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VolvoOceanRace.com

Martin Keruzoré

http://vor.jbcsystems.com/person/martin-keruzoré

Martin Keruzoré (OBR)

Charles and Pascal scowl at the computer. Looking at a sched? Charles chews on his neck cowl, rubs his eyes, talks to Pascal in French. Charles goes up, and Pascal moves into his spot. On deck, Horace says, "keep pushing." Carolijn asks about the other boats. Charles explains that the others are closer in mileage, but they have a straight line while the other boats have to gybe. So could be very close.

Marie, below: Big surprise at the end because we took a different option from Brunel and MAPFRE. So we don't know for the moment. We will have a position report in 40 minutes, so we will see how they are going. So a bit stress, eh? We cross the finger. We have good wind at the moment. We hope they don't have the same. So we wait and we wait. Horace: Almost 42 nautical miles to the finish. Hopefully the weather forecast is like they say, the offshore choice will have less wind. So we can have a chance to overtake them. We still fight for that, and try everything we can, push the boat faster to have the best VMG speed to arrive the finish line. Everything will be happening at the finish line. Always believe it.

Sailing down the Dutch coast with Stu on the helm and Marie trimming. RIB comes alongside. Marie waves. Carol takes a picture with her phone. Spray. Daryl trimming.

Pascal rubs his eyes at the nav station. Charles looks on. They talk in French. Pascal: Honestly, for the moment we are far behind, but they have to turn around 40 miles before the finish line and come back. I hope the next wind's on us, a lot. But we will see. It's a bit crazy we have been racing for 9 months and it's only the 40 last miles of the last leg is going to decide who is going to win the Volvo Ocean Race. It's crazy. Charles gets dressed and talks to Pascal in French; something about "a cyclone and we flap flap flap!" He tells Martin: If they get some light pressure we can come back. We win or not in one hour but not two hour (?). Wait and see.

Dongfeng on port gybe, Carolijn trimming. MAPFRE to starboard. Daryl. Hoisting the J1. Charles grinding on the forward pedestal. Stu on the helm talking with Kevin. Spray. Sunset. Waves. Reefed main. Stacking. Pascal at the nav station. Charles at the nav station. Stu: If we had to gybe it though, we could run one. Stu: We've chosen a path inshore. So there's lots of tricky navigation. Sand banks, separation schemes, wind farms. It's going to be an interesting night.

Below, Pascal studies the computer, chews his nails. He announces to the cockpit over the PA that in (something) minutes they can furl the J3 (I think?). Marie responds on deck. Pascal: Standby tack. Okay, tacking! We hear the sound of the tack. Chart screen shows the exclusion zone rounding (I think?). Pascal explains being in the new wind, and getting the shift, and being able to go directly to the south. Sleep? I think we are going to sleep well when we arrive in The Hague. But that's life. We have a little bit more than one day until the race is finished. I think it is good that we can go on pushing. And we will see.

High drone shot of Dongfeng with MAPFRE a half mile astern and to weather. Low drone shot. Both boats under MH0 in light conditions. More drone shots.

Kevin carries a stacking pole. Jack on the helm with MAPFRE in the background. Charles, Marie, scowling. Light air tack. Stu. Horace. They all look exhausted. Tacking the MH0. Pascal. Carolijn: Aarhus, a bit crazy in the marina but very fun. Waypoint not as far north as the last one. Been through a light patch; hopefully that will be the last of it. MAPFRE to leeward, had a bit of a battle in the transition. And allowed other boats to catch up. Can see Vestas. Battling it out with MAPFRE at the moment.

Charles, his eyes closed at the nav station, looks like he's sleeping sitting up. Wake shot with MAPFRE astern. Stu on the helm, looks back. Charles' voice on the PA saying something... Passing a small buoy. Jack on the helm in the sunset. Charles looks to starboard. Below, at the nav station, Kevin talks in French about other boats, the race.

Dongfeng sails with two RIBs alongside; MAPFRE beyond. Approach to Aarhus, maybe? Carolijn can be heard discussing their sail configuration. Daryl. Carolijn: And then back to Norway. MAPFRE astern fo them. MAPFRE sailing to leeward. Coming into the harbor with helicopter sound Stu asks Pascal if his waypoint is close to the marina. Carolijn shouts a conversation with someone in a RIB alongside. Tack. Sailing into the harbor with cheers. Tacking around the harbor buoy. Passing MAPFRE, who's still coming in. More cheering crouds. Passing Vestas. Daryl makes some comment: "...was MAPFRE and now it's Brunel." Stu: They banged the left corner. That's certainly a challenge when racing 24 hours and we're further away from the finish than when we started. There's something not quite right about that. Pascal: Less wind here guys. Stu: Wait a bit for puff to roll through here, and loose cover MAPFRE? He points out pressure. Daryl: Still a couple of big opportunities for a big parkup. Above Denmark, getting up to the next mark. And then the finish depending on the timing. Can only cover so much; have to keep doing what we're doing for the first part of this leg.

MAPFRE in their wake. Charles: After this mark we go upwind. Charles driving. Carolijn trimming. Stu: Where's this mark?.. What's the bearing... 214? Pascal comes up and looks around. Charles: Can we go up? Pascal answers in French. Jack on the foredeck. So far I've had two lots of 3 and a half minutes (sleep). Went downstairs at one point last night and got about 3 minutes before I got called up. Won't be a chance for sleep for some time. Going into Aarhus; lots of maneuvers. Maybe on our way up to Norway again, we'll get a chance to chill out a bit. But I don't think so.

Marie laughs below about the lack of night. Still leading. Doing 20-25 knots downwind. Cockpit with Charles steering.

Night shots of Dongfeng near the Norway turning mark. Powerboat alongside. They round the mark and unfurl the A3 (I assume). MAPFRE rounds just behind them. Daryl explains that things are going well. "We had a wobbly patch where we thought we were caught between the two breezes. But in the end it's worked out really well. Sailed well against MAPFRE in the last little section coming up. Glad they're behind us here, and let's hope it can stay like that. It's going to be a battle, that's for sure. Charles, on the helm, looks at other boats. Akzo, Vestas, Brunel.

Stu on the rail with a hand-bearing compass. Clouds. Kevin: Okay to tack without stacking? Pascal talks about the course. Charles is on the helm when they tack. Horace, below: A big right, so everybody is tacking. Nav station. Kevin, below, talks about how Pascal had them tack quite early. "We have now to be fast. Pushing, pushing, pushing... First big step of this leg." Carolijn: Pascal, when you can can you give us some info on AIS modes compared to the other boats? Pascal looks at the computer.

Carolijn in the parade. Charles in the parade. Dockout; Charles steering, Pascal waves his hat. Jumpers jump off. Fist bumps before the start. Kevin: 45! Start. Stu: Pressure in 5. Higher, slower than Scalliwag. Other boats: Brunel, TTToP, AkzoNobel. Marie says something in French. Mark rounding. Big daymarker/tower. Charles on the helm. Tack. Pascal says something in French. Carolijn below: The war has started. So far so good for us. Had a good start, came out of the Gothenburg river in second place behind Akzo. But obviously the fleet is really close together. Now tacking up the Swedish coast to Norway, battling out the shifts. Going to be an intense afternoon and night ahead.

Sailing fast on starboard. Washing machine shots from behind the helm. Ship passes them going the other way. Another ship passes them. Sunset. Justine in the cockpit.

Kevin, below: Not the best night on Dongfeng. We've been quite slow. We don't know why. It's been quite windy. 65-80 wind angle. Lot of wind; 30-40 knots. 2 reefs and J2. Slow; hard to know why. Very annoying. We're behind MAPFRE, and Brunel passed us, Turn the Tide, and AkzoNobel. We are now back ahead of Turn the Tide. But still a lot of work involved to come back at least on Brunel and MAPFRE to be able to play something on the next leg for the final victory. Crew in the cockpit. Other boat to leeward (TTToP?).

Spreader cam views of very rough pounding conditions. Night shots. Looks like double or triple-reefed main. Washing machine. LOSS OF VIDEO screen title. More pounding.

Crew lying down below: Fabien, Justine (maybe?). Hard to tell in their gear. Maneuver on deck (sail change?); working in the pit. Chalres on the helm. Land to starboard. Jack, below: As standard as we thought it was going to be, it's close and stressful. Brunel was quite a bit back in the morning, and they've been quite fast and they've come back into us. I think MAPFRE's about 2 miles ahead and Brunel's about 1 mile ahead. Pretty close, pretty stressful. We're around the north end of the course and on to Gothenburg. Coming around the island all the boats had a different sail setup... think Brunel has done the best. Long night ahead. Spreader cam and mast cam shots of pounding on a close reach, shifting the stack.

Washing machine shots from behind the helm. Trimming. Reefing the main (maybe single to double reef?). Daryl below looks at AIS. Just popped up again. Doing 14 and a half. Coming in lighter and heading. Compression. Nice to be in touch. We've got Turn the Tide 3 miles down to leeward here; the other guys 5 miles back on our line. Lost track of time but I think it's like 3 days' racing. Close reaching across the North Sea... Looking like getting in 10:30 tomorrow night.

Washing machine. Sailing fast on starboard gybe. Spreader cam view of Jack (I think?) on the bow. Foredeck work in anticipation of a sail change. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Spreader cam view of cockpit during a peel. Grinding. Slomo washing machine. Jack (I think) on the bow as the old sail comes down. Folding the sail in firehose on the foredeck. Kevin grinning in slomo. Carolijn takes off her gear below. "The joys of peeling in 27 knots... Just a lot of water. Peeling from the masthead to the J0." Fabien takes off his gear; comments on being wet inside it.

Brunel sailing alongside as they move into new wind after the ridge. Other boats on the horizon. Charles gestures gallicly. Drone shot showing Dongfeng with Brunel in the background. Drone shots. Binnacle. Kevin on the helm. Pascal looks through binoculars and talks in French. Jack and Pascal look around, tense. Pascal: Nothing's for sure... Next is to catch the pressure and to gybe. Quite good timing, because starboard we're going to catch more pressure, maybe 30 knots. We will see. Jack: No comment, no comment. Pascal: I'm a bit afraid the pressure comes in like that (gestures from astern) and everybody... Pressure is coming in quite fast now. Drone shots of Dongfeng and Brunel. Charles on the helm. Stacking from forward to amidships. Brunel gybes and crosses their stern. Charles and Pascal talk in French. Kevin, on the helm: Brunel just gybed behind us. MAPFRE quite a lot of gauge to leeward, so they will be in front of us. Wind will increase, 30 knots. Going inside the Shetlands tomorrow. Now we have to be fast, do good maneuver, catch MAPFRE. Plenty of opportunities to be fast, choose the good sail. Most of the navigation choices have been made; now it's a speed contest. Drone shot overhead. Drone shots. Stacking to leeward for the gybe. We see the gybe. Fabien and Black grinding. Carolijn calls trim.

Charles climbs the mast to look for wind as they slat in zero wind. Glassy sea. Charles and Carolijn on the bow. Carolijn is tying up a sail bag. Daryl in the cockpit: How long? Four to eight hours? Fortunately the ridge is moving, so hopefully it's going to cross over us. We're trying. 1.7 knots. He eases the sail. Bow. Ripples. Other boats on the horizon. Charles looks at them, looks upwind. Daryl: Lifted back. Charles: Big lift? They tack. TTToP behind them.

Sailing upwind. AkzoNobel and MAPFRE on their starboard quarter. Carolijn in the morning: After a few hours of darkness it has now gotten light. MAPFRE and Akzo above them; Vestas, Brunel and TTToP below. At the moment it looks like those to leeward will get to the ridge first. And whoever gets through the ridge first is in a good position. So we'll have to battle it out today. An important day today.

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.

Drone shot of dophins swimming with land in the background, then drone turns to show Dongfeng triple heading in light wind. Kevin on the helm; his left hand is wrapped with a bandage. Justine trimming. Jack: It's a nice spot to be in... After the start got some good current and passed the fleet. Next transition is the south of Ireland. Do everything we can to work through that. Don't think about it and just move forward. Charles climbs the mast to look ahead and to starboard (looking for wind, I assume). Justine grinds. Charles and Fabien look at wind. Stacking forward. Daryl clips into a halyard, explains he's going up to look at the wind. Talks about the land formations ahead of them and the anticipated wind drop. Kevin grins in the pit; they hoist him up. Drone shot of Daryl at the hounds. He calls to the deck. Drone pulls back to show land beyond dthem. Justine and Carolijn talking in the cockpit. Tacking close to shore. Other boats visible on the horizon behind them as they tack. Carolijn: Nice pressure here. Land. Low altitude drone shot.

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.

Drifting start. Other boats. Fabien looks at other boats. Kevin on teh foredeck. Sailing past TTToP on starboard. Unrolling the MH0. Tacking. Kevin: Not a very good start. Very light wind. We are quite good; we went in the shadow of three boats. So we've lost a lot and a lot to gain. Very light during the night... Have to do our best to take the lead back before the end of the bay.

Low altitude drone shot. Brian talking to Dee on the helm about the wind. They pass some floating trash, and comment on it. Bianca stacking below. Martin: A tack coming up. Hopefully the last Code-0 tack in this leg. Stacking. Martin, on the helm: Okay let's go. We see the tack. Lazy sheet hangs up for a second. Drone shot.

Dee reads a question: Would you rather have a bad short-term memory or a bad long-term memory. Would you rather have unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos for life. Who said, I'll have one of what she's having. Elodie gets it: When Harry Met Sally. More trivia... Bleddyn talks about something he saw Carolijn do in a video off Dongfeng from the last leg. Bleddyn: Started racing at 8 or 9 years old in a Merit dinghy, sailing with my dad in the local sailing club at Anglesea (sp?). Then Toppers (plastic boat) and just followed in my brother's footsteps. He was 3 or 4 years older than me. When I was 14 years old I thought sailing was what I wanted to do, but my parents were good about keeping my feet on the ground. At university had some opportunities to do some professional sailing. And then had the opportunity to join an America's Cup team. The degree definitely came in handy. The Volvo: I knew about the race, but a type of sailing I'd never experienced before. Dee approached me after the America's Cup finished in Bermuda. So I went along and had my first night offshore in a Volvo 65. And my first race was Leg 0 in the Volvo. Definitely not the background most Volvo sailors have had. Always fun to learn a new boat. One design; we're all learning very fast. And in the last leg we're competing more with the more experienced teams. Very special to have the race ending in Wales, in Cardiff. Would like to be higher in the standings, but that's the way it goes. Looking forward to arriving and meeting my family. Dee, below: It makes me laugh when I think back to a year ago when he came to trial, he'd never been offshore before. Very intelligent, very analytical. At the beginning he didn't know how to live on a boat. He's now one of our key trimmers and drivers, and does all our data analysis at the end of each leg. And now he's our Welsh hero, heading into Cardiff.

Sailing through the ridge. Wake. Martin's light touch on the helm. Crew on the bow. Instruments on the mast: doing 8 knots. Bowsprit. Cutwater. Bird flying away from the boat. Bernardo, on the bow, asks what day it is. "Saturday already?" Whale off their stern. Looks like a sperm whale, maybe. Have to ask my whale-kowledgeable sister. Crow on the bow in flopping conidtions. MH0 clew. Sails fill. "Look at that. Look at that." Partially rolled-up MH0 as a windseeker. Bernardo trims.

Spreader cam views as they stack forward in the falling wind. Peeling J0 (or FR0?) to MH0.

Dee, below: We're in the last of the 30-knot stuff. And tomorrow it's going to be like hitting a brick wall. Trying to figure out where to cross the ridge. Tomorrow life will be very different on board. No more hosing on deck... Is a bit on the edge, and a bit tricky to do things safely both on deck and down below. Going to need to dry out the front of the boat. Because we're going to be sleeping up there. Bernardo and Liz getting geared up. Goes up with goggles. Liz: I don't think we've seen the sky in, like, three days. Learing it's Friday, she jokes about going dancing. Brian joins in. Dee: It's Friday night, party night, we're going out dancing. Shot out the hatch of the boom being dragged through the water. Liz: Whoa; action! She runs out. Bianca waves from the cockpit. Squeegeeing off Bernardo's goggles, Martin's camera housing. Intense stern cam, spreader cam shots of major washing machine. Annalise (I think?) bundled up on the stern holding the mainsheet. Bernardo explains that the Cunningham on the main broke, so theyr'e trying to use a second one. Liz at the mast works on it. Lucas and Martin getting geared up below. Sounds so violent! Dee looks out the hatch; they joke about how Bernardo (I think?) is gripping the wheel. Bernardo eating below; Liz says something and he laughs.

Slomo shots of rough seas. Martin on the helm exercising his cold hands. Bernardo scowling. Winch drum. Liz in the pit getting soaked. Everyone in neoprene hoods. Lucas in a helmet with faceplate. Dee on the pedestal. The usual "slomo washing machine from the hatch" shots, but the slomo and the focus on the faces really works well. Bianca coiling in the pit. Bleddyn ducks to take whitewater over his head. Dee and Liz are heads-up, keeping their eyes on everything. Great stuff. Bernardo comes below, pulls off his hood. Bernardo: "It's pretty wild. We just came out of 30 knots, did a peel to the J0, and the waves are quite messy. Just sorting everything out. And get ready to go back on the bunk for a 2-hour nap." Bleddyn: Do I enjoy it? Yeah, it's good! It's nice to get a bit of breeze... This has been the breeze we've been waiting for for a while, will take us most of the way there. Cardiff here we come." Shots on deck of the big seas. Bianca dancing at the pedestal. Liz joins her, dancing on the helm. Bernardo, trimming on the stern, pulls his hands across his eyes John Travolta-style. Liz, tucked under the coaming, does her tube stance. "This is a barrel tube!" More washing-machine shots. Crash cam shot of a triple wipe-off: Helm, trimmer, and pedestal all knocked down by the wave. Epic!

Elodie grinding. Martin, on the helm, talks about crew weight forward. Elodie laughs. Bernardo on the helm. Drone shot of them reaching fast with a lot of heel, double heading with the J0 and J3. Elodie on the helm. Drone shot. More shots of Elodie driving with Bianca (I think) trimming. Drone shot. Sail change: Taking the J0(?) tack forward, hoisting it, with the J1 up. Elodie, below, eating. She talks about her first time on a boat, 2 or 3 years old. Going sailing on a cruising boat on a lake with her family. First time she got involved this year, was her sister getting involved i 2013, said they were still looking for big girls. So I did a try out in Lanzarote, and got picked, which was a big surprise for me. But I think knowing how to work well with a team was good for me. I think what I like about offshore sailing is the rhythm. Getting away from everything in the world. Sailing in different conditions, different skies, different sea states. Learning every day. Because Dee told me she wanted an extra girl to do rotations. So every time I'm on board one of the girls is taking a rest. Francesca is getting a rest now. I'll do 4 legs. It was really what I wanted; I didn't want to do the whole race. Really good team, nice sailors, nice people. I'm really happy with the choice I made to join this team for the race. I think when you are doing the race for the first time, there are so many new things there are a lot of things you don't see. I think this race will be like a big experience tick for me, compared to the race before, where everything was new you felt all the time a bit behind. But this time is different. Really nice to feel different, push more and more all the time. Bianca working in the cockpit at night with red lights; Bernardo comes below. Stacking below, it looks like?

Slomo spray, grinding. Drone shots of TTToP. Other boat on the starboard quarter (Dongfeng, I think). Bianca: Annalise came up and told us we've overtaken MAPFRE and we can see Dongfeng on AIS. And we can see them down here. It's a nice surprise for breakfast. Dee jokes about Dongfeng being astern them: "Maybe they just want to look at my bottom when I take a pee. Pascal will be up with binoculars." They laugh. Bianca dances? Poses? Not sure. She practices with Annalise, who tells Martin to stop filming. Bianca: Professional. Need some practice. Before we arrive it will be perfect. Sail change (J0 to MH0?) Folding up the sail on the bow. Another boat to leeward. Liz crawling into a sleeping bag in the bow; waves to Martin. Light conditions. Brian: I can see Dongfeng up there has a big lift. So we'll probably be getting that soon... Very shifty at the moment. We can see Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's not far. Got an interesting race on our hand. Brian, on the bow, discusses the latest sched. Lucas goes up the mast to pop the battens through. Flopping with dolphins. Looking through binoculars at Dongfeng. Drone shots of TTToP sailing in light air; flopping. Shot of them passing the drone wit a partially rolled up MH0 as a windseeker. Sunset.

Bleddyn: 24 hours after the start. Lots of fog. Haven't seen other boats. Split this morning; we've gybed heading more northeast. Other guys are still going southeast. Expect they'll come north at some point. We're in lighter breeze, but we're going in the right direction, which is a positive. Crew in the cockpit talks and laughs about Welsh. Bleddyn gives langauge lessons to Bianca. Lucas, trimming the main, talks about hearing Bleddyn talking on the phone in what he thought was English, but then not being able to understand any of it. Lucas: "Wave. Main on." Surfing. Lucas sings "Surfing USA". Dee comes up with the latest sched. Everyone else is still sailing together in the better pressure. We fell out of the pressure, and we have the shift so we had to gybe. Hopes they'll come together and have a restart. Lucas talks about going north, and splitting, which will be cold. Annalise: Not looking forward to the cold. So it better work out for us. Bernardo working in the pit, tidying lines. Stacking forward. Liz slaps Bernardo on the back. Liz: "Nice one." Bernardo: I started sailing in Portugal when I was 8 years old. I wanted to start before that but my parents didn't allow me. So when I turned 8 I started straight away sailing the Optis. My background was always dinghies: Optis, 420s, 470s, a bit of Laser, then did the Olympics (London 2012) in 49er. Then did Youth America's Cup, World Match Racing Tour, and chasing a little bit this world, more big boats. I tried to do the last race. I couldn't make it. And fortunately this time I got my chance, my opportunity. And this is a lifetime opportunity, a dream come true. Not only a challenge, the toughest race on earth, but it's a ride with a big team, where the teamwork makes a big difference. Most is how to manage yourself. It's a challenge in a lot of different ways. That's what makes me wake up every day. Best memory: Arriving in Lisbon, in my home port. Getting home on the first leg of the Volvo means a lot. Toughest moment: When we lost John Fish. It's hard to believe and understand that he's gone. That was a really hard and a sad moment. Liz: Why did we choose Bernard? Mostly his good looks. We needed a charmer on board. Someone who could sell ice to Eskimos... Needed people who have their mind on the game, looking for the next step, on the right side of the shift. A key person to have around.

Parade. Dockout. Annalise waves. Bleddyn: Pretty exciting leaving Newport. Can't wait to get home. Gonna be exciting. Start. Scallywag below them. Gulls (Great Black-backed Gulls?) Close action upwind. AkzoNobel crosses them. The close tack with Vestas. I think they were always clear astern. Nerves of steel, that Dee. Going under the bridge. Dee on the helm. Going into the fog with Scallywag ahead. Slomo bow work. Dropping the J1 in spray on the bow. Martin does something at the clew. Bernardo, below: Start worked pretty well. A nice beat. Made a mistake on the top mark, delaying the tack too much and we had a penalty, which took us to the back of the fleet. And it was hard to recover. Still in contact; keep our heads up, move forward. Hopefully we can catch up with the fleet. Liz: We're completely lost in the fog; we have no idea where we are. Brian, at the nav station: It's a complete mystery. We're in the Bermuda Triangle. Sailing in the fog. Brian: Cold front behind us. Can choose to stay with the wind ahead of the front, but eventually that wind will die out. It's a balance between taking the light air earlier to get the new wind earlier. Watching how it develops. That's north vs. south in the routing.

Instruments on the mast. Light winds and flopping. Rain. TJ: Last night? Yeah, it wasn't much fun. Started off fun, then as we got closer to the front got gnarlier and more hectic... No sleep. But that's part of the Volvo Ocean Race. Then no wind, rain, bobbed around in the rain. And now we're making our way to Newport. Stacking forward. Crew sitting on the bow looking tired. Cockpit. Stacey on the bow preparing to hoist the J1. Hoisting, with Charlie and Tony on the forward pedestal.

Black and white footage at night. Heavy winds. Washing machine.

We see the gybe to port. Tony driving. Washing machine. Wake. Sail change. Stacking. Grinding. Bagging a sail in the spray on the foredeck. More washing machine.

TJ looks for Bermuda. 60 miles away, but it's low, so won't be able to see it. He talks about the upcoming gybe. Then big wind, Gulf Stream, then finish with burgers and lobster rolls. Charlie, Nick talk about where they're going to eat when they get in. Charlie: If everything goes according to plan maybe I'll have the team over to my house to barbecue on my new grill. Nick and Charlie talk about the difference between Bristol and Newport. Charlie talks about Bristol's maritime tradition. Herreshoff museum. Boatbuilding. Nick talks about how he bought a house while he was at sea on the race. Looking forward to spending time there. And catching up with friends and family. Charlie: A home stopover is both a blessing and a curse. Have to try to see people, carve out time for family. Best opportunity for rest might be the transatlantic. Charlie: My wife [will be at the dock]. His folks, maybe, depending on the hour. Nick and Charlie talk about the arrival last time in Newport. Welcome was over the top. Shooing boats out of the way to do light-wind gybes. Took about 2 hours to cover the last few miles. Hopefully we'll have pressure all the way in, and a good position. Nick: This team's pretty hungry at this point. Have been on this board for about 5 days now; a lot of sleep. Everyone's pretty fired up. Stacking. Tony drills something on the mainsail tack. He explains that they had a rip in the tack webbing, so he's sewing that back on. With the front coming, want to be sure it's good.

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."

Tony working in the pit. Charlie on the helm. Washing machine as Vestas sails fast on starboard tack. Sargasso weed closeups on deck. Stacking on the weather rail. They sail thorugh a huge mass of weed. Boat slows way down; makes a rooster tail. Nick looks over the stern at the rudders. "Weather one's clear." He takes a boathook to the leeward rudder as they heel to windward. "There's a piece of rope on it." He shows the rope, then loops it around Martin and jokes that it's Neptune's Necklace for Martin's "first south-to-north equator crossing". Crew working on the foredeck.

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.

Moonlight overhead. A small bird (a swallow?) on the deck in the semi-darkness. Instruments. Tony on the helm. Talks about having reached the north Atlantic. 1 degree south. Getting into shifty breeze. Hopefully 30 hours from now we'll be in the trades. Looking pretty good at the moment. Got a lot of boats close; "at the pointy end of the fleet, which is a good place to be." Talks about the doldrums.

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.

Working on the bow. Crew laughing in the cockpit at sunrise. Charlie comes up from below to report on the sched: "Generally a little higher and quicker than those guys." He goes on to discuss strategy with Tom. Phil, on the helm, talks about his knee being sore, which is why he's standing on one foot. TJ does pushups. TJ, below, washes his shirt in a bucket, then wrings it out of the forward hatch. Shirt drying on a pedestal. Tom steering. Someone going out to the MH0 clew to put a new sheet on for the gybe; stumbles coming back over the rail. (Maybe Nick?) Tony, on the helm, explains that dongfent has gybed, so now they're going to gybe to protect their position. We see the gybe. SiFi looks through binoculars to starboard (presumably at Dongfeng), talks about them being on port tack.

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.)

Stacey at the mast. Rain squall behind them. TJ bagging up the J1. Stacking forward. "Ready, two, six!" Deploying the MH0. Stacey working in the pit. She laughs: I was just thinking how different this evening is from any evening on the last leg. Sun hats and tee shirts, no one is complaining about anything weather-related. Even when it does rain it's short-lived. Quite warm inside the boat. In the Southern Ocean it's constant condensation dripping down below. Nick and Tony in the galley. TJ grinds. Wake. TJ on the helm. "Where'd the hat come from? Australia. I asked my dad what's the best hat to buy. Akubra." He talks about the hat, about sun protection.

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.

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Stronger wind. Nick coming back from the bow. Stacey grinding. Jena, below, talks about being back on the boat. Team still seems strong, and fighting, and she's happy to be back and excited. A completely different challenge; while she was away she did her 49er campaign. Happy to be surrounded by these guys, because they know a lot, even if I don't tell them. Charlie, in the cockpit, talks about going to the J0. Jena, below: Last time I was in Brazil was in Rio for the 2016 Olympic games. She talks about Brazilian people being helpful and nice. But hot, which she isn't used to. Was glad to see a different part of Brazil than Rio. Jena in the cockpit. Charlie on the helm. Tom grinding. Jena talks about seeing pollution in Rio. But Itajai was completely different. Very clean. People are gathering together to do something about their beaches. "Thank you, Brazil. You're like my second home. I hope to be back soon." Crew gathers the J1 on the foredeck after going to the J0. Charlie on the helm: "I think it's J1 on the other tack." Grinding.

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.

SiFi at dockout with kid. Parade. Stacey waves from on board as they pull out. Nick on the foredeck. Nick on the bow calling the start. Mark on the helm. Nick on the rail: So pumped to go home. Dongfeng visible behind them. Stacey: Now we're heading up to Newport, RI, home port of Vestas/11th Hour Racing... Hope we get an awesome welcome. Shots of other boats during the windward/leeward. Foredeck. Jumpers going over (two of them).

Intense no-dialog video of Kevin driving; everyone at the back of the boat focused on forward motion. Then all the crew take turns telling "two words to describe the final sprint." Daryl: The last 24 hours is going to be a battle of epic proportions with Brunel. Carolijn: Vamos Dongfeng! Horace: Something in Mandarin. Kevin: Win it. Pascal: Something in French? Marie: Something in French? Jeremie: Three points. Jack: Long. And wet. Spray on the bow.

Charles, at the nav station, talks in French. I hear him mention Vestas (dismasted) and MAPFRE (suspended and resumed). Then in English: Are two boats with us. High pressure; light spots. We are fighting for the first place with Brunel. But people are tired and the biggest mistake we could do would be to push too much and break something. Have to find a good balance. Come back, but sail safe. There is a good gap for the moment. If you take the ranking at the moment, we would be taking the lead for the Volvo. Want to put one boat between MAPFRE and us. Akzo will easily finish ahead of MAPFRE, but TTToP has a problem, and they might finish behind MAPFRE. Doesn't know what they're problem is, but they've slowed down a lot in the last two days, so probably a rig problem. Hope they can stay ahead of MAPFRE; that would be great for us. But we'll see. Horace talks in Mandarin, presumably about the same thing (I hear him mention TTToP).

Sunrise washing machine. Jack: Why does it seem like we're always slowly going backwards? Video then reverses, runs backwards. Reverse slowmo washing machine shots. Jack: Acutally no, let's get to Italjai; full speed. Let's go. Wake shot. Fast reaching.

Spreader cam view of foredeck, of deck, stern cam. Pascal at nav station: We are reaching with a sea state quite short and bad. Boat catches a lot of water. Very close to the front; visibility is nothing. Vestas is very close to us. Got word from them that they have been dismasted. It's really a pity for everybody but for them of course. A pity because our South Pacific during this race was really hard, stressful. It's pitiful because everybody should finish this leg.

Charles, on the helm, grins as Cape Horn recedes on their port quarter. Jeremie also grins. Marie, Jack, Kevin, Carolijn, Pascal, Horace: slomo portraits with Cape Horn. Below, Marie talks in French. Horace talks in Mandarin. Horace then talks in English: He was very excited this morning. He passed Cape Horn, unlike 3 years ago (when they were dismasted short of the Horn). Now it's time for a fight to the finish line.

In morning sunlight under scattered clouds, Dongfeng sails on port gybe toward Cape Horn. Shots of crew moving a sail on the foredeck, sailing closer to Cape Horn. Crew waves; holds a whiteboard reading "Cape Horn." Below, Charles talks in French about Cape Horn, about the family of John Fisher. Pascal talks in French about Cape Horn. Carolijn talks tearfully in Dutch about Cape Horn and John Fisher.

Drone shots of Dongfeng surfing fast, triple-heading, with dark clouds behind them. Stern cam as a big waves washes the helmsman off the whee. Can't see who it was; Daryl helps them back onto the wheel. Crew in the cockpit; washing machine. Night vision stern cam shot with snow/hail falling. Snow collected in the foot of the reefed main.

Crew below engaged in various tasks. Pascal gears up to go on deck. Carolijn goes on deck. Slomo of albatross and epic big waves astern. Washing machine. View from the cabin of the cockpit as they gybe from port to starboard. Carolijn: "Have to tweak her down a bit. Can I use this winch?" Below, Kevin works on a winch drum. Jack eats. Pascal pulls on boots.

Sailing fast in sunny conditions. Washing machine. Wake, with another boat directly astern. Carolijn (I think) points and waves to them. From the tracker I suspect it's Vestas. Marie and Jeremie, below, get geared up. Kevin eats. Horace looks at something on the computer. He explains: Looking for other competitors' boatspeed, and next 24 hours what we're going to do. Looks like in 4 - 6 hours we'll be gybing, and after that will be a busy night. Arriving at Cape Horn on the 29th. Bow cam looking aft as they surf. Stern cam as they stuff the bow. Washing machine. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Crewmember going forward grabs on to avoid being washed back by a wave. Pascal and Kevin at the nav area.

Sailing fast in sunny conditions. Washing machine. Wake, with another boat directly astern. Carolijn (I think) points and waves to them. From the tracker I suspect it's Vestas. Marie and Jeremie, below, get geared up. Kevin eats. Horace looks at something on the computer. He explains: Looking for other competitors' boatspeed, and next 24 hours what we're going to do. Looks like in 4 - 6 hours we'll be gybing, and after that will be a busy night. Arriving at Cape Horn on the 29th. Bow cam looking aft as they surf. Stern cam as they stuff the bow. Washing machine. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Crewmember going forward grabs on to avoid being washed back by a wave. Pascal and Kevin at the nav area.

Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel surfing and stuffing the bow. Below, Simeon recaps the last 48 hours; busy, gybing, changing sails. 2000 miles to Cape Horn. Point Nemo. Brad: Talks about Point Nemo and the space station. Simeon: What to ask the astronaughts on the space station? Emily wonders if it's easier to go to the toilet on the space station than it is on a Volvo boat. Luke: Jealous. Their stacking technique must be far superior to ours. Simeon: what they have for dinner. Nicolas: They go to the toilet like we do, they eat freeze-dried like we do, they don't sleep much, have a pretty cool view. So I pretty much see myself as an astronaut these days. Simeon: Must be a pretty impressive view. We have an impressive view of the ocean, and of the stars when the clouds let them through. But their view must be even better. Stern cam view of Martine on the pedestal as they surf.

$Charles, at nav station: In 30 hours we'll enter very strong conditions. Can't carry the fractional in those conditions, so will need to work out good sail combination. Goal is not to break the boat. A very tough leg. Strong wind, and full downwind with many gybes. I do have stress of course. Because you have the responsibility of the people and the boat. But you still want to fight for the first place. It's a balance between speed and safety. When we have 40 knots we know what sail to use. But then we have a gust to 55, and we have to react. But that's part of the Volvo Ocean Race. Horace talks below in Mandarin. Pascal, at nav station, talks in French while demonstrating something involving chart/routing software.$

Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel surfing and stuffing the bow. Below, Simeon recaps the last 48 hours; busy, gybing, changing sails. 2000 miles to Cape Horn. Point Nemo. Brad: Talks about Point Nemo and the space station. Simeon: What to ask the astronaughts on the space station? Emily wonders if it's easier to go to the toilet on the space station than it is on a Volvo boat. Luke: Jealous. Their stacking technique must be far superior to ours. Simeon: what they have for dinner. Nicolas: They go to the toilet like we do, they eat freeze-dried like we do, they don't sleep much, have a pretty cool view. So I pretty much see myself as an astronaut these days. Simeon: Must be a pretty impressive view. We have an impressive view of the ocean, and of the stars when the clouds let them through. But their view must be even better. Stern cam view of Martine on the pedestal as they surf.

$Charles, at nav station: In 30 hours we'll enter very strong conditions. Can't carry the fractional in those conditions, so will need to work out good sail combination. Goal is not to break the boat. A very tough leg. Strong wind, and full downwind with many gybes. I do have stress of course. Because you have the responsibility of the people and the boat. But you still want to fight for the first place. It's a balance between speed and safety. When we have 40 knots we know what sail to use. But then we have a gust to 55, and we have to react. But that's part of the Volvo Ocean Race. Horace talks below in Mandarin. Pascal, at nav station, talks in French while demonstrating something involving chart/routing software.$

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Night-vision shot in the cockpit looking aft. Bow-cam view at night; someone is hauling the tack of a new sail forward. Mast cam view of the foredeck crew getting buried in a wave. I see Kevin; not sure who the second person is. Cockpit crew grinding. Jack, below, talks about the cold conditions. The air is heavier, so the wind is "windier". And you're a long way from anywhere if things go wrong. Much more dangerous. Really for the driver to take as little away as possible. Doing the work on the foredeck as quickly as possible, but you want to be safe. Hurt my arm a couple of days ago. Had my arm on the forestay, and got lifted horizontal by a wave. Have to be very wary. More nighttime foredeck work. Favoriting for the epic foredeck shots.

Dongfeng sails fast on port gybe in the sun. Carolijn: Champagne sailing in the Southern Ocean. Will look different tomorrow. Charles describes a maneuver they're going to perform. Then we see them performing it (looks like a headsail configuratio change). Crashcam footage of... something. They continue working on things. Below, Charles talks in French. Horace gets his gear on, then talks to the camera in Mandarin (I assume). Horace goes on deck. Washing machine in the sunset. Albatross flying on their starboard quarter.

Sailing fast, triple-heading. Crew working in the cockpit. Marie, sitting behind the helmsman, talks in French. She mentions MAPFRE. Distant shot of MAFPRE with what looks like a South Polar Skua flying in front. Spreader cam view of crew work in the cockpit, on the middeck, on the bow. Sail change in the washing machine.

Daryl on the helm takes spray in the face as they sail fast on port gybe. Horace, sitting behind him, talks about the wind is coming. Going fast to get to the south. Fighting with everyone around them. Slomo. Kevin drinks water in slomo. Slomo washing machine. Carolijn spraying and wiping her face below. Getting undressed. Other boat alongside; presumably that's TTToP when Dongfeng passed them. Carolijn and Daryl eating below. Carolijn: Conditions right now actually very nice compared to what's to come. Noticing the water cooling down. Heading straight south at 23 knots. It's very noticeable that the air and water temperature are going down.

Dongfeng tacks from starboard to port as Sam shoots forward from the stern. Then we see them tacking back the other way with land to starboard. AkzoNobel crosses them. Sunset. Pascal and Horace grinding. Horace talks about getting his hair cut on February 2 in China, and put something to remind him: "V" for victory. Reminder to sail the boat faster. A comeptitor on the horizon ahead of them. Daryl, on the helm in the sunset, talks about the first part of the leg being difficult. Not as bad a sea state as they'd expected, but a lot of maneuvers and a lot of tacks. "And about that much sleep." (Makes a zero with his hand.) Now around East Cape, and the next landfall is Cape Horn. Chasing down MAPFRE. Kevin, on deck: Next 3 days should be quite simple, going straight south to the ice limit. Then a front and a completely different story, forecast for quite windy conditions. Now is a chance to sleep and get some rest. When you have a lot of wind and have to do a lot of gybes, can get tired very quickly. Below, someone eating (not sure who).

Dongfeng tacks from starboard to port as Sam shoots forward from the stern. Then we see them tacking back the other way with land to starboard. AkzoNobel crosses them. Sunset. Pascal and Horace grinding. Horace talks about getting his hair cut on February 2 in China, and put something to remind him: "V" for victory. Reminder to sail the boat faster. A comeptitor on the horizon ahead of them. Daryl, on the helm in the sunset, talks about the first part of the leg being difficult. Not as bad a sea state as they'd expected, but a lot of maneuvers and a lot of tacks. "And about that much sleep." (Makes a zero with his hand.) Now around East Cape, and the next landfall is Cape Horn. Chasing down MAPFRE. Kevin, on deck: Next 3 days should be quite simple, going straight south to the ice limit. Then a front and a completely different story, forecast for quite windy conditions. Now is a chance to sleep and get some rest. When you have a lot of wind and have to do a lot of gybes, can get tired very quickly. Below, someone eating (not sure who).

Sailing toward a headland with a detached island. Full main and J2. Pascal talks about something. Tacking with the sunset behind them. Rough conditions close to land. Birds (shearwaters, I think) flying between them and land. Reefing the main. Favoriting this one because I just really like how it puts me on the boat in these conditions.

Sailing toward a headland with a detached island. Full main and J2. Pascal talks about something. Tacking with the sunset behind them. Rough conditions close to land. Birds (shearwaters, I think) flying between them and land. Reefing the main. Favoriting this one because I just really like how it puts me on the boat in these conditions.

Dongfeng departs as "Uptown Funk" plays. Jérémie waves to the crowd on the dock. Jack talks about it being good to get away. Thinking too much in preparation; butterflies. But after the start they'll just sail. Marie talks about being ready; "let's go." Carolijn talks about the very nice goodbye before heading off into the Southern Ocean. Toughest leg, but the best leg in the whole race. Looking forward to digging south and doing some fast sailing. Also, arriving in Brazil is special. Shot of the start, Charles: "Good start." Close views of other boats alongside. Pascal calls wind. Carolijn asks if it's a bearaway or a gybe set. Shots of crosses as they sail downwind, then tacking upwind. Their jumper does a faceplant; they laugh. Ducking MAPFRE, then trailing MAPFRE on the long starboard tack. Lowering the J1 on the foredeck. Brunel close behind them; TTToP pounding behind them.

Dongfeng departs as "Uptown Funk" plays. Jérémie waves to the crowd on the dock. Jack talks about it being good to get away. Thinking too much in preparation; butterflies. But after the start they'll just sail. Marie talks about being ready; "let's go." Carolijn talks about the very nice goodbye before heading off into the Southern Ocean. Toughest leg, but the best leg in the whole race. Looking forward to digging south and doing some fast sailing. Also, arriving in Brazil is special. Shot of the start, Charles: "Good start." Close views of other boats alongside. Pascal calls wind. Carolijn asks if it's a bearaway or a gybe set. Shots of crosses as they sail downwind, then tacking upwind. Their jumper does a faceplant; they laugh. Ducking MAPFRE, then trailing MAPFRE on the long starboard tack. Lowering the J1 on the foredeck. Brunel close behind them; TTToP pounding behind them.

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."

Drone shots of Dongfeng sailing toward and then past the Three Kings (I think?). A power boat comes out to see them.

Charles, at the nav station, talks about his emails with Xabi on MAPFRE. Told him it was his birthday, and asked for a gift: Let me pass you please. . Xabi replied that he'd already given them 5 miles in the last sched, and that was enough. Happy birthday. He emailed him back that Brunel was more generous.

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.

Sailing in better wind on port. Below, Charles reads the latest sched over the PA. Scallywag to the west in the best wind, going 3 to 4 knots faster than us. Nothing they can do about that. Brunel made a mistake by going too far east. Good chance to pass them. And just ahead of us is MAPFRE. Chance to finish fourth. He talks about getting hurt by big clouds. On deck they stack forward. Kevin on the bow prepares to hoist the MH0 (I think). Pascal: For MAPFRE, amigos! He talks to them in Spanish. Fighting them to the finish line. Jeremie: Less than 3 days to go. Brunel in stealth mode and went west. Not good for them at the moment. So we're overtaking them. Trying to keep a good wind, and good angle, on MAPFRE. Let's see what happens.

Awesome high drone shot showing Dongfeng sailing past an atoll. Pascal at the nav station. He explains that they are near New Caledonia, passing a small atoll. It's name is "Surprise". Drone shot traveling over the reef, then returning to Dongfeng. Daryl talks about passing the atoll, part of New Caledonia. They then pass another atoll, this time on its leeward side. Time-lapse shot of Kevin on the helm as evening falls. Favoriting this one for those cool reef shots from the drone.

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.

Drone shot overtaking Dongfeng, sailing pretty fast, triple-heading with the MH0 on starboard. More drone shots. MAPFRE visible several miles away on their starboard quarter.

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.)

Carolijn explains to Pascal about "contraband": Dutch licorice. She jokes about his glasses being sexy. Carolijn: "You cannot go around the world without some Dutch licorice." Martin asks: "Can I try?" Carolijn offers him some. Someone: "Big header." Carolijn ditches the treats to grind. Martin offers some contraband to Kevin, on the helm.

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."

Carolijn, below, makes and eats a meal. "I'm eating the big boy cereal, specially made by Neal. Lots of granola and nuts and dried fruit." Talks about bad sea state 16/18 hours ago. MAPFRE right next to them. Fun racing. Jérémie eats. "Chinese breakfast... Quick to cook." Talks about being close to MAPFRE, concentrating while driving on being fast. A very close battle. Interesting, but a bit exhausting at times." Charles, at the nav station, talks about MAPFRE. Boats staying together to cross the doldrums. "Lots of boats are following us. Every time we change a bit our heading they change. But today we don't know where to go because we have no forecast... We are using the forecast from the start... Now we have the forecast, and can see we are in a good position."

Charles driving fast on port gybe; firehose in his face. Washing machine with what loooks like J2 and a reefed main. Kevin, below, talks about going through a front. Is why they've been going northeast. To catch this pressure. If you're not overpowered you need to put up more sail. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.

In light winds they sail downwind. Charles calls below to rouse the off watch. Kevin gets dressed, goes on deck. Crew grinding in the cockpit as they peel to the MH0. Marie grinds, wearing a foulie top that says "Liu". Oops. Kevin on the bow lowering the old sail. A competitor (MAPFRE?) is visible ahead of them. Kevin eats. GoPro shot of him removing and clipping into a halyard, then he goes to the clew of the MH0. He attaches a new sheet, checks the leech line, and gives a thumbs up to Marie, who secures his line so he can pull himself back to the deck. "Merci." Below he takes off his foulies and gets back in his bunk.

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.

Sailing upwind on port in strong wind. Shots of other boats. Crew working the cockpit in spray. Bowcam shot of sail cahngin gon the foredeck in heavy spray. Bare-headed change from J1 to J2. Crew on the foredeck in night-vision shot gathering in the J1 as it comes down.

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."

Sunrise shot of the stern. Carolijn on the stern. Franck, on the stern, explains where the competitors are. Having to deal with the wind shadow of Taiwan. And will have to deal with the finish into Hong Kong. Kevin on the helm with Horace trimming and Carolijn on the pedestal. She's looking forward to arriving in Hong Kong and seeing her son Kyle. And seeing the rest of the Dongfeng family again. She says a phrase in Cantonese, with a small correction from Horace. Horace talks about how his sailing dreams started in Hong Kong. Met the person who gave him the chance to learn professional sailing, and gave him a chance to join the biggest race in the world. And he thinks his famiily will be there. Will fight until the end. Daryl says he's looking forward to seeing his family in Hong Kong. Jack is looking forward to seeing the team, and his girlfriend. It's a cool place he hasn't been to.

Shots of them sailing fast on starboard gybe. Winch, washing machine. Charles smiling on the helm. Carolijn trimming. Below, Frank says, "The plan is a long, downwind, starboard gybe with some wind variation." Sometimes an opportunity to gybe to position the boat for the next shift. When they pass Taiwan there will be a big wind shadow; have to anticipate that. Not easy to attack the boats in front. They have better wind. Shots of a gybe from starboard to port, then another gybe from port to starboard. Crew working in the cockpit.

Awesome sunset drone shot with Dongfeng launching off a wave with the front half of the hull out of the water. More drone shots.

Horace, below with Carolijn, talks about teaching her Cantonese. They take turns speaking Cantonese. It's kind of adorable.

Horace, standing on the stern as they sail fast on starboard, talks in Mandarin (I assume). He gives a thumbs up. Shot of him steering, then trimming.

Daryl on the helm in 20 knots of wind. Carolijn and Horace grinding. Charles clinging to the stern with rain beyond him. Washing machine. Horace makes the "No. 1" sign. Wake. Slomos: horace taking spray on the pedestal. Kevin on the bow moving a furled sail. Stacking. grinding.

Franck, at the nav station, looks at routing software and talks in French; I caught "Vestas." He talks about it over his shoulder to Jack (?) in the bunk behind him. Then he talks to Charles. On deck, Charles talks about how they have just taken the lead, or are in the same position as Scallywag, "but we prefer our position for the future. We should be the boat with the most wind for the next few hours." Hopes to have left the doldrums and to be the first to catch the tradewinds. A booby flies over the masthead.

Rain pounds down with light winds. Carolijn in the rain. Franck, and everyone else, looks off to port. Franck talks in French. Camera pans forward to show a rainstorm; ahead of it is a competitor several miles away (probably AkzoNobel, but possibly Vestas). They tack the MH0. More rain. Shifting the stack in the rain. Sailing on port tack with the MH0 after the rain has stopped. Horace, on the bow with no wind, gives a recap. [Interesting that no headsail is visible forward of him. J1 is on deck, and the sail on the bowsprit appears to be furled. Are they bare-headed? using the J2 or J3 as a windseeker? Oh; I bet that's the MH0 on the bowsprit, and it's partially furled to make it a little windseeker, with the unfurled part invisible above him, out of the frame.] At one point a competitor is visible, out of focus, behind him. Again, probably AkzoNobel. Justine, on the bow, recaps the strategic situation. Closer to AkzoNobel, but Vestas, sadly, is a little further ahead. Shot of AkzoNobel. Sailing at 8 knots with dolphins under the bow. Then, flopping again. Franck, in the companionway, talks about strategy in the doldrums; picking the right side of the cloud, getting the wind. Now wind is down, but he's hoping to get into the tradewinds tomorrow morning. Carolijn steering at sunset. Jack sleeping in the bow. Dusk. Horace asks about Vestas' wind in the latest sched, the other competitors; Franck explains.

Opens with a view of the mast instruments: Boatspeed 12.8 knots, woo! Looks like this is early evening. Drone shot from slightly earlier with sunset. Horace gives Carolijn Chinese lessons in the cockpit; says he's going to teach her some Cantonese words for Hong Kong. Carolijn: "I like learning languages. I already speak 6 languages, and I'm trying to learn a 7th language, Chinese Mandarin." She talks about cultural differences. Hates being somewhere and not being able to communicate. "There's always something to learn." Sunset clouds.

Night, in the rain. Lightning flashes. Heh. Brian Carlin beat Martin by less than 8 minutes in getting his video up from TTToP. The crew works in flashes of lightning. Kevin, shouting: "Ease up the luff, Jack!" I kind of love this one, and love the contrast it makes with Brian Carlin's on TTToP, in terms of each OBR's different filmmaking style. Ima favorite both of them, though I'm not sure I would have favorited either by itself. My tags, my rules. :-)

Frank on the helm at sunrise. Justine trims. Doldrums. Franck, on the bow, talks about how the doldrums is a very large area compared to the Atlantic, and the course is set requiring them to go through it. Now there's a weird wind from the southwest, which is impossible according to the model. Just have to push the boat and use the wind you have and be very concentrated on tuning. Remember is it's a game, and the finish line is very far away. We were in front of the fleet a long time, but the important part of the race is now. And the first boat to catch the wind, and then 1,000 miles to race. The goal is to stay with the fleet, not take too much risk, and we have the good speed to be in the front when the wind is stable. Don't be stressed. Shot of AkzoNobel ahead of them, then next to them. A whale surfaces near them. Has a small dorsal - sei whale? Horace talks on the bow about the heat, and having patience when trimming. Talks about having passed AkzoNobel. "Next target: Vestas. Let's go. There. Not too far." We see Vestas ahead and to port. They sail faster in a bit of a puff. Concentrating. Looks like all hands on deck. Then: drifting again. From below, Horace calls out the latest sched. Jack, the sunset behind him: "Day of snakes and ladders... This afternoon was quite nice. Had a big cloud come. Had more than 10 knots of wind for the first time in 3 days, which was a real pleasure. Made a bit forward, but it wasn't very long. So there's still a lot of work to do." Amazing low-altitude drone shot, overtaking them from astern with the sunset and AkzoNobel (left) and MAPFRE (right) to port of them. Then another drone shot from the opposite angle showing Vestas closer to them, to starboard. Favorting this one, too, mostly (again) for the drone work. Nice job by Martin.

Kevin, on the helm, whistles some music. Martin guesses the name; Kevin points his thumb at him. "He got it." Carolijn asks what it is; I think Kevin says Claire de Lune? But he translates into English at Carolijn's request as "the sound of the moon" rather than "the light of the moon"? I dunno. Guess it kind of sounds like Debussey. Maybe it's something else. Carolijn's turn. She laughs at her inept whistling. She asks Jérémie is he's a good whistler. Jérémie: No. Kevin whistles again: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera) from Carmen. These European folk are so damn cultured! (I did recognize this one, though, despite being an ugly American.) Ima favorite this one, just because it's so cool how they're hanging out at the front of the fleet, just chillin'. Reminds me of that scene in The Natural when the team's firing on all cylinders and Pop and Red are sitting in the dugout playing basically the same game.

Martin manufactures a story by asking all the crew what they'd like to be if they couldn't be a sailor. Carolijn: A pilot. Horace: A coach, a sailing coach, teaching young Chinese sailors, sharing his experience. Carolijn: A pilot, not just flying people around, but something in the military or research. The navigational side is not dissimilar to what they do on the water, and she finds it interesting. Jack: Mountain climber. But hard to make a career out of. Growing up liked engineering. Kevin: A rugby player. But getting too old for that now. "A clever guy." Daryl: "I wanted to be an aviation engineer, but sailing got in the way of that. Probably better off for it." Justine: Teacher.

Drone shot of Dongfeng sailing on starboard, double-heading with the J0 (I think?) and J3. As the drone circles ahead of them from port to starboard we see an island - Ghupuna, off the east end of Makira, also called San Cristobal, in the Solomons - behind them on the port quarter. Drone circles behind them and we see a dark raincloud ahead. Another shot with Makira behind them. More nice drone shots.

Night shots: looking up from the stern at the full moon behind clouds. Wake. Jérémie's hands on the wheel; him steering. Charles, standing forward of the wheel, talks in French. Looking up the mast at stars. Then, in the daytime, we see rain falling to weather. Franck and Jérémie look that way. Horace looks through binoculars. To weather we see three competitors. From left to right: AkzoNobel, MAPFRE, and Vestas. Justine explains: They were leading, hit a squall, the boats to weather stayed in more pressure and now they're all in a line again. "It's a bit disappointing but it happens sometimes." Jérémie jokes about how he was on watch and lost 10 miles. Daryl jokes with him; Charles steers. Crew works in the cockpit (sail change?). Charles: Not sure they're already in the doldrums. But for sure is a new start. And after leading the race most of the time from the start of the leg, all the boats are in the same line now: Akzo, MAPFRE. Now they'll have two or three days in light winds, and maybe will determine the race who escapes from it first and gets the new wind. Shot of AkzoNobel close to leeward. Horace: "Not easy, not what we want, but this is the Volvo Ocean Race. No one knows what will happen at the end." Talks about how it's too hot, and he wants to take off his "everything."

Justine trims. "Main on." Jérémie grinds. We see a series of closeups: The chain drive in the pedestal turning. The drive linkages and drive shafts. The winch drum. The drum turning. The sheet coils on the drum. The mainsheet block. The mainsail, looking up. Time-lapse view of the instruments on the mast. Fom top to bottom: Boatspeed, True Wind Direction, Relative Wind Angle, True Wind Speed, Heading (degrees True). Speed gradually builds during the time lapse from 16.3 to 18.9. Shot shifts to slomo as spray comes over the bow. Shot of the keel bulb under water to weather. Kevin working the bow in spray. Crew in the cockpit: Carolijn on the helm, Horace trimming, Daryl on the pedestal, Franck standing to leeward. A small ship is several miles away to leeward, approaching on a collision course. Kevin looks at them through binoculars. Charles talks to them in French on a handheld VHF. Kevin explains that Charles talked to them, and they said they were happy to bear away a bit so as not to cross in front of them. Kevin: "Charles told them that was very nice, but that if they can also grab AkzoNobel to leeward of us that's perfect as well." Martin asks if they could be pirates. Carolijn laughs: "Very friendly pirates." Kevin explains they are laying cable or a military vessel or something like that. Carolijn makes a lanyard-pulling motion (like "honk your horn!"), then waves to the ship, which is approaching them a half mile away on their leeward quarter. She gives a thumbs up. Carolijn: "Looks like something military. They are French-speaking, so I'm guessing something to do with New Caledonia." Slomo shots: Carolijn and Justine grinding on the aft pedestal, someone trimming, Franck on the helm, spray, Carolijn taking coils off a winch, Horace giving a thumbs-up from the clew of the J3, Carolijn spraying her face from a water bottle.

Below, Jack repairs a winch drum. Talks about how it has been dry and relatively flat on deck. Quite a nice change. On deck he reassembles the drum, tests it from the pedestal. Closeup of the instruments on the mast. Carolijn: Still in the lead, AkzoNobel on their heels. They've been following their line. Now Dongfeng is running out of the breeze first, so there's some compression happening. But now the pressure is building. MAPFRE and Vestas 20 miles to their east. Still a very long leg to go. Doldrums in about 2 days. Interesting and tough. Then the NE trades. By the wheel, Kevin taps on the intercom. "Franky? Did you get the position report?" Franck's voice comes from the speakers: Dongfeng first. AkzoNobel second, 2.6 miles. Third is MAPFRE, 7 miles behind. Jérémie, on the grinder, says something in French. Kevin: Still ahead, which is nice. Now need to go fast on starboard. Low-altitude drone shot from close ahead and to starboard as Dongfeng triple-heads with the sun behind them. Cool drone tracking shot across their bow. Drone shot from close astern and to weather.

Spray on deck. Franck on the helm. Then at the nav station, he explains that the sched was good for them. Now they have a big gap (to second and third). Following their plan. On deck, Jack on the helm. Below, Horace talks about trying to fight for the lead on the second day out of Melbourne. Close to shore, lots of maneuvers. Shots of stacking the sails aft for a gybe. Stacking below. Spray. Sunset.

Slomo spray, washing machine. Clear sky with low sun behind them. Shot of MAPFRE crossing ahead of them under cloudy skies. Dongfeng gybes from port to starboard. Justine grimaces as she grinds on the pedestal. Shots of MAPFRE ahead of them on port gybe; Vestas farther ahead of them on (I think) starboard gybe. Sunny washing machine shot of cockpit. Closeup of compass. Sunset spray. Charles at nav station, talks about the last 26 hours. "A bit fight against all the opponents. Speed, clouds, very interesting, very complicated. Lots of shifts. I think we are all exhausted. Now there is a big split." Three boats going offshore, rest going inshore. Sunset wake shot.

Dongfeng sailing upwind on port tack with the J1 inside Port Phillip. Looks like this is the final tack toward the exit from Port Phillip, so the boats ahead of them are (right to left, that is, near to far) Brunel, MAPFRE, and Vestas. Crew shifts the stack to leeward, meaning they're coming up on their tack to starboard. Outrigger is rigged forward, so presumably it will be a reach after they tack. Next they're on starboard reaching. Spray. Someone's hat blows off. Slomo spray. Brunel close ahead to leeward. Then they appear to be abeam. Slomo with sunset.

$Departure parade past sparse Melbourne crowd. They pull out to "Uptown Funk." Horace waves a Chinese flag. He talks about starting the leg on which his is going home. Says something in Chinese and makes a "Number One" gesture. Jack talks about how quickly the stopover went; only had a week in Melbourne. They talk with the jumper on the stern. Has an Aussie accent? Talks about meeting the team in person. A bit bigger than the 470 he's used to. Shot of them sailing upwind. Frank, ahead of Charles on the wheel, checks a tablet and talks to Charles in French. Footage of the start from onboard. Frank and Charles talking. Shot of them doing their 270 penalty turn (for a port-starboard infraction of AkzoNobel, per Dongfeng's website). Horace on the rail talks about the penalty. Tacking through the fleet.$

Pascal reads the latest sched over the PA system. He talks with Martin in French. He talks with Charles. Charles: "Not so bad news. Vestas has not been so fast in reaching. We are leading again with 7 miles. In a good position... We can hope to keep this distance or increase it as of the entrance to Melbourne Bay." Talks about what happened yesterday, thinking it was their last gybe and then having the keel problem. "We don't know if we will be able to cant the keel to max cant on port."

We see the cabin. Kevin is looking down in the hull on the port side of the galley; Fabien and Pascal watch him. Kevin says something in French. Shots of 6 inches of water sloshing around on the port side of the cabin, just in front of the hatch. Fabien explains something to Martin in French; I'm picking up "boat" and "keel". Kevin: "We have a problem with the keel. I don't know exactly why. At this time we want to do a fitting, to change the sail. And Pascal [something] to tell that we had plenty of water and oil in the boat... I hope it is not a problem with the keel ram attached to the boat." Shot of them pumping water out; shot of the port keel ram with water flooding in around its forward end. Jack explains that the port keel ram, which pushes the keel from side to side, where it attaches to the boat the hull fitting has cracked. So a lot of water came into the boat, and they've lost the oil from the ram system. Have turned off the port ram and put oil back into the starboard ram. On deck, Black explains. Below, Kevin operates a hand-held drill pump (adding oil to starboard ram?). He explains that the system is designed to work with only one ram. Below, Charles and Kevin talk in French, and use the starboard ram to operate the keel. Charles, at nav station, explains that they've fixed it, but have lost 10-15 miles and are now close to Vestas and Brunel. He has looked at the routing, and it is helping the fleet catch up. He's hoping they don't lose second place. "We deserve second place."

Charles, at the nav station, looking bummed as he looks at routing software. He says it isn't good news; Vestas has passed them and they have not that much wind. (Though looking at the tracker now, I'm not sure Vestas is actually going to get ahead of them.) But they have to gybe, while Dongfeng can go straight to the mark. So he thinks Dongfeng can stay ahead. Not fair, because they are so far apart they have to do different routings, and the routing was poor for them and better for Vestas. Also the keel problem has cost them some key miles; he hopes that isn't the difference between second and third place.

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.

Jack, in the cockpit, talks about having fought with MAPFRE since day one. "This morning they managed to get ahead a bit, which is very disappointing. But we still can see them, we've still got about 4 days to the finish, so the fight's not over. And I think the arrival into Australia will be quite hard, so nothing will be over until we properly cross the finish line." Stu: Th enext few days are going to present some interesting opportunities" moderate downwind sailing at the moment, but some strong downwind sailing over 30 knots, couple of gybes... The difference between MAPFRE and ourselves so far have been little small mistakes by either team." Looking for an opportunity to get back into it. Confident in the boat and the team."If they make any mistake we'll be right there to pounce." Sunset shots of them sailing on starboard gybe. Pascal and Kevin, below, looking grim. Kevin talks in French.

Cabin shot of the stern with Dongfeng sailing fast under gray skies. Slomo waves, spray, washing machine. Of the three on the stern, in closeup it looks like Marie grinding. She makes a shaka sign. On the helm, Fabien eats something orange. On the mainsheet, Stu looks resolute; starts to eat something. Below, Charles takls about the remainder of the leg. Five days to go, 2,000 miles. Two big decisions: first one tonight, second one in two days, when they decide to go north to go to Melbourne. That will be the key probably. For the moment, strongest point of Dongfeng, reaching. MAPFRE was quite fast downwind. "I would say that 80-90% of the race now is downwind. Unfortunately it's not the big reaching. I think everyone is happy to be ahead of MAPFRE, but everybody knows that they are not far... We will do it but for sure it will be a great fight.... As you know it is a very important leg... To be first is good but it's always a lot of pressure." Shot of writing on a Dongfeng bumper sticker on the cabin bulkhead: "Never give up. - Wolf" On the stern, Marie throws bits of food for the person trimming the main (Stu?) to catch in his mouth. He succeeds; they high-five.

Dongfeng, on starboard, crosses behind MAPFRE on port. Possibly the same cross seen in the previous MAPFRE video? Shot of spray on the bow, in sun, as Dongfeng triple-heads on port gybe. Drone shot of Dongfeng sailing on port gybe witih MAPFRE crossing on starboard about a mile behind them. Kevin steering. Someone grinding. Drone shots of Dongfeng sailing fast. Kevin talks about gybing with MAPFRE along the ice limit. "We had the last good move... It's nice to see that after one week of race we are still seeing each other."

Slomo shot of waves through the wheel. Interesting slowed-down audio. An albatross flies by. Slomo grinding. Slomo faces; Carolijn on the helm. Slomo trimming. Below, Carolijn takes off her gear. She talks to Martin; behind Fabien is making food in the galley. Carolijn: "Yes, it's painful. Not necessarily painful, it's just tough. It's very tiring. You get to a certain stage where you're so tired that you start tripping over your own feet. If you don't watch out it can be quite dangerous." Talks about even 20 minutes lying down in your bunk, even if you don't sleep, helps you get the energy to make the next gybe. "I've lost count. I don't even know if we're halfway yet. Just in the last 3 hours of my off watch we've done 6 gybes?... Entertaining stuff." Fabien eats with a bit of a 1,000-yard stare. (Looking at the tracker through this section it's been brutal; Dongfeng and MAPFRE are at the front of the fleet within AIS range of each other having a running gybing battle to see who can stay closer to the exclusion zone.) Pascal, below, drops his head and rubs it. Looks tired. We pull back and see he's watching Charles at the nav station from his bunk. Charles talks to Martin: "It's very simple. During 30 hours we're having to gybe every hour so it's a nightmare. Not very funny but we have no choice. We have the ice limit for a good reason... You have to stack every time, 600 kilos each time... You don't manage to sleep... That's life at the extreme for sure. On the positive side, we are ahead with MAPFRE and fighting for the first place, so it's good."

Low-elevation wake shot of Dongfeng's stern, surfing fast. Jack on the helm surfing on port gybe in strong winds with a full main. Caroline, standing between the wheels, explains the situation: Typical of Southern Ocean, where you have a lot of clouds: white, gray, and black. Ahead of them now is a very dark gray cloud, and Pascal from the nav station has confirmed it from radar. So they need to keep an eye on it, in case it comes toward them or they overtake it. So Kevin is now preparing for a reef. Squalls like that can have 10-20 knots more wind. 20-odd knots now, so that would push them into 40s. Want to reef BEFORE the 40 knots, not in it. "It's a fun little game; it keeps us busy." Shots of them sailing into darker skies, triple-heading with a full main. Kevin grinding the forward pedestal.

Hgh speed wake shot. Stern cam of surfing in very high winds. Pascal at the nav station. Fabien, below, talks about how they're approaching the ice limit. Will need to do some gybes to stay in the pressure. Bow cam of Dongfeng surfing. Mast cam of cockpit during gybe. Stern cam of the end of the gybe. Looked good. Marie, below, talks about how on deck it's a washing machine. Have to grab the pedestal to stay onboard. Life jacket, clipped in. "I hope the wind will decrease a bit." "We are still ahead... But the three last days are very difficult for me." Sunset washing machine shot of stern. Closeups of pit from inside cabin. Winches, spray. Water cascading into the cockpit.

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.

Below, closeup of a toolbag. Jack repairs something. He explains that in the current light conditions they've been doing repairs. Went up the rig, did some repair work on the water system. "Making the boat as sorted and safe as possible, then we hang on for the next 24 hours I think." Shot on deck of Kevin preparing to go aloft, then him up the mast checking the rigging. Shot of gear below. Carolijn and Kevn talking. Carolijn puts on a helmet. Kevin demonstrates the faceplate on the helmet to Martin. Kevin: "It's more for comfort than safety. So you can hide behind the glass." Carolijn and Kevin discuss his modifications to the helmet. Marie prepares food in the galley. Marie: "I think it's good to eat before the storm. I have a good rest and now I will have a good dinner, beef and potato. And let's go." Marie eating.

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.

Dongfeng slats in light winds. Carolijn calls as someone else pulls in a line: "3, 2, 1, okay; hold furl." Charles, sitting at a winch, says something about using the "masthead upwind" (MH0?). The crew trims the MH0 in light winds. Charles, holding the main steady by hanging onto a thin cable under the boom, talks about having to cross a ridge, a position in high pressure between two winds. Trying to catch the low pressure in the south. Always difficult. "The wind is very shifty, very light, but we are lucky because the system is moving in the right direction." Drone shot of Dongfeng sailing upwind on starboard under the MH0 with another boat (I think Brunel around 2017.12.11 09:55:35 UTC) behind and to weather of them. As the drone circles htem another boat is barely visible further away behind and to leeward of them; I think that's Scallywag. As the shot continues we see Jack going up the mast. He reaches the masthead and the camera circles him, showing the two boats shown before and then showing another boat ahead of them (MAPFRE, then the lead boat). On deck, Jack explains that in the big winds the day before part of the wind sensor unit at the masthead blew off, so he was up there replacing it. "There's not much wind but we're right into the swell. On deck it feels really flat but when you get up there it's exaggerated by a lot. Feels like you're gonna get thrown off every three seconds. Bear-hugging it the whole time. It's really not fun. Nearly got it done."

Kevin (yay!) on the deckhouse gathers the main as they reef it. Below, Marie talks to Kevin while Jack puts on his foulie top. Kevin, to Martin: "Good weather to be back. Good weather to start the new leg." Talks about strategy. "We are the first to tack to be back inshore... Second place, I think. Just in front of MAPFRE and just behind Brunel." He talks about how they have 35 knots of wind, which you can hear howling in the rigging. Says it should decrease all night, and a reach tomorrow morning. He goes on deck. Marie, below, talks about the conditions. Sunny, should have a good sunset with the Cape of Good Hope, a bit bumpy. "I had last night a filet of beef with french fries. It was awesome." Talks about the good fresh food they still have. PBJ. Sunset behind them. See them coming in toward shore beating on starboard tack, shifting the stack to leeward in preparation for tacking. MAPFRE ducks them on port SUPER close; whoa! Slomo of the duck. Below, Fabien changes out of his foulies, talks wiht Martin about how he's completely wet. Up to 40 knots at times, he says.

On-board footage of the start of Leg 3 from onboard Dongfeng. Epic footage of close-quarters racing with the other boats in a building wind.

Vestas sails in 20 knots of wind on starboard tack. Spray. Crew on the foredeck; only one I can identify is Tony. Looks like they're getting ready for a headsail change; J1 is up, so maybe they're going to the J0 or FR0? Or maybe going down to the J2? Wind appeared to be building for them over the morning of 2017-11-24, so maybe they're switching down? SiFi at the nav station talks about how they have maybe 8 hours to go, and expect the wind to build from the 22 knots they have now up to 30 knots due to the "Cape Doctor". SiFi: "It's gonna be tough on the boat, tough on the people. But it's the last day, so we can push." SiFi makes a model with a small box to illustrate the effect of Table Mountain on the wind. Shot of hoisting the new sail (J2?), then lowering the J1 with the J2 not yet unfurled. So maybe they switch down to J3-only in the foretriangle during the sail change, rather than unfurling the J2 outside the J1, then lowering the J1?

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."

In the cockpit, Tony trims the main and talks about how the winds are lightening, that they got up to 32 knots of boatspeed in the strongest winds. Now down to 20s, and 18 at the moment. Now the wind is expected to lighten further and lift them, then they'll gybe, and with luck get to Cape Town Friday night or Saturday morning. Shifting the stack forward. Washing machine.

View forward from stern as Vestas surfs in southern ocean conditions on port gybe. Washing machine. Below, at nav station, SiFi talks about the competition and strategy. Wind is lifting, and they're going to point further north. Talks about Dongfeng and MAPFRE. High pressure looks a little better (i.e., more wind). Re: MAPFRE and Dongfeng: "Not really a surpirse to see the two most experienced boats going well in these conditions. We're learning all the time, we're pushing hard. We'll keep pushing until the weather eases off, and hopefully that way have a go at them in the last few days." Loud, scary sound mix as we see mast cam shots of the cockpit, bow cam looking aft, fisheye mast cam looking down.

Below, Stacey puts on multiple layers of cold-weather foulies. She talks about how it's a long process getting dressed. Stacey: "Like Charlie said it's Monday; we've got one week of work and then we're on vacation." Shots of the crew in the cockpit as Vestas sails fast on port gybe. Wake. Washing machine. Tony on the helm. Tony goes below, takes off his cowl. "Wow. Another wet one." Tony talks about their performance being good, good scheds, 24-hour longest run possibility. Says there's a sched coming in now. Tony takes off his foulies and layers. Jena talks about how it's cold, but fast, and that a sched is coming in. "Hopefully still fast." Charlie, in his bunk, looks at SiFi at the nav station. SiFi: "Yeah; we're longest run again." Later he talks to Martin: "We're going well in this windy stuff which is nice. It's a race to the east, to stay in front of the front." Talks about it being tricky, needing to try to avoid the high pressure above and behind. "A couple of days of fast sailing, then it's going to get tricky."

On-board footage as Vestas gybes from starboard to port after sunset. Looks like the gybe that happened around 2017.11.18 21:13:48 UTC. SiFi talks about how they're now heading back east, and trying to pick up a cold front. Timing of the gybe is quite critical. Saw Brunel on the AIS, which encouraged them to gybe when they did. Nick with a headlamp checks the outrigger. Below, closeup shot of the AIS showing them after their gybe.

Nick, in mirror-shades, talks about looking at the rig to make sure it looks good. Gopro footage of him going aloft and inspecting the rig. Back on deck he debriefs: everything looks good. Less salty.

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."

At the nav station with Charlie, SiFi talks about the 1300 sched, and where the other boats are. Akzo moved well on the inside (to the east), even though they appeared to be in an area of less wind. Now Vestas is on the outside (west), and hopefully will be able to gain ground.

Drone shot of Vestas doing an inside gybe of the MH0 from starboard to port. Drone shots of Vestas and Brunel, including a shot of Vestas crossing ahead of Brunel on port gybe, with Brunel on starboard gybe, triple-heading, in the foreground of the shot. That is, it's another shot (like Konrad's of TTToP from Scallywag) in which the OBR flew the drone beyond their competitor, then got a shot of both the competitor and their own boat with the competitor in the foreground. That is some kick-ass drone work.

Jena, below, gets dressed and explains that they are going to gybe. Brunel has gybed, and now they will. On deck, we see the gybe from the cockpit looking forward. Per the tracker, the gybe happened around 0853 UTC on 2017-11-17. On the helm, Charlie explains the strategy involved: "If we weren't here I doubt they would have gybed." Stacking on deck. Tom stacks below.

SiFi, in the cockpit, jokes with Nick, in the cabin, about esspresso. Nick, in the galley, fiddles with some small black objects: "This was a present from a friend of the team, Juan K., who gave it to Tony before we left in Alicante. We've gone through several versions of an esspresso maker so far on board..." He packs the coffee grounds into the espresso maker and squeezes out the espresso. In the cockpit, SiFi sips it. SiFi: "That is a good coffee."

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.

Time lapse, from the port stern, showing several hours (?) of Vestas sailing on port as dusk settles.

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.

Slomo shot of relatively small-looking dolphins jumping alongside.

Pretty morning drone shots circling Vestas.

Tony plays King Neptune. Jena gets her hair spray-painted pink; Martin gets a reverse mohawk.

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.

We see Charlie on the weather rail grinding a winch, shirtless. Brunel behind them and to leeward. Charlie looks through binoculars at Brunel. Charlie: "They have a staysail." Nick, looking forward: "J0 or J1 on Dongers... J0 on MAPFRE." Below, SiFi talks about wind, competition at the nav station.

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.

On the foredeck, Nick and Tom wrestle a new sail into place as they do a sail change (maybe peeling MH0 to FR0?). Charlie at the wheel; grinding in the cockpit. Below at the nav station, SiFi explains the current strategy. Out of the lighter winds, into stronger reaching conditions, fairly far west for how south they are. Maybe the doldrums won't be too bad. Talks about the competition.

Shot of Stacey's hat drying on a winch in the cockpit. Stacy talks in the cockpit about how it was wet for the first few days, and now they're able to dry stuff out. Shot below of a damaged sail being dried out, and an inflated PFD. Nick, shirtless in the bow, talks about the PFD: "We were doing a peel the other day, and Tom decided he didn't want to be part of the bow team any more, so he automatically inflated, and became part of the back of the boat... So basically we hang this up to remind Tom of his weak moment. Tom: "I believe I completed the peel." Shots of Tom, Stacey, and Nick patching the sail in the bow. Stacey, back in the cockpit, talks about getting better rest and food now that conditions have improved. POV shot of Martin preparing food in the galley. Shot of someone sleeping below with sea boots hanging next to them. Tom, at the wheel, talks about airing his boots out, and giving his feet "some aeration". Shot of Tom's bare feet. Shot of Tom adjusting keel (for less heel?); you can hear the engine running to power the hydraulics. Stacey moves some socks while joking about "maybe you and he can have a competition." Martin: "Are those yours, Stacey?" Stacey: "No; I think they might be Tony's. I'm not breathing, though." Shot of Tony (I think) below, watching a video on a tablet on the bottom of the bunk above him. In the cockpit, SiFi explains to Nick how some bit of dental-repair filling has come out of his mouth where a wisdom tooth was recently extracted and the hole filled in. He shows Martin the bit of stuff from his pocket. SiFi: "A replacement part of my face."

Tony, in early morning as Vestas sails on port gybe in 7 knots of wind, explains their strategic situation: trying to avoid the cone of light wind extending from Africa, and whether to try to get south before it extends too far west, or going west to get around it. He explains where the other boats around them are: Dongfeng ahead of them going south, and Akzo and MAPFRE on their starboard quarter going west. Per the tracker, I think this must have been shot around 2017-11-09 09:35 UTC. Tony: "It's really hard. The router says go south; the weather that we have sailing right now says go south. So that's all we can do."

Really pretty drone shot, approaching from high altitude as Vestas sails in about 15 knotes of wind, triple-heading with the Masthead 0 on port gybe. In the cockpit at sunset, Mark and SiFi talk with Mark (off camera) about strategy; staying to the east to get further south vs. gybing west. They know (from the 1900 sched, which presumably just came through shortly before) that Dongfeng has gybed to the west. Charlie: "But you don't want to be soaking in 10 knots." Mark talks to Tony Mutter, on the helm, about whether a cloud they've been watching has dissipated. Charlie, gesturing to starboard: "I mean; we can cross MAPFRE by fucking 8 miles right now." Discussion of the current wind direction. They decide to gybe. Includes discussion of whether to peel to the A3 as part of it; Charlie decides to wait until after the gybe. Martin asks Simon to explain; he gives a summary. They're feeling exposed being to the east of everyone; are going to gybe over to give up some lead but get further from the eventual wind shadow of the Cape Verde Islands. Below, SiFi explains to Chuy, who's getting his boots on, why the maneuver is happening. Stacey shifts her bunk to starboard. On deck, as it's getting dark, they gybe, then sail on starboard toward the sunset.

Below, Chuny talks in Spanish. Behind him, Stacey puts mustard on a flour tortilla (I swear). Jena, below, talks in Danish.

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.

Night-vision shot looking aft from the bow cam as Vestas sails on starboard gybe. Looks like they're triple-heading, with the J2 in the foreground and the J3 in the background; presumably there's a Code 0 or A3 set on the bowsprit. We hear cockpit audio; a voice (Nick's?) says, "Yeah; I'm gonna go to the rig. Wait 'till everybody's ready." Then we see a night-vision shot of the stern camera looking forward with four grinders on the handles; maybe the beginning of a sail change or gybe? Then we get an artsy shot out the cabin looking aft with the crew at the back of the boat silhouetted by the rising moon. Waning-gibbous moonrise would be in the early evening, so I'm guessing this shot is around 2000-2100. There's a light visible low, near the horizon; it might be on Madeira, but at their closest after gybing they were 22 nm from Madeira, which seems like a long way. The other possibility is that it's Brunel's starboard masthead running light, which was in the right place about 10 nm behind them. Slomo shots of the crew silhouetted against the moon; washing machine. Below, we see crew stacking gear on the starboard side. SiFi, at the nav station, talks about how they're west of Madeira looking for wind acceleration, and about the nearby competitors. Slomo shot from the cabin of someone securing one of the two cabin hatches in place.

Low-angle wake shot as Vestas surfs. Jena holds the mainsheet. Charlie hangs onto the backstay, looking a little green. Charlie: "I am... okay. Okay. Still recovering from a bad case of the Tagus River. But now we're going. I think we've got the right sail up, there's plenty of wind. Next position report will be pretty key. Waiting on that, we'll pick the right side of Madeira, and away we go." Jena: "Right now I feel good. Last night I didn't feel so good. It's been a while since I've been with the guys in these big waves, so I was pretty sick. But I right now I feel awesome. Nice breeze and big waves; this is what it's all about." She talks about the competition. Jena: "MAPFRE and the Dongers are little bit to windward of us and a little bit forward." Shot forward as Vestas sails under A3 on port gybe and MAPFRE crosses them on starboard. From the tracker, this is the cross that happened around 11:00 UTC on November 6. Tom: "We're doing quite well... It's good to see another boat, good to be close to the red boats." Washing machine, wake shot.

Below, with a headlamp, Tom pulls out the A3. He shows a leech tear. Tom: "It's alright; we've just gotta fix it." Tony and Stacey assist. They cut patches. Jena watches. Jena: "I actually was not up when it happened. We had a little tear in the leech, 4 meters... We changed the sail, and we're doing quite good. We've got Chuny on the helm, and he's making sure we don't lose anything." Patching, gluing. Stacey explains the process. Tom narrates the glue drying. They re-apply a leech tape. SiFi: "They've done an awesome job... Now we just have to re-hoist it when the time is right." They move the sail back out onto deck: "Two, six! Two, six!" Stacey: "Yeah. That was two hours of... sewing. [laughs]. Sail was quite wet, so the challenge was to get the repair to stick to it."

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)"

Alberto and Annie getting dressed below. Alberto: "We're gonna peel to the blade. And we're on the Masthead 0 right now. So we've got a little bit more breeze, and the blade is hopefully going to give us a bit more speed." Shot of Alberto on the bow and Annie on the foredeck rigging the new sail (the J0?), and then griding in the new sail in the cockpit. Peter: "We've been having a pretty good fight with the Turn the Tide guys for the last two days." Kyle: "A little bit frustrating. We make a bit of a gain and then lose again... They're not for slow, that's for sure." Peter discusses the belowdecks stack with a crewmember in the companionway. Shot of Bouwe looking serious on the helm.

Drone shots of Brunel going to weather in ~10 knots of wind with J0 and J3 (I think?). Last shot shows TTToP in the distance ahead and to leeward.

Abby, below: "One thing I'm most looking forward to tomorrow when we get off this boat is a shower." Martin: "That's it?" Abby: "Well, it's a long list. But shower's at the top of the list. Food, fresh food, and sleep." Peter: "What I want the most tomorrow in Lisbon is to try to finish off this leg well... Some nice food would be good too. Freeze-dried is not too good... Burger, steak; whatever." Annie: "I think in Lisbon the most I want is a shower and a hair wash. Look at this [undoes her bun]. I've got disaster hair." Bouwe: "When I arrive? A better place than we're in right now. We're dead donkeys, so that's not very good. But then I have a second one, called my family." Carlo: "Pancakes. Banana/bacon pancakes. With some maple syrup." Alberto: "A big steak. The biggest possible. And then some good sleep."

360-degree shots for VR phone apps. Shot from the cockpit, the mast, the stern, while Brunel sails on a reach.

Brunel surfing at sunrise on starboard gybe on the run north to the virtual waypoint. Abby on the grinder. Washing machine. Capey, in the companionway, calls up a position report to the sailors on deck. Capey: "AkzoNobel 22 or something on the bow; MAPFRE 26 on the beam [gestures to starboard]; the other guys [gestures to port]..." Carlo, standing astern: "It's good sailing; we're doing about 20 knots average. I think Vestas is behind us, I mean Turn the Tide, and Scallywag just a couple of miles in front of us. So we still have a bit of catching up to do. When we went around the rock we had a couple of issues, with again something under the boat, so we had to do another back down. It cost us a couple of miles. So Leg 1 maybe not going as well as we hoped, but still pushing." Slomo washing machine shots, wake, grinding (with overdubbed regular-speed audio).

Martin shoots a POV sequence of preparing a meal in the galley: filling the kettle, lighting the burner, pouring the meal pack into the insulated cooler, pouring in the water, closing the lid, then (later) dishing the bowl and handing it up to Abby in the cockpit. Abby: "Wow. Merci." Martin: "Pasta bolognese." Abby: "My favorite."

Martin shoots video of crew in the cockpit backwards through binoculars (i.e., by pointing the camera into the objective end of the binoculars), producing a vignetted fisheye effect.

Slomo of Peter at the helm, Abby coiling line. Peter talks about how the first two nights of the race were such a contrast: quite windy the first night, very little wind last night. Talks about them sailing in a group of four boats trying to chase down the leaders. Under the Masthead 0. Peter: "We're learning a lot sailing along so close to these other boats for such a long period of time." Shots of Alberto on the helm, distant boat to leeward (I think Dongfeng).

Brunel flops with no wind. TTToP is visible to starboard. Maciel trims, talks to Bouwe on the helm. Both of them are shirtless. Maciel: "No wind." Maciel talks to Martin about how some wind should fill in later from ahead of them. We see a sleeping crewmember's foot, below. Wet clothes hanging from the lifelines and laid out on deck, forward.

Sunset wake, sailing fast. Carlo talks on deck in Dutch about the competition. Bouwe talks in Dutch about the competition. Alberto, on the helm, talks in Italian.

Video metadata curated by JBC – many thanks!

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