Roberto 'Chuny' Bermúdez de Castro / Vestas 11th Hour Racing

gender Male
Jena, grinding in the cockpit on the middle pedestal, talks about making gains on every sched. Still hope with more than 1,000 miles to go that they can catch them. Mark, in the cockpit: "The two most competititve boats that we're racing are currently ahead of us in this leg. So yes, of course it matters to me. I want to beat them. I want to be first. I want to win." [Sounds a little annoyed with Sam's question.] Sam asks Jena to do a "weather dance". She dances at the pedestal. Jena: "What do you think about that?" Charlie, at the helm: "Well, we haven't seen any results yet. So." Jena: "Don't worry. I'll show my magic. Dancing magic." Crew kidding in the cockpit; TJ says something about going to Outback Steakhouse. Nick laughs. Charlie hands the wheel off to Chuy. Sam, to Charlie: "How was the watch, Chaz?" Charlie: "Transitional. It went from windy to not so windy. Drag all the sails forward... Little frustrated with the boatspeed... Kind of tough sailing right now with the leftover slop."At nav station, Charlie explains to Sam that there aren't a lot of decisions to make right now; they're just pushing the boat for boatspeed as they parallel the ice limit. Decisions to be made shortly about where to go later. Risk/reward analysis changes based on waht happens at the back of the fleet behind them. On deck, Jena steers on port gybe in about 15 knots of wind under a cloudy sky. Then TJ (invisible in balacava; thank goodness for accents) steers and talks about Jena, about getting her time on the helm when conditions aren't too technical. By the end, he says, she'll be driving as much as anyone else. Nick, on the stern, says he wants Chuy to start a men's fashion line. Has him model his baseball cap stitched onto a neoprene balaclava (as described by Tony). Some discussion of Tron that I didn't really understand. Then SiFi talks about trying to catch the two red boats ahead (though unfortunately Vestas has less wind), and about Brunel about 20 miles behind them. Future wind prospects. Nick and SiFi, in the companionway. Nick: "This boat is a prison." SiFi: "There's no escape."Tony and Simon are sitting on the weather rail. Tony is in the middle of a story about seeing an iceberg. "It was right there, hundreds of meters long, 25, 30 meters high, or whatever they are. And that was the one you can see in the middle of the day... And then nighttime comes and radar's got targets everywhere. And those are only the big ones. Can't see the bus or car-sized ones." Simon, at the nav station, talks about being near the exclusion zone. Simon explains about how the trailing boats have had an easier time, while the lead boats have had to stair-step along the edge of the exclusion zone. Shot of the computer screen showing the exclusion zone. Tony points out the "wall". "Must have painted it gray; it blends right in." Nick is getting dressed; he tells a bedtime story to Jena, in her bunk. "Once upon a time there were 7 lonely sailboats in the Southern Ocean, on their way to Melbourne." He explains to Sam: "I'm telling the Swiss Miss girl." "On their way to Melbourne to have a very hot Southern Hemisphere Christmas. And then, the wild and scary Race Committee decided to put a liquid Himalaya ice gate that we had to climb atop, so we wouldn't be there for Christmas Day." Jena: "Did they steal our Christmas?" Nick and Tom are internal-stacking onto the port side; Tom mimes being attacked by killer bees. "They're eating my eyes!" On the helm, Chuy says there's a rule, like on a bus: Don't speak to the driver. Jena, sitting in the cockpit in a balaclava: "I actually got a little sad, because I feel Santa will never find us out here." SiFi: "It's true. I didn't even bring my stocking." Tom: "No Christmas for you. We're gonna keep you at sea. Make you sail around waypoints forever!" Jena jokes about a broken candycane being in 3 pieces so they can share. Tony and SiFi talk about icebergs. Tony doesn't need to see any more of them. SiFi: "They make the ice gates on a good scientific basis." Tony: "I've passed south of one that was 30 miles long, and it was no fun... I've dodged them, and been just about able to touch them from the wheel. That's how close we were... If they've got the information, as SiFi says, it'd be negligent not to act on it... Safety. Safety first." Sunset.Southern Ocean waves. Slomo waves. Crew on stern as Vestas sails downwind in large seas. SiFi, below, describes what an ice gate is. Shot of the computer screen showing routing software and their track bumping up to the ice gate. Charlie, below: "It would be nice to have a little bit more freedom. And we wouldn't actually have to do this. But because we do we've gotten pretty good at." Explains that it takes about 40 minutes to gybe due to stacking. Talks about how many times they have to do it. SiFi talks about sailing along the edge of the exclusion zone with all the gybing. SiFi getting dressed. "It's quite nice on deck. Gearing up's a little inconvenient." Shots of crew on deck. Grinding, Stacking. Charlie steering. Jena, below: "I hope we don't see any icebergs." Chuny, below: "Safety first." On the stern (trimming the mainsheet, I think), Tony points out where the ice gates are, 60 miles away. Sam: "Who builds these gates?" Tony: "I don't know. Maybe they've got a deal with Trump. An imaginary fencing company. I wonder how high it is. Twenty-one feet?" Tom (I think?) says it could be like The Truman Show. The clouds coult be painted. Stacey and Tom join in. Jena: "We're actually in a big pool of water, and they're just moving the water underneath us. And we're not going anywhere." Tony: "We're actually in a room with a green screen behind us, and they're throwing buckets of water on us." Epic surfing shot from astern. Slomo washing machine.Dockout. Simon crouches on the rail, saying goodbye to a young boy holding a Wisdom plushie; behind a younger child with a pacifier is held by a woman. Simon: "Be good!" As Vestas pulls away from the dock they all wave to each other. Below as they motor out to the start, Simon has put on his foulies and talks to Sam about the crew, how they combine youth, experience, lots of races, people in for the first time. "For the next leg the experience is good." Threading the line between sailing fast and breaking the boat. Sam: "Do you get nervous before these legs?" (I bet Sam is nervous.) Simon: "The hanging around the dock's the most stressful part for me. Saying goodbye to the family. But once you're out here there's not much time for nerves to be honest." In the cockpit as they sail before the start under main, Stacey talks about how yeah, a little nervous, going into the Southern Ocean with the forecast. Tony says it's his tenth time going down there. Shot of just after the start as the fleet sails on starboard tack. On the foredeck, Nick wrestles with a furled sail; it appears to be hung up in the rig above him. Nick, to the back of the boat: "Keep easing!... Are you easing?" He struggles to free the sail. Nick (under his breath): "Fuck it." To the cockpit: "Somebody come up and help me." Tom runs forward to help pull on the sail. Sam is right in the action as they wrestle with the sail. Nick: "Okay! It's good! Start hoisting!" Shot of Scallywag right on their stern, diving below them, TTToP and AkzoNobel further to leeward. Chuny is steering. Scallywag comes in beneath them. Shouting back and forth between the boats. Sam is RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ACTION, leaning out to leeward, practically touching Scallywag. We see the OBR on Scallywag (Konrad Frost) filming Sam as Sam films him. Protests. Shouts from Vestas about the overtaking leeward vessel not having rights to luff above proper course. Later, they sail in less wind, the shore visible to port. TTToP and Scallywag are visible to leeward. Chuny, on the helm, appears to still be talking about the Scallywag incident. Chuny: "I saw him (gestures) luffing against US." Slomo shot of crew reefing the main. Sam: "Hey, Chuny. What happened at the start with Scallywag?" Chuny explains the rule, that Scallywag came in from behind and started luffing, and how it's not safe, it could have broken both boats, at the start of a leg like this. "I was angry... Because it's not safe." We see them putting in a second reef. Charlie, on the aft pedestal, grinding and talking to Sam. Subtitles (added by Sam), because he's barely understandable. "Ah you know everyone puts a lot of stock in the start. But it's kind of more how you finish."Below, Chuny talks in Spanish. Behind him, Stacey puts mustard on a flour tortilla (I swear). Jena, below, talks in Danish.Major washing machine as Vestas sails fast on starboard gybe toward the sunset (think this may have been from the first afternoon; this is the first video to come off the boat on Leg 2). Nick, on deck, talks about taking a break for 40 minutes. Chuny and Jena on the aft pedestal. Charlie takes spray in the face while holding the mainsheet. Someone (I think Charlie?) talks to Mark: "Nick's working on the rudder." Closeup of Mark taking spray on the stern. Jena, on the mainsheet, wipes spray from her eyes. Below, Charlie (in foulies) talks to SiFi (in his bunk) about the competition. SiFi, at the nav station, talks about strategy. It's 0100, and they've been highest and fastest, but now they want to get south to avoid ending up with less wind. "We're gonna see if we can find a faster route to the south. We've got good downwind conditions for the next 24, 48 hours and beyond... Gybing is hard work in this weather because we've got so much internal stack at the start of a leg. But that's life I guess." On deck in the dusk, crew shifts the stack. "Two, six! (shift) Two, six! (shift)"