Martine Grael / Team AkzoNobel

gender Female
High drone shot of AkzoNobel with Brunel and MAPFRE behind them. Martine grinding as they peel to the MH0. Martine: after the mark in Aarhus, being so far behind we didn't expect to be in this position. But after a lot of flat out, no-sleep watches, here we are. Brad trimming with the other boats behind them. "Last day of it all. I'm feeling a sense of relief, but it's all on back there. No thought about resting tomorrow; next eight hours is going to be flat out. No eating no sleeping no drinking for the next eight hours. It's all on." Low drone shot from ahead.Nicolai gets out of his bunk: "That was 20 minutes. That was good." Martine: I don't count time anymore. I don't count hours and minutes. Nicolai, agreeing: No. Grinding on deck. Jules calling course changes while looking at his tablet. Nicho talks about winds ahead. They talk about which way to take the exclusion zone. Nicho talks about rounding the virtual mark. Now we can see the guys in front of us. Need another compression and parkup. Have a reasonable lead over Scallywag and Turn the Tide, but need to get into the guys in front. Another boat in the distance ahead of them (Vestas?).Nicolai, Martine, and Emily wrestle a big sail (the MH0?) down on the foredeck.Drone shot of Brunel to weather and astern, then AkzoNobel in the foreground. Shot with Nicho driving and Brunel behind them. Slomo Martine in the sunset. Martine: It's a pretty cool sight. Today's the longest day of the year. Which means we'll have the longest night. Was forecast 35 knots, upwind and cloud. It's actually quite nice. A bit slower. It did change quite a bit in the beginning. Now on a big line with that group there, Dongfeng and MAPFRE, our group here, us and Brunel, and those down below. Drone shot with AkzoNobel silhouetted by the setting sun.Slomo parade. Simeon, Nicolai, Luke, Martine, Emily, Jules, Justin (carrying a small child). Dockout. Simeon: This is where I learned sailing. It's going to be good fun. Nicolai on the helm in the prestart talking about their approach. Simeon: "3:20!" On the line, Brunel, Dongfeng, TTToP nearby. Jules calling nav on the upwind with his tablet. Other boats: MAPFRE. Dongfeng just behind. Nicho: Just be a blocker for the next 3 days. Good start by Nicolai. Now get up the coast and probably match these guys a little bit. Good start; just keep trying to put the best foot forward. Jules: Going better now, Nicolai. Nicolai on the helm.Early in the leg, Jules looks at a tablet. Nicho calls "main on". Boats behind them: Dongfeng, TTToP, Scallywag. Pan across the cockpit showing crew sailing the boat upwind: Nicolai on the helm, Martine and Emily (I think) grinding. Justin trimming the J1. Simeon in the pit. Luke sitting just forward of James (the OBR).Stern cam / crash cam of AkzoNobel reaching in strong conditions. Nicolai, on the helm, calls out, "Big wave. Hang on." and a big wave slaps off the side of the boat, sending spray in the air. Martine getting geared up below. "This is what they call summer. I can't believe it. We need winter gloves in summertime. Although we're only two or three miles away from everybody it's very bad visibility, very bad weather." Nicho comes below, talks to Jules: Consensus on deck is J1. Jules talks with him about the course. What's the best compromise? Nicho to Brad in his bunk: Bradley. You know how it's your off watch? We're gonna go to J1 now. Is that funny? Brad: Eh, not that funny. Nicho: I actually think it's reasonably funny. Brad (half asleep): You just doing this for fun? Brad talks about his lucky (red) socks. Kiwis... Nicho, below: We thought we had a terrible watch, not on our numbers, but Brunel was the only one that gained on us. We have the wrong sail up, so probably everyone has the wrong sail up. So we're gonna change the sail. Slomo spray on deck. Jules looks at an actual paper chart. [I love real charts.] Jules: Just about picking your right sail... Barometer's rising now, so the wind's going to shift right and drop at the same time. Exclusion zones... And get around the Skaggerak, which is the top of Denmark. Thread the boat at the fastest speed through a narrow straight line, which should be quite simple, but it's always easy to make complicated.Sailing past a low island in windy conditions. Nicolai: Just sailing past the most northern part of the race; this tip here. It's my backyard; Denmark's just around the corner. So the race is on to Sweden. Nice and gray day. Good breeze. Supposed to be building all night. So it'll be good fun racing the other boats here. Almost to Sweden. 24 hours to go. Martine, in the background: Wanna take the 3 [J3] down? TTToP on their port quarter. Island.Drone shot of a distant red boat with AkzoNobel coming into view in the foreground, triple-heading. Slomo drone shot of stacking to leeward for a gybe. Slomo of the gybe from the drone. Nicolai: Finally in the breeze now. Long and difficult day, getting through the ridge into the new pressure. Now we're all heading to the north of Scotland. MAPFRE just in front of us, we're in second place. Fleet behind... Setting ourselves up for a big battle and big winds. I think the boat's ready for it. We're pretty much ready for anything. Slomo washing machine; Martine in the cockpit.MAPFRE sails on their weather quarter. Martine stacks below. Competitor on the horizon to port. Nicho: Most of the boats are pretty much in a line southeast to northwest, coming into the ridge. Hoping things will be better for us crossing the ridge to the right, to the north. I don't think anyone really knows where they need to be. But this is the plan we've had, so we're happy. Talking now about how we change sails crossing the ridge to the finish. That's going to be key: Will have to change sails, but doing it fast and getting back up to speed as soon as we can. Jules talking about competition; talking about Dongfeng's (I think?) strategy. How they're the fastest reaching. Luke, from the helm: Not the fastest Volvo boat ever though. (Referring to Akzo's speed record from leg 9.) He grins.Martine holds the J1 clew as they flop in glassy conditions. Vestas and another boat are visible behind her. Martine: I think the first one that gets the wind is going to be the leader. Everyone's in the same situation; pretty slow. Luke on the helm: If we get the breeze first we can extend a bit. Eventually someone will be the first to get the northerly wind... Good for sleeping, though. Jules talks about wind. "Yeah, there goes Dongfeng. I reckon we'll go pretty soon." "Do they have the masthead?" "No; it's in the air though." They start moving, with other boats on their port quarter. They tack onto starboard. Furling the J1 forward. Drone shot of them triple heading and working on the foredeck.High drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in light conditions. Trimming. Slomo of Martine and Emily on the bow. RIB drives alongside; Justin waves to them from the helm. Justin stacking forward. Sunset. Justin: Whole leaderboard got reversed... Can just see Dongfeng on the bow. Plastics and Scallywag forward and to leeward. Luckly Vestas is behind us. That's always a bonus. Doing 11/12 knots toward Fastnet Rock. Good for the progress toward the finish, but not so good for the leaderboard. Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing toward the sunset in flat conditions.Drone shot of AkzoNobel on a glassy sea. Someone (Nicolai? Nico?) looks through binoculars as Konrad films him. "I feel like someone's watching me." Emily, on the bow: Hopefully within the last 24 hours. Brunel is just over there (she points to starboard). We see a drone shot with AkzoNobel in the foreground and Brunel ahead and to starboard of them. ...about 2 miles away. Wind is going to be up and down, not a lot of sleep, a lot of tacks and sail changes. Overhead drone shot. Sail change. Martine: We're not in a great position right now, but overall still good. In a good position with the fleet, and with a 24-hour record. But Brunel is the closest boat to us on the scoreboard. Stacking forward. Martine: Right now we're focusing a lot on Brunel, but we have to be protective of the fleet. Drone shot.Martine, below: We just broke the 600-mile record, for 24 hours. Really stoked for that. The last record in the Volvo Ocean Race had been by my father. So now I have something to talk to at the dinner table. I'm pretty sure he'll be happy for us. But I'm not sure about taking his record. We'll see. (She laughs.)Brad, at the nav station, grins and gives a thumbs up. "Beauty! Just got the 24 hour record Just got the confirmation from the boss." Simeon, in his bunk: Let's see if we can get over the 600. Brad talks to Nicho in the cockpit about beating Ericcson's record. "You gotta give me a fist for that." He holds out his fist. Nicho pulls his fist away and they laugh. Nicolai in his bunk: This is what it's about. It's hard and exhausting, and you're tired but it's why you want to do the race. Go as fast as you can for days and days, there's no limits... She's a fast boat, this purple bus. She's got some pace to her. I like it. She's a good boat. It's pretty cool; I didn't know that. It's good news to wake up to. Our main focus is still the leg. Gotta keep ourselves in line for the podium. Helmsperson raises his fist, make a peace sign, then a thumbs up. Martine laughs on the pedestal.Rough, windy conditions as they sail fast on starboard with the stack aft. Washing machine. Brad grins. Martine gets food. Luke: Fast and furious. In the mid 20s. Flat sea state, so no big nose dives. Fun. More shots of driving fast on deck. Martine gives an "okay" sign. "Brazilian weather. But not." Luke, below: Ideal conditions for us. We've got some good fast drivers on board who like to send it. And perfect conditions for that. Reefed main drags in the water. Luke: Holding onto Brunel. They are notoriously fast in these conditions. Spray in the pit. Man it looks fast. Luke: I think it's a bit like childbirth. You must forget about the bad bits to do it again. Kind of sad now getting to the end. Just enjoy every moment of it and see what happens.Washing machine from the hatch. Jules looks out. He talks to the sailors in the cockpit about the routing, strategy with respect to other boats. He talks to Brad below. They're discussing when to gybe onto starboard. He looks at a sched. Brad explains: We're gybing. Vestas is heading north, for the shift, so we want to do the same thing. So it's a rush gybe. We see the gybe through the hatch. Jules at the nav station talks strategy while Nicolai and Martine stack below. Nicho: We'd been on about a 250 wind direction now for a day. But beyond that, we want to stick with Vestas and Brunel. Pretty sure all of us are pretty comfortable on this gybe. Should head down, and then tack over, get set up for some more breeze in a couple of days. Washing machine. Nicho: Going to be a couple days of decent breeze and fast running. Both Vestas and Brunel are very good at that. Brunel maybe the best in the fleet at J0 reaching. And then light air at the end; it's going to be quite a problem.Drone shots of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Martine: Today is a beautiful day, with boats in sight. Shot of another boat to starboard. Martine: And we are expecting a gybe for the last 2 days. More wind, so we're going faster than expected. Drone shot. Martine: We're going to have quite a bit of breeze two days from now. So still have to keep our eyes open. And then reaching the UK. So I guess we're gonna have to enjoy this. It's not gonna last too long. Nicho: Should have good breeze for a while longer, then gybe. Have been thinking we'll gybe for a day now, but the breeze hasn't shifted. Drone shot. Nicho: Had a pretty honest debrief after the last leg. And then a bad in-port race, and another debrief. We've needed it for some time. It's a challenge: Step up or get left behind. Drone shot with clouds.Drone shot of AzkoNobel triple-heading under gray skies. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Martine gets doused at the pedestal. Below, Nicho, Jules, and Simeon look at weather models on the computer. Jules: Mixed bag performance wise. Had some good spells and some not so good spells. Crossed a bit of the Gulf Stream. Radar, AIS; he was short on sleep all night. Drone shot. Spray by the shrouds. Simeon getting greared up below. Some good moments, some difficult moments. Keep the hammer on. Nicho takes slomo spray. Major whitewater near the mast looking aft. This is when the boats are most powerful. Jules at the nav station looks at routing. "Still a long way to go, changing conditions. The forecasts not really lining up." More slomo washing machine, drone shot of AkzoNobel surfing.Night shots from the stern of spray. Nicolai: "Pedestal. Who's on the pedestal?" Brad, in the morning, talks about the difficult night and trying to battle through it. A bird (barn swallow?) perched on his shoe. Nicho, on the helm, calls for the A3 to be forward. They flop in light winds. Jules talks about a cloud. They decide to tack back. Jules, at the nav station: "Release ourselves from the grip of this. Caught the northern wall of the Gulf Stream, 4 or 5 knots. And unfortunately the wind cut off before we could get out of it. Rain. Martine tries to rescue the birds (more than one, apparently). She was going to put them in the box so they could rest, and release them after. She grabs a bird and puts it in the box. Disney princess Martine.Drone shots of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Slomo spray. Martine grinning on the helm. Crash cam footage. Martine eating below. Brian: Any good? Martine: Hunger is the best spice. Nico comes below, hangs up gear. "One you've gotta acknowledge it's a bad situation you didn't want to be in. 100 miles back from the leaders. You'd rather be neck-and-neck. Trick now is to push just as hard. Hoping for the weather at the end. The nature of the sport is you try all the way to the finish line. I've seen plenty of races where it happens... We need something to happen weather-wise for us to reel in the leaders... But it is nice doing 20 knots roughly toward where we want to go. Might like to take a month to wear them down, but we've got 6 days. Martine: Still very wet. It's not easy. In the first week we had 19 headsail changes in two watches. But we're going to have a lot of this so we're gonna get tired of this. Drone shots.Simeon: Have been 70% of the way around the world, and haven't seen any wildlife. Just a few random dolphins. 12 or 13 years ago I remember a lot more; orcas, big whales... I don't know, it's the time of year or could be we need to find a biologist and get a proper explanation. Nicho, on the helm: You always hope it's better than it is, but the impact... The difference is quite scary. In certain areas you'd see schools of dolphins, 200, 300 of them. Albatrosses, dozens of them circling the boat in the Southern Ocean. This time it's been scary how little. Martine: 15,000 miles of sailing, and haven't seen... Nicho: It is a worry. Hopefully up here in the Gulf Stream we'll see rapid improvement. Nicolai: Main reason most of us do this race is to see the world, see wildlife, see the cities. But seeing pollution is dramatic. Hopefully we can turn the tide. Martine: Talks about the loss of wildlife. Emily: This is how nature resets itself. Probably won't happen in our lifetime. Seeing a huge decline in animals on land and out here. We're messing up, bigtime.In the late afternoon, Martine: We saw Vestas earlier on. We've spent pretty much the whole day in sight of Brunel. She talks more about the competition. Crew sailing in the cockpit in the sunset. Martine talks about the good breeze and the cool sunset.Nicho, on deck: We're halfway through our gas. He explains: heating gas. "She's high." Martine explains. Emily goes to check. Emily: I told people not to change so I could keep track." Emily counts bottles, she calls up: We've got 8 full bottles left. "False alarm." Martine is relieved.Martine explains that no one has slept much because they've had a vew opportunities with clouds. Night shots of them sailing. Scallywag is behind her. Shots of the crew with Scallywag in the distance. Brad talks about having Brunel, Dongfeng, Scallywag, and MAPFRE next to them. Timelapse of the cabin, and then of the cockpit, then the nav station. Nicho: The benefit is lack of sleep. If you enjoy lack of sleep there's a high benefit to being this close to other boats. Drone shot of AkzoNobel and Brunel sailing a hundred yards apart. Shot from the deck of three boats on the horizon. Nicho explains that you can try out mode variations vs. the other boats. In this upwind stuff they haven't been consistently strong, so they need to work that out. "Yeah, we do need to get that sorted."Time lapse from the stern cam as darkness falls. Simeon, below, talks about the wind dropping and going right. Probably will do the stack and get on the hip of those guys. Below, Martine and Brad stacking. Jules at the nav station. Night shot of stars, moon. Luke, in the dark, explains that they're right on the crossover of the J1 and the Masthead 0, and it's difficult to know if they should change or not, if the better sail will pay for the loss incurred in the sail change. "Where we are in the fleet at the moment we can't afford to make any losses."Parade follows Simeon and Nicolai, intercut with starting line shots. Martine kisses her dad good bye. Dockout. Starting line, with Vestas, Dongfeng, and TTToP. Brunel behind them. Scallywag right behind. Scallywag ducks them at a mark rounding. Jumper jumps off. Simeon: I think we had a good plan on the start. But just a few seconds after the start it's such a critical position. Fell back. But recovered well. Middle fleet. Nicolai helmed well. We're rolling Turn the Tide now; we'll keep close to the top to guys so uh- (And then the video cuts off. Um, Brian?)Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. On deck with Nicho on the helm, we see a squall coming. Nicolai: We've got a bit of hail coming. In a squall usually it's rain, but in the Southern Ocean it's hail. Hurts when it hits you in the head. Slomo shots of hail/snow. Martine (I think?) shakes her hands. "My hands are freezing. It hurts." Nicolai talks about easing the sheet, keeping the wind at 75 apparent. More drone shots of them surfing. Below, Martine squeezes water from her pigtails. "For a Brazilian this is very cold. I've never sialed in this cold before. I was freezing my hands outside. It was pretty cool; we had a pretty cool watch." Nicho, below, talks about gaining bearing. How it's funny that if they sail fast it's safer. If you have a breakage and slow down it's more dangerous, as they found in leg 3. [Favoriting for the epic drone shots and squall/snow.]Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. On deck with Nicho on the helm, we see a squall coming. Nicolai: We've got a bit of hail coming. In a squall usually it's rain, but in the Southern Ocean it's hail. Hurts when it hits you in the head. Slomo shots of hail/snow. Martine (I think?) shakes her hands. "My hands are freezing. It hurts." Nicolai talks about easing the sheet, keeping the wind at 75 apparent. More drone shots of them surfing. Below, Martine squeezes water from her pigtails. "For a Brazilian this is very cold. I've never sialed in this cold before. I was freezing my hands outside. It was pretty cool; we had a pretty cool watch." Nicho, below, talks about gaining bearing. How it's funny that if they sail fast it's safer. If you have a breakage and slow down it's more dangerous, as they found in leg 3. [Favoriting for the epic drone shots and squall/snow.]Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Bow cam view looking aft. Someone (Martine?) looking forward through binoculars, presumably at a competitor. Shot forward from behind the wheel of washing machine and a competitor crossing ahead of them (Dongfeng). Nicolai, standing on the stern trimming the main, talks about Dongfeng and (unfortunately) MAPFRE crossing them. Last night they were behind us; now they've crossed us. Not the best morning. But still 15 mornings to go. Shot of the other boat to port. Stern cam footage of them sailing on starboard. Jules and Nicho sit at the nav station talking strategy. Nicho, eating: "No shortage of breeze." Martine below. She guesses she got the most sleep, but not anymore. Going to be gybing. Luke: With the two gybes in his off-watch he got about an hour of sleep during his four off. Jules talks about having lost a lot of distance to the boats nearby. Did some good gybes, got a couple of hundred meters behind Brunel. But now they've coughed up some distance. Spreader cam view of shifting the stack aft.Nicolai handles a sheet, takes spray. He talks about J0 vs. MH0. Talks about how it's good getting south; he doesn't mind the cold. "Must be close to Dongfeng though?" Slomo spray. Surfing fast with Nicho on the helm. "A week of pretty full on with 30 to 40 knots, maybe gybing along the ice gate. Need a bit of gybing practice anyway I reckon. Be all right this time. I was doing plenty of gybes coming into Auckland with everything up. Won't be doing that bit of drama again, guaranteed. Slomo washing machine. Martine below getting her foulies on, stretches her neck. "It's already pretty wet, and we haven't even got there... It's not going to be easy, but looking forward to the highway that takes us all the way to South America." Slomo of her taking spray. Favorite mainly because of that brief interview with Nicho talking about gybing.Simeon talks about how they're in a good position. Everyone is coming into their trail. Nicolai, below: Only 3 days to go. Starting to see a good result. But reminding yourself it's not over until you cross the finish line. Can put in 22 days of hard work and lose it in the last day. Simeon at the nav station looks at routing software. Everyone is trying to get west; but they're already there. Relief that we went into the light air in first, and are coming out first as well. Luke, on the rail: Re-taken the lead. Tough struggle with Scallywag, it's paid off. Brunel in stealth mode now. Cecile: Nice to get moving. Most pressure we've seen in 3 or 4 days. Luke: Rather be on this boat than any of the others, but it is yacht racing. Pole cam shots over the side of them sailing faster. Chart software showing them west of New Caledonia. Brad eating. Closeups: Helm, winches. Martine on the helm. Simeon trimming. Stacking below. Brad grinding.Martine, on deck, talks in Portuguese about the doldrums, the heat. Simeon, sitting on the lowered J1 on the bow, talks in Dutch about the islands they're passing as the MH0 flops behind him.Nicolai: Good-looking morning. "Cloud porn." You shouldn't be looking at me; you should be looking at the clouds. Cloud shots. Nicho on the helm silhouetted by the sunrise. Crepuscular rays. Simeon: The heat is just unbearable. 45 degrees downstairs. Luke: Big hat, balaclava. Down below it's incredibly hot, hard to sleep during the day. Brad: Water on your skin. Martine: It's hard when you don't have shade. Fan below. Wetting a cloth in the galley. Nicolai drinking. Martine spritzing herself. Nicolai gives a thumbs-down from his bunk. Grinding in the heat on deck. Sunscreen. Flopping in no wind. Justin: Clouds are the only source of wind. We're hopping from cloud to cloud. Light winds. Justin: That one's sucking. Cecile: Talks about the competition. Who's ahead. For sure they've caught up. Game on. Simeon talks about the competition. Jules talks about strategy. Simeon: Challenge for me is still to win a leg in the Volvo Ocean Race. I've come in second quite a few times. Sunset as they're moving again.Brad, up the mast wearing a GoPro (realize it's a Garmin), looks for wind, calls down to the deck. View from deck level as they flop. Knotmeter: 1.6. Hoisting the J1. Luke stands by the MH0 clew. Luke: Brad's just up the mast to pop the battens. GoPro shot of Brad doing that. Luke: 2/3 of the distance through the leg, Scallywag just 4 miles away. Simeon: Brunel, Scallywag, and ourselves. Cecile: Hopefully the guys behind us get stuck in the same stuff. Shot of another boat on the horizon. Martine takes a bearing. Jules talks about "going over there to get in that breeze. Luke looks through the binoculars. Simeon talks down into the cabin: "Need to get more snacks. Keep up the motivation. Luke lies below. Nicolai eats. Simeon: All short-term plans. Luke: Sea state is calm. Going to get flatter as well. Winch closeup. Sunset.Gybing at sunrise. Jules: Still unresolved on how to get through the band of doldrums. Depends on what you'll find on the other side, but that's still 10 days away. "Pretty random really." Sunrise. Nicho on the helm talks strategy with Jules and Simeon. Luke washes in a rain squall. Martine and Brad shower in the rain. Brad: Three showers so far today. Looks like number four shower. Rolling up the J3. Light winds. Martine: Still going through a lot of clouds. Everybody can catch up with us. You just deal with it. Hoisting the J1. Simeon: Hope we end up well. To win the race you need to win legs. That pressure is bigger for us than for any of the others. Jules talks from the cabin to Nicho on the helm. Cecile puts on a shirt below. Nicolai pulls down the J1. Nicolai: Just had a sched, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. This was a bad one. Lost 25 miles on the fleet. Knew that was coming; they're sailing into lighter conditions. Luke, in the cockpit: "A lot of snakes and ladders in this game." Sunset as they sail in light winds. Red-lit instruments show them sailing at 0.6 knots.Justin looks at clouds. Talks about the wind. Simeon on the helm looks tired. Rainbow to leeward. Justin: Basically have been bouncing from cloud to cloud. Playing snakes and ladders with the other boats. Puffs that last for 30 seconds to a minute. Brad on the bow as they hoist the J1 and furl the MH0. Justin on the helm. Rain. Stacking below. Jules looks at the computer. "Until we find some wind out of the westerly quadrant we won't make any gains." Sailing into the doldrums now. Guys behind have all seen them slow and have turned left (east), taking a lot of miles out of them. Luke: Jules and Chris and Simeon have spent a lot of time over the last week deciding where to cross the doldrums. Jules at the mast. Nicolai and Martine lower the MH0 after hoisting the J1. Lowering the J1, Justin gathers it in on the foredeck. Jules emerges from below to annouce the sched: Brunel is closest to the finish now. Brad in the sunset. Justin on the helm after sunset: Dismal couple of days. Who knows what's next.Brad and Martine on the foredeck peeling from J1 to J0? FR0? Stacking. Luke in the pit. Luke bailing below. Filling up water in the galley. Brad: Nine days in. Not the easiest 9 days. Blast reaching, throwing the boat around. When they get to the doldrums they'll want to get this again. "As long as you keep your gear dry." Richard asks, "Is your gear dry?" Brad shakes his head and smiles. "Soaked all the way through." He eats. Jules talks about their lead over Scallywag and MAPFRE. They'll lose some of that as they lead into the first doldrums area. He talks about strategy with someone. Shots of the conditions lightening on deck. Nicolai talks about light winds coming. Frustrating, but they knew it was coming. Ready for hard work. Unfurling a bigger sail (MH0?). Jules talks about strategy. Simeon scans the horizon for wind. Squall with rain and wind. Grinding. Winch drum. Jules talks about the nearby boats. Luke in the cockpit. Jules, in the companionway, talks about the clouds, and strategy.Simeon talks below. Fantastic to lead. Long way to go. Have to have confidence. Upcoming doldrums. Jules at the nav station talks to Simeon. Computer screen shows weather. Simeon: Pressure of being in the front and making choices that everyone else sees. A bit of a vulnerable spot. Justin, below: A lot of hurdles to get through. Maybe first into the doldrums, first out of the doldrums. Everyone working well. Good feeling. Cecille: Nothing's set in stone. Far from it. Washing machine shot of the cockpit from the cabin. Slomo spray from the cockpit. Nicolai getting drenched. Waterline pole shot. Slomo of cockpit. Pole shots from outboard. Nicho on the helm in rain and squally conditions. Simeon grinding. Looking up the slot with major firehose action. Martine and Jules grinding on one pedestal. Cecile: "It's wet! But fast." Nicolai, below, talks about blowing out a Cunningham ram. Losing oil for the Navtec system. Nicolai and Simeon working on the hydraulics below. Nicolai explains that the bigger problem is that the cunningham uses the same oil as the other systems. If they run out of oil it will affect other sail control systems. More shots of repairs as they bounce around.Cécille, below, talks about how Jules strategy has paid off and they've picked up 40 miles on the other boats in one sched. Still a massive way to go and doldrums and stuff, but it's cool. Jules, at the nav station, looks at a chart. Jules, in the hatch, talks to Nicho, in the cockpit, about strategy. Nicho: Last two scheds are the two best scheds we've ever had. Now put some miles on Scallywag. And still some concern about Brunel and TTToP, with a little bit of leverage. "Minefield after minefield from here to New Zealand." When they were behind they were looking at these upcoming transitions as the opportunity to get past the leaders. So have to be careful. But still, rather be here than back there. Simeon trimming, Martine on the pedestal. Nicho (I think?) steering; Nicolai trimming.Simeon looks at Scallywag, sailing a quarter mile astern and to leeward. Simeon talks about sailing north, away from New Zealand. Talks wind and clouds with Nicho on the helm. Nicho looks for shadows of clouds. Martine on the helm. Nicolai on the helm, waving "goodbye" to Scallywag. Justin talks about staying in touch with Scallywag. Jules talks about a front coming. They flop in light conditions Shifting the stack forward. Nav station. Brad on deck as they go slow. Luke on the helm: points out the front behind them; expecting big things in the nxt three or four hours. Martine, Simeon putting on foulies. Sailing in more wind. Simeon in the pit; Cecille on the pedestal. Sail changes as it gets dark. Looks like J1 going up, MH0 coming down?Approaching a front. Jules a the nav station. Martine on the bow as they flop. "This feels wrong, very wrong. We're going the wrong way." Jules: tacked a little too early in hindsight. Very light. Very disappointed. Made the decision to tack too quickly. For the first sched it was okay, second sched not very good. Martine and Brad working on the foredeck. Knotmeter shows less than a knot. Drifting, slatting. Rolling up the MH0. Looking at the chart.Dockout. Brad clasps hands with people on the dock as they pull out. Simeon waves from the wheel. Prestart as they unfurl the MH0. Unzipping the J1 bag. Jules calling time to the start. "Racing with a header." Nicolai, on the wheel: "Racing." Dongfeng astern of them, Brunel (with Scallywag unfurling their MH0 visible beyond) sails down from above and behind them; TTToP and MAPFRE visible beyond them. Brad, looking to weather, calls wind: "Max pressure in 10." Pinching up to lee-bow Scallywag. Furling the MH0 to tack. Simeon in the pit, grinding with Cécille. Cécille with her Kiwi-accented English: "Light patch in 2. Building again in 5." She recaps their good start. Martine bagging the MH0 on the foredeck. Simeon, on the rail, talks about the building wind they'll likely see. He's happy to be leading, but points out they have 6,200 miles to go. Clip cuts off in mid-sentence.Darkness and the sound of flopping sails. On deck at night, Jules is in the foreground, his face illuminated by the light from a tablet. Behind him the railing by the helm is lit by red light. Jules: "The only problem at the moment this way is that no one's actually moving." Nicho: "We can still do our five minutes heading north." Jules: "On starboard." Nicho: "Before running into where MAPFRE is." They discuss that MAPFRE and Dongfeng have stopped. [Guys: I've seen the future. There's a huge windless cloud ahead.] Nicho: "But at least we'll be heading north until we stop." Simeon and Cécile grind on the pedestal. Stars overhead; the main pops over as they tack to starboard. Below, at the nav station, Nicho points out the changed positions on the chart: They've pulled ahead of Dongfeng and MAPFRE, while Vestas further west has made up ground. "Just from one cloud." Another 500, 600 miles of this, he says. Low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting on a glassy sea. Martine throws something small down the forward hatch. Crew sits on sails on the bow. Below, Brad says to Nicolai: "Nicolai, you still awake?" Nicolai: "Yeah. Too warm to sleep. Just watching a bit of Netflix." They have a little scripted chitchat. Jules calls down the hatch that they want to do a peel to the J1, and they need some big strong muscle-y men. Shot of the instruments on the mast: Boatspeed: 0.93. High-altitude time-lapse drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting along. Nicho talks about the "good guys" generally doing okay in the doldrums. Nicolai pulls the main. Very-high-altitude drone shot showing them parked. Pretty slomo shot of their branding reflected in the water. Luke, on the helm, talks about the mood: concerned. Need to come out of the doldrums okay so the front bunch gets a jump. Low-altitude drone shot at sunset with another boat beyond them. I think it's probably Vestas.AkzoNobel is sailing upwind inside Port Phillip Bay on starboard. Nicho, on the stern, talks about how they couldn't hold their lane on port tack after the start. "Don't know. Not sure what happened. We were slow on port for a long time." Shot of their stern with a Bravo (protest) flag flying; other boats in the distance. Simeon below: "Yeah, we had a bit of a speed issue, yeah." Shots of crew moving the stack. Nicho: "It's not where you want to be... back of the pack... No use grumbling about it." Below, Nicolai and Simeon are looking through the window in the hull, talking about the prop. Maybe it wasn't folding properly? Brad looks through an inspection tool: "It's closed but it's got weed in it... Looks like I'm going over the side. Get a lot of heel on, and rip it off." Sam: "Would this explain the speed?" Brad: "Hopefully." On deck, Brad gets lowered over the weather side in his foulies with lines forward and aft; he goes down near the waterline to inspect. Cécile's back is in the foreground as she relays Brad's words, then helps him back on deck. Brad: "A bit of weed. Not as big as it looked. But it's closed. Nothing underwater slowing us down. So get into it." Later, on the stern, Sam asks Brad: "How's it feel to be in last place coming out of Australia?" Brad: "I hate to say, but we're used to it." Luke: "New Year's resolution? Probably just to win a few legs here." Martine: "I dunno. Just keep positive." Brad: "Not be last out of the next start. And start getting in front of the fleet." Rainbow in the boat's spray to leeward. Luke talks about the frustration of starting off in last or close to last. "People say you're unlucky, but you create your own luck." Talks about teamwork, they're a great group of sailors. Real rainbow to leeward; a competitor below and behind them. Simeon talks about them doing well in the last sched. "Zero to hero." First in the position reports. At the nav station, Jules talks about their performance. Sam: "How'd you manage to check back in with the fleet?" Jules: "Bit of luck, really. Guys have been sailing pretty hard all night. Everyone's been up pretty much most of the night. Gybed on a couple of shifts. Got a nice header for a while..." Talks about disappointment at the start, needing to hang in there. "If we go fast we'll be all right." Rainbow with Vestas, Dongfeng to leeward.Slomo of AkzoNobel sailing upwind, close-hauled on port tack. Nicolai, below, talks about the remaining leg for them. Nicho, at the helm: "Learned the same lessons I think I've been taught before: never to be complacent. I don't think we were complacent, but we had one terrible gybe which I'm more responsible for than anyone, and that cost us the leg. And the usual story, that you make that mistake in the middle of nowhere, and you can pay for it for a long time. So that's what we did this leg." Martine, on deck: "What I've learned on this spedific leg? Probably a lot of patience. And try to find joy, and happiness, in little things every day... Sometimes a bird, or whale-watching, has made my day, a funny joke; anything. Always try to find the thing that makes you happy." Brad sleeping on the foredeck in bare feet. Nicolai, below: "I think this leg's been quite a challenge for many of us. Not so much a normal Volvo leg, physically a challenge, but more mentally and team-wise, it's been a tough one. But it's also been one that we probably needed to have to keep getting better and better, and hopefully learn from it, all of us, and become a stronger team. And I think we are handling quite well the headwinds we have, no issues within the team, it's all head down and keep working whatever we find ourself in and that's quite positive and quite good." Slomo of someone's hands on the wheel.GoPro shot from the masthead. Shot of the instruments on the mast. Looks like they're reaching on port tack in about 10 knots of wind. Nicolai grinds. Clew of the MH0 in the background. Nicolai: explains the strategic situation, how they have to sail upwind. Nicho, on the helm: "Boredom has set in... Question of the watch is how much Nutella gets produced in the world in a year." He's added another question as to annual Vegemite production. Martine and Nicolai discuss Nutella production. Nicolai: "It's been a relatively short leg, but it feels like a long one." Hard because they haven't been near other boats. Nicho says they've learned some things about the boat. Nicolai: Looking forward to land and rest, but mostly to getting a reset to get back with the fleet. Shot of the mainsail looking up.Emily steers while wearing reindeer antlers. Beow, brad listens through earbuds as he inventories gear (?) in the bow (?). An inflatable shark head watches him. Brad talks to James. "Yeah, I'm just listening to Jingle Bells, Christmas carols, that sort of thing. Get myself in the festive mood." In the galley area, Justin is going through a bag of something while Emily distributes candies, including candycanes her mum brought over. She talks about how with freezedried food it's hard to do much in terms of Christmas dinner, but she's making sure everyone has their favorite. "Try to keep a happy boat." Justin: "I've got beef stroganof. Probbly my least-favorite meal on the boat. I was hoping for roast lamb, mashed potatoes." We see the pouches next to the galley with candycanes in each. Brad: "Chirsmas day has consisted of the same things we've been doing for the last 3 weeks. Four hours on, four hours off." He explains he's been doing some restocking of spares, making sure he knows what they've got going into the next leg. On deck, an animated Santa toy has been lashed to the instruments on the mast. He sings a rock & roll Christmas song. On the bow in the background, Martine and Brad (I think) are shifting t eh stack forward for lighter wind.Slomo shots of the crew working in the cockpit. Washing machine. Nicho comes below, takes his gear off, washes his face in the galley. Nicho: "You see when you take certain medication, 'Don't operate this vehicle when tired and drowsy'? Well, everyone's operating this vehicle tired and drowsy." Talks about getting rest, food, makes for better decisions. Martine comes below, takes off her gear. "For me sleep and food go side by side. The less I sleep the more I have to eat to have energy." Martine eats. Nicolai talks below about the balance between sleeping and eating. Brad: People sacrifice a lot to get a couple of minutes extra sleep. People don't brush their teeth to get a couple more minutes of sleep. Don't want to name names." Martine gets in her bunk. Nico, talks about the upcoming stronger conditions. "Plenty of sleep. Just look at me." He grins.Slomo shots of Minke whales surfacing close to their port quarter. Martine describes it. "First time we saw it was literally less than 5 meters away."Slomo through wheel of the ocean. Slomo water in cockpit, Martine's corn rows. Below, Martine talks about how the double points in the leg are going to really hurt them. "It's a bit disappointing. But it's still a long race to go so the chances are still there." Simeon: "We're up to speed, but yeah, a long way behind the pack. We're doing good polars... fingers crossed there are still some opportunities." Nicho: Talks below about the same thing (double points, finishing at the back)... "One maneuver gone wrong, and before that we were competing nicely. People gotta... draw faith that we can do it. We can match up with these guys. Frustrating part now is we've gotta wait for our next opportunity. We probably won't get another opportunity on this leg. Sadly I think we're done. It's not gonna stop us trying." Simeon: "It makes you realize that one bad gybe can cost you a lot in one day... Yeah, it's a setback, but the race's not over." Martine, chewing and staring into space: "Well. You gotta have the bad ones to realize the good ones. Yeah."Epic slomo shot of a big Southern Ocean wave. Nicho, below, eating: "Batten fouled again and another repair again. Getting there. Main's back up, so it's not slowing us down any." Justin, below, repairs a batten. "This is Frankenbatten. It's now got four different battens in it." He shows his work: The batten with multiple clamps holding the pieces together while glue cures. "We're obviously trying to be tidy Kiwis who use as much [something] as we can, 5200." There are clamps made from vice grips, from channel lock pliers with a big rubber band around the handle squeezing it closed, and a high-tech looking black clamp. Don't tell the media guy, but I've raided his camera box and found a clamp. Which I'm sure he's going to work out when it gets back that it's been used for some sort of repair." Nicho: "We don't mind doing all these running repairs all the time as long as we can go at pretty much full pace. But it wears everyone out. I don't think Brad has had a full off watch for a long time now. [To Brad.] When was your last full off watch?" Brad (sitting near the galley, pulling off bits of tape): "Can't remember my last full off watch." Brad, to James: "Haven't seen land for over a week now. As far away from anything as you can possibly be, more or less. It's not too bad. It's actually quite cool. Really good breeze, good waves. Good sailing." Martine coils lines in the pit, gets washed over by a wave. Below, she talks to Konrad: "Southern Ocean has been pretty cool, going downwind, in these big waves, sailing during the night with big seas. Cold weather as well. Everythying is dripping on the boat, but sailing has been pretty good, besides our breakdown. As long as we have all the sails up, it's all good." Nicho: "You have moments when you wonder what you're doing down here. Other moments quite in awe of the natural bueauty and harshness of the place... How vulnerable you are down here on a little carbon shell in the middle of nowhere. You want the leg to be over, but also how special it is to be here." Slomo of Nicho on the helm, albatross flying by. [Side note: Again, no Simeon. I'm increasingly of the view that Nicho is actually functionally skipper at this point.]Somone (Brad?) works on the masttrack up the mast. Simeon says it's the second attempt, with different glue. "Not a specified curing time like the books. But we hope it's strong enough." Going to hoist the main again, and put a strap around where the batten car is and hpe for the best. Everyone looks at the sail with expressions of concern. Nicho: "It'll work". With the main up they sail faster. Everyone looking up. Nicolai on the stern talks about how they knew after the first one it wouldn't be a good repair, but they knew after this one it would be a good one. "It's holding." Below, Nicho is getting his foulies off. "Been sailing two or three hours, and no problems, so... Hopefully now we can be 100% to Melbourne, catch some miles up." In the background Martine gets her foulies off. Nicho talks about how there could be a weather pattern that would pull the boats together. "We're a long way behind, but no one's giving up." Talks about needing to make the next start, and get the boat fully prepared and operational.Pretty clouds. Crew shifting the stack as AkzoNobel sails downwind with the main lowered. Nicho explains that they've just finished stackign in preparation for hoisting the main. Talks about the repair; difficulty of getting a glue cure in the cold conditions. Maybe having a chance to catch some boats. Main goes up slowly. Nico, on the stern: "Tracks popped straight off. So obviously it couldn't hold in the conditions... Hopefully we'll get it down now, and... try it again. Still 3,000 miles to go." (Side note: It sure seems like Nicho has basically taken over the boat. Is Simeon even in command at this point?) Lowering the main. Martine gets washed off the cabin top by a wave; catches herself. They struggle to lower the main. Jules talks about the fleet being gone, not wanting to get down south and have to beat back, which they can't do. Nicho responds: "Well, we can step it down later in the day. Get a plan for this track. Even if the fleet's gone, get to Melbourne on time... for the next start." Below, Brad takes off his foulies. Looks very discouraged. "Pretty frustrating working two or three days to get it done, it pops off so quickly afterwards." Talks about trying to jury something else up, hope that that works. Slomo albatross. Below, working on the track repair, Nicolai watches Simeon eats in the background. "We've got five tubes of glue left, which means after this we've got one more. So this better work." More repair attempts on the mast. Emily watches from the stern. Nicolai, below, explains that the glue needs 6 to 8 hours to cure. Going to sail some more, and then try to hoist again before sunset.Shooting through the cockpit railing under gray skies, we see a bunch of competitors on AzkoNobel's weather quarter. Left to right I think they might be Brunel, Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and more distant maybe Vestas? Then we see a shot of Simeon working on the pit winch with Scallywag ahead of and to leeward of them. Simeon looks up at the slot to check sailtrim. He talks to James about not doing too well at the start: "We need to practice those ones." Talks about being close to the fleet, the wind being up/down/left/right. Justin, on the helm, talks about wind pressure. We see Scallywag, on starboard under the MH0, crossing them while Brad goes to go out on the bowsprit. Nicho, in the cockpit, talks about the contrast during the night of being in almost 40 knots, then getting flat sees and "almost nice sailing again." He talks about the 40 knot conditions being uncomfortable; slamming and worrying about breakage. Martine talks about getting stuck in a hole and passed. Nicolai talks about the first 24 hours being pretty good, intense, hunting and almost back where they want to be. Nicho talks about getting to the new wind and tacking, and then waiting for the front to get there. We see the feet of someone on the helm putting on their boots.Drone shot pans up to show AkzoNobel sailing toward the drone. In the cockpit, Martine trims the main. On the helm, Nicho talks about how they've fallen off the front and winds are lighter [hence the drone footage], and it's hurting them in the previous sched and likely the next one. Luke talks about how they're now last on the leaderboard. "Pretty frustrating. Haven't had the best luck with the weather, unfortunately... but also haven't been sailing the boat as well as we possiby can. So we have a lot of work to do in Cape Town." Jules at the nav station looks concerned. Nicolai aggressively brushes his teeth. Simeon, below, talks about the disappointment: "It's always hard to swallow when you see every sched, moving back." Low-altitude drone shot from the port quarter. Peter, grinding: "We're pushing as hard as possible, trying to catch every wave. But we've been losing for a few days." Nicho, on the helm; Simeon, below, talk about needing to stay focused and keep pushing despite the disappointment. Luke, on the stern pedestal: "Sometimes you get the elevator; sometimes you get the shaft." Drone shot.Emily gets dressed below, clips on a fanny pack. She talks about how it was a big risk for them to cut the corner by positioning themselves east of the fleet. A big risk for Jules, because there are all the other navigators saying no, we think this western route is faster. Peter, on deck, trims the main and explains that if you stay with the fleet you know you'll be close. But if you take a risk you have a chance of making a big gain. Behind, Martine is on the helm, beaming (as usual when steering). Luke talks about taking the risk. Luke: "Looks like now maybe it hasn't paid off, but it's certainly not over yet. We'll see what happens." Jules, below at the nav station, about the risk of diverging from the four boats ahead. Shot of routing software on the computer. Talks about how the weather pattern was evolving ahead of them, so they wouldn't necessarily be in the same weather pattern as the leaders when they got there. Jules: "We're sill gonna be a fair way behind, and we'll have to look for the next opportunity." Super-low-altitude drone shot (well below deck level) of AkzoNobel from close ahead and to weather, pulling back and ascending.Sunrise (that's three OBRs who opened their clip with this sunrise). On the rail, Nicho explains the watch system, in which they stagger. He, "Martini" (Martine), Brad, and Nicolai have been on; now Luke and Peter are coming up. Martine on the helm, smiling. She really seems to like getting the chance to drive. Drone shot with AkzoNobel silhouetted. Was that shot from this morning? Looks like they're triple-heading, but with a reef (?) in the main? Maybe it's B-roll shot a different day. Martine and Nicho, below, going off watch. Nicho: "It's the simple things, like helping each other with food. Up on deck, it's just working out what each other's strengths and weaknesses are, and learning off each other." Martine: "It's Chris Nicholson's sixth time doing this race, so definitely got some experience." Martine, smiling at Nicho: "You're much more the decision-maker, 'cause you wake me up more." Chris: "Oh, yeah. I've woken her up several times an hour early when I've looked at my watch incorrectly... Better than being an hour late, though." Chris cleans down below. Martine crawls into her bunk. Martine: "It's not so easy getting in and out of this bunk, but it's pretty nice once you're in it." Drone shot with rainbow behind AkzoNobel. Chris gets out of his bunk. Jules reads the latest sched: "We did 114, and the next best was 112 by Plastic." Nicho talks about how he got about 2 hours sleep during his 4 hours off-watch, between checking with Jules before going down, doing some cleanup, and now getting up a bit early to get info on what to do next. Nicho: "Little bit of Groundhog Day. But we made some miles on the last sched. It's been the first for a few days, so it's nice." Low-altitude drone shot from the bow.AkzoNObel reaches on port gybe with a reefed main. Simeon sits on the weather rail; Emily sits forward of him on the mainsheet. Simeon talks about having a rough night, having been stuck under a cloud and lost a bit. Slomo of bow. Shot of them racing in a rain squall. Nicolai talks about two kinds of clouds: a "sucking" cloud or a "dropping" cloud. "Dropping clouds are the good ones, they come with rain but they also come with winds. The sucking clouds are the bad ones; they just take the breeze and you park up." Shots from inside the cabin as rain pours down on the cockpit. Below, Jules talks about the squall; it was their first big one, 33-35 knots. They saw it on the radar but were late reducing sail and so "got a bit low in it". Jules: "I just got washed back by a wave as I was trying to go forward, got knocked back on my backside, which was a little embarrassing." Shot of Jules being washed off his feet in the cockpit by a wave. Jules talks about seeing the size if the cloud after coming out of it. Slomo shot of water pouring in the cockpit. Martine, soaking wet below, talks about not being able to find her shoes, but it being a good opportunity for a shower, then she resumes looking for fresh clothes.All slomo shots: Martine on the helm in the sunset with spray. Washing machine cockpit shots. Emily on the aft pedestal with the outrigger plowing through the water, then with spray washing over her.Slomo shot of Martine watching dolphins jumping near them. Simeon steers."Konrad stop filming me." Crewmembers bartering food below at night.Martine talks about close action with Dongfeng. "It's been rewarding or disappointing. A bit of a competition, even between watches. You always want to perform well for your watch."Martine on the helm with a big grin on her face as AkzoNobel surfs and spray washes through the cockpit. Later, she talks to Konrad while Simeon steers in the background. Martine: "This morning was one of those moments that you think, that's why I do this. It was a pretty nice downwind, full-on surfing waves. It was pretty good."At the nav station at night, Ross points out things on the computer screen while Martine looks on brushing her teeth. Ross: "Yeah; super light. So we're just hanging into this stuff here, which was the lefty we got. Now we're into this righty, which is the header." Ross, talking to Konrad: "I think we've gone okay. Both Vestas and MAPFRE are both going really well. But I think it's been a trickier night for them... We've just got a little light spot to get through in the next hour, hour and a half, and then we get the breeze and can start pointing for Porto Santo." Shot of crew at the back of the boat before sunrise, with the dawn and Venus visible behind them.Slowmo glamour shot of Martine in sunglasses on the helm.