Pablo Arrarte / MAPFRE

gender Male
Xabi talks below in Spanish. From the noise and movement it sounds like they're getting into the stronger wind. Repeats in English: 25 - 30 knots from west to northwest. Last night passed a light wind transition close to Norway. Now they have Dongfeng 2 miles to leeward and astern. So very happy, and hopefully we can keep this position. Still a lot to go, obviously. Rob talks to Pablo, on the helm, about tactics with Dongfeng (who is to leeward and ahead). If Dongfeng tacks, then MAPFRE can sail low and fast to get into a controlling position (?)(Something like that.) Pablo: They are tacking. Rob: Okay. Speeding it up guys. Dongfeng approaching. Patch on the J1. Rob: We don't really want to sag down to them. But we do want to pull some bearing. So higher and faster please. (Chuckles.) Slomo of Neti on the helm. Stern cam, spreader cam of stacking aft. Washing machine. Spray on the foredeck as the wind builds.Rob, in the midnight sun: In and out of Aarhus today. It was hard. It's been nonstop all day. In fact this whole leg's been nonstop. Got out of phase, a bit shifty. Was pretty good to see all the people on shore. Just been fighting, fighting, fighting. Waiting for a chance to get by. Be patient. Wait for them to make a mistake. Keep nibbling away. Pablo: Talks in Spanish about being tired, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: We're tired, like eveyrone I guess. The important thing is to keep the boat fast. Couple of hours of sleep. We are with Dongfeng; they are very close. Have been fighting all day. Meter by meter. Hopefully we can take them over tonight. More discussion in Spanish. Pablo: We have been doing a lot of maneuvers. And in my case I have been on the wheel. Good fun; with Dongfeng we have been fighting. Slomo of RIB alongside. Willy. Joan with his tablet, looking at Dongfeng. Spectator boats following them. Tack. (Oh, this is their Aarhus footage.) Crowd cheering. Xabi in the pit. Vestas crossing their bow. Tamara talks in Spanish while trimming. Slomo of Dongfeng ahead of them. Blair on the foredeck looking SO punchy. Xabi looks through binoculars. Lowering the J1. Slomo of Xabi in the sunset.Prestart with 5-minute horn. Rob: About 40 seconds sailing, a minute sailing back, below layline. Start with Dongfeng, TTToP to weather, Tacking below AkzoNobel and Brunel to make the pin end of the line. Behind the other boats. Slomo spray. Jumper jumping. Slomo of Neti hiking. Going past the daymarker/tower. Pablo's upset on the wheel: Fucking hell mate. Rob: Yeah. Might have to just press through. [Looks like he's upset about TTToP right on their bow; chooses to dive below them.] Slomo of Brunel crossing them, TTToP crossing them. Pablo on the helm. Sophie: We got a bad start, weren't in line with the pin, and had to tack, and had to give Brunel room. Last over the line. We've tacked out now, and we're above everybody, so hopefully we can gain back on them. Plenty of opportunities, so we'll see what we can do.Blair on the stern: Well it's certainly a battle. Brunel on the bow; leading the whole fleet in the 2-sail reaching stuff. Now we both have the J0's on and hopefully claw back a bit, and there's a change of sail and a masthead zero as we make our way into the channel so hopefully that's an opportunity for us. We had to win this leg. If we win this leg and Dongfeng's behind it goes a long way toward us winning this race. We're giving eveyrthing we have to pass these guys. If we don't it's going to be a tie between us and them, and a heck of a last leg. What a crazy leg so far. Good wave right here, real good wave. Here we go... 28. 29. Still 29. Shots of them sailing fast. Pablo on the helm.Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English. Just rounded the north point of Scotland. Two hours quite intense, sail changes and wind shifts. Still have Brunel and Dongfeng at 4 or 5 miles. Happy, because there's more compression and we still have them Brunel is the one who has cut the distance; now within 1 mile of Dongfeng. We need to win this leg. If we win this leg we will be leading again, and will put some points between Brunel and us, with Dongfeng on equal points. Sailing the boat is very hard. 24 hours to Sweden, and probably won't sleep very much. Slomo of Sophie bundled up in the cockpit. Slomo of Blair in a neoprene cowl. Compass. Tamara trimming. Blair on the foredeck. Willy with a halhard.Sophie explains there is no wind, and plenty of current. And they have the anchor built just in case. Postponement. No triangle, sausage; just go straight out. Pablo, on the helm, talks in Spanish. Blair, sitting on deck, talks about the low wind and big current. Helicopter noises. Race committee boat with 2:05 to star. Rob and Blair calling tactics in the cockpit at the start. In the prestart, they come toward Brunel on starboard, then tack while waving a protest flag. Committee boat green-flags it; Pablo throws the protest flag down in frustration. After the start they are ahead and to leeward of Brunel and Dongfeng. Rob calls for weight forward; trying to accelerate. Brunel, AkzoNobel and Vestas to weather. Drifting conditions. Willy on the bow. Brunel crossing behind them. Vestas sailing to leeward. Blair: "Here they go. Nice, nice, nice." Blair and Joan talk strategy and wind on the bow. Xabi trimming. Vestas on their weather quarter, then crossing behind them.Pablo talks in Spanish on the weather rail as MAPFRE sails upwind in 10 knots of wind on port. Sounds like he's talking about the competition, the tricky last part of the race. Repeats in English: Finish in Cardiff will be quite tricky for all the boats. A lot of work to windward; we have some chances. We want Dongfeng to be as far back as possible, but it's not something we can control. Have to be fast and do the best we can and wait and see. A little over 100 miles to go. 30 miles to Vestas, so quite a lot of distance. Stacking. Grinding in the runner. Dolphins alongside. Slomo dolphines. Pablo, Joan, and Rob at the nav station looking at a sched. They discuss with Neti in the cockpit. Brunel still leading? Just. Rob: I'm just happy that Dongfeng look less likely to win the leg. Sunset. Drone shots of MAPFRE sailing upwind under MH0 and J3. Such beautiful peaceful shots. Low-altitude drone.Rob: Talks about transitions in the leg. Compressions. First boat in slows down and the others catch up. It varies. Sophie sits silent behind him. Rob expects they'll see more compressions, tidal compressions, in the Bristol Channel. Blair: about 24 hours out of Cardiff now. We're in pretty big trouble. We're in fifth place at the moment. Vestas is 30 or 40 miles ahead of us, and the others further than that. Looks like there won't be a complete compression. We'll keep going, but not on that good a shift at the moment. Sailed a few too many miles. We'll keep going; never give up. But not great at the moment. Pablo says something in Spanish; Blair steers behind him. Tamara looks serious. Sophie on the bowsprit hooks up a new sail. Looks like they're peeling J0 -> MH0.Pablo, below: On board we are all quite good. Not the best place to be, but there's still a long way to go. A few days left. And especially it's coming light winds in a few hours, so anything could happen. As we saw last leg, the leg doesn't finish until the boat crosses the line. We're not thinking it's going to be as good for us as last time, but we do the best we can... Talks about five boats breaking the speed record from the last edition. Is quite amazing what these boat's can do. Not sure if the Ericcson record can be broken (It was, by AkzoNobel.) Talks about the Comanche record of 618 nm. We are quite close to that. The boats are super fast, especially compared to a 100-footer, it's amazing what these boats can do. Dongfeng and Brunel are the closest to them on points. They are further away than they would like; 90 miles and 60. But weather is changing; let's see. Anything can happen. And hopefully they don't put boats in between so we can still fight for the lead. In 6 or 7 hours we will leave this front, and wind will be light and ahead. Upwind to the finish. Still a few days, but they will be very tricky days. We will keep pushing the boat and trying to do our best. We'll see. A long way to go.Pablo, on the stern, talks in Spanish, rapidly and at length. Sounds like he's talking about different boats, different parts of the race? Not sure. My high-school Spanish can't keep up.Pablo, on the stern, talks in Spanish about the current situation with the northern and southern boats. He repeats in English: Last few days quite intense. Some boats went south and some went north, and now we're converging. In the last few scheds we gained quite a few miles. Hope that continues. In one day and a half we'll converge completely, hopefully in front, but even behind as long as we're close and can keep fighting. Blair, trimming the main: Heading toward the ice gate. Dongfeng 30 miles ahead of them. Did well against them in the last sched. And that pack that rode the front a day longer than we did. We've done well against them for the past few scheds; now they've got the breeze. So... play on. Sophie on the pedestal in her cold-weather gear. Sailing fast. Slomo washing machine. Joan, at the nav statio, reads a sched in Spanish. Stern cam and spreader cam views of them sailing fast with a double-reefed (triple-reefed?) main. Spreader cam view of the foredeck.Xabi and Joan talk at nav station. Neti, on deck, reads out latest sched. "MAPFRE (us): third." Rob, on the helm as they sail in fog in light winds: Last sched sounds pretty good. Talks about the strategy getting through the front and timing their tack right. We were hoping just to get to fourth. Now we're up to third and Dongfeng isn't that far away. Got 200 miles to go. Gotta keep fighting. Blair, forward, clears a halyard. Crew working in the cockpit. Slomo grinding. Sail change. Pablo on the helm. Rob, gesturing to port: "Brunel's down here 17 miles." Pablo, below: The last sched was better than we hoped. He talks about the boats ahead. Will be very tricky at the arrival in Newport, light wind and current. Anything can happen. So go MAPFRE... The weather forecast opened a gate for us. It was a tough night, but we sailed very good, so we softened up some miles to the leaders, and then the compression was very good to us. Neti, on deck, talks in Spanish about thier change of fortune. "Vamos MAPFRE. Vamos MAPFRE." Crash cam footage from the night before of them broaching. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Sail change on the foredeck: Hanking on the J1. Hoisting the J1 inside the J0.Literally the exact same shot to open the video: Pablo below talking in Spanish about the last day's results. He repeats in English: Got some breeze after the doldrums, 20-22 knots. One of the steering cables broke, and the boat broached. But it's a good thing that both wheels are independent. So can steer, but you have to steer from the leeward side. But at least you can sail the boat in a straight line. Luckly Neti was on deck, he went down and took the spare one, and we fixed it quite quick, and in a half hour were able to sail the boat normally again. Night footage from the cabin as they sail in big wind, and someone (looks like Xabi) works on the wheel in a headlamp. Xabi below, in the aft crawl space, fixing the steering cable as Tamara talks to him in Spanish. Crash cam footage in black and white.Pablo, below, talks in Spanish about the latest sched, the fleet, the doldrums, the Sargasso Sea. He repeats in English: Last sched was so-so. The boats that are ahead are out of the doldrums, as we are. Talks about the Sargasso Sea, weed on the foils. Annoying. Need another technique for sailing in these conditions. Hopefully we can do it better, and it will mean a small advantage for us. (Maybe this is part of why TTToP lost out in this part of the leg, the same as SCA did last time around: They aren't as good at the trick of doing broaches/S-turns to clear weed from the foils.) Shots on deck of weed on the lifelines, sailing fast.Pablo, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish about the leg so far. Dongfeng a half mile ahead; rest of the fleet behind. He talks in Spanish about what's coming up in the leg. Then he does it all again in English. In theory it's a leg without too many maneuvers. Will be a lot of cloud activity and stalls, lots of peels. Have to keep their focus if they're going to win this leg. Other boats will be close by. Speed of the boat is key in this kind of leg. You want to gain meter by meter. You get a small advantage, and then you can use that to get in the right position with the clouds. Shot of sunset with fleet close behind them. Rob and Tamara stacking on the foredeck. Rob on the helm with other boats behind them. Dongfeng crossing on starboard a half mile ahead of them. Shifting the stack to leeward in preparation for tacking. We see the tack from the cabin, looking aft. Xabi calling jib trim. Blair and Neti on the bow. Lowering the J1.Sophie, on deck: My best was for 11:08 pm on the 8th, but I'm totally regretting it now that we have this nice pressure. I think I'm not going to win. Willy, on the wheel, talks in Spanish about his bet. Neti talks about his bet (also in Spanish). Pablo: talks about their arrival in Spanish. Blair: 12 local time on the 8th. I'm looking good... Bit of fun, anyway. Neti is the one that draws it up on the board. Neti talks in Spanish. Blair: Rob's already talking about how there's going to be another buy in. Rob: My times are 2:30-3:30 in the afternoon, local time. And also 9:30 at night. But the ETA's moved forward, so I think my time might be late. I might buy in again; 50 Euros. Xabi, in the wheel, talks in Spanish. We see the whiteboard below with the bets recorded. (I note that Ugo has a bet. Also, Pablo is listed as "PATAN"?)Pablo, by the mast as MAPFRE sails in 6 knots of wind, talks in Spanish. Neti talks in Spanish. Tamara talks in Spanish. Blair, on the foredeck: We've still got 800 miles to go. Brunel is just finishing now. They sailed a very good leg. Hopefully Brunel can hang on (against Dongfeng). Selfish for us, but we want to keep a couple more points away from Dongfeng. Below, Pablo through food bags, and Xabi at the nav station announces that Brunel won. Pablo: "yes, yes." Rob announces it to the cockpit: "Brunel won." Xabi talks in Spanish about the result.Stern cam / crash cam shot of MAPFRE sailing on port gybe. There's a bang, and the boom drops and the main flops. This must have been when the head of the main tore free. A crewmember shouts: "Aaaaahhhh!" GoPro (Garmin) shot from the crewmember up the mast (Ñeti?). "¡Un poquito!" There's glue and stuff on the mast. The torn upper edge of the lower part of the main is visible. They approach their support boat at anchor. Drone shots of them rafted alongside. Someone on the shore team talks in Spanish. Pablo: In one sense we were lucky to break so close by. Ñeti, covered in glue, talks about the attempt to repair the mast. He's more concerned about the mainsail. It's in two pieces. Quite a tricky repair with the material they have here and where they are. And it's quite cold, so curing is hard. In the dark, Xabi talks in Spanish about the repair attempts. I think he said departing in half an hour. Shots of them working on the mainsail. Glue, hot air gun, cluing the mast track. Time-lapse shot of them working on the mainsail repair. They pull away from the support boat in the night with wind howling around them.Rob, in red light below, says as expected wind has built to 35-40 knots. Borderline survival conditions. Willy, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Something involving his gloves. Sophie, below, says when you're holding the mainsheet it's always wet. "For me that's the coldest time for my hands. It's basically painful." The other thing about doing the main, she says, is that you're not really moving. "So after an hour and a half of that you get pretty cold." Willy talks in Spanish. Rob: In previous Southern Ocean legs got massive torrents of water through the boat, wiping out the helmsman. So we've built a wave breaker, which is on leeward side now so it's useless. Slomo shots on deck. Shot of the "wave breaker" (a mesh on the railing in front of the wheel) on the starboard (leeward) wheel.Slomo washing machine in the cockpit, with camera being washed into th wheel. Below, Stacey: "It's hard work, actually." Surfing and plowing into the waves brings water over the deck. It's cold, and 45 knots. More slomo washing machine shots. Someone on the stern (I think Phil?), trimming the main, has a whole discussion about how bad the conditions are, how it's cold and no one's talking. "Am I scared? No. A little bit bored and friggin' cold." This isn't his idea of an ocean race to Brazil. "How many days is it to Cape Horn? Four." He calls out to TJ on the pedestal: Which would he prefer: the doldrums or this? TJ: "Neither!" Nick: "We went from 8 miles behind Dongfeng, took our mainsail down, and somehow ended up 3 miles behind them." Jeremie laughs; "maybe take the main down!" Nick: "That's what we said; make it way easier." Slomo washing machine. Favoriting for Jeremie's getting out in the elements and getting such good personal stuff; really conveys what it feels like to be in the cockpit on these boats in these conditions.Rob, in red light below, says as expected wind has built to 35-40 knots. Borderline survival conditions. Willy, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Something involving his gloves. Sophie, below, says when you're holding the mainsheet it's always wet. "For me that's the coldest time for my hands. It's basically painful." The other thing about doing the main, she says, is that you're not really moving. "So after an hour and a half of that you get pretty cold." Willy talks in Spanish. Rob: In previous Southern Ocean legs got massive torrents of water through the boat, wiping out the helmsman. So we've built a wave breaker, which is on leeward side now so it's useless. Slomo shots on deck. Shot of the "wave breaker" (a mesh on the railing in front of the wheel) on the starboard (leeward) wheel.Slomo washing machine in the cockpit, with camera being washed into th wheel. Below, Stacey: "It's hard work, actually." Surfing and plowing into the waves brings water over the deck. It's cold, and 45 knots. More slomo washing machine shots. Someone on the stern (I think Phil?), trimming the main, has a whole discussion about how bad the conditions are, how it's cold and no one's talking. "Am I scared? No. A little bit bored and friggin' cold." This isn't his idea of an ocean race to Brazil. "How many days is it to Cape Horn? Four." He calls out to TJ on the pedestal: Which would he prefer: the doldrums or this? TJ: "Neither!" Nick: "We went from 8 miles behind Dongfeng, took our mainsail down, and somehow ended up 3 miles behind them." Jeremie laughs; "maybe take the main down!" Nick: "That's what we said; make it way easier." Slomo washing machine. Favoriting for Jeremie's getting out in the elements and getting such good personal stuff; really conveys what it feels like to be in the cockpit on these boats in these conditions.Blair talks about just going around East Cape. A pretty tough 24 hours. Crash-cam footage of their close cross when they almost collided with Scallywag. Xabi, below, explains what happened: MAPFRE was on port, at first thought they were crossing, but then decided to bear away, and Scallywag was already bearing away. So they got everyone on deck and did two penalty turns. Blair: "Lost quite a lot on that." Then we see more crash cam footage, as they almost lose a sail on the stack where the front of the sail went into the water. To lose that sail would have been a big deal, Blair explains. Then Joan did a great job on routing and they retook the lead. Now heading south in a nice position. Favoriting for the great crash-cam footage.Joan talks about being at 52°S, near the ice gate. Can see a few boats; Dongfeng by them, and on their windward side Vestas. Will get the first front passing, and lows, and winds about 35-40 knots. Anticipate a few maneuvers to keep near the ice gate. When the wind increases being close to the ice limit will not be as important, with winds even north to south. Tamara, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Rob steering on deck, washing machine shots. Night vision shots of people working on the foredeck and in the cockpit as they make a sail change.Drone shots of sunrise (?) with islands in the distance. A competitor is 3 miles ahead of them. High drone shot of islands. Blair: Awesome seeing the Three Kings in the morning. Pretty surreal sailing down the coast now. Flyby by a helicopter, a fishing boat. A plane flies overhead doing acrobatics. A boat comes alongside. Another boat comes alongside with MAPFRE flags flying. Xabi: So hard to overtake Dongfeng. Pablo: Only 150 miles to go; we have them less than a mile in front. Xabi: Catching them a little bit. New Zealand flag on the backstay. Sophie going aloft. Dongfeng to leeward. Blair spots TTToP through the binoculars. Willy talks about compression being expected. Chance to pass them, but it's remote. Joan: Seeing the race leaders in front. Light air for a bit. Just saw AkzoNobel was winning the race; on the AIS only 7 miles. Willy: Last 100 miles you're all on deck. Xabi looks through binoculars. Xabi trimming. Rob on the helm. Alongside Dongfeng a few boatlengths away. Dongfeng astern. Other boats ahead of them and inside. Dongfeng close behind in the sunset. Sophie rigging the J2 for hoisting. Triple heading. Dongfeng close behind them. Sophie: This was our first good opportunity to get past them. Have had 80% of the race at the back of the fleet. The vibe on the boat hasn't been good. Being back up now, gaining these miles, and can see Akzo over there; it's really exciting. Not giving up, fighting to the end.Everyone answers the question: What is MAPFRE's secret weapon? Tamara: Answers in Spanish. Willy: Answer's in Spanish. Louis: Xabi. Xabi is the secret weapon. Blair: Willy. Willy: (With Dongfeng behind him as he trims): Answers in Spanish. Pablo: Answers in Spanish. Rob: Our optimism. We're all very hopeful. Tamara: Talks in Spanish. Rob: Coffee, and looking forward to your next sleep. Willy: In Spanish. Xabi: In Spanish. Pablo: In Spanish. Xabi: In Spanish. Sophie: Talks about how the fact that you're racing keeps you going despite the fatigue. Joan: Talks in Spanish. Blair: Staying positive; trying to keep the boat going as fast as you can.Pablo talks in Spanish on deck. Drifting in glassy conditions with huge clouds in the distance. The keel. Dongfeng sailing about two boatlenghts away to weather. Dongfeng rolls them. Sophie on the bow. "I think they were quite happy to pass us. We are officially last." She waves to them. Blair and Xabi trim while watching them. Then Dongfeng is behind them again, yay! Drone shots of the two boats sailing a few boatlengths apart.Pablo, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish about the competition. Rob gives a recap: heading southeast through the monsoon. Westerly breeze, big clouds, 10-30 knots of wind with big direction changes. A lot of work. They're a day behind the fleet. Giving it their best shot. Dongfeng on the bow. Fingers crossed we'll see AkzoNobel again before Auckland. Xabi looking through binoculars. Louis on the clew. Easing sails in a squall. Slomo spray on the bow. Blair and Willy grinding in slomo. Grinding in a squall. Rain clouds. Slomo rain. Tamara makes the shaka sign.Pablo, below, talks about the tricky conditions. Being in front of the front, losing the wind, and compression happening. Needing to decide where to be to catch the next wind. They're a little to the northeast, and they think it's good for them. It's middle of the night, Brunel, Dongfeng, and TTToP all very close to each other fighting to get the next pressure. Shot of them sailign fast on port, triple-heading. Dongfeng to leeward. Pulling down the J0 on the foredeck. Shifting the stack. Slomo of Dongfeng to leeward, of Xabi on the helm. Washing machine. Then light winds. Sophie on the foredeck as they slat in no wind. Stacking forward, with headsail rolled up as a windseeker. Chart screen. Drone shot of them triple-heading with Dongfeng behind them. Cool drone shots.A little skit. Louis, on deck: Are you sure we're headed for Auckland? Pablo, on the helm: We cannot be wrong. [Points over his shoulder.] They're following us. [We see Brunel and Dongfeng sailing behind them.] Blair (pointing): "Pablo, I'm pretty sure New Zealand is that way. Southeast. It's my home mate, I know." Pablo [spinning the wheel briefly to starboard], "Okay; I take you home." Blair (in the background): "I'm joking."Xabi talks in Spanish about the competition and strategy. Repeats in English: very close to Dongfeng and fighting since the start. Passed each other a couple of times. Small details. Less than a mile between them, but a long way to go to New Zealand. Xabi on the helm, sailing fast on starboard gybe. Louis grinding, then someone (Pablo?) on the helm. Támara trimming, Louis grinding, Pablo sitting down at the pedestal.Blair, on deck, talks about the start. Not the best start for them. Fourth now. Start not a huge priority in these conditions. Rough stuff in the next couple of hours. "Feels like back home now; back on the boat. So it's all good." Támara talks on deck in Spanish as they sail to weather under the J1. Looks like Scallywag is a quarter mile haed of them; I'm guessing that's Brunel beyond them. Then we go back in time and see the prestart, and the immediate start aftermath. Grinding, tacking out of Victoria Harbor. Close cross of Brunel behind them. Big duck of them to go astern of Dongfeng. Xabi trimming. Pablo on the helm. Rob calls for the hoist of the J1; we see it going up, then the furled MH0 coming down. Scallywag and Brunel sailing ahead of them and below, to starboard.On deck, Pablo talks in Spanish about the remainder of the leg, the other boats. Below, Blair and Joan eat. Shot of the bow as they triple-head on port gybe. Blair trims. Drone shot from astern, from alongside, circling the boat with the sunrise behind them, from above.Blair in the cockpit, and then grinding for Sophie, talks about sailing through the Caroline Islands, the competition, needing to make gains on the boats in front. Going to be tough to catch them. Looking forward to another sched. Talks about where the other boats are. Rob, on the mainsheet on the stern, talks about the other boats. He's happy about Scallywag because his sister is navigating for them, and also because they'd rather the bonus point for the leg go to Scallywag rather than to anyone else. Blair, holding a tablet by the helm, goes over the latest sched with Pablo, who's steering. Slomo washing machine shots of Xabi, Pablo. Night shots from the bowcam of someone working on the foredeck, then of the cockpit. Washing machine shots of Blair on the helm. Drone shots of MAPFRE triple-heading in 20 knots of wind.Crash cam / stern cam footage of Pablo, trimming, slipping from the high side of the cockpit all the way to the winch on the leeward side. Amusingly, he gathers in the sheet he's trimming over his head the whole way, so it never actually slips on the winch. We see the same fall from the perspective of Ugo's hand-held camera in the companionway, and then zoom in on someone (Xabi?) giving a thumbs up from the mainsheet near the helm and calling out, "Trim on!" Blair puts sunscreen on in the cockpit, his sunglasses pushed up on his forehead as water cascades over the deck. "Plenty of mayonnaise" (?). "Fuck it feels good to be boosting again! Later, doldrums!" A wave comes over and douses him, knocking his sunglasses off his head. He scampers to the stern to retrieve them before they can wash out the open cockpit. Shot of Sophie climbing out on the outrigger to tighten the J0 leech cord. Slomo of her working her way back through the cockpit in the washing machine. Támara gets spray in the face. Someone (Louis?) goes up the mast to the masthead with a GoPro camera (which I now know, due to The Boat Feed, is actually a Garmin, but I'm going to keep calling it GoPro here for consistency).Rob, on the wheel, sails in about 10 knots of wind on starboard gybe. "It's been difficult. It's certainly been the hardest doldrums crossing I've ever been involved with." Blair talks about 4 or 5 days since the Solomons. "Not much fun at all." Támara talks in Spanish. Sophie talks about how frustrating it has been, how long it has been. Blair doesn't want to say they're out, because that's come back to bite them before. Rob talks about the 3 boats to the east popping out into the tradewinds and making big gains. Blair reads the sched from a tablet. Shakes his head. "Don't look at that anymore." Pablo talks about the competition in Spanish. Xabi: "It's quite painful to be where we are. Especially when a few days ago we were within a mile of the leaders." Have to fight hard now to get back into position. Pablo talks some more about the competition in Spanish. Sophie and Willy grinding; Sophie on the foredeck as they hoist an inside headsail with a rainbow in front of them. Drone shots of them triple-heading in front of the sunset.Standing in the galley, Joan talks in Spanish. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. I'm picking up "hot" and "tired". Louis, below, shirtless and sweating: "It's really hot at the moment. It's very difficult to sleep." He shows the spritzer and spritzes himself with water. Támara, lying down in the bow, talks in Spanish and laughs. Sophie looks down through the hatch, talks about shade being important. Blaire, trimming, talks about heat and sun protection. Below, in the galley, he talks about the fresh water being warm, and the fact that the watermaker is getting much more of a workout than in the Southern Ocean. On the foredeck, Támara talks in Spanish, I think about her drinking water being hot. She and Blair construct a sun shade from the stack and an outrigger. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. Blair puts on sunscreen. Below, Louis spritzes himself. Late in the afternoon, they get some wind and start moving. Everyone is looking to starboard. The view shifts in that direction, and we see why: AkzoNobel, less than a mile away to leeward and slightly ahead; behind them, two more boats: I think Vestas to the left and Dongfeng to the right. Night shot with AkzoNobel just a boatlength or two behind them.Xabi, at the nav station, talks in Spanish about squalls, competition, Solomon Islands. On deck, Rob talks about the wind and the squall; future conditions. Pablo talks on the deck in Spanish about the competition. Closeup of nav computer screen showing the four lead boats all lined up. Shots on deck of fast sailing in a rain squall. Crash cam stern cam footage of Xabi getting washed off hte aft end of the cabin and ending up on the cockpit sole next to the middle pedestal. Hope he's okay. Slomo shots of competitors: AkzoNobel and Dongfeng to port, and Vestas to starboard. Slomo faces in the rain. Low-altitutde drone shots of MAPFRE sailing under full main and MH0.Pablo, sitting ahead of the wheel as MAPFRE reaches on starboard, talks in Spanish about the competition. Rob, on the wheel: There's a split in the fleet, and you had to decide inshore or offshore. A bit of current offshore, but also better breeze. "We lost out bigtime, actually. The two leaders are far ahead." Talks about moving past Vestas and TTToP, and gaining some miles on the leaders. Willy, on the middle pedestal, talks about how of course it's good to gain miles on the leaders, but it's a long race, and you need to realize that the bungee stretches and comes back. "Winning more than losing. Still a long time to go." Pablo talks in Spanish. Shots at night: moonlight, full moon past clew of the sail, ratcheting the stack. In the sunrise, Blair and Xabi laugh about something on the aft pedestal. Wake shot of sunrise. Closeups: The wheel, Támara's face, Willy grinding. Slomo shots of Vestas to port and behind, and then astern of them. Louis works the outrigger, then gets hoisted out to the clew of the A3 to do something with the sheets.Below, Pablo talks in Spanish. (Same as the previous video, where he talked in English about keeping their clothes on when off watch because they were going up to gybe every hour.)Wake shot as MAPFRE sails fast with the sun setting behind them. Blair, below in a red light, talks about how it's hard to know when the day started; 12, 24, 36 hours. Gybing every hour if you're on watch; if you're off-watch trying to get down below and get a quick bite to eat, get in your bunk as quick as you can. Louis prepares something to eat in the galley in the light of his headlamp. "Managed to make some pretty good gains on Dongfeng so we're pushing hard." Pablo, standing near the hatch: "Two hours" (until the next gybe). Blair: "Two hours? That can't be right. It's too long!" Támara laughs. Louis asks Jen what's in the food bin behind her. Jen: "Pasta bolognese." Blair hands it out. Later, Jen asks Pablo how he's feeling. "We have just started so at the moment not too bad. We are wet, tired and hungry, all of us. The good thing is it is not that cold anymore. Doing all these aneavers we are quite warm. But there's 18 hours to go, so this is nothing." Talks about hwo it's important to do all these maneuvers to stay close to Dongfeng along the ice limit. Talks about how it's helpful that they're so close by so they can see if they're gaining or losing. Birds astern. Blair talks about getting back in his gear; Willy kids him. Pablo, below, talks about watches. We see footage on deck of a gybe while his audio continues. Have to keep the clothes on because the maneuvers are so frequent. On deck, Xabi talks to Jen with the sunrise behind him: "We've got 20 more of those coming, today and tomorrow. So that's good. Plenty of power here."Below, on port gybe, Pablo gets dressed in his bunk above the nav station. Kyle stands in the galley eating something. Pablo explains the importance of getting the boots and pants just right so they don't get wet. Because once it gets wet it's wet. A little break is enough. He then explains the same thing in Spanish.Blair grinds the middle pedestal. Sophie on the mainsheet: "Hold." Xabi talks to her; they both grind. Xabi, to Jen: "It's all going pretty well." Talks about other boats around them: Dongfeng, Vestas, AkzoNobel, Brunel. "Tricky wind; up and down and very shifty." Gybing early morning. Pablo talks in the cockpit about the routing. "Maybe we do... 50 knots?" Sophie: "Fifty? Oh.. my... god.." Xabi on the helm: "We won't do 50." Pablo: "Right now the routing says that." Sophie: "And that's... 20 knots?" Xabi: "Yeah." Xabi, to Jen: "It's looking like real windy, next days... In a couple of days, 40 plus for a couple of hours." Talks about the ice gate. So get rest and food now, for later. Jen: "Any advice for me?" Xabi, smiling: "For you? It's gooa be good. It's gonna be rough (shrugs) and cold. Good fun." Sophie and Pablo convo continues, about how long it's going to be: up to 6 days. Sophie, to Jen, talks about making sure she's organized, has the right gear on, try to rest as much as she can tonight. "Just take it as it comes." Jen: "Any advice for me." Sophie laughs. Blair, from the pedestal: "Hold on." Sophie: "Hold on, Jen. Stay down below if you want to." Blair: "Have a nice stay in your bunk. That's what I'd do if I could." Shot of AkzoNobel on their starboard quarter.Docking out; waving to the shore. The start, with other boats converging on them from the weather side. Pablo on the helm; Sophie on the grinder as they interact with Brunel just below them. Someone (Blair?) calls out: "Come down, come down!" Shot of them overtaking Vestas from astern and to weather. Sophie holds a protest flag up; Brunel's bow is visible to weather. Vestas to leeward. Slomo of going to weather on port tack. Slomo of Sophie and someone else (Joan?) grinding on the aft pedestal. Dongfeng unfurling their FR0 (or J0?) to weather of them. Below, his face in shadow, Xabi talks about the leg so far. Good start around the triangle, now going upwind in almost 40 knots. "Right now we're fighting hard with Dongfeng and Brunel so we're very happy." Slomo of Támara in the cockpit cringing away from spray. Slomo of spray curling over crew in the cockpit, backlit by the sunset. Below, Xabi talks about how well the crew is doing so far. Cold and windy, but it's going to be like that for the next two weeks. Slomo spray on deck, double(?)-reefed main, Cape of Good Hope (?) in the distance. Below, Pablo leans against a bag labeled SURVIVAL SUITS, sleeping.At the nav station, Xabi talks in Spanish about the other leading boats. Shots on deck of MAPFRE sailing fast on port gybe. Slomo spray. Pablo, in his foulies hood, smiles in slomo. Slomo spray on bow, water dripping off the clew of the reefed main. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.Below, Blair talks about being in the lead but it being tense. Brunel in stealth mode. "Somewhere behind us, we hope." Pablo, below, talks in Spanish about the situation with the competition. Shot from the cabin as Blair brushes his teeth in the hatch; spray on deck as Ñeti and Támara grind. Nav station. Washing machine shots on deck as MAPFRE sails fast on port gybe with Xabi on the helm.In the cockpit, Sophie works on the disassembled mainsheet winch drum. Sophie: "It's like winch school at SCA. When I was on SCA I learned quite a lot about winches." Ñeti talks about the hydrogenerator. Pablo talks in Spanish. Closeup of the hydrogenerator. Blair, on the helm, talks about Rio, and about winning the gold medal at the Olympics. Blair: "It's an awesome city and I have very fond memories of it."Pablo, on the middle pedestal, grinds as he talks about the competition, about how when you're close you have to keep pushing or you will lose out to the other boats. Rob, on the helm, talks about how conditions are always changing. Blair, on the aft pedestal with his equator-crossing reverse mohawk, talks about the constant trimming. Blair, gesturing to their port quarter and then to their starboard bow: "So far we're doing all right, but we're very close to Brunel here behind us and Dongfeng down here." Xabi and Sophie in the cockpit. Robs talks about how they're on a drag race south with no tacks or gybes. Rob: "Obviously we're always pushing hard." He talks about how this will not decide the race, that it will probably be decided in the south Atlantic. Slomo shots of Támara trimming, Rob on the helm, Xabi looking forward.Támara talks below in Spanish. Xabi works the pit in rain. Rob talks at the nav station about being under the FR0 when a squall caused them to do a big frenzy of sail changes. Talks about competition. Shot of crew (including Ugo) showering in the rain. Pablo, on the helm, talks in Spanish about the competition.We see a whiteboard (?) below with what looks like a child's drawing of a birthday cake, a person at a steering wheel, and "Happy Birthday Patan!" Blair emerges from the cabin with what look like three chocolate suckers. They sing Happy Birthday to Pablo, who is on the helm. Xabi (referring to the chocolate): "To share." Pablo takes a bit of the chocolate, drops a piece, and scrambles for it while Blair holds the wheel for him. Below, at the nav station, Pablo watches videos of what sounds like birthday well-wishers. Pablo talks in Spanish.Joan, at the nav station looking at a display of a chart showing the leg, talks in Spanish. Closeup of the chart as he zooms in on the Cape Verde Islands. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy and the other boats. He repeats it in English. Xabi: "Everyone's happy. We just overtook two boats last night. We just hope to catch Dongfeng. We will fight very hard with these two guys, with Vestas, and with Dongfeng of course." On deck in the dawn, Ñeti sits, Tamara grinds the aft pedestal, and Pablo steers. Shot aft, through the wheel, of Vestas a few miles behind them. Slomo shot looking up at Xabi on the helm. Slomo shot of Sophie during a sail change taking spray on the bow.It's afternoon, with MAPFRE heading south on port gybe in about 10 knots of wind. Ñeti, at the middle grinder handles, talks in Spanish. Pablo pops into view and says something in Spanish. Sophie, at the shrouds: "It's a little bit frustrating, because it looks like they have a little more pressure, and we're trying to catch them. I think when you have another boat in sight, especially in front of you, the whole boat is working as hard as they can. It give syou something to push for. We just changed sails [to the A3, visible behind her]." Ñeti talks more in Spanish. Shot of crew shifting the stack. Sophie on the foredeck helping to hoist the A3. Crew in the cockpit grinding. Ñeti, on a halyard, goes out to the clew of the A3. Wide (pretty) drone shot of MAPFRE in the sunset. Blair, on the helm as MAPFRE sails on starboard gybe in the morning: "The last 24 hours on average for us have been a little bit bad; we've lost a lot on Dongfeng, Vestas, and AkzoNobel, but in the last hours of the night or very early morning we've gained on them very quickly and have them right here." [gestures to the port quarter] Pablo talks in Spanish about the competition. Shot of crew working in the cockpit; shot of AkzoNobel, slomo telephoto shot of AkzoNobel.Rob, at the nav station in red light, talks about strategy. Getting south, far enough west away from the Canaries. Rob: "We've been gybing the last 48 hours to try to stay in pressure, and get west whenever we can... Difficult shifts to predict, cloudy and stuff... Vestas did well, they got across our bow, about 10 miles in front of us." Joan, below, talks in Spanish. Xabi, below (now in daytime), talks about doing the hard job of lots of gybing and maneuvers. Xabi: "And now we have all a drag race, racing south." Joan talks more in Spanish. On deck, MAPFRE sails fast on starboard gybe, triple-heading. Crew shifts the stack aft, with the helmsman (Pablo) calling the cadence and giving one hand to pulling the sail. Interesting that they don't do the "two-six-heave" chant. Just "one, two, three" (moving on "three"). Downward mast cam view of the deck, then relatively high-wind drone shots of MAPFRE sailing fast on port gybe. Looks like the wind is around 20 knots; triple-heading with Masthead 0, J2, and J3.Pablo, below in his foulies, still wet from coming off the deck: "The crew is performing very good. We are all very happy. We are figthing hard, because the beginning of the leg is very important." Blair, below, in progress on getting out of his foulies with sunscreen on his face: "It was cetainly a pretty fast start. Wind's a little lighter now. Managed to get some sleep. Lots of gybing. Everyone's a little bit tired but not too bad." Pablo: "This morning we were leading, we were in front of the boats, probably a little furthe south than them. Then we had to gybe... Dongfeng crossed our bow. Now we are getting to Madeira." Slomo shots on deck: tailing line, spray, Xabi on the helm, bow spray, Pablo on helm. Sunset shots of Mapfre running fast on starboard gybe. Sophie stadning on the stern trimming the mainsheet. Ñeti on the stern with the mainsheet talks in Spanish about the wind, passing Madeira, the other boats.Night-time shot of the chart at the nav station showing the approach to Porto Santo. Night-vision shots of the crew working in the cockpit, changing a sail on the foredeck with spray. Below, Pablo talks in Spanish about their passing Porto Santo, the widely varying wind conditions they've been racing in, and the other boats. On deck again: more sail changing, a shot of the nighttime lights along the south shore of Porto Santo.MAPFRE sails on port gybe with Spanish coast visible in the background. This must have been just before or just after Gibraltar. Pablo talks in Spanish. Shots of them sailing close to shore. Sunset. Willy on the bow getting wet while securing the stack. Night shot of the lights of the Spanish coast.