Liu Xue 'Black' / Dongfeng Race Team

gender Male
Drifting conditions near the Irish coast. Jack: I don't think we're making too much headway on the land. Other boats visible behind them, including Brunel. Drifting. J1 flopping. Fabien: I don't know if we are lucky, but we are ahead of the fleet since the beginning. But now we are in the light spot, with Brunel and MAPFRE behind... We are very close to the shore, with no wind. Expect northeast wind at the corner, which is one mile. But we have no wind with current. It's not easy. Charles looks under the sail at Brunel and mutters. Shore is just a few hundred yards away. Tacking the MH0. Pascal talks with Charles in French. Charles on the helm. Intensity. Sailing with more wind, tacking the J1. Brunel and MAPFRE to starboard. Another tack. Sailing toward land in the sunset. Charles and Pascal. Jack on the helm. Charles talks with Pascal in French. Charles: Okay we tack. Pascal: Tacking guys! They tack. Black on the rail. Vestas crossing them. Crossing MAPFRE. Another tack next to the shore. Carolijn trims, moves to pedestal: Someone come with me please? Later, Carolijn: Vestas is coming upright. Much less breeze. Coming back into the breeze now. Sunset. Black comes up from below. Daryl on the helm. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Another boat ahead of them.Other boats in glassy conditions. Black explains how they caught a big lift, trying to stay in the middle of the channel for more current. And have more wind. Quite good for the moment for us. Unfurling the MH0. Pascal: I think we are around two.... MAPFRE is tacking. He goes below. Crew on the bow. Charles scans the horizon. Jack: What's the tack on? Daryl: We're gonna get the tide gate this time. Everyone else is gonna... [he gestures]. Carolijn: I like that. Sunset. Stacking forward. Triple heading. Winch close up. Charles and Pascal talk in French.Final approach to New Zealand; MAPFRE behind them. Kevin explains: Very tight with MAPFRE, 3 other boats ahead of them. Hard to believe in a few hours they'll have 25 knots of wind gybing for the finish of the leg .Will have to push to keep them behind. Daryl trims. Black, on the bow, talks about strategy. MAPFRE alongside, 100 yards away. MAPFRE ahead of them and to leeward. Charles: Can see Akzo and TTToP. They're in a light spot. Dongfeng and MAPFRE are offshore, fighting again. Jeremie explains that there's only 112 miles left. Some maneuvers. Need to be quite focused. MAPFRE now ahead of them. Keep working, keep focused. Everyone slept a bit today, so they're fresh. No mistake and hope for a good result. Sunset behind land. Moon. Carolijn, looking forward: "MAPFRE looks really soft at the moment. Stay high."Marie, below, says it's time to wake up Carolijn and Jeremie. He does so, quietly, with a grab on the leg. Black talks about sleeping. He wakes up Jack by shaking his foot. On deck, MAPFRE is a mile away. Daryl, on the helm, does a trick with his hat. Grinding. Sail changes. Jack wrestling a sail on the foredeck. Kevin and Jeremie in the pit. Stacking. Kevin on the helm; MAPFRE abeam to leeward. Daryl, below, talks about New Zealand's long and proud history of the Volvo. He watched it growing up; now sailing in his fourth one. Pretty amazing. What he loves doing. Being able to have a job doing what you love is the most important thing.What would you do in the winter Olympic? Marie, on the helm, says she'll do (something - skating?) artistic? Does a pirouette. Black wants to do bobsled (I think?). Kevin: Downhill skiing. Daryl kids him about his low center of gravity. Kevin takes the stacking poles and adopts a downhill tuck. Jeremie: I didn't understand his answer. Carolijn: As a cloggy, I'd be speed skating. 5K for women would probably be a good distance for me. She does her speed skating pantomime. Pascal: Answers in French. Daryl: Probably curling. I'd like to get the broom out and give the ice a good brush. He mimes curling with a bow roller; Kevin sweeps ahead of the stone.Daryl smiles at the camera, making a picture frame with his hands. Black reaises his eyebrows. Kevin has a black eye. MAPFRE is two boatlengths to leeward. Then they pass them; MAPFRE points up off their stern. Then we see a shot of MAPFRE two miles astern. Marie: You have to change my fan. She jokes with Kevin. She says something to Black, below, about finding a bag. Kevin cranks a winch in the rain. Stacking in the squall: bringing the sails aft and to weather. Shot of the mainstail, looking up. Carolijn: I didn't expect it to be such a delight to leave the doldrums. But it is. "Not 100% sure. But keeping my fingers crossed and hoping I'm right... We're finally alone. We've split tacks with the other red boat. The bungee has snapped... See if we can catch the others now." Kevin on the helm. The crescent moon off the leech of the main. Black explains that they have finally broken away from MAFPRE, and can't see Brunel. Sunset.Pascal looks at the runner. He explains a strategic issue to Jeremie. The doldrums are very big because of a big storm. This wind is like forecast. Some gusts coming. His glasses are broken. Someone tells Carolijn she's high; she responds that she was just coming up in the pressure. Pascal talks in French. Shot of the stern. Lighter conditions. Sunset shadows on the sail. Flopping. Kevin on the helm with the sunset behind him. Carolijn cranks a winch. "It's gone really light on us again." Compass. Black peaks under the sail at MAPFRE, about 2 miles away. Pascal jokes about his crooked glasses. Kevin and Carolijn imitate him by pushing their sunglassses askew. Pretty sunset drone shots, including MAPFRE in the distance ahead of them and to leeward.Closeups: The hull slicing through the water. Marie sleeping with earbuds playing music. Someone tearing open a food packet. Adjusting a fan. Triple-heading in light wind. Grinding a winch. Taking off shoes. Wake, shaking up a drink. easing a sheet. Black sleeping. Winch. Pressing a "Start" button on a "Volvo Penta" panel (starting a winch?) Galley. Grinding. Ratcheting a stack strap. Clipping on a D-ring. (Heh. I can't keep up.) Sunset shot of another boat (MAPFRE?) Tea kettle whistling.Rain falling on deck. GoPro (Garmin) view as Kevin (I think) helps grind. Black trims the main as darkness falls. Kevin on the helm. Black explains how the wind pressure has dropped. Behind him, on the helm, Kevin is shouting to someone in French. Stacking with sunset clouds behind them. Carolijn explains how they're sailing in about 15 knots. Rain behind them. Traveling in the right direction now. "Life's good." Charles: Nearly last, with MAPFRE... I think we deserve it. The leg is still very long. Very complicated; there's still hope. Reduce the gap to the leader and maybe have an opportunity. Who knows what's going to happen in the doldrums. Kevin steers in the sunset, wearing Charles' jacket. (sigh. making my life difficult.)Pascal, at the nav station, looks at the weather model and talks in French. On deck we see them furling the J2 (I think?) during a tack. Charles, on the helm: Wind, but the opposite direction from where we want to go. Very complicated. Didn't have any forecast so we followed MAPFRE. For the first time we made a really bad choice I think. Discussion of whether to reef, which they then do. Marie: Jokes about being in the doldrums, but having wind and going upwind. Big shifts. On starboard now after a few days on port. Hopes not to spend too much time in the doldrums. Grinding the main back up after the reef with the three pedestals linked. Pascal points ahead: There's no wind here. Carolijn asks what Jeremie wishes the most: To see his kids. Carolijn: For me a shower. Black: Chinese New Year, at home. We have lots of good food, and see all the family. Charles talks from the companionway in French. Discussion of "fast" vs. "east", where the other competitors are. As it's getting dark we see a gybe begin.Black talks in Mandarin (I assume) as they sail upwind. Marie, in the background, trims. "Main on."Dongfeng sailing upwind with the J1 and reefed main on starboard. Black working in the pit. Daryl: "Every sailor loves going upwind. Getting pounded by the wind, the waves, the water. And it's very slow." Black talks about going upwind, rough conditions, washing machine. Jack talks about how sailboats can't sail directly into the wind. "It takes a lot longer to get where you're going, it's more uncomfortable..." Marie actually sounds like she means it when she talks about liking sailing upwind. Marie near the J1 clew getting spray as she works on a sheet. Jérémie on the foredeck attaching the tack of the J2 for a sail change.Lowering the J1 inside the newly hoisted J0. Watch change below; Daryl eating. Marie, below, recaps: "Finally we did lots of maneuvers. We don't have this much wind last night. The sea state was okay." Next night will be a bit more difficult. Wind to increase soon, so she needs to eat to get more energy. Shot of her putting on her foulie jacket on deck. Pascal on the helm during a sail change. They bear away with the large headsail flagging; not sure what that's about. Black and Carolijn talk in the cockpit. Kevin on the helm. Carolijn talks about the whole fleet being together. Whole fleet hanging together. They just cracked off. Trying to do their jobs, not make mistakes. A long leg; keeping everything together. Looking at the next 2 weeks.Dongfeng docking out at the start of Leg 6. Black waves goodbye to the people on the dock. We see the MH0 being unfurled as Charles steers on the approach to the starting line. AkzoNobel is visible ahead of them and to leeward, the rest of the fleet to weather. Pascal with a tablet in his hand. Jérémie, after the start, looking forward at AkzoNobel and Brunel ahead of them. We see them furling the MH0 for a tack from port to starboard, then unfurling during a tack back to port. Charles: "Nice one." Pascal navigating. Their jumper going over. Kevin standing on the lifelines to do something to the clew of the MH0. Passing the leaving buoy. Later, they prepare to peel to the J1. Daryl: "Put the sheet around the winch." Bagging the lowered MH0 on the foredeck. Charles on the helm, talks about the start. Not so great in terms of their start, but good to have wind in exiting Hong Hong. Now at the back of the fleet. Daryl: "Looking forward to sailing into Auckland. Probably 20 days away. Don't want to get too excited yet." Jack, stacking on the foredeck, says pretty much the same thing. "Long way to go though."Wake shot with Dongfeng sailing fast. View forward from stern, double-headed as they sail on port gybe. Washing machine. Below, Jack eats something. He looks a bit shell-shocked. Jack: "It's been a very brutal leg so far. It's very demanding conditions; always fast, always wet... I don't think I've gone on deck without the wet weather gear the whole race. Everything's wet. Inside the boat's horrible. There's water everywhere. There's water in your sleeping bag, there's water in your personal bag. There's water everywhere. It's been a really hard leg to sleep; every time you seem to get in your bunk there's a gybe or a sail change... It's been a hard leg. Everyone's feeling the push at the moment, everyone's tired... We're close to the end, conditions are still hard at the moment, but everyone's focused on getting to Australia in one piece and in the best place we can... First time I've sailed into Australia, so it's kind of a treat. A big Southern Ocean leg done, which was an unknown for me." Talks about how a lot of his family witll be in Melbourne for the finish. Hasn't seen some of them in 6 years, so it will be great to catch up with them. Really looking forward to getting in. Shots of water condensing on things in the cabin, water flowing. Marie asleep. Jack putting Sudocrem on his hands, face. "It might look ridiculous." But explains how the cream helps with little cuts and sores from the gaskets and salt water. Black, below, talks about how it's a long day, and a lot of pressure, lack of sleep. "A bit tired, yes." Shots of the cockpit from the cabin, washing machine.Below, Kevin talks about being tired. "With my watch partner Carolijn Brouwer we have been 12 hours on deck - 14, 2 more. Lots of gybes along the ice limit. Now we are getting more pressure, sea state." Now 2 hours of rest before being back on deck, then one very important gybe before heading north for Australia. Carolijn: "I think I have to admit I'm pretty tired now. All the action on deck seems to happen when Kevin and I are off watch. But it's part of the job and you ahve to get it done. It's part of the race." In the Southern Ocean it's harder because of getting dressed and undressed. "When you do that every 2 hours it gets a bit frustrating. In other legs it's much less a problem... There's a lot more layers coming on than otherwise.... Have to push really hard. The guys on MAPFRE have done really well." Fabien talks in French. Black talks about normal life on board. Having to be ready. Eating a lot of food with no rice (?). Pascal talks in French.Pascal, at the nav station, puts on a headset. He announces something we hear booming through a PA system. "20 minutes before the gybe. 20 minutes." Jack, waking up in his bunk. Carolijn and Black getting dressed. Marie getting dressed. Pascal over the PA: "Three minutes." Crew goes on deck, perfoms the gybe. Below, we see Marie climbing back into her bunk. Pascal, over the PA: "Okay; in about 20 minutes [?] another gybe." Time lapse shot of repeated gybes with short intervals between them.An albatross (Wandering Albatross, maybe?) soars by them in windy conditions. Washing machine action in the pit as someone (can't tell who) coils line under a reefed main; rest of the crew on deck is at the back of the boat. Stu and Jack, who is climbing onto the boom, secure the loose main at the bottom of the reef. Black, on the aft pedestal, gives two thumbs up. Shots of crew on the stern from the cabin.Closeups: binnacle compass, hands on the wheel, easing the mainsheet. Marie, trimming the main, talks about the weather being warm, and no birds. It's sad they are too far north, not in the Southern Ocean. "Maybe tomorrow; we will see." Stu, on the helm. "Definitely not the Southern Ocean. We don't wear sunglasses in the Southern Ocean." (He laughs.) "This is far too nice." Black talks about the blue sky and being quiet warm. Wake shot. Below, at the nav station, Pascal talks about strategy with the approaching low, gybing during the night to get the good position, the good pressure. Difficulty of routing with the exclusion zone/ice gate. No way to get away and be safe. Tomorrow night, maybe gusting to 45 knots. Increasing wave state. He shows the routing software with the low moving through.