Mark Towill / Vestas 11th Hour Racing

gender Male
Drone shot of Vestas tacking with the J1 and land in the background. Charlie in the cockpit: Little bit of a situation when we passed the virtual mark and the breeze died, and we ended up on the wrong side of the TSS. A little disappointing. But it's going to make some fun racing on the last night of the race. Drone shots: stacking, sailing upwind. Mark and Charlie sailing in the cockpit. Phil grinding. Drone shot from overhead.Drifting in light conditions. SiFi talks about wind. Stacey: The standard Volvo Ocean Race compression has happeend. We busted our butts to get somewhere and then (hits her hands together) we all end up together. Mark and SiFi looking around. MAPFRE and Dongfeng 3 miles away. TJ talks about a spectator boat motoring out to see them. Nick puts on an abdominal wrap. "I got this from an even older, and more damaged bowman; Neti, right there (pointing). He puts on his foulie pants over it. "Kind of feels like a diaper though." Charlie calls from the bow: Dongfeng looks like they're getting the better of... Nick: High pressure clouds... It's gonna be a good day. Stacy grinds. Tony on the helm points out MAPFRE sailing with strong wind. TJ: They're heeled over. So we compress and now we're expanding. Bungee. SiFi and Charlie talking at the nav station. They all sound loopy as hell.Sailing into Aarhus (I think). Crew work in the cockpit. Jena. Windsurfer. TJ makes a peace sign at a foiling kitesurfer. Charlie on the helm. Jena: We're here in Aarhus. I'm so excited. So many people are here, and we're not even in the harbor yet. My mom and dad, sister, friends. Close to the new sailing center. Dongfeng exiting as they keep going in. Jena is doing her live interview on the headset. Nick: Anyone want to see MAPFRE? They wave at MAPFRE as they go by. Spectator fleet. Jena grinding with Roy Disney, Jr. SiFi with his tablet: Anyone see the mark yet? Jena waves. Jena: I'm so close to home. Right there! (she points). She waves both arms to the crowd on the quay. Tacking around the buoy. Jena: I'm so happy, so proud to be Danish right now. This is the largest amount of people we've seen at any stopover or flyby or anything. I think it's so spectacular. I'm so moved and so touched. I saw my family and friends. Thank you so much, all of Denmark. It was amazing. Thank you. Mark: Pretty cool, leaving Aarhus. You can tell this country loves sailing, and a lot of support for Jena. Jena wipes away tears on the stern. AkzoNobel and Brunel coming in. TJ coils on the foredeck as they sail past them. "Gotta keep pushing hard. There has been no sleep on this leg."Mark explains the current situation. Trying to enjoy the moment, only have about 48 hours more sailing together. Stacking to leeward. Charlie calls and initiates the gybe. Phil rummaging in gear below (or maybe stacking below?). Someone (TJ?) talks with SiFi at the nav station about what other boats have done. Shot out the cabin at the helm while we hear a stack chant.Sailing under gray skies with more wind. Spray over the bow. Stacey: We've gybed and we're heading toward the (something). Last time with water over the deck. Washing machine. Mark and Nick talk in the cockpit. SiFi comes up from below talking about MAPFRE. Other boat: I think it's TTToP. Nick: hashtag huge gains. Tony steering. Mark: As slow as the first couple days have been, it's been nice to be dry and warm. Next bit is going to be wet. We've had a lot of that... another leg of contrasts. Should make for a quick run into Gothenburg.SiFi, with his tablet, calls the course through the upcoming islands. Land. Sunset. Phil: What we're doing? We're interrupting my sleep is what we're doing. A tiny little gap between two islands, we've decided to go through that gap. Nick: We've got this shit. Nick: We're playing it very hard corner, to basically shoot this gap through these islands. If the breeze manages to hold we'll squirt right through, but it's a big call. We see them going through the island. Nick: Jurassic Park. MAPFRE looks like they're a little low; Dongers is short-tacking through. So could potentially be a big gain for us. Then they're sailing in less wind. Nick: Basically Gitane's the only boat that's got us at this point. They sail in lighter conditions. Nick: It's just gone light, and now there's some doubts. Charlie: Little gust here to the right. Lauhs and smiles. Mark: One little puff in 10. Dongfeng on their stern. Mark: Any time you get close to land it's always a little scary. We'll see; Akzo went on the other side of this island. Tony: There's a little gain. Akso's over there. (He points.) Wait and see how Brunel comes out. SiFi, at the nav station: We saved some distance. Brunel went all the way around, Akzo had a light spot. A pretty good move; put us in the lead I guess.TTToP sails a quarter mile above them and abeam. Mark talks about it from the helm. TJ on the helm. Tony: I've been around Fastnet Rock at least 10 times, and around Ireland twice already. When it's nice around here it's really nice. Pretty mild day for Ireland. Once we get to the top of Scotland we're gonna get our ass kicked again. One last time in the Volvo. I can see soem sun over there on the land. Charlie in the slot rubs his eyes. MAPFRE to starboard. A bird flying (a gannet?). TTToP and two other competitors to leeward. Stacey trimming. Sailing along astern of TTToP. Mark: Here we are in the second to last leg in the Volvo. Talks about Fastnet Rock. Just about a year ago we did the Fastnet Race... Toward the back of the fleet... Dongfeng in the lead but they're only a few miles ahead of us. More opportunities to pass. SiFi in the cockpit laughs about it being cold yesterday. A fishing boat. Ireland in the gloaming. A group of alcids on the water. Flopping conditions with two competitors. Nick: Brunel seems like they're going all right. Fastnet Rock.Jumper prepares to go over. Charlie: "Everybody say bye to the Ice Man." Jumper dives over. Postponement flag on the committee boat. Countdown starts. SiFi calls time and distance. They start on port. All clear. Charlie on the leeward wheel looks at other boats. Tacking to starboard with Akzo and Brunel behind. Then Dongfeng and TTToP behind. Jena on the bow looks for pressure. Mark: Warm sunny day leaving Cardiff. Up in the front with MAPFRE. Seems like a sitaution where the leading boats gain. A little anticlimactic, but plenty of spectators. The slower we are here the windier it could be up at the top of the UK. Tony pops the batten over after a tack. Charlie on the helm: Tenuous start, certainly. Did a good job keeping the rudders straight. Phil: I think it was a nice start. SiFi talks about the thermal activity and tricky Bristol Channel winds. Tony talks to Charlie about wind. SiFi talks about hitting a tide line. Charlie passes the helm to Mark. Jena looks at MAPFRE ahead of them. Tack. Charlie: If they let us, happy to switch. How much do we have depth-wise? Stacey points out a windline. Crew sits forward. Glassy conditions as they tack with MAPFRE. Current is pushing them against no wind. Nick says to Jeremie: What are you doing? Turn that shit off. He sounded serious. Was Jeremie filming something they didn't want him to? Or was that just joking?Crew sits forward. Nick: The change is so welcome right no. I've never been so happy to be in three knots of wind. Mark, on the helm: How quickly things change. Yesterday I got blown off the wheel, my life jacket exploded (crash cam footage of the life jacket deploying), and now we've got 5 knots of wind and we're drifting; well, not drifting, but it's dry. And I think everyone's enjoying the ligher conditions. Shot of socks and gloves drying on the cabin top. Nick: It's warm, and a bit sunny. And we're coming into Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's coming into us. And the whole fleet's going to pile up and restart. Shot of Dongfeng, 5 miles distant on their starboard bow (I think?). TJ and Jena in the cockpit talk about something having to do with food. Jena: I would put raisins in, to have the sweetness. TJ scoffs. Charlie, below on the PA, says something about [something] tasting really good. Charlie: "156 at 6 knots." He and SiFi discuss tacking. He points out Dongfeng on their starboard beam; have done a good job closing in on them from 11 miles to 2 miles. Waiting for a shift to make a tack. Phil steers.Charlie and Mark get geared up for going on watch. Mark talks about it getting colder, bumpy, and windy. Broad reaching in 25/30 knots. Converging with the other group they had the big split with. Trying to maximize this wind while they have it, before they hit the high-pressure ridge.Charlie on a sheet. Nick talks about nicknames. "Chaz? Chunkle?" Phil: Like Captain America. BeChazzled is probably a good one for Charlie. Chaz Michael Michael. Mark: Peking Duck. Peeking out. Phil: Is Charlie good at sitting still? No. Mark: On a scale of 1 to chill, Charlie is more toward the 1 side of the scale. Nick: Charlie can't sit still. Stacey: Charlie doesn't sit still. He doesn't know the meaning of sitting still. Phil: The nice way to say is he's got ants in his pants. Tony: Flutters around like a bee. Mark: Too much coffee sometimes. Nick: Doesn't know what to do with his hands most of the time... Pirouetting, going back and forth. Charlie: If we all wore pedometers I might have the most. Which is unusual given that I'm at the back of the boat. but most of my steps from from the nav station back to the helm... Some of it's probably fidgety. Why?Tony cleans a dish in the galley. He explains that it's the lasagna dish, which is the messiest because of the cheese that sticks in the bottom. He mentions that he owns the 24-hour monohull record and the transatlantic monohull record from sailing Comanche. Charlie puts his boots on. SiFi at the nav station. Charlie and he look at how they're doing against AkzoNobel, which makes them happy. Charlie talks about doing a fair amount of trans-Atlantic racing in the past few years. In the cockpit, we hear SiFi read the latest sched. He starts with the most exciting news: Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and Dee are all in 5-7 knots. Nick: That's so disappointing; I feel so terrible for them. Mark talks about having done two previous transatlantic crossings with this team. He points out AkzoNobel about a mile to leeward. Is actually the 6th transatlantic this boat has done; he's done all of them with Charlie and Nick. Tony, he says, has done 17 transatlantics. Tony, below: I reckon I've done the transatlantic this way 16 times. Every time is different. I'm still looking for the perfect crossing, but I think I've already had it on Comanche. We see him finishing his dishwashing.Slomo dockout. Mark talks about it being a double-points leg. Weather tricky in the first few days. Nick: it's incredible looking at all the boats given the weather. Start. Dongfeng crossing behidn them. Yelling starboard at the weather mark. (Looks like TTToP was clear ahead to me.) Setting the A3. Lowering the J1. Rounding a buoy. MAPFRE luffing them; F-word from Mark. Stacking aft in the fog as SiFi tells them 12 minutes from turning up. SiFi: Hectic start. Fog cleared up to do the lap in the bay, but now it's socked in. Near the other boats; fast reaching to Nantucket Shoals. "Gonna have to stay on our toes."Charlie steering. Washing machine. Sunrise. Mark and Nick talk about breakfast food. Martin asks questions about Newport. "Which state is it in?" Nickname of the state? "The Ocean State." Jena didn't know that. Tony: "You're asking the wrong person." The name of the bay in Rhode Island. (Narragansett.) How many times did Newport host the America's Cup? Tony: "Must have been a lot." Phil: "I'm gonna say, three." Haha; Aussie's clearly weren't raised to know that one the way U.S. sailors were. Jena: That's a good question. Tony: I don't know. They had it for 100 years, did they? SiFi: 1851 to 1983. Stacey: I know who they lost it to. Australia. :-) Charlie comes up to give the latest sched. Wasn't horrible. Charlie on the best place in Newport to get breakfast. Bell's Cafe seems to be a popular choice. Nick: Black Perl for sunset cocktail. Charlie: New York Yacht Club. Nick: Inside Irish pub would be Fastnet... (some others). Other restaurant recommendations. (Sorry; I can't care.) Jena grinding. Foredeck.Cockpit, Slomo washing machine. Below, Charlie and Mark talk about how they went to Brown U., but they only slightly overlapped (Charlie was older). We lived in the same house, but not at the same time. Mark: We were both far too big to be sailing small boats. Charlie talks about doing poorly at nationals. Mark talks about going to the unveiling of a new sailing center. Mark talks about pollution in the Providence River. "I would never eat shellfish from the Providence River... That's all the questions." SiFi on the helm. SiFi below: In our third day of sailing through the tradewinds. And then all the action in this leg is going to happen at the end. Going to get lifted and have to pick our moment to gybe out of the high pressure. Main competition is further west. They have better pressure, but we might get the shift first. Can hopefully come out ahead of Dongfeng and maybe Brunel. He shows the computer screen with the competitors on it, and follows the routing north to where they're going to need to gybe near Bermuda. Slomo shot of the weather rudder, the stern with the US flag and horizon.Awesome slomo drone footage of Vestas surfing. Charlie on the helm. Drone shots. Charlie, below: Really excited to get to Newport, and Bristol, R.I., where I'm from. They earned and deserve this stopover. Hopefully can improve our position a bit... I learned to sail growing up on Narragansett Bay. It's a place that's gotten a lot cleaner over the years. When I was a young whippersnapper wasn't a great place to go swimming or eat shellfish from. But they've made progress in recent years. He talks about the Ocean Summit that he'll be speaking at. When people come together actions can be taken that improve our waterways. Another reason he's really excited to get home is to see his family. It will have been over a month. He has two little kids, one 2 1/2 and the other 1. He'll be walking... Talks about the family's support. Drone shots of them surfing fast triple-heading. Tony on the helm. Mark grinding. He explains that they got important news from Hawaii, that the local legislature banned sunscreen that's harmful to coral reefs. Drone shot. S-curve to clear weed from the leeward rudder. Drone shots.Stacey and Charlie on the aft pedestal. TJ on the helm. Washing machine. Stacey trimming. GoPro (Garmin) shot of grinding, helming. Nick, Stacey explain what Sargassum is. TJ, below, talks about it. "I don't know much about it. It's everywhere though." Nick talks about how there's tons of it. TJ talks about sailing through an island of it yesterday; full of garbage - rope, plastic. Nick talks about it, about how it collects trash. And small fish live underneath it. Stacey says in the last race they tried boiling and eating it, and it wasn't very nice. Nick talks about the fish that look just like the weed. Jena laughs; says she doesn't know. She talks about fish, flying fish. She has no idea what it's called in English. Mark talks about how trash in the ocean can impact the ocean environment. "Not really sure how to deal with it. We'll leave that to the scientists."Sailing under clouds. Rain dripping on TJ under the boam. Heavy rainfall, something brown in the water (Sargasso weed?). Stacey grinning in rain under the boam. TJ, on the bow, talks about the light conditions, wanting to go a little faster. Jena and Tony grinding. Skua overhead. Gybing the MH0 from port to starboard. Watching a whale to starboard. They sail through a big patch of sargasso. SiFi talks about it. SiFi, at the nav station, reads out the latest sched over the PA. They're in fourth, behind Dee, Brunel, and AkzoNobel. Mark: Just crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere. Talks about the sargasso weed. Accumulates on the foils. Just have to deal with it.Drone shot with competitor in the background. Charlie talks with crew in the cockpit. TJ steers. SiFi: It's a little different than forecast. He talks about the clouds, the convergence line. Big header coming into Brazil. Squashed hte fleet up a bit. Made good gains on Dee, but Brunel has closed up a bit... Have to see what happens during the day. Land breeze now; sea breeze later. TTToP to port with a rainbow. Drone shots. TTToP approaches on starboard; they gybe ahead to cover. SiFi talks about tomorrow. Crew stacks to weather. TTToP on their starboard quarter. A small fishing boat; Mark waves. TTToP astern in rain. Crew shirtless in the cockpit. Phil showers under the boom. SiFi looks at a tablet to explain the latest sched. Stacey: It's been a busy day; rain clouds and shifts. Gybing. But a good result for us. We're all in a line, going out to sea, bow forward and leeward boat. And we had a shower. It was overdue; it is day 8. First shower of the race. Drone shot of Vestas triple-heading.Vestas sails toward a squall. Charlie reads the latest sched on the PA while the crew in the cockpit (Tony driving, Mark grinding, Stacey trimming) listens. "Hooray." "Thank you." Tony explains: Just got a sched in; last two were interesting because this morning we were in 30+ knots of pressure and sort of scattered the fleet. Now it's tradewind sailing. We weren't the fastest, but we're at the top and we held our height. "What's my secret? My secret is being heavily caffeinated." Then he talks about crackers: "They're a savory treat for us." Beautiful sunset clouds. Stacking aft in the dusk, "Two, six!" Sailing wiht the instruments illuminating. Tony on the helm (Tony's always on the helm.)Cool drone shot with low sun behind Vestas. Mark in the pit. SiFi and Charlie at the nav station. SiFi talks about being able to do well with a cloud against the fleet. Partly by luck, he says, they and Turn the Tide got to the east and slipped ahead. It's all about trying to get to the east. So now we're back on port tack, heading slightly south of east. TJ looks at computer with SiFi as he reads off the sched and explains the strategy. TJ: Yeah, it's all good. Good number; heading back on port. Set up nicely for the big long one, heading north. Drone shot from astern with Tony on the helm. Drone shot circling the boat. Sunset. Cool crew shots. I really like Martin's use of long lenses.[No description yet]Bowsprit. Helm with sunset in light air. Crew on bow with SiFi laughing with sunset behind them. Mark trimming. All the other boats to leeward.Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Mark, below, talks about how they're approaching Point Nemo. Halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, closest humans on the space station, yada yada. (Sorry. I've heard that bit a lot.) Compass. Washing machine. Hannah: I thought it would feel more remote... Pretty cool that all the boats are so close together. SiFi at the nav station. "Probably one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places. Except that at the moment there's the 10 of us on a 65-foot boat and 6 other boats." Epic drone shots of Vestas surfing in big waves; way high/distant drone shot emphasizing how tiny they are. Mark, below: Talks about how the other boats will come to their aid in an emergency, and that's comforting. Sunset slomo washing machine shots. TJ: "I don't know about Point Nemo; sounds like a long way away from Cape Horn. I want to get there right now." Nick: "The fish named Nemo could not live there, because it's too cold." Favoriting mostly for those drone shots.Drone shots of Brunel sailing under FR0 and full main. Crew gearing up below. Abby sorting through some gear, putting drops in her eyes. She talks about how everything is wet below, with condensation dripping. "Everything is a challenge." Nina in her bunk with a headlamp. Condensation close up. Thomas takes his gloves off, flexes his hand. At the nav station, Bouwe talks about the dangers of the boat making a sudden stop. He talks about how it's easier for the boys to have a peeing bottle; "for the girls every time they have to go to the toilet. Take their gear off. We just take our willy out and it's easy." Sunset on deck. Peter eating below. Bouwe talks about all the layers of clothing you need to put on.Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Mark, below, talks about how they're approaching Point Nemo. Halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, closest humans on the space station, yada yada. (Sorry. I've heard that bit a lot.) Compass. Washing machine. Hannah: I thought it would feel more remote... Pretty cool that all the boats are so close together. SiFi at the nav station. "Probably one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places. Except that at the moment there's the 10 of us on a 65-foot boat and 6 other boats." Epic drone shots of Vestas surfing in big waves; way high/distant drone shot emphasizing how tiny they are. Mark, below: Talks about how the other boats will come to their aid in an emergency, and that's comforting. Sunset slomo washing machine shots. TJ: "I don't know about Point Nemo; sounds like a long way away from Cape Horn. I want to get there right now." Nick: "The fish named Nemo could not live there, because it's too cold." Favoriting mostly for those drone shots.Drone shots of Brunel sailing under FR0 and full main. Crew gearing up below. Abby sorting through some gear, putting drops in her eyes. She talks about how everything is wet below, with condensation dripping. "Everything is a challenge." Nina in her bunk with a headlamp. Condensation close up. Thomas takes his gloves off, flexes his hand. At the nav station, Bouwe talks about the dangers of the boat making a sudden stop. He talks about how it's easier for the boys to have a peeing bottle; "for the girls every time they have to go to the toilet. Take their gear off. We just take our willy out and it's easy." Sunset on deck. Peter eating below. Bouwe talks about all the layers of clothing you need to put on.Closeups in the cockpit as they sail fast. Stacey's voice: "Main on." Grinding. Winch drum. Low-altitude drone shot of Vestas surfing fast. Washing machine. Mark: 50 south at this point. Air temps dropping... Nice day; going around a high pressure to the sun is out. More drone footage. Phil, below, talks about how it's going to get colder. At the moment is 12° air temperature and 10° water, we're probably going to get down to 6° on the water. Quite happy to be cold while we're leading. It's a lot worse if you're coming last in the cold. Mark, in the cockpit talking down into the cabin: "It's not his first rodeo." Tony, getting dressed: "You guys are wearing wetsuit gloves? 2 mil? I'll run my sailing gloves for the last watch before I go wetsuit. I'll go wetsuit tonight." Tony: At the moment it feels like we're just getting south, without getting to Brazil. He talks about how it's the fastest trip from Auckland he's made. Hannah, in the companionway, talks about how they can still see the other boats, and that's helpful. Jokey discussion at the stern by Nick, Tony, and Stacey (I think). Stacey: What happens at sea stays at sea. Nick: I don't think anyone's ever said that. Tony goads Nick into talking about what happened, and they talk about "a bit of a volcanic explosion" in the head. Nick: "Nothing as bad as the great eruption of Mount Mutter." Drone shot. TJ tries to thread a needle to fix some holes in something small (sock? glove?). "Good as new."Drone shot of Vestas sailing upwind in 15-knot conditions. Double-heading with J0 and J3, it looks like. Charlie in the cockpit: Good to get back on the water. A little on the back foot, but they'll grind it out. Shot looking forward as the VOR-hired helicopter hovers at low altitude, shooting back toward them. Mark: Lots of anticipation, repair. But the day's finally here. Charlie: All or nothing until the next leg. Vestas sails toward shore with Phil on the helm. Mark: Just gonna have to out work all these other guys. SiFi at the nav station. It's father's day today in Spain, so I have a few little pictures from my boys. Leopard, dragon, dolphin, hippo. Made my day at least. It's the thing I miss the most when I'm away. They're beginning to understand that I'll be away for a few weeks. Nick in the hold swapping a spare electrical panel for the engine; got some water into it. "This isn't a tough thing to solve; it's just annoying." High drone shot with a competitor behind them in the distance.Drone shot of Vestas sailing upwind in 15-knot conditions. Double-heading with J0 and J3, it looks like. Charlie in the cockpit: Good to get back on the water. A little on the back foot, but they'll grind it out. Shot looking forward as the VOR-hired helicopter hovers at low altitude, shooting back toward them. Mark: Lots of anticipation, repair. But the day's finally here. Charlie: All or nothing until the next leg. Vestas sails toward shore with Phil on the helm. Mark: Just gonna have to out work all these other guys. SiFi at the nav station. It's father's day today in Spain, so I have a few little pictures from my boys. Leopard, dragon, dolphin, hippo. Made my day at least. It's the thing I miss the most when I'm away. They're beginning to understand that I'll be away for a few weeks. Nick in the hold swapping a spare electrical panel for the engine; got some water into it. "This isn't a tough thing to solve; it's just annoying." High drone shot with a competitor behind them in the distance.Drone shots of vestas. Mark and SiFi looking at the chart at the nav station, talking about strategy vis-a-vis the competitors. SiFi explaisn that they just got a sched, and are working out where to go through the Phillippines. Based on a big righthand shift they're going to go south. Looks like it will help them with Dongfeng. Shot of the sails on deck. Gybe at night from the cabin, looing at the cockpit. Closeup of chart showing their course zigzagging though islands. Red-light shots of stacking on deck. Another night gybe. Mark, on the helm, talks about how they're gybing through the Straits of Luzon and have made a good gain on Dongfeng.Vestas gybes from starboard to port. SiFi at the shrouds, looking forward. Back in the cockpit he talks about how it's different leaning the other way. Everyone starting to look for their opportunities. Drone shot from astern as Vestas gybes from port back to starboard. Crash cam/stern cam view at dusk as camera shifts from color to black-and-white mode. Night-vision shot from the cabin of crew working in the cockpit during another gybe. Night-vision shot of the J3 unrolling after the gybe. Spreader cam view looking down at night as a crewmember shines a flashlight upward. SiFi at the nav station. Zoom in on nav software (nice, well-focused screenshot). SiFi and Mark talk about strategy, Dongfeng. SiFi says into a PA microphone, "Okay; we're setting up." [For a gybe, presumably.] Stacking below. Stacking on deck. Spreader cam view at night as they gybe from port to starboard. Mark and SiFi look at other boats on AIS (I think). Another gybe, this one during the early morning light, from starboard to port. TJ, trimming on the stern. "Busy night; couple of gybes. Dongers is back out [from sealth]." Talks about hot showers and hamburgers. Sunrise.Mark, in the cockpit, explians that they're going through a current line south of Guam, and there's an "unbelievable" amount of floating debris. Shots of them bouncing along. Shot of the mainsail bouncing as they hit chop. Below, Phil talks from his bunk, eyeshades pushed up on his forehead. "Not ideal for sleeping. It's bloody uncomfortable. Feels like we're doing about 5 knots and just slamming up and down." He calls to SiFi and Mark, who are looking at the latest sched. "How'd we go?" SiFi: "Reasonably quick but very high." Nick, on deck: "Sea state is very confused right now... Pretty scary looking at the rig sometimes." Mark, by the wheel, reports on the latest sched to Nick, Tony, and Stacey. "We were higher and slower than Dongers, and higher and faster than Akzo." SiFi, below: "Sea states's been pretty horrendous." He talks about some lighter winds ahead, and trying to figure it all out. Shots of the weather models on the computer.Hannah comes below, sprays fresh water on her face. "Before this the longest I'd been on a boat was 9 days, on a Trans-Atlantic. This is day 14, a little bit longer, and we've got 5 days to go." She talks about liking routine, not having too many off-watch maneuvers to do. Misses washing her hair; a proper shower. Enjoying the experience of seeing this part of the world. On deck, mark, on the mainsheet, talks about being midway in the race, and the points are starting to separate. Trying to podium, put some points on MAPFRE and Dongfeng. "Definitely mindful of where the two red boats are." A 1500-mile drag race to the Phillippines. Phil talks about how nice it is sailing fast with the wind aft. "If the whole race was like this it'd be the best race in the world." He thinks Mark and SiFi have put the boat in a good spot. Scallywag has done well; still have time to mow them down. And beat the two red boats. Drone shots of Vestas sailing toward the sunset, surfing in 20 knots of wind. Drone shots as the boat's doing the washing-machine thing, which is unusual: I wonder where Amory is with the drone controls.Mark, in the cockpit, talks about how there are a bunch of little Micronesian atolls in front of them, and they're just not laying it so they're going to gybe onto port for a bit. "Should see Dongfeng." Shifting the stack with the island visible ahead of them. We see the gybe from the pit area. TJ points out where the island is, talks about spearfishing. We see the computer chart showing the atoll. Shifting the nav station to port. SiFi points things out on the chart. Stacking back to starboard. Another gybe. Drone shots of them sailing past an atoll, then circling them to show the sunset. Tony, on the helm, talks about how nice it is to get past the doldrums, and see the land, and a reef. Site of a sunken Japanese fleet. Heading toward the north end of the Phillippines. Talks about Scallywag coming through from nowhere. Drone shot from close ahead, cricling behind them with audio pulled down to mimic diegetic drone audio; island visible behind them.SiFi and Mark at the nav station talk about their course, routing, sched. Mark: "It's such a bummer because we did such great work on those guys for days. Had them in our pocket." They talk about how they can't crack off to the west too far. SiFi: "But when we've got the pressure to go down we take it down." Mark, on deck, talks to Nick: "They just completely cut the corner." Mark talks to Amory about how it's been a challenge, and he's learned a lot from SiFi. Keeping in touch with Charlie, who's trying to learn what he can from the information you get on land. His family is doing better, which is great. He's going to be on the dock in Hong Kong when they arrive. He's emailed them a few times with encouraging words. Patriot scores. "We haven't missed Charlie's hair, that's for sure. [Laughs] ... We've had a good thing going for a long time. It'll be really good to have him back for the next leg." Shot of them sailing on starboard gybe; sunset to port.Sunrise. Vestas sails toward a raincloud. Nick, trimming the headsail: "We are coming into a cloud line; the morning rollcall of clouds." He points back to where AkzoNobel and Dongfeng have been closing in on them. Radar screen showing clouds, and with what I assume are the AIS positions of two boats to their southwest, 2 and 4 miles away, respectively. Shot of AkzoNobel and Dongfeng a few miles away. Nick and someone (Tom?) in the cockpit in the rain. At the nav station, Mark talks about how they're stuck in a cloud with no wind, while AkzoNobel, a mile away, is doing 11 knots. "Pretty annoying. Build up a nice lead on them overnight, and it's evaporating very quickly... Let's go." Shot of Akzo in the rain. Shot of routing software. Drone shot of Vestas bouncing with no wind in leftover chop. Someone on the foredeck. Shot of the mainsail looking up, with Stacey standing next to it. SiFi at the nav station, looking at what I think must be the 2018.01.12 01:00 UTC sched, in which MAPFRE had surged north well to the west of them. "Wow." He eats. Amory: "Brutal." SiFi, as he eats: "They probably got in the western edge of this. But they're only in 3 knots [of wind]. So they've gotta deal with the wake [?] as well. The hope is that we break out of this first." SiFi comes up on deck: "Yeah. As scary as we thought it would be." Tony: "Those guys sailed around?" SiFi: "They're due west of us, about 26 miles. They're only in 3 knots, but they are in an easterly." They peel to the MH0. Hannah sits on the lowered J1, tying it with sail ties. "Just put themasthead back up, and got breeze from closer to the direction we're looking for." SiFi: "Pretty painful morning. A cloud moved through last night and decimated the wind field... Filling in now. Got 8 knots of breeze from 060. And it's northeasternly, which is the future. And actually it's gonna continue lifting." As the wind builds we see them unfurling the J3 to double-head with the MH0. Wake shot with them moving at 10 knots.Opens with a shot of the boat moving, yay! Shot of the keel. Mark talks about their "totally crazy" night last night. Splits in the fleet, reconvergence. Shots at night of Dongfeng super closer to them. Dongfeng's running lights, sail tapes, silhouetted by a lightning flash. Crew in the cockpit working in red light, illuminated by lightning. Best thing, he says, is they came out ahead, and now they're moving at 12 knots. Looking forward to the NE tradewinds. Stacey talks about how they got showers in the rain last night, and now it's super hot again. In the midst of it, Tony, on the helm, asks her to traveller down; she does it as she continues talking. Interesting that they're trimming the main via traveller from the starboard forward cockpit winch; mainsheet appears to be cleated off. Then we see Nick trimming the headsail; Tony on the helm says, "Stand by for puff. 3, 2, 1, [something]." Nick eases the sheet. "Good puff." (Or maybe "Good pop"? Not sure.) Below, at the nav station, SiFi says they're at 3 degrees south. Slowly making their way through the doldrums. Now in a much more stable breeze of 6-8 knots. Probably another 24 hours of slow going; another night of looking out for clouds. "Wanna make sure we're on our toes." They came out on the good side of it last night, but want to make sure they don't do the opposite tonight. In the cockpit at sunset SiFi gives an update. Phil comes through the hatch, shirtless to show his tattoos, including a full left-arm sleeve and some writing I can't make out on his left side. "News is not good." [Joking? Then he continues to the stern to use the head, I'm assuming.] Mark: "We've got one more night." Phil sings, "One more night!... What song is that?" Martin (I think?) answers: "Phil Collins."High drone shot of Vestas on a blue ocean with very little wind. AkzoNobel is visible a few miles away to windward. Mark, on the wheel, points to three boats to weather. We see a shot of them; left to right: AkzoNobel, Dongfeng, MAPFRE. Phil and Hannah lie in the shade of the main. Phil: "It's probably a really nice comfortable 50 degrees downstairs, and about 47.8 out on deck. Sea temperature of 32 degrees, so it's just a pleasure." Nick and Mark in the cockpit look to weather, talk about the other boats getting the wind first. Sam, to Nick: "What do you know, chief?" (On the helm, Mark bangs the wheel.) Nick: "Um. Mark's scaring me." Below, TJ talks about how hot it is and points out blisters forming behind the paint/surface coating (?) on the starboard side due to the sun. Talks about needing to drink another bottle of water. We see a shot of a pad in the foreward sail locker where someone has been sleeping, drenched in sweat. On deck, Stacey sits near the mast in an eerie silence. "We're barely moving and we've got four other boats all within eyeshot of each other." TJ looks through binoculars at AkzoNobel, describing what sails they have up: "They're not furled because their zigzags are lining up with the jib. So it's the J1 or the Code 0." They joke about the routing, it taking 3,000 years to reach their destination. Tony, from the wheel, calls out, "If we're out here for 3,000 years we'll have a few typhoons to deal with." SiFi walks forward, talks about the GPS mark time being 1,360 days. Nick: "That's Instagrammable."Shot looking forward from over Phil's shoulder as he drives. TJ, shirtless in the cockpit, points out the land to port, the Solomons (Ghupuna, off the east coast of Makira/San Cristobal). "And we've got Dee just above us, she's burned up all her gauge, working down. Akzo's just ahead of us, a couple of miles away, MAPFRE a couple of miles ahead of them, Dongfeng a couple of miles ahead of them." Talks about how close the boats are. Weird on-screen title appears, white letters on blue: "Analyzing in background (step 1 of 2)". Assume that's an editing glitch by Amory. We see the chart plotter screen below, which zooms in to show them rounding San Cristobal. Mark, at nav station, recounts the leg. Got off to a good start, fell back by playing the inside, but now they're back in touch with a couple of thousand miles to go. "Plenty of opportunity." Drone shots of Vestas sailing on starboard. Stacey, trimming, talks about being in touch with the others. "It feels like a long time, when you're right there and you can't pass them." On the foredeck, someone unzips a new sail. Camera zooms in to show AkzoNobel and MAPFRE ahead of them. Drone shot with San Cristobal in the background.At the nav station, SiFi talks to Mark about the latest sched. "MAPFRE did the biggest run, and then we were next. The other guys were similar." Mark walks out to the cockpit to explain the situation. Tony's driving; Stacey's trimming, and Nick (I think?) is on the grinder in an unbranded (!) sleeveless teeshirt. Mark: "Got some good news. Gained on everyone except for MAPFRE. MAPFRE had the longest run; they're also the lowest." At the nav station, SiFi talks about how this leg is different from the last one, "not just because the sea temperature is 20 degrees warmer!" Last time the strategic options were more limited; just stay as close as possible to the ice gate. This leg there are more options. "It is enjoyable when there's a little more subtlety involved."Hannah grinds. Hannah: "It's really good to be back. It's been pretty good few days, lots of gybing, not the most amoutn of sleep, but it's warm, good breeze, and can still see two boats, so, pretty good to be back racing. Was a bit nervous about how I would slot back in after such a long time off the boat... It's been good." We see a gybe of the A3 from port to starboard, filmed from the J3 tack. Mark, on the middle pedestal, describes where the boats are near them. Are three groups of boats: Dongfeng and AkzoNobel ahead, the three of them in the middle, and Brunel and Scallywag a little bit behind. Have been gybing, now going to be a bit of a drag race on starboard. Shot of TTToP to a mile away to starboard (upwind of them, abeam) and MAPFRE a few miles to leeward and slightly ahead.Jena, grinding in the cockpit on the middle pedestal, talks about making gains on every sched. Still hope with more than 1,000 miles to go that they can catch them. Mark, in the cockpit: "The two most competititve boats that we're racing are currently ahead of us in this leg. So yes, of course it matters to me. I want to beat them. I want to be first. I want to win." [Sounds a little annoyed with Sam's question.] Sam asks Jena to do a "weather dance". She dances at the pedestal. Jena: "What do you think about that?" Charlie, at the helm: "Well, we haven't seen any results yet. So." Jena: "Don't worry. I'll show my magic. Dancing magic." Crew kidding in the cockpit; TJ says something about going to Outback Steakhouse. Nick laughs. Charlie hands the wheel off to Chuy. Sam, to Charlie: "How was the watch, Chaz?" Charlie: "Transitional. It went from windy to not so windy. Drag all the sails forward... Little frustrated with the boatspeed... Kind of tough sailing right now with the leftover slop."Opens with a drone shot from behind of Vestas sailing on starboard gybe. A dark seabird (a shearwater, maybe?) is visible trailing the boat; the bird turns and flies RIGHT PAST THE DRONE. Overlapping audio of Sam asking SiFi, at the wheel, "Any second thoughts about sailing into this low?" We see Simon on the helm. "What's that Sam?" Stacey sits in the foreground chuckling. SiFi: "Second, third, fourth, fifth... Lots of thoughts... About how to get through it safely, and hopefully ahead." Below, Nick's face is mostly shadowed as he eats. "I guess I keep coming down here because this is where you're pushed the hardest, mentally and physically. And so far we're seeing the beignning of that with definitely the mental side pushing us hard, and the physical side is just about to start. Latest routing shows us doing about 1 million gybes between here and Melbourne. So we're going to try to figure out how we're going to make those as smooth as possible." On deck, Tom leans on the middle pedestal. "When it gets hard; hard, wet, and tired; it's hard, wet, and tired for all your mates on the other boats as well. Like Kyle Langford, the big seagull. He's gonna be tired. Pete Burling, Blair Tuke, Willy, Louis... everyoe's in the same boat. It's hard for everyone." Another shot of the shearwater buzzing the drone. Kyle: "It's hard for everyone. Sail fast. We're going to Australia. Heading home." He grins. "Heading home." Sifi is at the wheel as the boat barely moves in light wind. "Calm before the storm... Not really in the forecast, this light stuff." Below, Charlie tosses something round and blue in one hand, and says something I can't catch. "It's hever going to be easier than right now." (?) Wake as they sail fast under scary clouds. On deck, Charlie: "So far, so good." He grinds, gets a slap of water in the face. Mark talks about how they just put the second reef in, and have some water in the folds of the main, so they're trying to get it out. We see someone doing that with a boathook, getting hit by spray. Charlie talks about where the other boats are, geometry of trying to figure out where to aim to come out ahead of the other boats. "We've got more options up here. Whether they sneak around our bow remains to be seen." He talks about "separation anxiety", I assume because they're north of the other boats. "We'll know more in 12 hours I guess." Slomo washing machine, wake.Mark on the helm. Mark, by the wheel, talks about how it's Thanksgiving, and there are three Americans on the boat. "Lots to be thankful for." Charlie talks about his favorite food for Thanksgiving: stuffing. Srsly, Charlie? "If I could have stuffing right now I'd stay out here for an extra 24 hours." Mark, on the helm, talks about kahlua turkey. And the family stuffing (!) recipe. "Maybe I'd give up having a shower for another 12 hours."POV shot of someone in the galley examining an empty bottle of chili sauce. Tony, on the middle pedestal in the cockpit in the mornnig as Vestas sails on starboard gybe: "We think we have a sauce thief." Jena: "The sauce is gone, and the theory is that our camera guy secretly at night will go and take the sauce." Mark, on the helm: "The barbecue sauce is the best. It goes on everything. And there's none of it."Jena, trimming the main, talks about microplastics. Tom talks about how it's so small, and it's all through the ocean. Mark on the aft pedestal, talks about the problem of microplastics in the environment. Jena talks about making changes in indivdual behavior to avoid single-use plastics. Mark: "Our entire First World is addicted to plastic." Charlie talks about a sponsor of theirs that makes a device to capture microplastics.Vestas reaches fast on port. Tony grinds the aft pedestal. Charlie steers. Mark, on the rail, talks about how they've been racing close to Brunel, but now they (Vestas) are going a little more west. (Actually, looking at the tracker, the other leading boats are on the same line with Vestas; it's Brunel who's diverging east.) SiFi, in the hatch: Talks about the cmpetition with Brunel, how they've been a little faster in these conditions. But they think they'll be faster when the angles change. Slowly diverging courses. SiFi: "We're getting to a place where we're sailing around the South Atlantic High." More downwind eventually. Tom, on the mainsheet, talks to Tony, on the helm. Slomo of Tom grinding.We see a chart plotter showing the equator crossing. Nick, below: "I've crossed the equator 7 or 8 times now." In the cockpit, Tony counts up how many times he's crossed the equator while Jena laughs. 15 times. Tony: "There's plenty around who've done it more than me." Tom, in his bunk below: "Only once. This will be my second time." Jena, on the aft pedestal: "This is my first time." Mark says this is his fifth. Discussion in the cockpit of how many times they'll cross in this race. Nick and Tom razz Martin about his upcoming initiation.Tony helms. MAPFRE is visible close ahead of them. Tom makes a diagram on the floor of the cockpit using sheets and Jena's foot and shoe to represent directions and boats and the tradewinds and the doldrums and the various routing decisions. He points out a nearby cloud. "This guy looks pretty scary right now, and he might get us." Closeup of a compass. Tony: "We are max keel. Momentarily." SiFi talks about the clouds and potential for squall. Shot of an approaching raincloud in the dusk. Mark: "This is a big cloud. And it's coming quickly." We see the wind increase and the sudden scramble to react: Calls for a furl, flogging the main, furling the headsail (maybe the J0? or the FR0?), Stacey on the aft pedestal in her bra, prepping the J1 to hoist. Sailing under the J1 and J3 as it gets dark and SiFi says something about wet pajamas.Wake shot. Shot from behind of Tom at the helm as Vestas sails reaches on port in 20 knots of wind. In the cocpit, SiFi talks about the conditions and their position entering the region normally associated with the doldrums. Behind him, Tony steers. Close up of the rudder as they sail fast. Nick goes forward to the mast as they reef the main; a wave knocks over the Martin (or at least the camera). Nick, leaning against the stack and wiping water from his face: "Right now we're moving right along. We're coming into a cloud line and we're stuck on MAPFRE, so we're making sure we're getting every inch out of the boat." Shot from the cabin of the pit area. Mark: "(something) the tack down?" Stacey works a winch. Wake shot with rain. Dark clouds behind them, with Charlie on the mainsheet and Tony on the helm. Shot looking forward from the stern as a rain squall blows over Vestas, under reefed main and J3. SiFi smiles into the camera. SiFi: "I told you it would get harder." Jena grinds. Jena, below, describes dealing wth the squall, with sail changes and lack of sleep.Vestas sails fast in early morning on port gybe. Mark, on the stern: "The night was tricky. We had a good sched in the middle of the night, we gained a bit on Dongfeng and MAPFRE and Akzo. And then the last few hours have been really tough. We've been a bit unlucky with these clouds. And MAPFRE's just behind us, they're probably less than a mile away. We were 10 miles ahead of them a few hours ago. Hasn't been the best morning for us; hopefullly we can make up for it." Shot of MAPFRE on their port quarter. Charlie, below: "The cloud giveth, and the could taketh away. We did a really good job last night... riding some pressure down over the top of Dongfeng. It's been pretty random... We had a 10-mile lead on MAPFRE that we watched disintegrate in front of our eyes... It's a long leg, with a lot of ups and downs." Talks about "mini doldrums" coming up. Shots of crew in the cockpit.Major washing machine as Vestas sails fast on starboard gybe toward the sunset (think this may have been from the first afternoon; this is the first video to come off the boat on Leg 2). Nick, on deck, talks about taking a break for 40 minutes. Chuny and Jena on the aft pedestal. Charlie takes spray in the face while holding the mainsheet. Someone (I think Charlie?) talks to Mark: "Nick's working on the rudder." Closeup of Mark taking spray on the stern. Jena, on the mainsheet, wipes spray from her eyes. Below, Charlie (in foulies) talks to SiFi (in his bunk) about the competition. SiFi, at the nav station, talks about strategy. It's 0100, and they've been highest and fastest, but now they want to get south to avoid ending up with less wind. "We're gonna see if we can find a faster route to the south. We've got good downwind conditions for the next 24, 48 hours and beyond... Gybing is hard work in this weather because we've got so much internal stack at the start of a leg. But that's life I guess." On deck in the dusk, crew shifts the stack. "Two, six! (shift) Two, six! (shift)"Mark, sitting on the weather rail: "Only a few miles to go... and we're still in the lead. Hopefully a couple more miles, and we'll wrap this leg up with a victory."Charlie on not getting too high or too low emotionally. "We've seen some things happen in this river before. It's not a very straightforward finish." Mark on the helm, sunset, slomo wake.Hannah, trimming in the dawn. Sunrise. Mark talks about how they've rounded the virtual mark with the fleet behind them. Talks about strategy from there to Lisbon. Hannah: "It's been a really nice sunrise, and we've had a couple of pods of dolphins come past, so you couldn't ask for more, really." Awesome slomo shots of dophins leaping alongside the boat.Sunrise. Mark: "It's 7 in the morning. The sun just came up; a beautiful sunrise. We just got a position report." Talks about the different groups of boats, their hope for upcoming wind. Nick moves a sail.Shot of boat flopping in drifting conditions. Mark: "Six hours ago we were sailing in 30 knots. Now it's blowing 3 knots, and we have all the gear in the bow, and we're actually getting all the people up here in the bow as well, so we'll be sleeping up here in the middle of the day. Wishing we had the fans in the bunks." Shots of crew trying to sleep in the heat whle the boat flops, and SiFi jokes about the forecast. Someone (Tony?), off-camera: "Look at that: we just cracked 2 knots. Last night we did 32, and now we're 1.9." (It's either Tony or Tom. Need to work on my Aussie vs. Kiwi accent recognition.)Shot of a sail (Masthead 0?) being unfurled after a gybe. Mark, below, explains "Meat-Free Mondays" as something they're doing to reduce carbon impacts and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. "It is good. In fact it's really good." Later, though: "It's always hot; it's always mushy like this. That part gets annoying, especially when it's hot out." Shot of foredeck. SiFi: "It's easier on shore than it is on a boat."Nightime, approaching lights of the Spanish coast. Charlie talks through the gybe with Mark, then they gybe from starboard to port. Stacking below. Hannah talks with the dawn breaking behind them. Hannah: "It was a pretty nice first night. It was warm. A couple of gybes, nothing too stressful. We're pretty happy with how we've been going, so can't complain right now."