. Brad goes down in a survival suit, it looks like, with goggles. He pulls himself down to the keel. Calls for slack. Brad comes back: Two cover plates for the keel box. There's a gaping hole about that big in the bottom of our boat. Should be sealed here (inside). Going to have to come up with a way to sail the boat without pushing water inside the boat. Simeon: A bit of slamming, because of the big speeds, broke part of the cover plate of the keel. Simeon, Jules, and Nicolai discuss. Nicolai on the phone, asking about reinforcing with battens on the inside. Simeon: Keep an eye on it, maybe make some reinforcements. They remove the cover plate inside. Fiddle with reinforcements. Reattaching the cover plate. Beautiful sunset drone shot. Simeon: Not so much a repair as much as a reinforcement. "We think this will bring us to Itajai safely, and otherwise I'll have to sit on top of it."Jules, at the nav station, talks about the wind and confused sea state. Spreader cam views of washing machine on deck. Crash cam view of Nicho (based on his foulies lettering) getting washed off the helm by a wave. Below, Brad talks to Nicolai about his nose; Nicolai says he's broken it before, then pushes it back into place. Nicolai, below, talks about getting beaten up by the waves. He broke his nose last night. But nothing too serious. Jules and Simeon at the nav station talk about strategy. Nicho: Got washed off the wheel. First one I've had. Held on tight. I had two tethers on, just got washed back on my ass on the boat. Crash cam footage of the washing off again. Jules: We've also slowed down a bit. TTToP slowed down a bit due to rig issues, and Vestas has just been dismasted in this same area. Standing by... Simeon: Especially for Vestas, a tough time for those guys. Jules: At the moment hard to go max speed because of the sea state, and fear of breaking the boat. Talks about the upcoming route. A bit of a tradeoff; trying to get north as quickly as they can but also as safely as they can.Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Bow cam view looking aft. Someone (Martine?) looking forward through binoculars, presumably at a competitor. Shot forward from behind the wheel of washing machine and a competitor crossing ahead of them (Dongfeng). Nicolai, standing on the stern trimming the main, talks about Dongfeng and (unfortunately) MAPFRE crossing them. Last night they were behind us; now they've crossed us. Not the best morning. But still 15 mornings to go. Shot of the other boat to port. Stern cam footage of them sailing on starboard. Jules and Nicho sit at the nav station talking strategy. Nicho, eating: "No shortage of breeze." Martine below. She guesses she got the most sleep, but not anymore. Going to be gybing. Luke: With the two gybes in his off-watch he got about an hour of sleep during his four off. Jules talks about having lost a lot of distance to the boats nearby. Did some good gybes, got a couple of hundred meters behind Brunel. But now they've coughed up some distance. Spreader cam view of shifting the stack aft.Cool low-altitude drone shot that pulls up to reveal AkzoNobel sailing toward the drone. Drone shot above and astern, tracking with them. Simeon, bundled, talks about being in first position. Getting colder, good sailing conditions. Every watch you can feel the temperature drop. Jules, below in the dark, talks with Nicho about the wind and models. Nicho in his bunk, talking to Jules at the nav station. Jules: Crossed the dateline. In a different hemisphere. Fleet pretty close together, within a few miles, bar one boat (Scallywag). In 12 hours some big winds, 30 - 40 knots, and then for the next week. So pretty big stuff coming up. Favorited mostly for that really nice drone sequence at the beginning.Simeon talks about the latest sched with Jules at the nav station. Close to North Cape of New Zealand. Everyone lining up behind them. Scallywag still in stealth mode. They'll probably use their stealth mode card in the next sched. Some light air expected at north end of New Zealand. Jules, on deck, says technically they're leading. Pretty evenly matched with Scallywag. Brad: Having the lead for most of the last two weeks has been pressure. As Kiwis want to win the leg into Auckland. Cecile: Auckland is my second home. It would mean the world to me to win in Auckland. Shots of crew sleeping, the instruments, sunset. Jules, Simeon, and Nicho at the nav station talking strategy. Nicho: 18 miles in the lead; pretty much point and shoot now. Trying to get around the corner while the tide is good. Then a parkup on the other side. On deck in the sunset, Brad talks about the upcoming situation. Shot of islands in the fading light (the "Three Kings", maybe?). Sunset sky.Nicho on the helm at sunrise. Simeon: Basically the plan is working out, which is nice. Heading more and more to New Zealand. A little more pressure. Coming from underneath, which was alwyas the plan. Sailing more miles, but doing them quicker. Shots of them triple-heading on port gybe. Simeon: In a strong position now; wouldn't want to trade with anyone else. In good shape heading toward New Zealnd, and then the last 400 miles in are very light. Cecile coils. Justin, below, talks about how it's been a long slog. Timing the approach; time and tide. Fingers crossed; keep pushing. Brad, Nicolai in the cockpit. Stacking the sails aft. Grinding. Nicho with his penguin balaclava. Nicho below: staring the weather to death on the computer, so we're prepared. To be in a position to win a leg is a very special thing. It's a rare, rare, rare occurrence... Enjoy every moment you can, because you may not have another. Simeon looks at the latest sched; talks about Scallywag being in stealth mode. 25 (miles?) more than Brunel, 24 more than Dongfeng. Jules and Simeon talk at the nav station. Sunset through the companionway silhouetting a crewmember.Sailing south fast. Pole shots of the crew in the cockpit. Simeon on the helm. Double-heading with J0/J3? Cecile grinding. Simeon at the nav station reads a sched (or AIS?) of Scallywag's position. Jules: just passing the southern end of New Caledonia. Sailing a little further to avoid light air. Still heading south. Brad pulls a sail out from below. Sail change on the foredeck. Slomo washing machine. Simeon: Gained some bearing. Luke, below: Weather could allow Dongfeng and MAPFRE to cut the corner. Still anyone's race. Brad and Luke rock out, sharing a pair of earbuds. Jules and Simeon at the nav station. Jules talks about using the J0 now to give up some distance. Nicho talks about how they can do some things with Scallywag, but not with Dongfeng and MAPFRE because they're too far away. Can't get caught up in that. Pole shot of stacking the A3?Early morning. Jules talks about how they can see Scallywag now. They've taken about 10 miles from them in an hour and a half. Bow with stack on it. Nicho looks toward Scallywag. Jules, at the nav station, talks about 1400 miles (to go in the leg?). About 1500 miles of sailing. Jules talking strategy. Cecile talking about how she's glad she picked this boat to be on because they're in a good spot. Still a ways to go. Until you get to North Cape with a decent lead, I won't think about anything. Jules and Simeon at the nav station look at the latest sched. Nicolai in the companionway talks about the competion. Luke talks about how they had a great sched. Talks about New Caledonia, how the other boats are picking different lines. Cecile with a hand-bearing compass. Nicolai, below: Four miles to Scallywag. Three weeks of work behind it, and can lose it in one cloud... Coming together more. Speed, experience, teamwork. Adds up. Jules, Simeon, and Nicho talking around a tablet. Sailing south in light conditions.Brad, at the base of the mast: "I'm going up the rig." And he does. I think this is probably early morning. Crew grinding in the cockpit. He points to the wind. Jules, on deck: Can you see Scallywag? Brad: Yeah, he's out there. Looks lighter than us.Scallywag sails a half mile away to leeward (port) of them in the sunrise. Simeon jokes about it. Nicolai eats: Next 48 hours really important. Whoever gets through the best will do best. Each time they've been next to Scallywag in this leg they've beaten them. Nicho: It's good to have a boat next to you. Easy to lose from here; will be difficult to win. But have a good chance at it. Which is more than you can ask for in this race. Shot of Scallywag astern. Jules talks strategy below. Nicho: Had good breeze throughout the sched. But the disadvantage of two boats side by side is you stick together. Crew drinking. Nicho: "I'm from Australia, it's not a problem. The guy from Denmark, he really struggles." He wakes up Nicolai. Nicolai talks about the sun and heat. Simeon, below. Jules: "We're not doing anything at the moment. We're not in the wind, we're losing to him, we're not sailing to our plan, and we're sailing slowly." Hoisting the J1; lowering the MH0. Cecile talks about losing the lead to Scallywag. Simeon in the red light of the sunset: Very expensive. Nothing you can do about it now. Knew west was best in both models. Try to keep west... Try to put yourself in a good position... Should have been more aggressive. Learned a lesson today. Sunset.Brad, up the mast wearing a GoPro (realize it's a Garmin), looks for wind, calls down to the deck. View from deck level as they flop. Knotmeter: 1.6. Hoisting the J1. Luke stands by the MH0 clew. Luke: Brad's just up the mast to pop the battens. GoPro shot of Brad doing that. Luke: 2/3 of the distance through the leg, Scallywag just 4 miles away. Simeon: Brunel, Scallywag, and ourselves. Cecile: Hopefully the guys behind us get stuck in the same stuff. Shot of another boat on the horizon. Martine takes a bearing. Jules talks about "going over there to get in that breeze. Luke looks through the binoculars. Simeon talks down into the cabin: "Need to get more snacks. Keep up the motivation. Luke lies below. Nicolai eats. Simeon: All short-term plans. Luke: Sea state is calm. Going to get flatter as well. Winch closeup. Sunset.Gybing at sunrise. Jules: Still unresolved on how to get through the band of doldrums. Depends on what you'll find on the other side, but that's still 10 days away. "Pretty random really." Sunrise. Nicho on the helm talks strategy with Jules and Simeon. Luke washes in a rain squall. Martine and Brad shower in the rain. Brad: Three showers so far today. Looks like number four shower. Rolling up the J3. Light winds. Martine: Still going through a lot of clouds. Everybody can catch up with us. You just deal with it. Hoisting the J1. Simeon: Hope we end up well. To win the race you need to win legs. That pressure is bigger for us than for any of the others. Jules talks from the cabin to Nicho on the helm. Cecile puts on a shirt below. Nicolai pulls down the J1. Nicolai: Just had a sched, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. This was a bad one. Lost 25 miles on the fleet. Knew that was coming; they're sailing into lighter conditions. Luke, in the cockpit: "A lot of snakes and ladders in this game." Sunset as they sail in light winds. Red-lit instruments show them sailing at 0.6 knots.Wrestling sails on the foredeck. Pole shot of waves off the side. Lowering and gathering in the J1. Stacking. Looking up the slot while double-heading with a reefed main. Below, Simeon, Jules, and Nicho talk strategy at the nav station. Nicho isn't talking much. Cecile eating. Simeon: Basically leading the fleet. But have to make a decision between two different models for how to round Fiji. Go 800 miles more? A bit of a situation. The weather has been different from the models. Nicho: Have the option of bailing out if they need to. Simeon: As the lead boat have to make a crucial decision. Nicho: Have a reasonable lead, but you can never have enough lead when entering the doldrums. Simeon eases a sheet. Justin on the helm. Luke on the helm as dusk falls, the wind lighter. Beautiful red sunset clouds. "End of the world."Brad and Martine on the foredeck peeling from J1 to J0? FR0? Stacking. Luke in the pit. Luke bailing below. Filling up water in the galley. Brad: Nine days in. Not the easiest 9 days. Blast reaching, throwing the boat around. When they get to the doldrums they'll want to get this again. "As long as you keep your gear dry." Richard asks, "Is your gear dry?" Brad shakes his head and smiles. "Soaked all the way through." He eats. Jules talks about their lead over Scallywag and MAPFRE. They'll lose some of that as they lead into the first doldrums area. He talks about strategy with someone. Shots of the conditions lightening on deck. Nicolai talks about light winds coming. Frustrating, but they knew it was coming. Ready for hard work. Unfurling a bigger sail (MH0?). Jules talks about strategy. Simeon scans the horizon for wind. Squall with rain and wind. Grinding. Winch drum. Jules talks about the nearby boats. Luke in the cockpit. Jules, in the companionway, talks about the clouds, and strategy.Simeon talks below. Fantastic to lead. Long way to go. Have to have confidence. Upcoming doldrums. Jules at the nav station talks to Simeon. Computer screen shows weather. Simeon: Pressure of being in the front and making choices that everyone else sees. A bit of a vulnerable spot. Justin, below: A lot of hurdles to get through. Maybe first into the doldrums, first out of the doldrums. Everyone working well. Good feeling. Cecille: Nothing's set in stone. Far from it. Washing machine shot of the cockpit from the cabin. Slomo spray from the cockpit. Nicolai getting drenched. Waterline pole shot. Slomo of cockpit. Pole shots from outboard. Nicho on the helm in rain and squally conditions. Simeon grinding. Looking up the slot with major firehose action. Martine and Jules grinding on one pedestal. Cecile: "It's wet! But fast." Nicolai, below, talks about blowing out a Cunningham ram. Losing oil for the Navtec system. Nicolai and Simeon working on the hydraulics below. Nicolai explains that the bigger problem is that the cunningham uses the same oil as the other systems. If they run out of oil it will affect other sail control systems. More shots of repairs as they bounce around.Luke sings (I guess?). Laughter as Nicolai steers. Cécille laughs. Jules on the helm. Closeup of lines. Brad laughing. Richard (OBR) asks Luke what position they're currently in. Luke: "This can be answered by the expression on Jules' face. I think we're currently leading the yacht race." They laugh about Jules smilng. Cécille: "Yeah, leading. Which is nice. Another good sched." More discussion of Jules smiling. Simeon, below: "Hopefully we ca maintain the lead we have. But in the last leg we had a 100-mile lead on Brunel, and they came within" a few miles of their stern. Sunset, moonrise.Cécille, below, talks about how Jules strategy has paid off and they've picked up 40 miles on the other boats in one sched. Still a massive way to go and doldrums and stuff, but it's cool. Jules, at the nav station, looks at a chart. Jules, in the hatch, talks to Nicho, in the cockpit, about strategy. Nicho: Last two scheds are the two best scheds we've ever had. Now put some miles on Scallywag. And still some concern about Brunel and TTToP, with a little bit of leverage. "Minefield after minefield from here to New Zealand." When they were behind they were looking at these upcoming transitions as the opportunity to get past the leaders. So have to be careful. But still, rather be here than back there. Simeon trimming, Martine on the pedestal. Nicho (I think?) steering; Nicolai trimming.Nicho, below, talks about how cool it was last night pushing in 28 knots of wind. Can't talk on deck; just focus on your job. When the front that they're on breaks down there will hopefully be some compression. Pressure on the team, and has been since they damaged the mast in Leg 3. He thinks they're a better team than where they're sitting overall. Nicolai, below, talks about Simeon getting blown off the wheel, making a big bang. "Only one thing can make a bang that big, and that's him falling off the wheel." He just ran for the wheel and grabbed it. Crash cam footage of the incident. Simeon: "Reminds me of when I fall out of a tree as a young boy." At the nav station, Jules talks to Nicho about Dongfeng doing a peel; maybe that's why they fell back. Nicho: "We're just quick Jules." Jules: "The other two are quicker." Nicho laughs. Washing machine shots on deck, closeup of the rudder. Cool fisheye perspective shots. Stacking, shot from outside the lifelines with a GoPro on a pole. Slomo washing machine. Spray. Brad grinding. Someone (Luke?) gives a thumbs up. "Finally moving!"Approaching a front. Jules a the nav station. Martine on the bow as they flop. "This feels wrong, very wrong. We're going the wrong way." Jules: tacked a little too early in hindsight. Very light. Very disappointed. Made the decision to tack too quickly. For the first sched it was okay, second sched not very good. Martine and Brad working on the foredeck. Knotmeter shows less than a knot. Drifting, slatting. Rolling up the MH0. Looking at the chart.Sailing in light winds, crew on the foredeck for weight. Then hoisting a new sail. Closeup of the knotmeter on the mast. Coiling line in the pit. Simeon: "Normal day at the office. Crew gatehring the J1 bare-headed on the bow. Crash cam footage of big wave washing over the cockpit. Bow cam, mast cam. Spreader cam view of reefing the main. Brad, below, recounts the big breeze, over 30 knots, then died down almost completely. Then relatively quickly straight to the J2, a couple of reefs in the main. Now up to 40 knots. In the space of about 4 hours saw everything. Windward rudder repair; Brad explains that it had become loose. Shot of nav software; Jules explains the situation. A windy, gusty night; some shipping as well. Concerns about islands in their path. Jules talking to Simeon about tacking. Nicho says a big bearing change on Scallywag. "Dongfeng's the one I'm interested in." Night vision stern cam view of crew tacking (?). Jules towels off his head at the nav station.Simeon gives a recap from the nav station. Bouncing upwind, everyone very close. Cat and mouse game; Brunel a little ahead. Lost a few miles during the J1 -> J2 change. That's the hardest change, getting the J1 away. Shot of them sailing upwind. Brunel to weather; three other boats astern. MAPFRE to leeward. Slomo of MAPFRE. Nicho on the helm. Jules at the nav station, talking about changing to the J2 before it gets dark. Red-light shot of the crew grinding. Shot of them going to weather with the J1 up. J1 being hoisted. Brad wresting a sail on the foredeck. Nicolai in the pit, then on the foredeck.Very high drone shot. Jules, on the stern, talks about how they're in stealth mode. Most of those on the boat have done 35 out of the last 40 days at sea. Drone shot flying in toward and then past the boat.Darkness and the sound of flopping sails. On deck at night, Jules is in the foreground, his face illuminated by the light from a tablet. Behind him the railing by the helm is lit by red light. Jules: "The only problem at the moment this way is that no one's actually moving." Nicho: "We can still do our five minutes heading north." Jules: "On starboard." Nicho: "Before running into where MAPFRE is." They discuss that MAPFRE and Dongfeng have stopped. [Guys: I've seen the future. There's a huge windless cloud ahead.] Nicho: "But at least we'll be heading north until we stop." Simeon and Cécile grind on the pedestal. Stars overhead; the main pops over as they tack to starboard. Below, at the nav station, Nicho points out the changed positions on the chart: They've pulled ahead of Dongfeng and MAPFRE, while Vestas further west has made up ground. "Just from one cloud." Another 500, 600 miles of this, he says. Low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting on a glassy sea. Martine throws something small down the forward hatch. Crew sits on sails on the bow. Below, Brad says to Nicolai: "Nicolai, you still awake?" Nicolai: "Yeah. Too warm to sleep. Just watching a bit of Netflix." They have a little scripted chitchat. Jules calls down the hatch that they want to do a peel to the J1, and they need some big strong muscle-y men. Shot of the instruments on the mast: Boatspeed: 0.93. High-altitude time-lapse drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting along. Nicho talks about the "good guys" generally doing okay in the doldrums. Nicolai pulls the main. Very-high-altitude drone shot showing them parked. Pretty slomo shot of their branding reflected in the water. Luke, on the helm, talks about the mood: concerned. Need to come out of the doldrums okay so the front bunch gets a jump. Low-altitude drone shot at sunset with another boat beyond them. I think it's probably Vestas.Amazing high-altitude drone shot showing AkzoNobel far below and a number of islands, clouds, and I think a rainbow in the distance. Pretty sure that's Ghupuna closest to them. Jules explains that they're at the east end of the Solomons. In third place. "Still a long way to go." Drone shot with island behind them. Nicolai: "Solomon Islands. Beautiful place. One of those places you don't get to go often that you probably never will come back to." Shot of whale surfacing on their starboard quarter. More islands. Drone shot of purse seiner ("Southern Seas No. 302 SI-LV110") fishing as they pass in the background. Drone records them pulling in what looks like a struggling blue shark. Detail of the fishing boat's mast, with multiple crow's nests with what look like spotting scopes mounted on them.Drone shot of AkzoNobel with low sun behind them. In the audio we hear Jules announcing the latest sched, with distances to other boats. Switches to closeups of him talking in the companionway. Below, Brad talks to Nicolai about "Master and Commander". On the foredeck, stacking, Martine slips and falls. She sits in the cockpit and talks about "Master and Commander": "It feels like Master and Commander. We are chasing the French boat." Below, Jules talks about doing 11 gybes in 11 hours. We see the zigzag line on the chart screen. Nicolai, on the pedestal, talks about how they've been chasing Dongfeng, choosing to stick with them. Martine and Simeon talk about it as a battle. Martine: "It is fighting a battle but no guns. Just a lot of trimming the sails." We see a closeup of Cécile's finger (the little finger on her left hand) with a nasty slice as she bandages herself. She explains how she cut it on the handhold when she was thrown off-balance. In the cockpit, Brad, invisible in a balaclava and sunglasses, jokes about wanting to cut it off and cauterize it. "I wanted to do it today but she wouldn't let me." He explains that the pirates used to do it all the time. References Master and Commander again. Nicolai talks about Dongfeng and trying to learn from their moding (whether they sail high or low) and the sail combinations and setup. We see Dongfeng in the distance. Closeup of Cécile's hand with the bandaged finger as she trims. Great drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing fast, triple-heading with the A3.Jules, at the nav station, talks to Sam. "How would I describe myself? Tired?... I think I'm pretty easy-going, most of the time, except when I'm tired." Sam: "How do you think the crew would describe you?" Jules: "Miserable. Quiet." On deck, Luke answers the question: "Uncomplicated, I would say. [laughs] No; he's a good rooster. Very rarely gets it wrong. It's only us getting it wrong that makes him look bad." Looks like this was shot as they were beating out of Port Phillip Bay on the first afternoon. Closeup of Jules at the nav station, rubbing his head. Shot of the computer showing weather. On deck, Brad points out Green Cape. "Everyone knows it's one of the most southeastern capes of Australia." Shot of the cape with its lighthouse. To the left is another boat, barely visible; I'm guessing it's Vestas. On deck, Simeon talks about needing to choose whether to play the coast or go offshore. Shot from the cabin of Jules (below) talking to Nicho (on deck). Simeon crouches down as water splashes over him. Simeon: "[something] stay in touch with the other guys. Otherwise you'll lose them." Jules discusses how the fleet is splitting. Also there are three different tidal models that disagree as to where the eddy is. More discussion by Simeon: gybe or not? Conversation with the three of them continues below at the nav station. Nicho: "If you gybe back, you're pretty much committed to playing the shore." Sam talks to Jules: "How would you describe the decision-making process on this boat?" Jules: "Not very clear. Because not everyone knows the full implications of everything they're talking about. You often get into situations like this where it's a tossup, you gotta trust one weather model or the other. Or you just do the conservative thing and stay with the fleet." Nicho, below, eating: "You've gotta kick it around. Kick it to death. And then make a gut call, usually. There's a fair bit of science involved... I think in the end for this situation, we're on a good heading with great pressure. More breeze than inshore." Sam: "How would you describe the decision-making process on this boat?" Nicho: "Plenty of input from everybody. At times this is Simeon's boat. I certainly from my side I feel like I can make the decision and live with it perhaps a bit easier. It's not a difficulty, it's just how it is. I guess we've kind of struggled and grappled with that sitaution a little. But no; the actual process I think is quite good. No one's angry or frustrated or anyting like that. It's just trying to weigh up all the pros and cons, come up with a decision."AkzoNobel is sailing upwind inside Port Phillip Bay on starboard. Nicho, on the stern, talks about how they couldn't hold their lane on port tack after the start. "Don't know. Not sure what happened. We were slow on port for a long time." Shot of their stern with a Bravo (protest) flag flying; other boats in the distance. Simeon below: "Yeah, we had a bit of a speed issue, yeah." Shots of crew moving the stack. Nicho: "It's not where you want to be... back of the pack... No use grumbling about it." Below, Nicolai and Simeon are looking through the window in the hull, talking about the prop. Maybe it wasn't folding properly? Brad looks through an inspection tool: "It's closed but it's got weed in it... Looks like I'm going over the side. Get a lot of heel on, and rip it off." Sam: "Would this explain the speed?" Brad: "Hopefully." On deck, Brad gets lowered over the weather side in his foulies with lines forward and aft; he goes down near the waterline to inspect. Cécile's back is in the foreground as she relays Brad's words, then helps him back on deck. Brad: "A bit of weed. Not as big as it looked. But it's closed. Nothing underwater slowing us down. So get into it." Later, on the stern, Sam asks Brad: "How's it feel to be in last place coming out of Australia?" Brad: "I hate to say, but we're used to it." Luke: "New Year's resolution? Probably just to win a few legs here." Martine: "I dunno. Just keep positive." Brad: "Not be last out of the next start. And start getting in front of the fleet." Rainbow in the boat's spray to leeward. Luke talks about the frustration of starting off in last or close to last. "People say you're unlucky, but you create your own luck." Talks about teamwork, they're a great group of sailors. Real rainbow to leeward; a competitor below and behind them. Simeon talks about them doing well in the last sched. "Zero to hero." First in the position reports. At the nav station, Jules talks about their performance. Sam: "How'd you manage to check back in with the fleet?" Jules: "Bit of luck, really. Guys have been sailing pretty hard all night. Everyone's been up pretty much most of the night. Gybed on a couple of shifts. Got a nice header for a while..." Talks about disappointment at the start, needing to hang in there. "If we go fast we'll be all right." Rainbow with Vestas, Dongfeng to leeward.Crew in cockpit. Nav station below, with instrument readout. Jules explains that they're appraoching the finish area. Talks about the high pressure they have to go through to get to the finish. So they're a few days out from Melbourne still. Simeon putting on (off?) his gear. Talks about pleasant conditions. "Everyone's looking forward to finishing the leg and move on." Frustration. Shot of Nicolai eating. Jules looking glum at nav station; he gets up and leaves.Slomo of Jules on the stern (steering?) in purple cap. He looks up. Focus shifts to show albatross. Slomo shots of albatrosses. Slomo waves off the stern.Pretty clouds. Crew shifting the stack as AkzoNobel sails downwind with the main lowered. Nicho explains that they've just finished stackign in preparation for hoisting the main. Talks about the repair; difficulty of getting a glue cure in the cold conditions. Maybe having a chance to catch some boats. Main goes up slowly. Nico, on the stern: "Tracks popped straight off. So obviously it couldn't hold in the conditions... Hopefully we'll get it down now, and... try it again. Still 3,000 miles to go." (Side note: It sure seems like Nicho has basically taken over the boat. Is Simeon even in command at this point?) Lowering the main. Martine gets washed off the cabin top by a wave; catches herself. They struggle to lower the main. Jules talks about the fleet being gone, not wanting to get down south and have to beat back, which they can't do. Nicho responds: "Well, we can step it down later in the day. Get a plan for this track. Even if the fleet's gone, get to Melbourne on time... for the next start." Below, Brad takes off his foulies. Looks very discouraged. "Pretty frustrating working two or three days to get it done, it pops off so quickly afterwards." Talks about trying to jury something else up, hope that that works. Slomo albatross. Below, working on the track repair, Nicolai watches Simeon eats in the background. "We've got five tubes of glue left, which means after this we've got one more. So this better work." More repair attempts on the mast. Emily watches from the stern. Nicolai, below, explains that the glue needs 6 to 8 hours to cure. Going to sail some more, and then try to hoist again before sunset.Drone shot of two boats a few miles away to weather sailing on port tack: TTToP on the right and Scallywag a few hundred yards behind them. Drone pulls back to show AkzoNobel below, ahead and to leeward of the other boats. Shot from amidships on the weather rail showing Akzo's crew with the other two boats behind them and to weather. Jules sits on the weather rail with his arms crossed. Jules: "Got a pretty close race on at the moment with the last 270 miles to Cape Town." He talks about how they have a ridge of high pressure ahead of them that they keep banging into, which brings them back to the other boats. Nicolai steers. Brad talks about the tricky conditions, constant adjustments. Simeon scowls at the boats astern of them. Emily, in the companionway: "It's 6 a.m., just finished a 4-hour watch, 2 to 6. It's one of the longest 4 hours I've had on this trip. We're pretty close to both Turn the Tide and Scallywag, and less then a day from Cape Town, so it's pretty tense." Very low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing to weather in light conditions. Jules talks about how they'll probably finish in the middle of the night. "There'll probably be a massive park-up close to the finish line." Last place will probably be decided 300 meters from the finish. "We'll have to get our rabbits' feet, 4-leaf clover, dice, and other such paraphernalia out and give them a shake." Shot of Scallywag and TTToP to weather and behind them.Drone shot pans up to show AkzoNobel sailing toward the drone. In the cockpit, Martine trims the main. On the helm, Nicho talks about how they've fallen off the front and winds are lighter [hence the drone footage], and it's hurting them in the previous sched and likely the next one. Luke talks about how they're now last on the leaderboard. "Pretty frustrating. Haven't had the best luck with the weather, unfortunately... but also haven't been sailing the boat as well as we possiby can. So we have a lot of work to do in Cape Town." Jules at the nav station looks concerned. Nicolai aggressively brushes his teeth. Simeon, below, talks about the disappointment: "It's always hard to swallow when you see every sched, moving back." Low-altitude drone shot from the port quarter. Peter, grinding: "We're pushing as hard as possible, trying to catch every wave. But we've been losing for a few days." Nicho, on the helm; Simeon, below, talk about needing to stay focused and keep pushing despite the disappointment. Luke, on the stern pedestal: "Sometimes you get the elevator; sometimes you get the shaft." Drone shot.Slomo shot of a dark albatross gliding in their wake. Emily, below, getting out of her bunk: "It's cold." Jules, at the nav station, talks about how they're still riding the front, but have high pressure a few days ahead. Simeon repairs some piece of gear, hands it to someone, and talks about the upcoming winds and strategy. "In general we've been sailing the boat well." Nicho, on the stern: "Number one challenge is how we're gonna get ahead of some of the boats ahead of us." Talks about how boats can get stuck in the approach to Cape Town. Slomo of spray coming into the cockpit.Below, Luke gets out of his bunk, gets dressed. Luke: "When it gets a bit rough and hard out here, there there are a few things I miss. Mainly one of them this time compared to the last race is my family. There are two young kids at home. You see I've got their pictures on the bulkhead here. They're big fans of the race and the team. I find myself thinking about them, and what I'm missing out on their lives." Closeup of two children's drawings. The one on the right shows a person at the helm. Above an adult has written: "by Teb. I love you Daddy" The one on the left shows a person with yellow hair and a brown beard. Text above the figure reads, "Brad just about to sleep in his bunk." (Nice likeness of Brad Farrand.) Luke talks about missing his bed and pillow. On deck, we see Luke on the helm. Next, below, we see a close-up of Nicolai's salt-water hands. Nicolai talks about what he misses from home when it's rough and wet, as it is today. Dry warm bed, time off. "Instead of putting yourself through pain and suffer, as we do these days." Shot out the cabin of washing-machine action in the cockpit. Jules calls out from the cabin to the crew. Jules: "A really good [something]. Probably another five or six hours. Should still slowly bend left. I think we're good." Luke, below, talks about how they're 5 or 6 days from Cape Town; looking forward to getting in and seeing the family. Slomo shot from behind the wheel of major spray coming over the cockpit.GoPro footage of Brad being woken up below and getting dressed. He does voiceover about his commute not being too bad. Drone shot of him emerging from the cabin and getting on the middle pedestal. GoPro shot of him grinding, then looking at the mast. Brad (in voiceover): "Sometimes you do an overtime." Drone shot from above of Brad near the top of the mast. At the nav station, Jules tells him how far to Cape Town. Brad: "But I'm always looking forward to my off watch." GoPro shot of him climbing back into bed. Brad: "That's four hours of bliss." Voice: "You're back up in 10, mate."Emily gets dressed below, clips on a fanny pack. She talks about how it was a big risk for them to cut the corner by positioning themselves east of the fleet. A big risk for Jules, because there are all the other navigators saying no, we think this western route is faster. Peter, on deck, trims the main and explains that if you stay with the fleet you know you'll be close. But if you take a risk you have a chance of making a big gain. Behind, Martine is on the helm, beaming (as usual when steering). Luke talks about taking the risk. Luke: "Looks like now maybe it hasn't paid off, but it's certainly not over yet. We'll see what happens." Jules, below at the nav station, about the risk of diverging from the four boats ahead. Shot of routing software on the computer. Talks about how the weather pattern was evolving ahead of them, so they wouldn't necessarily be in the same weather pattern as the leaders when they got there. Jules: "We're sill gonna be a fair way behind, and we'll have to look for the next opportunity." Super-low-altitude drone shot (well below deck level) of AkzoNobel from close ahead and to weather, pulling back and ascending.Shot of a raincloud to weather. Rain dripping off the boom. Jules talks about the morning squalls, weather patterns. Nicolai talks about how they're leading the fleet (based on being so far east), and how Jules put them in a good position. Now they need to see if they can hold onto it as the wind goes left. Nicolai: "Hopefully pick up a bit of low pressure soon and head to Cape Town." Drone shot of AkzoNobel's masthead with a reefed main and some masthead sail (J1?). Wider drone shot showing AkzoNobel triple-heading with reefed main. Slomo of Nicolai on the helm. Simeon, on the stern, talks about their having had a good 24-hour run, separating from the fleet. Simeon: "Always a bit of risk when you sail away from the others... Everyone's positive. Everyone's fit and strong." Shot up the mast. Slomo grinding.Sunrise (that's three OBRs who opened their clip with this sunrise). On the rail, Nicho explains the watch system, in which they stagger. He, "Martini" (Martine), Brad, and Nicolai have been on; now Luke and Peter are coming up. Martine on the helm, smiling. She really seems to like getting the chance to drive. Drone shot with AkzoNobel silhouetted. Was that shot from this morning? Looks like they're triple-heading, but with a reef (?) in the main? Maybe it's B-roll shot a different day. Martine and Nicho, below, going off watch. Nicho: "It's the simple things, like helping each other with food. Up on deck, it's just working out what each other's strengths and weaknesses are, and learning off each other." Martine: "It's Chris Nicholson's sixth time doing this race, so definitely got some experience." Martine, smiling at Nicho: "You're much more the decision-maker, 'cause you wake me up more." Chris: "Oh, yeah. I've woken her up several times an hour early when I've looked at my watch incorrectly... Better than being an hour late, though." Chris cleans down below. Martine crawls into her bunk. Martine: "It's not so easy getting in and out of this bunk, but it's pretty nice once you're in it." Drone shot with rainbow behind AkzoNobel. Chris gets out of his bunk. Jules reads the latest sched: "We did 114, and the next best was 112 by Plastic." Nicho talks about how he got about 2 hours sleep during his 4 hours off-watch, between checking with Jules before going down, doing some cleanup, and now getting up a bit early to get info on what to do next. Nicho: "Little bit of Groundhog Day. But we made some miles on the last sched. It's been the first for a few days, so it's nice." Low-altitude drone shot from the bow.Beautiful drone shot of AkzoNobel reaching on port at sunrise. Nicolai types at the nav station. He talks about how they just peeled to a fractional sail. Falling a little bit behind the other boats; looking for speed. Mast cam view of the deck. Jules, on deck: "We're struggling a bit with the reaching setup; the guys in front of us stretching away from us." On the stern, Emily washes up. Peter, on a sheet, talks about how they have some nice waves and are trying to catch most of them without getting too low. Luke talks about how it's frustrating that the rich (ahead of them) are getting richer. Brad, below, talks about the frustrations of leaders pulling away without their being close enough to see their sail setup. (Note: He has a raspberry-colored buzz cut from the equator-crossing ceremony, which didn't show up so far in a video.) Nicolai talks about working hard, not panicking, getting faster day by day. Slomo shot of Emily and Nicho working the foredeck.AkzoNObel reaches on port gybe with a reefed main. Simeon sits on the weather rail; Emily sits forward of him on the mainsheet. Simeon talks about having a rough night, having been stuck under a cloud and lost a bit. Slomo of bow. Shot of them racing in a rain squall. Nicolai talks about two kinds of clouds: a "sucking" cloud or a "dropping" cloud. "Dropping clouds are the good ones, they come with rain but they also come with winds. The sucking clouds are the bad ones; they just take the breeze and you park up." Shots from inside the cabin as rain pours down on the cockpit. Below, Jules talks about the squall; it was their first big one, 33-35 knots. They saw it on the radar but were late reducing sail and so "got a bit low in it". Jules: "I just got washed back by a wave as I was trying to go forward, got knocked back on my backside, which was a little embarrassing." Shot of Jules being washed off his feet in the cockpit by a wave. Jules talks about seeing the size if the cloud after coming out of it. Slomo shot of water pouring in the cockpit. Martine, soaking wet below, talks about not being able to find her shoes, but it being a good opportunity for a shower, then she resumes looking for fresh clothes.Nicho, below, discusses that there was a miscommunication that cost them distance. "We coughed up six miles. Should have been second, instead of back in fourth." Brad, below: "We thought we were doing the right thing when we were sailing the boat, but when we woke up apparently it was the wrong thing." Jules, at the nav station: "We've seen a couple of things happen; it might even pay us to be down here and them being up there. We just don't know. But I think I'd rather be up where they are... Bit of a miscommunication between I guess my fault really between me and the watch, to try not to lose too much bearing or separation with the boats that were just to weather of us. But stupid I went and had a lie down for a couple of hours and the boats had sailed off over the horizon." Drone shot of AkzoNobel reaching on port gybe.Sunrise drone shot of AckzoNobel sailing on starboard gybe under the MH0. Jules talks about their relationship with the other boats. Jules: "We're bow-to-bow with MAPFRE here; third and fourth." Shot of MAPFRE to starboard of them and slightly forward of the beam, also on starboard. Nicolai, shirtless in the bow, below, where crew have been sleeping, talks about how it's been hectic, but now there's a chance to dry out and make repairs before the next hectic period. Shot of thermals drying on a sheet in the cockpit. On deck, Nicolai explains how they need to repair a daggerboard piece: "We pulled out the dogbone of the daggerboard, so we can't hold the board down. We just have to replace that one." Shots of them wrestling the board back into its slot. Super-pretty low-altitude drone shot showing AkzoNobel's bow with the sunrise behind them. Close-up of Luke patching the J1. He explains that they're finally fixing the sail that was torn during the departure. Shots of Luke and Brad, shirtless, gluing patches on the sail. Shots of crew lying/sleeping in the bow. Nicolai, in the bow, talks about people resting and the jobs "getting ticked off."Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in about 12 knots of wind, triple-heading with the Masthead 0 on port gybe. Simeon, on the mainsheet, talks about Dongfeng being visible on the horizon, talks about the bungee effect as the squalls cause big changes in the wind. Another drone shot. Jules, on the stern, talks about the wind variations and the confused seas making the boat "like a submarine. So that's a bit hard." Luke on the helm talks about trying to avoid nose-diving. Stern cam shot of washing machine. Brad talks about being on the mainsheet for three hours, shows his hands. "Good for your exfoliating." Jules talks about the wind; 23 knots at the moment, softening later. Drone shot.