Nicolai Sehested / Team AkzoNobel

gender Male
Nicolai on the helm. MAPFRE and Brunel in their wake. Nicho: You're in the lead, but they're so close it's not really. Gotta sail as fast as we can, mode the boat, hopefully that will be enough. But it's going to be on, all day; here we go. Hasn't' been much sleep the last few days. Carlo talks to Jules below: Where's the Dongers? Jules explains how they went inside. "Could pay off for them; could not. Models aren't particularly clear." Nav screen shows them entering the little gap in the exclusion zone. He stands in the hatch and shows Simeon the route on a tablet. Simeon: Pretty good. [He sounds half asleep.] "Good feeling to be in home waters." Shots of Brunel and MAPFRE behind them. Nicho: Stress. You can cut it with a knife back there between those two boats. Still have Dongfeng... not as strong a position tactically, but can't tell. He talks about the exciting day ahead.HIgh drone shot in low-light conditions. Nicolai stacking below. Jules in the cockpit talking about wind with Nicolai and Nicho. Jules: Got a little complicated there. Models had a big shift. Trying to time that, and dealing wiht the TSS. High drone shot of Akzo with Brunel a quarter mile behind them. Emily stacking uphill below. Jules at the nav station talking to Nicho. Nicolai getting his gear on below, talking to Jules about the upcoming wind. Nicho talks about changing to the J0; confirms with Nicolai that the outrigger is already set up for it. Nicolai to Nicho: Set up J1, J3, outrigger? Slomo washing machine on deck. Brunel behind them. Drone shot of both boats. Nicolai below, his face covered in freshly-applied sunscreen: Day 2? Day 3. Rounded the virtual mark off Norway. Transitions... Talks about the stress on the three boats with a chance to win the race. "Stress is on them. We just want to sail as fast as we can and win the leg."Nicolai gets out of his bunk: "That was 20 minutes. That was good." Martine: I don't count time anymore. I don't count hours and minutes. Nicolai, agreeing: No. Grinding on deck. Jules calling course changes while looking at his tablet. Nicho talks about winds ahead. They talk about which way to take the exclusion zone. Nicho talks about rounding the virtual mark. Now we can see the guys in front of us. Need another compression and parkup. Have a reasonable lead over Scallywag and Turn the Tide, but need to get into the guys in front. Another boat in the distance ahead of them (Vestas?).Sailing into Aarhus as MAPFRE exits below them. Brad on the rail. Nicolai on the helm. Brunel crosses ahead of them. Brunel tacking directly ahead of them; 3 boatlengths away. Entering the marina with helicopter overhead. Rounding the mark right behind Brunel. Nicolai: Amazing day for me, sailing into my home port. Hope we put on a good show. Hopefully we can pay them back now wiht a good result. Brad lowers the J1 on the bow with spectators cheering. Sailing fast on the exit. Emily, below: Exciting to have fans cheering. Shattering; no sleep, and then lots of sail changes. Luke, on deck: Good to have the support of the Danish people. Certainly was full on for us; lots of maneuvers, lots of sail changes. I'm sure they got a sight they can take home and remember for a long time.Nicolai, Martine, and Emily wrestle a big sail (the MH0?) down on the foredeck.Doing a sail change in the cockpit; furling line gets a knot in it (?). They scramble to fix it. Deploying the MH0. Nicolai takes the sail bag forward to bag up the J0 (I think?) Brad fiddles with the halyard. Simeon looks to starboard. Jules: He's only gonna go if Brunel goes. Nicho and Jules talk about when to tack over to port.Slomo parade. Simeon, Nicolai, Luke, Martine, Emily, Jules, Justin (carrying a small child). Dockout. Simeon: This is where I learned sailing. It's going to be good fun. Nicolai on the helm in the prestart talking about their approach. Simeon: "3:20!" On the line, Brunel, Dongfeng, TTToP nearby. Jules calling nav on the upwind with his tablet. Other boats: MAPFRE. Dongfeng just behind. Nicho: Just be a blocker for the next 3 days. Good start by Nicolai. Now get up the coast and probably match these guys a little bit. Good start; just keep trying to put the best foot forward. Jules: Going better now, Nicolai. Nicolai on the helm.Early in the leg, Jules looks at a tablet. Nicho calls "main on". Boats behind them: Dongfeng, TTToP, Scallywag. Pan across the cockpit showing crew sailing the boat upwind: Nicolai on the helm, Martine and Emily (I think) grinding. Justin trimming the J1. Simeon in the pit. Luke sitting just forward of James (the OBR).Stern cam / crash cam of AkzoNobel reaching in strong conditions. Nicolai, on the helm, calls out, "Big wave. Hang on." and a big wave slaps off the side of the boat, sending spray in the air. Martine getting geared up below. "This is what they call summer. I can't believe it. We need winter gloves in summertime. Although we're only two or three miles away from everybody it's very bad visibility, very bad weather." Nicho comes below, talks to Jules: Consensus on deck is J1. Jules talks with him about the course. What's the best compromise? Nicho to Brad in his bunk: Bradley. You know how it's your off watch? We're gonna go to J1 now. Is that funny? Brad: Eh, not that funny. Nicho: I actually think it's reasonably funny. Brad (half asleep): You just doing this for fun? Brad talks about his lucky (red) socks. Kiwis... Nicho, below: We thought we had a terrible watch, not on our numbers, but Brunel was the only one that gained on us. We have the wrong sail up, so probably everyone has the wrong sail up. So we're gonna change the sail. Slomo spray on deck. Jules looks at an actual paper chart. [I love real charts.] Jules: Just about picking your right sail... Barometer's rising now, so the wind's going to shift right and drop at the same time. Exclusion zones... And get around the Skaggerak, which is the top of Denmark. Thread the boat at the fastest speed through a narrow straight line, which should be quite simple, but it's always easy to make complicated.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.Spreader cam view of the foredek as they haul down a sail - maybe J0 to MH0 peel? Or vice versa? Brad grinding on the aft pedestal: Had a rough night last night. Reckon we had something on the keel; tried everything and ended up having to do a back down. That cost us 4 miles, dropped us back in the pack. Justin driving. Jules and Nicolai talking below about sail combinations. Jules in the nav station: We are very close to 5 miles off second, and third, fourth, and fifth are all within 2 miles of each other. Pretty good wind, not good visibility. Can only see them on AIS. Pretty crap couple of hours. Just about going around the top of the Hebrides in the next couple of hours, and then heading for the Orkneys. Chart screen.Drone shot of 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.Drone shot of Akzo flopping with the J1 as a windseeker. Jules, standing on the mast: Best breeze is through there. Nicho, with binoculars: They're all on port with zeroes. Other boats on the horizon. Nicolai on the helm talks to Simeon about the wind. Nicho: Fastest we've been for about half an hour. Crew sleeping in the bow. Luke: talks about broken sleep because of maneuvers. Going to plug in some music and zone out. Low-alttitude drone shot of Akzo in drifting conditions. Nicho talks to Jules about best heading. Justin: Gotta get out to that line, don't we? Nicho responds about the ridge. Flopping with MH0. Jules: Might be our turn now. Simeon: You wanna come down on this? Other boat (MAPFRE) to starboard. Justin: Just catch it before it dies. Nicho: That way (points ahead) 20 miles there's good southerlies. Talks about MAPFRE next to them; different scenarios as the breeze fills in. High drone shot of the two boats.Slomo of rocks with sea birds flying around them. Sunset. Simeon looking at sunset. Nicolai: South tip of Ireland, beautiful... Bit of a chess game. Can choose to go around, or go between. Talk about wind shadow, tide. Flopping. Dongfeng in sunset light to starboard. Nicolai: We just went outside a small group of islands while the rest of the fleet went inside. Shot of Vestas emerging from behond the islands. Jules talks about wind. Sunset with a competitor ahead of them.Drone shot 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.Nicolai below: Still battling with Brunel; never-ending story. Simeon at the nav station: Gaining a bit, losing a bit, different pressure. Trying to get the best sail setup. Trying to cover and hold on. Same old same old. Drone shot with sunset of them peeling to the J0 in strengthening wind. Triple-heading. Bagging the MH0 on the foredeck. Nicho, below: We've lost a little in the last 24 hours to them. We've coughed up a little; that's part of the game in trying to put yourself between the other boat and the mark. Looking like a long match race to the finish. We're in a good position; just need to consolidate it a little in these next few hours. Drone shot circling AkzoNobel under cloudy skies.Flopping in glassy, lumpy conditions. On bow, Emily jokes about how they're no longer going for the 24-hour speed record. It's weird to think that a day ago she was wearing her crash helmet. Though she could use it now to not be hit by the (flopping) foot of the jib. Simeon, on the bow: Quite radical, from some pretty good conditions to basically nothing now. Clouds. Bouwe is right next to us. We see Brunel a few miles away. Justin: It's actually quite pleasant. And everyone's getting it (i.e., the other boats are stopped too). On the helm, Nicolai: It's not too bad. We've been in it before... You can't stress about it. You're not going to go any faster if you hoist every sail on the boat. Have a cup of tea and go again tomorrow when the breeze fills in. Pretty sure no matter what happens, Bouwe's not going to do 600 miles in 24 hours. I'll take that.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.Slomo washing machine. Slomo of Nicolai's face with red eyes. Nicolai below: It's fast and furious these two or three days now. running and reaching with big sails. Brunel is doing it the same. Are pushing it. Full on. Driving is a little bit hard, and your eyes are bleeding every time you go off watch. But that's part of it, it's good fun. The faster the better and the more fun it is. Hopefully one more day of fast sailing before the wind drops off. Slomo washing machine. Nicolai: Currently sitting in second, fighting with Brunel. And it's the same on the leader board. They're not going to give up and neither are we. Footage from the stern cam, mast cam looking forward, spreader cam looking at the cockpit, as they sail fast. Nicolai takes his clothes off below. Nicolai: It's pretty heinous on board. It's actually worse down here than it is up there. You don't want to walk around; you'll get hurt. Get some food and jump in your bunk pretty quickly. Nicolai eating, getting in his bunk. Simeon at the nav station: Everyone is in some good breeze. Last 6 hours we did 147 miles. So that's pretty big for these boats. We're going pretty well; had some current with us that helps a bit. At the moment the boatspeed doesn't drop below 24 knots. This is the last chance in the race. After Cardiff won't be doing this. Nav station.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.Parade. Simeon holding a little girl. Justin kissing a young child he's holding. Dockout. Nicho: Double pointer, only 8 days. People think it's short, but if you push it hard you feel it. Start. Brad: "Good breeze here." Other boats behind them. TTToP crossing astern at mark rounding. (Think that's the port-starboard between Vestas and TTToP behind them.) leeward mark rounding. Vestas astern. Nicolai on the helm going downwind under the bridge with MAPFRE and Dongfeng (and Brunel, invisible) ahead of them. Vestas 3 boatlengths to starboard. Simeon: Thinks they did well, except at the top mark. Felt my heart beating in my throat there. Now out of the bay into the fog. MAPFRE behind them. Jules: third place at the moment. Just trynig to wriggle our way around the exclusion zone. Discussion of J0 vs. J1.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.Low-alttiude drone shot. Nicolai: It's all about the last 24 hours. We're coming in fresh. Just go around them. Drone shot from above. Emiily: Passing by Bermuda. Which I think everyone knows by now is where I'm from, because I've been talking about it all week. I haven't been home for a year. So it's pretty cool for me to pass by. Give a wave. Simeon: During the watch we'll come into lighter pressure in the high. Once we sort of 90 degrees with the high pressure we've gotta gybe off. It will be tomorrow before we do that gybe. Drone shot.Wet shots on the foredeck: Luke and Simeon rigging for a sail change. Justin and Emily in the pit. Luke at the clew. Brad: Just left the doldrums, but it was harsh on us. Coughed up quite a few miles to the other boats. A little down at the moment, but we'll be back up. Now we're in 15-20 knots, tight reaching. Nicolai, below, eats something tubular. "Maybe not. Put that back." He wraps it up. He talks to Emily in the bunk above him about food.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.Drone shot of the rig. Closeup of the outrigger. Nicolai: Talks about one design, same sails. It all comes down to how you set up the sails, small adjustments. Maybe gain 0.01 knots of boatspeed. But over a week that's going to pay off. Shots of the sails. Nicolai explains the outrigger. He explains that it's like an airplane wing: At high speed want it flat, at low speed/low wind want it deep and powerful. Simeon: Look a lot at the heel trim. The longitudinal trim. And the shape, the amount of wetted surface. But also the stability. In light air we're not planing, so we want that fat ass out of the water. So we trim forward. Nicolai talks to someone below about the stack below. Simeon talks about the foils, keel, lift vs. drag. Like how we trim the sails, we basically trim the hull as well. Stacking below, close drone shot. Stacking sails forward. Jules talks about the other boats, and then the instruments, as the gauge they look at. Art vs. science. Helmsman's feel.Radar shows a cloud. Night time crew work. Simeon: "Tack coming off, Nicolai!" "Can we have the jib on here?" Simeon, below, explains that they can see the rain showers coming by on the radar. They can see, like now, when the cloud has gone over and sucked all the wind away, so they switch to a bigger sail. Someone (Justin?) talks with Brian about the massive cloud sucking up all that energy. Lightning. Nicolai: I think it's day 5... I miss the Southern Ocean. Sail flopping. "And it's warm. I hate the warm."Time lapse of the cabin below. Nicolai: We're not going so well this morning. We're reshuffling the weight of the boat. It's quite painful when you're losing. Simeon on the helm; Luke crossing the cockpit in slomo. Emily looks through binoculars at a competitor on their port side. Luke: Have been struggling. Breeze is shifty and up and down. "It's not the easiest sailing, and we haven't been doing it particularly well... Put it down to learning I guess."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?)Cool nighttime drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in light wind under a cloudy sky with lightning flashes visible behind them. In the dark, Jules talks with Simeon about it. Jules explains that they have a supercell behind them. Are concerned about the plate on the keel giving way and letting lots of water into the boat if they go over 20 knots. "It's an interesting evening." Nicolai: "I think it's too early for the J2." He talks about getting a proper thunder cell to get them to the finish. More drone shots. Favoriting for the beautiful drone photography, mostly.Distant drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing with the sunset behind them. Luke, below: Unfortunately we've just found out that the wind has gotten lighter. We're going to be out here another two days or so. At least we're not neck and neck with another boat. Drone shots of them sailing wiht the MH0 in 10 knots of wind. Nicolai on the helm: To be honest I don't mind too much. I'd rather get in and get some rest, but we shouldn't complain. A lot of people had it a lot worse than we did. We've got through this leg in a really good position; we should be grateful for that.Drone shot of AkzoNobel reaching unde the MH0 in 10 knots of wind. Nicolai, below: The keel situation is not improving, unfortunately. It's gone the other way. Bailing... It's coming in quicker than we can almost get it out. Luke: Everyone's tired at the end of our Southern Ocean leg. Having to bail every 15 mintues. In another 6 to 7 hours it will moderate. Shot of bailing. Nicolai: No rules when it comes to fixing boats in the Volvo. You can do whatever you have to. I went into Luke's crew bag and stole one of his socks... Luke: I'm happy to take one for the team, and do what it takes to get us to the finish line. Sandals!Closeups of water leaking out from something below. Simeon explains: He noticed when he was going to light the fire for cooking. Water was squirting out of the cover plate of the keel box. Nicolai talking with him. Brad gets out gear to go for a little swim. "Just jump in for a quick swim and see what I can find." On deck in the pre-dawn. Brad goes down in a survival suit, it looks like, with goggles. He pulls himself down to the keel. Calls for slack. Brad comes back: Two cover plates for the keel box. There's a gaping hole about that big in the bottom of our boat. Should be sealed here (inside). Going to have to come up with a way to sail the boat without pushing water inside the boat. Simeon: A bit of slamming, because of the big speeds, broke part of the cover plate of the keel. Simeon, Jules, and Nicolai discuss. Nicolai on the phone, asking about reinforcing with battens on the inside. Simeon: Keep an eye on it, maybe make some reinforcements. They remove the cover plate inside. Fiddle with reinforcements. Reattaching the cover plate. Beautiful sunset drone shot. Simeon: Not so much a repair as much as a reinforcement. "We think this will bring us to Itajai safely, and otherwise I'll have to sit on top of it."Beautiful sunset (I think) drone shot, with AkzoNobel coming into view. Albatross in the foreground with crepuscular rays. Are you kidding me? Nicolai, below: You're never going to take it easy. You're going to use the boat as hard as you can, push it as hard as you can. Seeing the other boats doesn't make me more nervous; it just makes me want to keep the boat going. Do the daily checks; keep the boat in one piece. Brad, on the stern: Maybe take it a little more cautiously, make sure we don't come a cropper. Nicolai: Lots of monitoring systems, checking the load of different hydraulics. In the lighter stuff can check everything, including steering systems. Looking up the rig. Brad explains that what you're looking for when looking up the rig. Nicolai: Things break every day. It's just about finding it in time and fixing it before it snowballs. Washing machine shots. Favoriting mostly for that drone sequence.Jules, at the nav station, talks about the wind and confused sea state. Spreader cam views of washing machine on deck. Crash cam view of Nicho (based on his foulies lettering) getting washed off the helm by a wave. Below, Brad talks to Nicolai about his nose; Nicolai says he's broken it before, then pushes it back into place. Nicolai, below, talks about getting beaten up by the waves. He broke his nose last night. But nothing too serious. Jules and Simeon at the nav station talk about strategy. Nicho: Got washed off the wheel. First one I've had. Held on tight. I had two tethers on, just got washed back on my ass on the boat. Crash cam footage of the washing off again. Jules: We've also slowed down a bit. TTToP slowed down a bit due to rig issues, and Vestas has just been dismasted in this same area. Standing by... Simeon: Especially for Vestas, a tough time for those guys. Jules: At the moment hard to go max speed because of the sea state, and fear of breaking the boat. Talks about the upcoming route. A bit of a tradeoff; trying to get north as quickly as they can but also as safely as they can.AkzoNobel closes in on Cape Horn. As they leave it behind, Simeon talks about how it's good to get past it. Have to give everything now and try to catc up with the guys in the lead. Slomo of Cape Horn with the binnacle in the foreground. Nicolai: Happy to be here in one piece. Hard to get to. Nicho, on the pedestal: Used to see this stuff as a kid in books, early explorers. Never imagined doing it himself. But now he has 5 times. It's why he has all the gray hair. Closeup of Cape Horn.Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. Slomo of wake peaking up into a geyser of whitewater. Nicho on the helm as they surf fast in big wind. Wake shot with big waves overtaking. Slomo of stuffing the bow and whitewater coming aft over the cockpit; Justin ducks. Slomo big-wave shots. Slomo of crew stacking aft. Nicolai on the helm with big waves behind him.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 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.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.Nicho, below in semi-darkness: Right now just coming into all that breeze and grief, probably not the smartest thing you could ever do. Slomo spray. Nicolai, trimming, talks about how this is the sailing you do the race for. The cold is not that bad. The breeze is a different story. Justin, on the aft pedestal: We're in the middle of a good old-fanshioned boat race. Pretty much all the boats lined up on an easterly line. (He runs through the list of nearby competitors.) Four or five days of gybing coming up in breeze, so that's going to sort out positions pretty quickly. Somebody's gonna have one. Not our turn. Not our turn. Nicho, below: At the end of the day it's just so difficult to get across unscathed, without something happening. That's certainly our aim here. But it's a big ask, with at least a week in 30, 40 knots in the Southern Ocean. It's just a massive, massive effort.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.Parade out to the boat; conch being blown. Simeon steers with one hand and waves with the other as they leave the dock. Brad, on the bow, talks about a lot of emotions but trying to keep the eyes on the prize. Auckland put on a great show. Hard to leave it to be honest. Start, with AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Nicolai on the helm: "Okay; we're racing." Brad hiking. Sailing upwind with other boats crossing (all the other boats in the shot). Brad hoisting the A3 as they approach the weather mark. Rouding the weather mark. Shot of TTToP screwing up; heeling bigtime with their A3 not deployed (keel position issue?). Gybing, running. Simeon talks about leaving Auckland, nice conditions at the start. Going into the open ocean now. Slomo spray as they go to weather. Slomo on the foredeck as they pack the A3, while sailing to weather under the J1.Parade out to the boat; conch being blown. Simeon steers with one hand and waves with the other as they leave the dock. Brad, on the bow, talks about a lot of emotions but trying to keep the eyes on the prize. Auckland put on a great show. Hard to leave it to be honest. Start, with AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Nicolai on the helm: "Okay; we're racing." Brad hiking. Sailing upwind with other boats crossing (all the other boats in the shot). Brad hoisting the A3 as they approach the weather mark. Rouding the weather mark. Shot of TTToP screwing up; heeling bigtime with their A3 not deployed (keel position issue?). Gybing, running. Simeon talks about leaving Auckland, nice conditions at the start. Going into the open ocean now. Slomo spray as they go to weather. Slomo on the foredeck as they pack the A3, while sailing to weather under the J1.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.Early morning. Jules talks about how they can see Scallywag now. They've taken about 10 miles from them in an hour and a half. Bow with stack on it. Nicho looks toward Scallywag. Jules, at the nav station, talks about 1400 miles (to go in the leg?). About 1500 miles of sailing. Jules talking strategy. Cecile talking about how she's glad she picked this boat to be on because they're in a good spot. Still a ways to go. Until you get to North Cape with a decent lead, I won't think about anything. Jules and Simeon at the nav station look at the latest sched. Nicolai in the companionway talks about the competion. Luke talks about how they had a great sched. Talks about New Caledonia, how the other boats are picking different lines. Cecile with a hand-bearing compass. Nicolai, below: Four miles to Scallywag. Three weeks of work behind it, and can lose it in one cloud... Coming together more. Speed, experience, teamwork. Adds up. Jules, Simeon, and Nicho talking around a tablet. Sailing south in light conditions.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.Scallywag sails a half mile away to leeward (port) of them in the sunrise. Simeon jokes about it. Nicolai eats: Next 48 hours really important. Whoever gets through the best will do best. Each time they've been next to Scallywag in this leg they've beaten them. Nicho: It's good to have a boat next to you. Easy to lose from here; will be difficult to win. But have a good chance at it. Which is more than you can ask for in this race. Shot of Scallywag astern. Jules talks strategy below. Nicho: Had good breeze throughout the sched. But the disadvantage of two boats side by side is you stick together. Crew drinking. Nicho: "I'm from Australia, it's not a problem. The guy from Denmark, he really struggles." He wakes up Nicolai. Nicolai talks about the sun and heat. Simeon, below. Jules: "We're not doing anything at the moment. We're not in the wind, we're losing to him, we're not sailing to our plan, and we're sailing slowly." Hoisting the J1; lowering the MH0. Cecile talks about losing the lead to Scallywag. Simeon in the red light of the sunset: Very expensive. Nothing you can do about it now. Knew west was best in both models. Try to keep west... Try to put yourself in a good position... Should have been more aggressive. Learned a lesson today. Sunset.Brad, up the mast wearing a GoPro (realize it's a Garmin), looks for wind, calls down to the deck. View from deck level as they flop. Knotmeter: 1.6. Hoisting the J1. Luke stands by the MH0 clew. Luke: Brad's just up the mast to pop the battens. GoPro shot of Brad doing that. Luke: 2/3 of the distance through the leg, Scallywag just 4 miles away. Simeon: Brunel, Scallywag, and ourselves. Cecile: Hopefully the guys behind us get stuck in the same stuff. Shot of another boat on the horizon. Martine takes a bearing. Jules talks about "going over there to get in that breeze. Luke looks through the binoculars. Simeon talks down into the cabin: "Need to get more snacks. Keep up the motivation. Luke lies below. Nicolai eats. Simeon: All short-term plans. Luke: Sea state is calm. Going to get flatter as well. Winch closeup. Sunset.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.Nicho, below, talks about how cool it was last night pushing in 28 knots of wind. Can't talk on deck; just focus on your job. When the front that they're on breaks down there will hopefully be some compression. Pressure on the team, and has been since they damaged the mast in Leg 3. He thinks they're a better team than where they're sitting overall. Nicolai, below, talks about Simeon getting blown off the wheel, making a big bang. "Only one thing can make a bang that big, and that's him falling off the wheel." He just ran for the wheel and grabbed it. Crash cam footage of the incident. Simeon: "Reminds me of when I fall out of a tree as a young boy." At the nav station, Jules talks to Nicho about Dongfeng doing a peel; maybe that's why they fell back. Nicho: "We're just quick Jules." Jules: "The other two are quicker." Nicho laughs. Washing machine shots on deck, closeup of the rudder. Cool fisheye perspective shots. Stacking, shot from outside the lifelines with a GoPro on a pole. Slomo washing machine. Spray. Brad grinding. Someone (Luke?) gives a thumbs up. "Finally moving!"Simeon gives a recap from the nav station. Bouncing upwind, everyone very close. Cat and mouse game; Brunel a little ahead. Lost a few miles during the J1 -> J2 change. That's the hardest change, getting the J1 away. Shot of them sailing upwind. Brunel to weather; three other boats astern. MAPFRE to leeward. Slomo of MAPFRE. Nicho on the helm. Jules at the nav station, talking about changing to the J2 before it gets dark. Red-light shot of the crew grinding. Shot of them going to weather with the J1 up. J1 being hoisted. Brad wresting a sail on the foredeck. Nicolai in the pit, then on the foredeck.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.Distant drone shot of AkzoNobel. Drone shot of the cockpit from overhead. Shot of the crew in the cockpit. Simeon, below, sys they're 3 days from Hong Kong, a little less breeze than they wanted. A couple of gybes in the last 48 hours to seek some more pressure to the south, which was unfortunate because they'd committed to the north earlier. Trying to defend against MAPFRE. Drone flyby of an interesting-looking motor vessel, painted white and about 100' long; numbers "BJ4979" painted on the side. It's a tuna longliner; see https://www.wcpfc.int/node/16813. As the drone passes it we see AkzoNobel in the background. In the cockpit, Brad and Nicolai talk. Brad: "What's your favorite movie quote?" Nicolai: "Favorite movie quote?" He thinks. Brad: "I think I know what it is... Yours would be: 'I'm not a smart man. But I know what love is." [Forrest Gump.] Nicolai: "That's a good one." Another drone shot of the fishing boat, showing the crew working in the area forward of the cabin. Brad: "'Are you not entertained?'" [Gladiator.]Nicolai, on deck: "You are going to have good and bad days when you do the Volvo Ocean Race, and you're more likely to have more bad days than good days. Today for example is a bad day; we just lost 4 miles to Dongfeng in a couple of hours, and we don't really have the answers to it. So frustration goes up, people get frustrated, tired, they're exhausted already, and you've gotta be able to deal with that. And that just comes down to good leadership, good management of the team, and everyone getting back into their positing and their roles, and just doing their job, and not trying to get into each other and getting emotional about it... keep the ups and downs away... Tomorrow we might gain for miles... Just flatline the emotional part of it." Below, Simeon talks about Dongfeng being 4 miles ahead. "And the next guys coming on watch are like, what happened?" On deck, Brad looks tense. "It's not like it's the end of the world. Still a week out." Luke, on the wheel: Talks about being happy the rest of the fleet is tucked away. Nicolai talks about having three not-so-good legs, so the pressure is on. Need to deliver results. "You can never regret putting in 100%, and that's what we're doing right now."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.High drone shot showing Dongfeng in the foreground and AkzoNobel in the background. It's a pretty distant shot, and makes me wonder: The OBRs haven't been using this opportunity to get drone closeups of their competitors (which they did, a little, in Leg 2). I bet there was some kind of agreement to limit that, presumably for competitive reasons (i.e., an extension of the "OBR shall not contribute to the racing" concept, such that they shouldn't be potentially helping their crew steal info about setup on the other boats). Anyway, Sam's voice is lapped over the shot: "Nicho, tell me about the art of sailing through the doldrums." We see Nicho, who tells a story about meeting with a meterologist who talked about clouds all day, and he asked him how to tell a good cloud from a bad one. "There is an element of luck... I"m lucky I enjoy it." Luke talks about being stuck in the doldrums, playing cat-and-mouse with Dongfeng. Overlapped with a time-laps of the drone shot of the two boats - which I realize now shows a third boat, Vestas, ahead of them both. Simeon, on the helm, talks about trying to sail from puff to puff. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them and to leeward. Luke talks about how he thinks Dongfeng is probably tense on board, with their close competitor MAPFRE close by. Shot of a rain cloud. Drone shot from astern as the sun is setting to port with a competitor on the horizon while Brad is hoisted up the mast. Drone shots circling him at the masthead showing rain clouds and the other boats around them. Nicolai talks about them sending Brad up to look for the beeze, having 5 boats in the same area. Simeon, shirtless with the low sun on him, talks about being pretty happy with the situation. "Fighting, you know, every single watch and hour." A shot of them approaching a competitor (I think; unless it's a low-altitude drone shot of their own boat) with the sunset sky behind them. We see the other boat just a few boatlenghts away. Someone says, "There's somebody standing on the prod." [?] Brad (I think) calls out to them: "Who's the monkey on the bowsprit?" We hear the response. Something like, "Go back to Kerikeri, mate", which makes Brad chuckle. [Brad and Blair Tuke are both from Kerikeri, NZ.] I think this must be the super-close approach they had with MAPFRE around 2018.01.10 08:20:10 UTC, so that would make it either Blair or Louis who's answering. Brad, invisible in the dark: "It's nice to talk to somebody from another boat for a change. As much as I love these guys, it's nice to hear a different voice for once. Especially one from Kerikeri." Awesome drone shot passing AkzoNobel at low altitude, flying toward MAPFRE. Lightning-flash illuminated shots of them sailing in the squall that night.Amazing high-altitude drone shot showing AkzoNobel far below and a number of islands, clouds, and I think a rainbow in the distance. Pretty sure that's Ghupuna closest to them. Jules explains that they're at the east end of the Solomons. In third place. "Still a long way to go." Drone shot with island behind them. Nicolai: "Solomon Islands. Beautiful place. One of those places you don't get to go often that you probably never will come back to." Shot of whale surfacing on their starboard quarter. More islands. Drone shot of purse seiner ("Southern Seas No. 302 SI-LV110") fishing as they pass in the background. Drone records them pulling in what looks like a struggling blue shark. Detail of the fishing boat's mast, with multiple crow's nests with what look like spotting scopes mounted on them.Drone shot of AkzoNobel with low sun behind them. In the audio we hear Jules announcing the latest sched, with distances to other boats. Switches to closeups of him talking in the companionway. Below, Brad talks to Nicolai about "Master and Commander". On the foredeck, stacking, Martine slips and falls. She sits in the cockpit and talks about "Master and Commander": "It feels like Master and Commander. We are chasing the French boat." Below, Jules talks about doing 11 gybes in 11 hours. We see the zigzag line on the chart screen. Nicolai, on the pedestal, talks about how they've been chasing Dongfeng, choosing to stick with them. Martine and Simeon talk about it as a battle. Martine: "It is fighting a battle but no guns. Just a lot of trimming the sails." We see a closeup of Cécile's finger (the little finger on her left hand) with a nasty slice as she bandages herself. She explains how she cut it on the handhold when she was thrown off-balance. In the cockpit, Brad, invisible in a balaclava and sunglasses, jokes about wanting to cut it off and cauterize it. "I wanted to do it today but she wouldn't let me." He explains that the pirates used to do it all the time. References Master and Commander again. Nicolai talks about Dongfeng and trying to learn from their moding (whether they sail high or low) and the sail combinations and setup. We see Dongfeng in the distance. Closeup of Cécile's hand with the bandaged finger as she trims. Great drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing fast, triple-heading with the A3.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.Crew in cockpit. Nav station below, with instrument readout. Jules explains that they're appraoching the finish area. Talks about the high pressure they have to go through to get to the finish. So they're a few days out from Melbourne still. Simeon putting on (off?) his gear. Talks about pleasant conditions. "Everyone's looking forward to finishing the leg and move on." Frustration. Shot of Nicolai eating. Jules looking glum at nav station; he gets up and leaves.Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel sailing in 10 knots of wind under MH0 and J3 on starboard gybe. Slomo shot of which being trimmed. Below, Nicolai talks about his second Volvo being different than his first one. "Still having issues and battles, and that's part of the race... Not where we want to be right now, and we're in a tough position; we know that. All sailors... are used to being in deep holes, and having to dig their ways out." Slomo closeup of Nicolai. He talks about how you always have to put a huge amount of effort in just to be in the race, to compete. "Of course it's a bit painful that you don't get the result you aim for, but you gotta keep your head down and keep putting in the effort, because it will change eventually... You can never regret putting in the effort, no matter how it turns out. That's just the way you do it. You'd rather aim high and fail rather than aim low and hit." Slomo shots of him. Slomo shot of the helm, the horizon.Someone (Nicho?) steering. Nicolai at the nav station, flips through a small notebook. "It's been a little bit difficult leg when it comes to the damage on board." Talks about not being able to replace spares in Melbourne, and only having two members of the shore team on the boat. He's going thorugh the list of spares and trying to figure out how to best repair things in Melbourne while still having spares for the leg to Hong Kong. He taps on the keybaord. Someone (Brad?) up the rig in light conditions. GoPro footage from Brad as he goes to the masthead. Head of the MH0, running lights, wind instruments. On the helm, Justin explains that he's doing a rig check, that conditions have eased enough for it to be safe for him to do so. He laughs: "We just had him up there a few days ago in 40 odd knots of breeze." We see him remove the windpoint. On deck, he says the rig is looking fine. Says the windpoint was snapped on day 1 in 40 knots. Nicolai, below, talks about how it's good to have different skills among the crew. "Jules is really good with electronics and nav stuff. Luke is a sailmaker. Simeon and myself can do a lot of boatbuilding and boat work... I think we can have hte boat race-ready pretty quickly when we get to Melbourne."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.Apocalyptic slomo shot of light through dark gray clouds as spray swirls around the wake. Looking forward from the stern, they're sailing under J2 (I think) on the outrigger and reefed main. Someone calls "main on", and Nicolai grinds on the aft pedestal. He turns to the camera as he's grinding. "Into the Southern Ocean. This is where the fun begins." In slomo, Álex grins at the camera makes a peace sign, a thumbs up, and gestures forweard. Slomo spray.Nicolai, on deck in his neoprene cowl in fairly light air, talks about how they're the most southern boat right now, and have just gybed. Fleet split into two groups; they're wth MAPFRE and Dongfeng. Below, Martine (in cornrows) bails out water. Jules and Nicho, at the nav station, look at routing software. Jules talks about being a bit disappointed in the latest sched, vs. MAPFRE and Dongfeng, Brunel. Nicho: "We coughed it up there last night." Separately, Nicho talks about how each of the boats separated; probably due to breeze. Shot of Simeon on the helm, scowling in his cold-weather cowl. Álex, in the cockpit, talks about how we are here, in the Southern Ocean, but it isn't normal conditions. "Like a pit stop before the next depression comes, with 35, 40 knots, straight to Melbourne." Nicolai talks about how variable the Southern Ocean is. "It's like a spring day in Denmark up north. So I'm enjoying it."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.Simeon walks along the side of the boat, shaking hands with shore crew standing on the dock. Motoring out, Brad talks about how funny it is to be talking to lots of people on Facebook, on shore, and then leaving and realizing it's just the 10 of you for the next few weeks." Nicho, standing on the stern, talks about leaving. "Not nervous. But quite motivated, to take this thing on. This is a big leg, a double-point leg... It's a high-wind, high-risk, high-speed leg." The start; other boats. Scallywag dives below them from astern. Footage of them going very slowly in light wind. Someone (Nicho?) talks about getting the FR0 stowed. Nicolai on the helm as they sail fast on port tack. Nicho talks about them getting stuck in a light patch and the boats inshore getting away from them. "Long, long way to go yet." Slomo grinding.Drone shot of two boats a few miles away to weather sailing on port tack: TTToP on the right and Scallywag a few hundred yards behind them. Drone pulls back to show AkzoNobel below, ahead and to leeward of the other boats. Shot from amidships on the weather rail showing Akzo's crew with the other two boats behind them and to weather. Jules sits on the weather rail with his arms crossed. Jules: "Got a pretty close race on at the moment with the last 270 miles to Cape Town." He talks about how they have a ridge of high pressure ahead of them that they keep banging into, which brings them back to the other boats. Nicolai steers. Brad talks about the tricky conditions, constant adjustments. Simeon scowls at the boats astern of them. Emily, in the companionway: "It's 6 a.m., just finished a 4-hour watch, 2 to 6. It's one of the longest 4 hours I've had on this trip. We're pretty close to both Turn the Tide and Scallywag, and less then a day from Cape Town, so it's pretty tense." Very low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing to weather in light conditions. Jules talks about how they'll probably finish in the middle of the night. "There'll probably be a massive park-up close to the finish line." Last place will probably be decided 300 meters from the finish. "We'll have to get our rabbits' feet, 4-leaf clover, dice, and other such paraphernalia out and give them a shake." Shot of Scallywag and TTToP to weather and behind them.Drone shot pans up to show AkzoNobel sailing toward the drone. In the cockpit, Martine trims the main. On the helm, Nicho talks about how they've fallen off the front and winds are lighter [hence the drone footage], and it's hurting them in the previous sched and likely the next one. Luke talks about how they're now last on the leaderboard. "Pretty frustrating. Haven't had the best luck with the weather, unfortunately... but also haven't been sailing the boat as well as we possiby can. So we have a lot of work to do in Cape Town." Jules at the nav station looks concerned. Nicolai aggressively brushes his teeth. Simeon, below, talks about the disappointment: "It's always hard to swallow when you see every sched, moving back." Low-altitude drone shot from the port quarter. Peter, grinding: "We're pushing as hard as possible, trying to catch every wave. But we've been losing for a few days." Nicho, on the helm; Simeon, below, talk about needing to stay focused and keep pushing despite the disappointment. Luke, on the stern pedestal: "Sometimes you get the elevator; sometimes you get the shaft." Drone shot.Below, Luke gets out of his bunk, gets dressed. Luke: "When it gets a bit rough and hard out here, there there are a few things I miss. Mainly one of them this time compared to the last race is my family. There are two young kids at home. You see I've got their pictures on the bulkhead here. They're big fans of the race and the team. I find myself thinking about them, and what I'm missing out on their lives." Closeup of two children's drawings. The one on the right shows a person at the helm. Above an adult has written: "by Teb. I love you Daddy" The one on the left shows a person with yellow hair and a brown beard. Text above the figure reads, "Brad just about to sleep in his bunk." (Nice likeness of Brad Farrand.) Luke talks about missing his bed and pillow. On deck, we see Luke on the helm. Next, below, we see a close-up of Nicolai's salt-water hands. Nicolai talks about what he misses from home when it's rough and wet, as it is today. Dry warm bed, time off. "Instead of putting yourself through pain and suffer, as we do these days." Shot out the cabin of washing-machine action in the cockpit. Jules calls out from the cabin to the crew. Jules: "A really good [something]. Probably another five or six hours. Should still slowly bend left. I think we're good." Luke, below, talks about how they're 5 or 6 days from Cape Town; looking forward to getting in and seeing the family. Slomo shot from behind the wheel of major spray coming over the cockpit.Nicho, on deck as AkzoNobel sails on starboard gybe in 10 knots of wind: "The last sched dropped us from first to fifth... The game is to set ourselves up for the next front." Simeon talks about the next 24-48 hours, and how they've stacked the sails smaller so they can get them further astern. Emily: "I'm expecting it to get a lot windier and a lot colder. So I've got two sets of thermals I've been saving up for the whole trip." Brad, below, says he's been saving thermals. Nicolai, below, also says he's been saving up a new set of thermals he'll be pulling out. Shot up the slot at AkzoNobel triple-heading on starboard.Shot of a raincloud to weather. Rain dripping off the boom. Jules talks about the morning squalls, weather patterns. Nicolai talks about how they're leading the fleet (based on being so far east), and how Jules put them in a good position. Now they need to see if they can hold onto it as the wind goes left. Nicolai: "Hopefully pick up a bit of low pressure soon and head to Cape Town." Drone shot of AkzoNobel's masthead with a reefed main and some masthead sail (J1?). Wider drone shot showing AkzoNobel triple-heading with reefed main. Slomo of Nicolai on the helm. Simeon, on the stern, talks about their having had a good 24-hour run, separating from the fleet. Simeon: "Always a bit of risk when you sail away from the others... Everyone's positive. Everyone's fit and strong." Shot up the mast. Slomo grinding.Beautiful drone shot of AkzoNobel reaching on port at sunrise. Nicolai types at the nav station. He talks about how they just peeled to a fractional sail. Falling a little bit behind the other boats; looking for speed. Mast cam view of the deck. Jules, on deck: "We're struggling a bit with the reaching setup; the guys in front of us stretching away from us." On the stern, Emily washes up. Peter, on a sheet, talks about how they have some nice waves and are trying to catch most of them without getting too low. Luke talks about how it's frustrating that the rich (ahead of them) are getting richer. Brad, below, talks about the frustrations of leaders pulling away without their being close enough to see their sail setup. (Note: He has a raspberry-colored buzz cut from the equator-crossing ceremony, which didn't show up so far in a video.) Nicolai talks about working hard, not panicking, getting faster day by day. Slomo shot of Emily and Nicho working the foredeck.Below, Nicolai and Brad eat out of food packets. They discuss their week. Nicolai: "Monday was my birthday." Intercut with shot of Brad hitting Nicolai with a pie in his face. Brad: "I thought that's what you do in Denmark." Nicolai: "Nah." Brad: "Not a tradition?" They go over the rest of the week with intercut shots of various things. End up talking about the upcoming week. Nicolai tells Brad Neptune is waiting for him. Brad, shirtless, lounges by the galley as Nicolai washes a utensil. Nicolai: "I've crossed the equator. He's not waiting for me; he's waiting for you."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.Sunrise drone shot of AckzoNobel sailing on starboard gybe under the MH0. Jules talks about their relationship with the other boats. Jules: "We're bow-to-bow with MAPFRE here; third and fourth." Shot of MAPFRE to starboard of them and slightly forward of the beam, also on starboard. Nicolai, shirtless in the bow, below, where crew have been sleeping, talks about how it's been hectic, but now there's a chance to dry out and make repairs before the next hectic period. Shot of thermals drying on a sheet in the cockpit. On deck, Nicolai explains how they need to repair a daggerboard piece: "We pulled out the dogbone of the daggerboard, so we can't hold the board down. We just have to replace that one." Shots of them wrestling the board back into its slot. Super-pretty low-altitude drone shot showing AkzoNobel's bow with the sunrise behind them. Close-up of Luke patching the J1. He explains that they're finally fixing the sail that was torn during the departure. Shots of Luke and Brad, shirtless, gluing patches on the sail. Shots of crew lying/sleeping in the bow. Nicolai, in the bow, talks about people resting and the jobs "getting ticked off."On deck as AkzoNobel surfs on port gybe, Brad, behind Nicolai's back, sprays whipped cream onto a plastic cake box lid. He says to Nicolai, "Here you go," and pushes the "pie" into Nicolai's face. With Simeon steering, the crew in the cockpit eats cake and sings "Happy Birthday" to Nicolai. Nicolai: "Best cake I ever had." Nicolai: "I was on a boat like this in the North Sea with Simeon." Emily: "Did he give you cake?" Nicolai: "It was more colder. It was more miserable, there was less fun and there was no cake. So I prefer this one over the last one." Washing machine shots of Nicolai getting doused. Nicolai back at the cake-eating: "My teammates are being really rough on me today. They put whipped cream in my face, which is not a smart move when you're about to go across the equator in one week." Brad: "I heard that's a Danish tradition though." Nicolai: "It's not a smart move." Brad, eating cake: "It's a Danish tradition." Nicolai: "It's not a smart move. When you're crossing the equator in one week, King Neptune's got a few things to sort out and you don't put whipped cream in my face; that's not a smart move."Simeon on the dock before the race with a little girl (presumably his daughter), then side-hugging and kissing a woman (presumably his wife). Simeon, below on AkzoNobel (before the start?). Simeon: "Of course you know it's not that sudden change; you've been plannnig for it all along. But still, it's hard. Twenty-one days, more, twenty-two days, without a call. It's a bit old-school. These days everyone is in contact all around the world 24/7... On the other hand, it's a real comfortable feeling. They're in a good place and they take care of each other. So when everything is good at home it's easy for us to leave." Slomo shot of Luke holding a young child on the dock. Below, as AkzoNobel is bashing under sail, Luke: "It's a bit differnt, you know, family life and then coming into the storm, so to speak. It's great sailing conditions, it's just unfortunate that we've had a tear to our J1. But we'll get it fixed in a few days time when we need it and be back to full power." On deck, looking forward as AkzoNobel surfs toward the sunset, Nico steers. Nicolai gets spray in the face from the washing machine.Nicolai just before dawn: "We're still chasing Dongfeng down a little bit. But they're doing a good job staying between us and Lisbon... We just hope we have enough runway to make it work... It's a drag race from here to Lisbon. To pass them, they need to do a mistake or we need to be a little bit lucky."Nicolai on the helm at sunset talking about getting to Lisbon. "A podium finish would be even better, but let's just get there first." Shot of the wake.Brad (gesturing at Dongfeng, off camera): "If we hold these guys off that'd mean we had 6th place. But if we hold these guys *and* the guys behind them off, that'd be 3rd place." Nicolai, on the helm: "That was funny. You're a funny man." Brad: "Stop it."As AkzoNobel sails upwind on starboard, Simeon talks to the crew about what's happened in the fleet around them. Nicolai is on the helm; Emily looks at a tablet. Simeon: "Scallywag was hanging on, but they fell off, so they're 10 miles behind now... Light is on top, and pressure is there [gesturing to leeward]. Vestas is trying to defend. But actually MAPFRE went up higher... Options are still open."Shots of a land bird (some kind of old world warbler, I think?) perched on Ross's head. He and Nicolai (on the helm) joke about it.Nicolai, below, works on a broken-down winch: "We had a windy night last night, and when you have a bit of breeze it's always hard on the gear. We broke the winch we use to furl the sails, so just fixing that right now. Without the winches we can't pull the sails; we can't adjust anything... These are crucial. We need them all the time... So that's why I'm doing this now, and we'll have it back up in a hopefully couple of minutes, but probably half an hour."Night. Talking in the cockpit as they've furled the Fractional 0. Discussion of rudders. A crewmember (Nicolai, maybe?) probes with a boat hook off the stern, then straightens up. Crewmember: "Gone." Other voice: "Gone?" First crewmember: "Gone." Simeon below, at the nav station: "We're here off the African coast, and we hit something pretty hard. Twenty-two, twenty-three knots. Some plastic on the rudder, vibration on the keel. We furled the fractional and did a bit of a back down. Seems to be gone." He shrugs. "No water in the boat. Rudders still in." He gives a "let's go" gesture and smiles.Ross, with a tablet, navigates in the cockpit. Simeon steers. Ross: "We're setting up for Gibraltar, we're just on the starboard side of the channel in the anchorage where the ships are, literally just east of Gibraltar. And we're gonna gybe and get lined up for the shipping lanes... One of the busiest places in the world for shipping, and we've got to follow all the rules and regulations, and at the same time yacht this thing through as fast as we can. So yeah; it's gonna be a busy 6 to 8 hours." Nicolai takes the helm from Simeon.António is on the weather rail holding binoculars. António: "Yesterday I had just finished diving the boat - Scallywag - and all of a sudden Simeon ran up to me and asked me if I wanted to do the leg. Of course, that was my goal. I spoke to Witty, and he was happy with it as well. So it was good. Very good opportunity." Nicolai on the helm. António: "When you are a reserve sailor, you need to be always ready to jump on board whenever it's needed. So: that's how I am here."