Ugo Fonollá (OBR)

Sophie on the rail: We are so close. We're coming up to the TSS, and we're gonna bear away. And we're 0.2 of a mile away from Brunel... we just gotta pass them. Joan looks at tablet, calls them being clear of the exclusion zone. Trying to punch through to leeward of Brunel. Drone shot of them gybing in front of AkzoNobel. Tamara, on the bow, talks in Spanish. Neti looks through binoculars. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Neti talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: We're pushing hard, we take the first chance to overtake them, and we take it. Now we have to wait and see what happens with Dongfeng on the other side. Hopefully we keep ahead of Brunel, and the guys on the other side. We'll see.Xabi, in the cockpit, trims the main and talks in Spanish about tactical situation. Repeats in English: 70 miles to go, very complicated really. Yesterday we were going east down the Danish coast with Dongfeng, but the last weather forecast changed a little, and we decided that the westerly option was better. Unfotunately they are in front of us, and Akzo. Still a good downwind of 30 miles today, but we will keep fighting and see what happens. Brunel and AkzoNobel ahead of them. Joan at the nav station. Blair on the helm. Willy, Sophie, Blair and Neti on the bow. Xabi: Main on. Hold. Blair's salty hands. Two boats closer in front of them.Blair, below: So, real interesting one. Final appraoch to the Hague and the end of the race, and we knew it would be the case, but there's these TSS's that are a massive exclusion zone. Have to make a choice off Denmark which way to go. We were lining up to go on the inside, down toward Germany and along the beaches on the top of Holland; made a late call to go to the west. As a result we lost quite a lot on Brunel and AkzoNobel who had decided to go this way earlier, and doing so we split from Dongfeng who were carrying on down. It's a tricky one, but at the end of the day we have to do what we think is right to get us there fastest, and both the boats we had to beat are going different ways, and we feel this way's fastest. Got Brunel about a mile above us now, so we're gonna have to fight to the end. But that's the way it is. All good really. Wouldn't want it any other way. Not long to the finish now, definitely in the final sprint. Probably no sleep now for sure. Not that there's been much sleep. There's gonna be compression toward the finish as well. Lot of light stuff and gybing... Plenty to play for. Just glad we're here and in the fight. It's been a busy few days, just looking forward to finishing off well. Black and white shot of the cockpit. Mast cam view of lowering the J1. Loud shot of the cockpit. Conversation between Blair and Joan at the nav station. Xabi in the pit. Slomo. Blair on the helm.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.Blair preps a sail patch below. "Too many sail changes, and the [something] which attaches the sheet to the sail, went through the J1's... So a quick repair before the next sail change. Endless... He and Neti apply the patch on the sail near the bow. Willy, on the foredeck, talks in Spanish. Repeats in English: If there's another team besides us in this race that deserves to win it's them. We've been stuck behind them for the last 2 days. We had our chances to pass them. We did pass them, but they always come back strong. They're just under half a mile. We're just catching them up now in the next half hour. Compression and transition. Plenty of chances. Blair below tells Tamara, "Two hours". Then says "Nahh..." Maybe he was joking? Rounding the virtual mark, with Dongfeng heading south and dthen them following them. Chasing Dongfeng south with Vestas (I think) approaching them.Neti talks in Spanish in the morning light about wind, the fleet, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: Busy night. Pretty tied with Dongfeng. Not too far from the top mark. Last evening had upwind and reaching condiions in medium breeze. Now compression, Dongfeng and us have escaped from the other guys before, now we have to keep in front of them. Loud footage of foredeck work, darkness. Then drifting conditions in the pretty gorgeous sunrise with Dongfeng a quarter mile away. Slomo sailing with Dongfeng behind them. Willy sleeping on the stack forward. Blair, through the hatch, puts his hands up: What?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.Blair, by the runner, talks about the competitive situation. They've stretched out on the boats behind on this downwind stretch, but have managed to stay close to Dongfeng. As we've come in toward Denmark now we've compressed a bit. 1.5 miles behind them. J0 ("joe") reaching at the moment. All's good, but hopefully we can catch these guys some more before the Hague, and catch them. Everyone's running on 20 minutes sleep; I should go below and get some sleep. (Asked about Brunel.) Good that they're 20 miles behind, but they need to keep focused on the guys in front. Beautiful drone shot of them surfing with the sun behind them. Drone shots of them triple-heading. Blair on the helm. Slomo of someone taking spray on the foredeck. Wind farm. Spreader cam shot of Dongfeng ahead of them.Xabi, heading south in the pre-dawn, talks in Spanish about Dongfeng, Vestas, and Brunel. He repeats in English: Just going through the first night here, even if it doesn't look like it, 3:30 local time. After a not very good start of the day we've recovered quite well. Just passed the waypoint for Norway 2 hours ago. Now going downwind to Arrhuus. We were second there a half mile behind Dongfeng, and Brunel is a couple of boats behind, 8 miles upwind. It's going well. Hopefully we can get in front of Dongfeng soon. We see them rounding the buoy and deploying the A3, then see it again from the stern cam. Dongfeng on the bow ahead of them. Small powerboat alongside. Sophie bagging the J1. Dongfeng ahead and to starboard. Night vision shots of the crew on the bow, in the cockpit. Xabi talks with Sophie; trims the main.Neti, on the rail, talks in Spanish with the sunset behind him. He repeats in English: Quite a tricky afternoon. Lots of tacks, cloud, right-hand shift. Now we have Dongfeng ahead of us, and the others on our transom. So we are in the fight, and pushing. Good stuff for us. We made a mistake on the leeward layline. We took the first opportunity we have... now we have to make the less mistakes possible. Very tricky leg. We knew also with the watches that after the top mark in Norway it's going to be full on. Hopefully we can have some sleep. He interrupts to drop the J1. Other boats to weather: Brunel, AkzoNobel, and Dongfeng. Stacking. Xabi grinding. Slomo stacking. Rob: Lefthand phase still to come, and then it will build right. Is that right, Joan? Neti and Willy on the bow laughing about something. Packing a sail on the foredeck. Slomo grinding. Stacking uphill. Tack. Dongfeng ahead and to leeward.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.Xabi signs a woman's program/magazine. Woman: Good luck. Xabi: Thank you. Woman: Kick some ass. Xabi: We will try. Xabi leaves (hotel?) loads gear into a car. Driving in the car: Xabi: Going to the base now... Looked at the weather. Slept as good as we could. Had a breakfast. Joan is waiting. Have some lunch. Say goodbye to some freinds, and go out... Tamara signs a banner in teh base. She talks in Spanish. Sophie signs the other side of the banner. Neti talks in Spanish near the dock. He repeats in English: Has been quite crazy, all the support. All around the world, especially in my case with the Ñeti fans, since the start of the race, and even more now than ever. We'll push as good as we can. In Spain are a lot of good sailors in the Olympics, but it's true that the Volvo Ocean Race is one of the few things left in Spain. Glad to be part of this, and have the chance to give this trophy to Spain. Xabi and Bouwe talk with someone in a Dongfeng jacket. Dee comes up and gives Xabi a hug. Xabi points to Charles and asks her something. She replies: "Nah. I said, 'You're going down, Charles.'" Xabi hugs Witty. Xabi takes a photo with a woman; she turns him around and points to the "XABI" on the back of his jacket. Team photo on the dock. Xabi steps aboard, waves during the dockout.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.Sophie, below: Well, we've been fighting it out with Brunel. The last couple of hours they've been catching us. They're just faster. We've been trying everything we can. Sea state is pretty rough. Making it hard to go fast. They've actually overtaken us now, which is a shame, but we're right on their tail and trying to keep up. In about 60 miles we'll be at the bottom of Norway, and hopefully we'll be putting up the J0 (prouncing it "Joe") and bearing away a little, or getting lifted. And hopefully they don't get too far away from us, and it's not over till it's over. We all realize it's the second to last leg of the whole entire race, there's no point in sleeping. Might as well put in everything we've got to the finish line. Everything's putting everything they've got to get to the finish line in Gothenburg. Shots of Brunel passing them to weather. Looks like they're triple-reefed with J2/J3. MAPFRE crew in the cockpit. Slomo Xabi looking sad. Pablo on the helm, likewise sad. Blair: Sad. Shot of Brunel ahead of htem. Blair looking pissed, blinking the spray from his eyes.Neti, below: Windy night; still windy now. 40+ knots. Big waves as well. Brunel found out a mode of sailing that is giving (something); so yeah; he's sailing faster than us. I don't know what's gonna happen with Brunel. Hopefully when (something) we can hold on better with them. We are pushing the same, the race is being decided these days, so we are pushing as fast as we can. They have found a mode that's faster than us. We're faster than them downwind; they're a bit faster than us upwind. Stern cam, mast cam, spreader cam shots of cockpit of them sailing in high winds.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.Xabi wakes up Willy and Neti (I think?) to go to the J0. Spreader cam shots of pulling the sail off the stack, Blair and Willy rigging it on the foredeck. Neti goes forward with the tack, loses it in a big wave, then comes back to get it again. He and Willy on the bow. spreader cam shot of Sophie feeding it up at the mast. Slomo washing machine shots in the pit. Neti on the clew of the main as they reef. Willy coiling in slomo in the pit.Xabi talks below in Spanish. I suspect this is duplicating the video he recorded in English that was uploaded 20 minutes earlier.Xabi, below: Getting north of Scotland, and going past the Hebrides right now. All the boats going outside. An acceleration; almost 30 knots. Masthead to fractional, fractional to jib. Few reefs in and out. Now back on track with the full main and J0. Hopefully we can keep this sail combination and heading for a while. Yesterday was a very good day for us, managed to pass the ridge in first position and stretch a bit. Dongfeng about 5 and a half miles behind us. So very good, but never enough. About 100 miles to go around the top of Scotland. Going to be tricky. Then into the North Sea and try to keep this lead. A day and a half to finish this leg. We are only thinking to win it. Brunel being in the back is very good for us. But they're going to fight as well.Blair, below: So Pablo and I have just come down off our night watch. Probably only got about 2 hours of darkness. A good watch for us. Since getting out of the ridge and gybing to starboard the breeze has been building. Being forward and to leeward we've made some pretty good gains. Dongfeng, Brunel... Washing machine in the cockpit. Stern cam, spreader cam, bow cam.Tamara, next to the stack aft, talks in Spanish. Mentions Dongfeng, light winds, changes, waiting for strong wind. Repeats in English: Now we are in the best position. It was a tough day for the rest of the fleet. Now we have to focus on our work, doing our best. We have a lot of miles, and all the teams want to win the race. And I think we have to work hard to try to keep leading this fleet to the end of the leg. Rob: Crossing the ridge to the west of Ireland was critical. Keeping east of the fleet seems to have worked out. Made a little extension. Now we're just VMGing down toward the Hebrides. Inside or outside; could split the fleet. Neti sleeping. Xabi at the nav station talking to Joan. Pablo on the helm. Blair grinding. Rob below, getting his foulies on. Sophie and Tamara stacking below. Gybe in the cockpit. Stacking in the cockpit. Rob and Joan at the nav station. Rob: Allright; VMG then. Crew in the cockpit. Xabi looking around.Sophie by the daggerboard. Last several hours in no wind, but have some breeze now; VMG downwind. Looked like other boats to weather were going to go around them. But have the pressure now, and look pretty even. Hopefully will gybe in a good position soon. (Her throat sounds scratchy.) Two other boats on distant horizon. Blair rigs for gybing. Sophie also rigs. Willy and Sophie rig for a sail change (J3 hoist?). Rob on helm with another boat 2 miles astern. Xabi and Joan talk in the cockpit.Xabi, on the bow, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: Tricky night, quite busy, sailing upwind in 12-16 knots with the J1. A few tacks, some big shifts with clouds. Ended up positioning themselves as the most north of the fleet. Pretty happy where they are. But still have to pass a small high pressure ridge. First one going out is going to stretch a lot. Hopefully the investment we've made in the northwest will work out. Have to see what happens. Neti, lying on the bow, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English: Whole fleet is in a line. Waiting for the wind from the southwest. We are very nervous, as you can see. Xabi in the cockpit. Blair. Talking about Dongfeng. AkzoNobel three-quarters of a mile away. Joan in the cockpit. Crew lying down on the foredeck. Tamara resting. Joan sleeping. Crew sleeping in the bow.Willy talks in Spanish on the bow as they sail in light conditions. He repeats in English: 24 hours after the start, pretty much in the same spot they were at the start. Together with Dongfeng and Brunel. Three or four days to go. Forecast is to start going upwind. Probably the Volvo decided in the next 10 hours. Because after that the wind comes and it's harder to pass people. Drone shots: stacking aft, sailing with competitors in the background, rounding Irish headland, Blair aloft with Ireland behind him. Other boats all around them. Slomo of Xabi. Brunel and Dongfeng. AkzoNobel, TTToP, Vestas. Rob on the bow talks to Joan about strategy. Joan reads off his tablet about Dongfeng's status. Three other boats and Fastnet Rock. Dongfeng and Vestas behind them. Sophie calls to Rob: There's seaweed everywhere. Rob: Tricky race so far. Gave Dongfeng a 5-mile lead at Fastnet. Tricky transition. Akzo and Vestas coming from behind.... I don't know what we did wrong, but it was all very difficult. Now beating up west side of Ireland, around islands. Evening's been good so far, but it's going to be a long night. Last tacking exhange overtook Brunel; they're about 3/4 of a mile behind them, Dongfeng 3/4 of a mile ahead, and then Vestas ahead of them. Busy night with lots of tacks. Got some sleep on the first night. No one's resting today or tonight. Going to have to keep pushing hard. Keep the coffee coming and we'll see how we feel in two days time. Slomo of Xabi grinding. Stacking. Slomo spray on the bow. Tack. Irish coast. Xabi looking through binoculars: Yes, he has tacked. Drone shot of them sailing upwind with Dongfeng a quarter mile ahead. Beautiful drone shots with clouds and land, other boats.Xabi talks in Spanish about the start, competition. Repeats in English. Good start in Cardiff. Tricky conditions. But then the wind dropped to nothing and the guys behind got better wind in the middle of the channel. Could be worse. Now Dongfeng a little ahead of them, Brunel to weather. Now we need to work our way back into the lead. Brunel in glassy conditions. Blair talks strategy. Sophie up the mast to kick battens. Other boats: Vestas, Dongfeng, Scallywag. Drifting. Pablo on the helm. Sophie hosting a sail on the bow, stacking aft. Boat on the horizon ahead of them.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.Sophie, on the bow in light conditions, talks about the compression that's happening. Knew it was coming, but it's super good to see the other boats. She points out Vestas and Dongfeng in front of them. Xabi, on the bow, talks in Spanish. He talks about Dongfeng ahead of them, and points out Vestas on the port beam. He repeats in English. 600 miles to go to Cardiff. He talks more in Spanish, repeats in English. After this leg hasn't gone well for them, this light spot is important to try to make a change. Hopefully they will be close and have more options south of Ireland. Making numbers all the time and they don't look very good for us right now. Dongfeng ahead, and have a boat between us. Going to be a big fight all the way to The Hague. Neti trims and talks in Spanish. Slomo shots of crew in the cockpit. Rob throws a coiled line. Sophie on the bow. Blair looks through binoculars for another boat. Xabi trimming. Vestas on the horizon. Dongfeng on the horizon. Crew on the bow.Surfing in big wind. Sophie trims on the stern: "Main on!" Neti grinds for her, then (I think) passes a piece of something to eat. Major washing machine shots. Slomo of Sophie making the shaka sign and grinning. Neti hugs the pedestal to withstand the water. Later we see Neti driving, Willy standing behind him, and Sophie sitting down behind the steering platform, facing aft, to drink from a water bottle. Favoriting mostly for that one slomo shot of Sophie.Crash cam from the stern as MAPFRE surfs in big wind. Suddenly Blair, on the helm, points forward: "Whale! Big whale!" Neti jumps up to look, and they pass the whale, which surfaces a half a boatlength to starboard as they surf past. Someone (sounds like Tamara) shouts a greeting to it. Ridiculous!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.Joan talks below in Spanish. Lots of mention of wind. Rob, below: Right now we're not in great shape. The leaders, first 3 boats, have extended quite a lot. That may change in the ridge. Dongfeng not that far away. Scallywag probably going to overtake us in the next sched. Dee not far away. Podium still a possibility, but we're going to have to get some luck with the upcoming ridge. Joan talks more in Spanish; discusses the limit of the Gulf Stream. Rob: Had a very cold night last night. Water was down to zero at one stage. Passed an iceberg; could see it on the radar. Water's probably 10 or 12 now. More Joan in Spanish. Washing machine shots of the cockpit from the hatch. Slomo washing machine. Neti grinding. Crew putting on foulies below. Stern cam shots of big spray. Sail change: Hoisting the FR0. Sophie wrestling the sail. Spreader cam shots of the sail change. Drone shots of them triple-heading wiht the FR0 and full main: Must be in lighter wind than some of the other boats. Looks like 20 knots of wind or less from the sea surface. Favoriting for those drone shots at the end.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 summarizes the first 2 days of the leg in Spanish. Discusses the complicated conditions, the relative positions of the northern and southern groups. Tamara, on the bow as they flop, talks in Spanish. Xabi repeats his summary in English. First time they've seen such a big split in the race. Very slow for them and Dongfeng and TTToP. The fleet in the south always kept in front of the front. They have a lot of work to do now to get to the north. They look quite strong. We need to wait and see. Tamara repeats her comments in English: In a transition. Hard to wait for the wind. Hope they'll be sailing fast soon. Xabi trims. Sophie and Blair grind. Stacking forward. Flopping. Xabi rubs his head. Instruments show them doing 3 knots. Drone shot of them floopping from above the masthead, then low and alongside in very flat water.Neti, on the aft pedestal, talks in Spanish. Blair: Sailed well through the night. Dongfeng pulled away from us in the reaching conditions. Just got the sched, Dongfeng is 30 miles away. Rest of the fleet didn't come with us. Massive split. It's a little bit of a worry that Brunel has got separation from us. Because we did well we got further to leeward, and got out of the breeze and gybed. Just one of those things; you've gotta sail the wind you've got. Joan at the nav station, talking to Xabi about when to gybe. Pablo sleeping sitting up. Gybe on deck with Neti and Willy grinding. Stacking. Joan and Rob talking. Rob on the helm. Slomo washing machine. Drone shots of surfing with clouds. Super low-altitude drone shot from just in front of the bow.Neti talks in Spanish. He and Willy talk in Spanish. Discussion of what day they'll finish: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Rob, on the helm, chimes in. "Are we talking UTC or local?" Tamara talks in Spanish, laughing.Xabi, at the helm motoring out, talks in Spanish. Sophie: Super nice to be back on board. Not fun sitting on the sidelines. Gonna be pretty windy, and that's exciting. And we all realize how well it is to do well on this leg. Rob: This is probably the most important leg of the race for a lot of teams. So we'll be giving it everything. First time to the UK since 2005, which was his first race. Looking forward to arriving; hope they arrive in daylight. Slomo parade with wacky slowed-down audio. Xabi says goodbye to young boy, who puts his hands over the lens. Spectator boat with MAPFRE on the side waves and blows horns. Sailing upwind with Dongfeng to leeward. Slomo of Tamara tailing. Dongfeng on their weather quarter with the A3 up. More slomo grinding. Brunel crossing astern on a downwind leg. Sailing past the bridge. Slomo behind AkzoNobel heading into fog as someone (Blair?) gets doused on the bow. Dongfeng on their hip as they reach in the fog.We see instruments in the nav station. VHF on channel 77, GPS with the position and time (position is just off Fort Adams in the entrance to Narragansett Bay). Xabi says they're leaving newport, telephone off, and the phone goes in a sealed plastic box. Ah, apparently this is official "I sealed my phone at this time and place" documentation.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.Xabi, in the cockpit talks in Spanish. Wind is about 12 knots. Talks about Turn the Tide and AkzoNobel, the approach to Newport. Repeats in Spanish: The last 24 hours we knew would be very tricky. Last night had winds up to 35 knots downwind. Now we've passed the front and we're going upwind with 7 or 8 knots. Going to be a compression. Managed to pass Turn the Tide, and made some distance as well with AkzoNobel. Are now 8 miles from Vestas. Still some hope. A lot can happen. Crew stacks to leeward in anticipation of a tack. Working the jury-rigged keel turing the tack. Joan, Xabi, and Neti clustered over the nav station, talking in Spanish. Washing machine from the cabin looking aft. Rob on the helm; Xabi on the pedestal. As it gets dark, wind is lighter, Rob looks to starboard through binoculars. Willy forward for a sail change. Looks like going from MH0 to J0 or vice versa.Rob, below, talks about how they've been holding off AkzoNobel for the last day. They're to weather of them. Won't really know for 24 hours until they gybe. The scheds have been bouncing around a lot. 5, 10 miles gained and lost. They've generally done well on the guys ahead. 1000 miles to go and we're sitting in 5th or 6th, but 4th's not that far away. Third's not likely I guess. Front coming in might help. A point's a point. Anything we can salvage will be good. Blair on deck: Beautiful tradewind sailing the last few days, but we've been doing it from 5th or 6th position, trying to catch the guys in front. Keep working. A couple of opportunities ahead. Crossed the outbound track to Capetown. Gonna keep fighting, gonna win this thing. Tamara grinding. Surfing. Blair grinding in slomo. Tamara, on the aft pedestal, turns away from the spray. Xabi uses a hand-bearing compass to look at a competitor to weather. "82/84 I would say... 7 miles."Xabi, below, talks in Spanish. 1,300 miles more or less to Newport. Talks about the other boats, TTToP, Vestas. The complicated situation. He repeats in English: Had some compression from behind, AkzoNobel gained from behind. About 3 and a half days left. The boats in front have an important lead. Going to be very hard to catch them. But have to keep hope, keep the options open. Right now we think Turn the Tide and Vestas are achievable. (Heh. I'm writing this up after I know the actual result.) Xabi hopes the high pressure is moving to the east so they can cut the corner a little bit. Crew in the cockpit, slomo washing machine with sunset behind it. Rob on the helm. Willy grinding. Neti trimming. Crash cam as Joan reads the latest sched. As he reads about them gaining on the competition the crew on deck shouts "¡Vamos!" and pounds the deck.360 VR view of MAPFRE surfing on starboard. Rob on the helm, Xabi trimming. 360 shot from the bow. Someone runs forward to adjust the angle of the camera mounted on the bow pulpit.Drone shots of MAPFRE triple-heading on starboard in 20 knots of wind. Crew in the cockpit.Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the fleet and their position, the approach to Newport. Something about having two fewer hands (because of Sophie being off the boat this leg without a replacement?). Talks about the electrical problem. Washing machine shot on deck. Slomo spray on the bow. Spreader cam view of the foredeck, the cockpit.Rob, below: Got a one-design boat now, so everything's very sensitive. Small changes in trim, daggerboards, can make important differences in speed. Blair, below, talks about the same thing. Rob talks about the smallest thing you can trim is the leech line up to big things like reefing the sail. Willy and Blair are primary trimmers. It's there job to be focused on trim the whole time. Blair talks about it, how in big weather it's big changes, but now it's small changes, small details.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.Neti and Xabi working on the keel hydraulics. Joan talks to them in Spanish. Joan to the cockpit: "You don't have instruments, right?" He gives a thumbs up. Neti, below, talks in Spanish, apparently about the breakage and repair. They have a jury-rigged piece of string marking the keel position. He demonstrates releasing pressure, and then adding pressure. Closeup of the markings on the box under the string.Joan, on deck: Passing the equator now. To the east of the leaders, which gives MAPFRE some leverage. Doldrums don't look very bad. The fleet doesn't have a large separation, so everyone will have pretty much the same opportunities. After the doldrums, typical tradewinds and sailing around the Bermuda High. With a low coming in that creates some opportunities. In lighter wind with MH0 partly rolled up, Xabi on the foredeck. Then Willy stands on the bow and gives hand signals to guide them through sargasso weed. Crew in the cockpit. Neti on a halyard putting a patch on the MH0 near the clew.Closeups of B&G instruments with nothing displayed. Neti, below, explains that they have "No batteries, no systems, nothing." Neti and Joan working in the bottom part of the cabin. Pablo, on the helm, talks about the issue in Spanish. Shot of the compass binnacle. Xabi stands talking on the satellite phone, explaining the situation. Computer screen showing electronic schematics. Neti working on an instrument panel while engine runs. Joan and Neti talking in Spanish. Joan stands on the stern on the sat phone, holding it high for better antennae operation. Closeups of various components. Xabi talks about fuses blowing, the electronics breaking, the PLC (?) broken means they can't control the keel. Working on a workaround. Pablo talks in Spanish in the cockpit. Instruments behind him apear to have readings, though. Pablo, Neti, and Xabi below work on the keel box. Xabi, to the cockpit: 'It's moving. So what do you need now?" They laugh at the response. Neti: "It's 33 now; what works for you?" He manually opens a valve. "There. That's 30." They laugh. Looks like they're manually bypassing the fuse to operate the keel hydraulic pump manually. Neti, on deck, explains that they took a switch from the bilge pump, and rigged up a system where they can move the keel. It's tricky, and in windy conditions would be very hard, because one person would need to be below at all times to move the keel. He then repeats the explanation in Spanish.Closeups of B&G instruments with nothing displayed. Neti, below, explains that they have "No batteries, no systems, nothing." Neti and Joan working in the bottom part of the cabin. Pablo, on the helm, talks about the issue in Spanish. Shot of the compass binnacle. Xabi stands talking on the satellite phone, explaining the situation. Computer screen showing electronic schematics. Neti working on an instrument panel while engine runs. Joan and Neti talking in Spanish. Joan stands on the stern on the sat phone, holding it high for better antennae operation. Closeups of various components. Xabi talks about fuses blowing, the electronics breaking, the PLC (?) broken means they can't control the keel. Working on a workaround. Pablo talks in Spanish in the cockpit. Instruments behind him apear to have readings, though. Pablo, Neti, and Xabi below work on the keel box. Xabi, to the cockpit: 'It's moving. So what do you need now?" They laugh at the response. Neti: "It's 33 now; what works for you?" He manually opens a valve. "There. That's 30." They laugh. Looks like they're manually bypassing the fuse to operate the keel hydraulic pump manually. Neti, on deck, explains that they took a switch from the bilge pump, and rigged up a system where they can move the keel. It's tricky, and in windy conditions would be very hard, because one person would need to be below at all times to move the keel. He then repeats the explanation in Spanish.Blair: Getting used to sailing on their own. Broke through a cloud line, and had to stick with our line. Got a bad sched; lost 20 miles on the leaders... Every cloud is very different. Haven't done the best job. The ones that screwed us the other night developed on top of us, and we couldn't do anything about it. Certainly not our best friends at the moment, the clouds. Willy talks in Spanish about the comptetition, the weather. Shots of them sailing on starboard. Drone shots of them triple-heading with the MH0 with clouds and rain behind them.Neti talks in Spanish as they sail in 15 knots of wind on starboard tack. He then repeats in English: After a shitty night, they got stuck in bad wind. Have been losing the whole day. Hopefully we can catch up again. It's been a hard day for us. But it's what it is. Lost so many miles in 15 hours. We knew that Turn the Tide on Plastic was well positioned. We didn't expect to lose as much with Dongfeng and Vestas... Have to keep pushing and not give up. Cannot say we are happy with what happened last night. But we push, and we're here for racing. Shot looking forwar as they sail faster than they have been. Blair grimaces into the camera. Joan comes up and gives the latest sched. Willy trimming. Smiles. Joan and Blair at the nav station.Night vision shot from the stern camera as they deal with squalls and rain. Shouting, grinding.Tamara talks in Spanish about the current situation with the other boats. Rob, on the helm, talks about their current surroundings. Massive clouds, hopefully through the worst of it now. Should start getting lifted tonight and will be able to ease the sails, faster angles. They knew that getting offshore was the key, and Turn the Tide did that and got to the outside. They're leading, and will probably do more through the night, then hopefully things will change and they can start getting back into them. Crew grinding. (Maybe it's just me but there's a definite sameness to these last few videos.) Night vision shots of the cockpit, with rain. Night vision shots of maneuvers, light conditions with flopping. Xabi talks in Spanish, then repeats in English. Big squalls, big rain, big wind. When a sched came through they lost 9 miles on Dongfeng. Now another sched will come in 2 hours. For sure they had some big things to deal with too and hopefully we can catch them up.Joan talks on deck: yesterday had big showers, had to take a few of them on starboard, and ended up left of the rhumb line. Got passed by Vestas and Turn the Tide. In a group of four boats with Dongfeng ahead. Xabi recaps the same events in Spanish. They're especially concerned about Dongfeng because of how close they are in the standings. Shot looking forward as they sail to weather on port under the J1. Rob on the helm. Pablo trimming. Shifting the stack to leeward in preparation for tacking. Then we see the tack. Tamara grinding. spreader cam view of the deck with the J1 flying. Night-vision shots with rain. Night-vision shot of the bow with spray coming over.Blair, by the stack, talks about how they had a really tough day, with a squally cloud line and lots of tacks. Held onto Brunel, but lost 5 or 6 miles to Dongfeng. And then TTToP and Vestas got through on the other side. But a long way to go... He thinks they're sailing well. Shot of them approaching the oil drilling ship with the flaming flare on the stern. Brunel crossing on starboard a quarter mile behind them. They tack to cover. Shifting the stack. Look at them all max hiking, threaded through the lifelines. Shot of another competitor (Brunel?) to leeward. Light winds. Sail changes. Sunset with Willy grinding.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.Blair, in the prestart, talks about the upcoming leg. Rob calling tactics at the start. Brunel sailing down on them. Sailing away from the line with the best start. Neti: "Dongfeng is tacking." Grinding. Leading the fleet around the weather mark. Dongfeng right on their stern. Lots of cool sailhandling footage. They're doing a good job without Sophie. Neti: Start was pretty good for us... Now comes the tricky part, which is the leg. (He repeats in Spanish.) Rob recaps the start. Learned their mistakes from the in-port race. "A long port tack now and try to stay in front."Conversation on shore between two people in MAPFRE shirts who I don't recognize. Shore team? Dockout parade. The same two are there. One has a special flag and a GoPro mounted on his chest. Guessing he's the jumper. Maybe they're both jumpers? Wisom dancing. Onto the dock. We see the dockout from on board. Xabi and the younger jumper exchange flags. Younger jumper puts on a swim cap and goggles, then jumps overboard. Xabi, back on the dock, talks in Spanish.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"?)Sophie, on the bow: It is what it is I guess. Boredom has set in. Getting lots of sleep, and eating what bits of food we have... Have to admit the racing vibe on board is kind of relaxed... Just doing what we can to get there. We're all feeling a bit tired of the situation and looking forward to getting in. Instruments. Sophie and Blair lounging on the foredeck. Blair looks at a small notebook.Below, Neti counts out days and food. Discusses with Rob and Tamara how much food they have and how many days remain. Discussion in Spanglish. Neti gets out the hydrogenerator and talks about it in Spanish. I guess they need to conserve deisel fuel to drive the watermaker? As he talks in Spanish I catch commentary about Itajai and "much hambre". Ah. Rob opens the emergency watermaker. "About 40 minutes each. I guess it depends on how thirsty you are." He demonstrates pumping the handle of the watermaker.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.Blair, sitting on deck in light winds, talks about how their goal for the rest of this leg is catching TTToP. Talks about high pressure ridge, and they got further away, unfortunately. Sailing upwind. Not good for them. Going to try to analyze and look for an opportunity later on. Sunrise shot. Trimming. Joan looking at the chart. Joan talking with Rob (I think) in the cockpit about their prospects for catching TTToP.Rob, on the helm in light air: Got the mainsail back up 24 hours ago. Did a couple of days with no main. Not sheeting too hard; I'd say we're at 95%. Joan talks in the cockpit in Spanish. Rob: Provisioned this leg for 19 days, and are a bit over 20. So basically we're running out. We're all right on freeze dried. But snacks are running out. Going to be a few hungry people when we get to Brazil. Bow. Drone shots as they sail with MH0 and full main.Rob steers as MAPFRE reaches with FR0, J2, and J3 but no main. Ñeti, below, talks about the conditions. Blair, below, talks aobut how they've had the main down below since leaving the Horn. Repair is curing and doing a little more hand-stitching. Time to put it up and hopefully it holds together. But it's quite a big repair, so we'll wait and see. Shot of main below. Crew wrestles the sail up. Neti: has been 36 hours since we did the track. Which is good. Shots of Rob at the back of the boom. Hoisting the main. Spreader cam view. Main hoisted. Main flying. Sophie to Neti: Shake my hand. (They shake.) Sophie: Congratulations. Neti: Looks quite good. The track is also good. Looks like the glue is working perfectly. Now we have to be conservative at the beginning. Hopefully we can keep the mainsail in one piece. Don't have much glue. But hopefully it works.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.Xabi, on deck, talks in Spanish. They appear to be motor-sailing in protected waters close to shore. He talks about their suspension of racing. He then explains in English. Part of the mast track came unglued. Fought hard with ratchets and straps on the mast, not with the main working properly. Today, just as they pass Cape Horn they had a bad tear of the mainsail. So they have no choice but to try to fix this. Expects to spend 12 hours; will be challenging. They had a plan with their shore team just in case. He talks again in Spanish. Shot of the main torn in two. Sign underfoot says "Cabo de Hornos".Below, Joan talks about approaching Cape Horn, and the conditions over the next few days. Trying to find a balance between safety and pushing the boat hard. Vestas and Dongfeng ahead of them; expect to be close to them as they round. Ñeti, below, talks in Spanish. He shows a piece of hardware (mast track car?). Ñeti and Xabi work to repair a fitting. Washing machine shots in the morning sun on deck. Gybe from the stern. High-wind drone shots as MAPFRE surfs. Slomo drone shots of crew working on the bow to hoist the FR0. Drone shots in very windy conditions: streaking on the water as they surf with just J2/J3.Xabi, below, talks about receiving the news about the loss of John Fisher. Expresses his sorrow; wishes the best for his family and crew. He then repeats the message in Spanish.Night-vision crash cam view; looks like they stuffed the bow and did a round up. Slomo of two sailors in the cockpit (I think maybe Rob and Sophie?) giving a peace sign and a thumbs up, respectively. Willy and Blair by the mast setting the outrigger in epic surfing conditions. Slomo of surfing. Crew in the cockpit. Wake shot, surfing. Ugo's out in it to get these shots. Good stuff. Blair, below, his breath and steaming body backlit from the companionway.Xabi, below, says they have to be happy where they are. Everyone knows about the mast track problem. Yesterday they did some reinforcements, which aren't brilliant, but are enough for them to push hard to Cape Horn. They're 50 miles back from the lead, which is nothing. [Big bang. It sounds like they hit a pretty solid chunk of water.] He repeats his explanation in Spanish. Stern cam, and then spreader cam, views of the cockpit as they sail fast with big waves washing over them. Washing machine. Mast cam looking forward as they surf.Blair, below, talks about having passed Point Nemo this afternoon. Pretty cool, but mixed emotions because of the issue with the mast track. Have been struggling to keep up with the fleet. Below, Tamara talks in Spanish. In the cockpit, a crewmember holds a sign with distances to Itajai, Auckland, and the International Space Station. Mast cam view forward as they surf and stuff the bow. Drone shot as they sail downwind in lighter conditions (for the Southern Ocean) as a crewmember aloft just below the first spreaders works on the mast track. Favoriting for that epic shot.Xabi, below, talks about how they were preparing for a gybe, putting in a second reef so it would be safer, and the mast track came unglued, like it did for AkzoNobel in Leg 3. Pretty disappointed, but reacted well. Got the main on the lock on the second reef and ratcheted the track. Now are sailing with the FR0 and double-reefed main. Plan is to keep sailing hard, because these are good conditions to stay with the fleet. After the Horn can maybe do something with glue to repair. Trying very hard to stay in the race. He then repeats the explanation in Spanish.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.Xabi, below, talks about how last night was tricky. Windier. Positioned pretty good. Farthest south and east, leading at the moment, though everything is super close. Running 3 miles from the exclusion zone line. In a half hour do will do our first gybe out; a short one. Joan talks about the gybe. Xabi calls out a distance to Brunel. Shot from inside the cabin, and then the spreader cam, as they gybe. Slomo sunset.Rob, below, explains everyone trying to maintain a southerly position. Other boats nearby. 20-25 knots right now, then they'll come down to the ice barrier and gybe. Neti: Second in the fleet right now. Exciting; they passed Vestas. Pablo (something) on the wheel. Fighting with Dongfeng. After 4 or 5 days in the ocean, are 3 boats fighting within a mile. Found a bit of a fast mode today compared to Vestas. We'll see how it goes. Shot of two boats in teh sunset on their weather quarter. Slomo shots of the sunset, other boats. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the other boats.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.Ñeti talks below in Spanish; I hear him mention Dongfeng. On deck he trims, talks with Willy in the cockpit in Spanish. Slomo of three sailors, including Sophie, on the bow. Sail repairs below in red headlamps.Ugo hands Xabi something at the nav station: An envelope containing a photo? Then Joan also looks at an envelope containing a photo: "Mi hija, y mi padre." Xabi shows his photo, talks about it in Spanish. Joan talks in Spanish as well.Ugo hands Xabi something at the nav station: An envelope containing a photo? Then Joan also looks at an envelope containing a photo: "Mi hija, y mi padre." Xabi shows his photo, talks about it in Spanish. Joan talks in Spanish as well.Parade out to the boat. Someone shouting, "¡Vamos! ¡Vamos!" Blair thanks the crowd; tussles a kid's hair. Shakes hands, gives kisses, makes the shaka sign. Blair and Tamara wave as they dock out. Blair and Xabi fist-bump. Lots of fans. Start. Ñeti on the bow gives distance to the line. AFter the start, sailing with the other boats. Rob: "Bit of a righty here." They call to Dongfeng: "You tack!" They tack. Close duck by TTToP, Vestas. Grinding. Comig into the leeward mark. Dongfeng close astern. Slomo of Ñeti on the bow. Blair fiddling with the clew. Sophie and Tamara stacking the J3.Parade out to the boat. Someone shouting, "¡Vamos! ¡Vamos!" Blair thanks the crowd; tussles a kid's hair. Shakes hands, gives kisses, makes the shaka sign. Blair and Tamara wave as they dock out. Blair and Xabi fist-bump. Lots of fans. Start. Ñeti on the bow gives distance to the line. AFter the start, sailing with the other boats. Rob: "Bit of a righty here." They call to Dongfeng: "You tack!" They tack. Close duck by TTToP, Vestas. Grinding. Comig into the leeward mark. Dongfeng close astern. Slomo of Ñeti on the bow. Blair fiddling with the clew. Sophie and Tamara stacking the J3.Shot of a computer in the nav station: "TOUGHBOOK". Xabi puts something in a small plastic box and seals it. (SIM cards from their phones, maybe?) "See you in Brazil."Shot of a computer in the nav station: "TOUGHBOOK". Xabi puts something in a small plastic box and seals it. (SIM cards from their phones, maybe?) "See you in Brazil."Xabi does a dockout interview from the rail in Spanish. All I caught was "rapido" and "seguro".Xabi does a dockout interview from the rail in Spanish. All I caught was "rapido" and "seguro".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.Blair, on deck, talks about New Zealand's amazing history with the race, especially back in the Whitbread days. Means a lot for a Kiwi sailing into Auckland. Not the position they'd like, but still special. Louis talks about growing up watching documentaries about Grant Dalton and Peter Blake, so it means a lot to be part of it.Tamara, in the galley, talks in Spanish about food preparation. Closeup of the burner. Food prep. Sophie: "Twenty days of freeze-dried food is not very nice." Blair: it keeps up the energy. Sophie: Getting pretty hard to eat. Willy: Talks in Spanish about the food. Tamara talks in Spanish about the food. Beef hot pot. Chicken marsala, topped off with some chicken and noodles. They all talk about wanting fresh food when they arrive. Fruit and veggies.Xabi talks about how the weather has been changing, and there's a big split in the fleet. Louis: Dongfeng about 8 miles behind. Hopefully get a chance to catch Brunel in the next few days. Wind changes so quickly in the New Zealand that the forecast is changing every 4 hours. Anything can happen. Shadow on the sail as Louis takes the tack of a sail forward. Willy and Tamara grinding as Louis works the foredeck on a sail change. Sophie grinding. Xabi trimming.Blair asleep. Rob wakes him up. Blair getting up. "Time to go to work." Gets dressed. Puts on sunscreen. Should be straightforward; now they're in the tradewinds. Might need to change to a smaller sail. Can't put too much sunblock on. Do a little grinding, cruising to check front sail trim, trimming, and driving the last hour. Final touch: some zinc. He rummages. "Looking for that for about 10 minutes; it was sitting right there." On deck, grinding. wrestling sails on the foredeck. As he's trimming, he talks about liking all the jobs on deck. Gives a thumbs up. Tradewind sailing's nice, but once you get over the wet and the cold, Southern Ocean is the best. Talks about his good luck charm that he had at the Olympics and the America's Cup. Thought he'd bring it around the world with him. Below, eating, he talks about it having been a good watch. He talks with Joan at the nav station while eating.At the nav station, Joan talks in Spanish about the doldrums, wind, the comeptition. Rob, on the wheel: Dongfeng 3 miles behind us. Leaders 100 miles away off their bow. Brunel and TTToP off their port bow. But weather is changing dramatically. Light air between them and New Zealand. Uncertain. We're optimistic. Hoping the fleet's going to compress. Anything could happen. Fleet is spread quite widely, with 150 miles separation, so it could go either way. About 1200 miles to Auckland; 5 or 6 days. Quiet shots of them concentrating in the cockpit, trimming. Drone shot of MAPFRE with an atoll a few miles to starboard of their track. Drone shots.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.Xabi, trimming in light air, talks about the close competition with Dongfeng. Sunset. Xabi talks in Spanish. Pretty drone shots of sunrise with Dongfeng on the horizon. Tacking the MH0 with Dongfeng 2 miles ahead of them. Dongfeng behind them. Crossing Dongfeng a half mile ahead of them. Sunset shots with Dongfeng.Below, Willy talks in Spanish about the fleet, compression, competition. Blair, on deck in the sunset, talks about how the last sched wasn't very good for them. Not stoked to be in this position. Just trying to make our way toward the bottom of the Solomons as quickly as they can. Nice seeing another boat (Dongfeng); helps them push harder. Dongfeng a mile away. Drone shot with Dongfeng in the distance. Drone shot of Sophie working on the bowsprit.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.The crew sings Happy Birthday to Tamara in the cockpit. They have a present for her: Some food treat ("to share, to share" says Blair), a fish swim cap, and a card they all signed. She talks about it in Spanish.Tamara in night vision shot on the bow, talks in Spanish about little wind, changes. Blair and Tamara grinding. Joan rubbing his eyes at the nav station. Pablo on the helm. In daylight, Xabi talks about the latest position report, which wasn't great. Have some hope, but let's see how things develop. More doldrums in the next couple of days.Louis, in the cockpit, talks about how the last few days have been challenging. Transitions. Sail changes all night. Other boats have come past them with pressure. In the back of the fleet now. Lot of transitions to go. Trick is not to get too happy when you're in front, not get too sad when you're behind. Just keep on sailing. Sophie on the bow: Back in the doldrums, I guess. Half an hour of sleep in the last two off watches. Xabi talks in Spanish. Sailing with wind, then flopping as Joan points out wind. Xabi comes up with a tablet and reads a bad sched. "We lost 16." High drone shot of them flopping with no wind, then a drone shot of them sailing on starboard with a raincloud on the horizon beyond them.Rob sleeping below. Asking about the last sched. "Pretty good. Gained on everybody." Rob explains that he just woke up; describes his wake up routine as he gets his foulies on. Talks about close competition with Dongfeng. Willy gets his foulies on behind him. Gets everything ready, grabs his drink holder, and out the companionway. Later (I assume) he takes off his foulies below. Willy and he are on watch together. Their counterparts are Pablo and Blair, so they alternate with them. Rob eating two freeze-dried meals mixed together. Rob's primarily a driver. Everyone doing their part to make the boat go quick. He reminisces about his first race, when he was a driver/tirmmer. Then a watch captain for his last 4 races. "Cracking the whip, really."Blaire, below, explains that they're in the northeast trades, and are dueling with Dongfeng. AkzoNobel and Scallywag down to leeward. Hoping next transition works in their favor. Knew this race was going to have a lot of transitions and compressions. Guys who went a different route managed to get in front, but there's at least two more transitions to come. Dongfeng is very equal in pace. Slomo washing machine shots from the companionway, cockpit, stern. Rob on the helm taking spray. Tamara trimming. Stern cam, mast cam, spreader cam footage of MAPFRE sailing fast on port.At the nav station, Xabi talks in Spanish about wind, the competition. Then he talks on deck, still in Spanish. At nav station, Joan talks in English about weather forecasting. Tricky to find a balance between staying with the fleet and believing their own weather routing. When weather is more uncertain, keep an eye on the fleet more. Other times have more confidence in your forecast. Xabi at the nav station. Stacy triming. Rob grinding. Dongfeng close astern. Drone shots showing both boats in the sunset.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.Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy. Blair, below, talks about it being full-on going fast in the strong wind and big sea state. Talks about the competition. Dongfeng behind them, Brunel to leeward. Going well speed-wise against those guys. No wind in 12 hours. Night vision shots of the cockpit. Stern cam shots of rough conditions, washing machine. Spreader cam. Cockpit washing machine shots. Slomo of Támara getting doused while trimming. Slomo washing machine. Sailing fast in strong winds.Támara talks in the cockpit in Spanish about the competition while trimming. Rob is on the wheel behind her. A boat is visible on the horizon behind them. Rob, on the helm, talks about passing Taiwan and sailing north, away from New Zealand, to set up for a better wind angle once they get to the tradewinds. Slomo of Brunel to port of them, then of Brunel and Dongfeng. Slomo of Támara, Xabi. Grinding, slomo grinding by Blair. Closeup of winch. Pablo on helm with Brunel behind them and to leeward. Willy on the bow lowers a furled headsail.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.Rob, on the weather rail, talks about leaving Hong Kong, hard on the wind as expected, to the corner of Taiwan in the background. Also in the background (ahead of them): Dongfeng. Louis, with another competitor visible behind them (maybe Scallywag?) talks about working on the foredeck going to weather, getting washed into the J2, the uncomfortable nature of going to weather. Slomo of Louis. Shot of three competitors to weather: maybe (left to right) Dongfeng, AkzoNobel, and Brunel? Slomo spray on the bow. Slomo of Xabi gesturing, strapping the stack. Crewmember on the bow in spray. Rob grinding, slomo of Rob in spray securing the stack. Sophie talking a halyard forward. Lowering the J1 in rough conditions to switch to the (not yet unfurled J2) with 7 crew on the foredeck. They secure the J1, then unfurl the J2. Then, in lighter wind, Dongfeng a few boatlenghts to leeward, then passing in front of them with both boats under the J0.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.Below, Joan explains that they have just passed the Phillippines, and have about 370 miles to go to the finish. Tricky, because there's a lot of traffic (oh yeah) and they don't always have lights. Sophie on deck: "The most enjoyable part of this leg for me was the start. Was sad to leave home, but it was really cool to go down the bay, and then turn left and go down the coast where I grew up surfing." Willy talks in Spanish. Louis: "There hasn't been a best part of the leg, man. THIS is the best part of the leg, because we're a day from the dock." Támara talks, laughing, in Spanish. Blair talks about the tradewind sailing, that being the highlight. Louis: "The worst part of the leg was when we came out of the doldrums and pretty much were dropped by the entire fleet." Willy talks in Spanish. Sophie: "Some of those days in the doldrums. They were pretty tough." Blair talks about the doldrums. Támara talks in Spanish. Sunset. Gybing with land behind them. Rob, on the helm, smiles. Islands. Drone shots of them sailing past islands.Xabi, in the pre-dawn light, talks about the current situation. Have been going well and closed in on the guys in the front. Are waiting for an opportunity to open up, and wold like to get one position back. Scallywag has done an amazing leg. Took their chances in the doldrums. Happy for them if they win. Enjoying the sailing now after the doldrums.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.On deck, Xabi talks in Spanish. Sunrise shots; Rob steering, Sophie brushing her teeth on the stern. Támara grinding, Louis trimming.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.Joan, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish as MAPFRE flops with no wind under cloudy skies. Rain; slomo of Sophie, Joan, Xabi grinding in the rain. Sophie and Támara on the bow in the rain. Moving fast in the squall, and... becalmed again. Crew looks for wind; Xabi discusses it. Blair hauls the clew aft.On the bow, Xabi talks in Spanish. "Mucho calor." At night, we see a light shining forward from the cockpit toward the sail and hear a sheet being eased. Looks like a squall. Trimming, grinding, lightning. Stacking. Lowering the J1.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.We see Ugo launch the drone, which flies away. MAPFRE drifts on a glassy ocean. Very low-altitude drone shots that circle the boat, first farther away and then close.At one point we see a distant competitor ahead and to leeward. We see Sophie's silhouette on the bow as they hoist the J1 (or maybe it's just that the J1 is set with a loose halyard for drifting/windseeking conditions).Sophie, invisible in the dark, talks about how it's been painful. Not a lot of wind, Dongfeng is a long way ahead and AkzoNobel has passed them... Quite frustrating. Xabi's voice, announcing AkzoNobel's position. Crew stacking forward on the bow in red headlamps. Views of stars, sounds of slow sailing. In the dawn, Blair holds the clew of the J1 as they flop. Talks in detail about how frustrating it is, how a big cloud came through and compressed the fleet. They went from furthest north boat and the fleet compressed and sailed around them. Daybreak now; it's fully glassed. AkzoNobel was most frustrating; went from 2 miles behind them before the cloud to 6 miles in front, sailing a half-mile to leeward of them. Willy, sitting on the lowered J1 on the bow, talks in Spanish about the wind and the competition. Blair on the helm. Sunrise. Glassy conditions. Rob on the helm. Joan looking around. Willy and Blair sit under the clew of the MH0, talking.Joan talks in Spanish about the Solomons, wind, squalls, complicated strategy, Dongfeng ahead, and the other boats behind them. Xabi talks about how they've been in this situation before, lead by Dongfeng through much of the leg. "Now we've gained as much as possible, and wait for our opportunity." Talks about the doldrums coming up. Night shot of distant lightning silhouetting the helmsman. In the day, Xabi in the pit. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them and to port with an island below them. Stacking. Green island to leeward. Pablo grinds with an island below them. Stacking forward. Shot astern with a whale surfacing; then slomo of the whale surfacing. AkzoNobel behind them. Dongfeng ahead and to weather. Light winds. AkzoNobel close behind them. Willy looking through binoculars. Drone shot of a fishing boat with a purse seine and MAPFRE in the background. Circling drone shot of MAPFRE with Dongfeng visible in 3 miles away, ahead and to weather.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.Sophie, on the aft pedestal, summarizes where they stand. Have gained back on the two lead boats, AkzoNobel and Dongfeng. Blair, trimming, talks about how they caught sight of the other two boats that morning sooner than they expected; MAPFRE got some good pressure and the other two boats got stuck a little too low, such that "Vestas and us caught them a little bit." Now into tradewind sailing. Now they're in the same wind so it's all down to boatspeed. Maybe there will be more clouds at night that allows for bigger gains and losses. Sophie: "I think we're all pretty excited to be back at the front of the fleet." Willy stands at the shrouds looking up at the sails. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them. Támara looking forward. Sunset. A bird (a Brown Booby, I think) flies above the masthead. Pole shots of the rudder, the wake.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.MAPFRE is sailing fast on starboard gybe, triple-heading. On the aft pedestal, Támara talks in Spanish. Willy talks in Spanish. Támara talks more in Spanish. Blair talks with the coastline visible behind him: "VMG'd all night. All day today. Quite a few gybes actually. Very reminiscent of the ice gate, but slightly warmer here. Right by the coast." He talks about how the fleet has compressed. AkzoNobel caught up and passed everyone. They just passed Vestas. Shot of Vestas (I think?) inside them. Shot of AzkoNobel behind and to weather of them. Vestas crossing in front of them on starboard gybe, land visible behind them, while MAPFRE sails on port gybe. Shot from the cockpit as they gybe from starboard to port. Another gybe from the cockpit, this time from port to starboard. Closeups of grinding, winches. Pretty drone shot with MAPFRE on starboard gybe in the foreground, competitor (Vestas?) silhouetted by the low sun ahead of them.Lightly attended dockout parade. Motoring out, Xabi talks while steering. Pretty sure he misspeaks, saying, "we're starting Leg 4 from Melbourne to Auckland" (rather than Hong Kong). Happy with how things are going, and with the crew. Only team not changing the crew. There's a shot of Joan at the nav station with a bunch of crew hovering behind him as he explains something. Then (weirdly) the audio cuts out as the video continues. Then we see the dockout from the deck. Rob, on deck, says he's surprised at the number of crew changes happening. Their aim was to keep the same crew as much as they could. Xabi, on the wheel, says he hopes their time sailing together can give them an advantage. Shots of the start. After the start, Louis stacks the J3 forward. Shot of Brunel ahead of them and to leeward. Sophie shifting the stack to leeward. Slomo spray. Epic spray on the bow engulfing Louis. Vestas ahead of them and to leeward as they reach down the coast. Willy in slomo spray.Below, Bouwe discusses the latest sched. Happy because even though they [Vestas, presumably] are still ahead of them, they've closed the range a lot. So maybe still a chance to catch them. He explains the effect of the counter-clockwise windshift in favoring the boat on the left (Dongfeng).Bouwe comes out of the cabin into the cockpit wearing a Santa Claus costume. He's holding a sack and banging on a teapot. Carlo watches from the shrounds. Santa: "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" Santa gives a present (a card?) to Capey. Capey: "It doesn't look like I can eat this." Peter watches from the helm. Peter gets a (poorly wrapped) present. Abby gets a present (hers actually looks pretty nice). Santa gives Annie one present, then swaps out a different one and gives hers to Alberto. Louis, poking his head up from below, gets a "baby" one. Santa walks to the bow, then back. Kyle emerges from the cabin rubbing his eyes. Louis puts on reindeer+Santa hat sunglasses. (Assuming that was his present?) Santa passes out the final gifts: Cookies. "Sharing, sharing..." Santa removes his beard to enjoy a cookie. Carlo talks to Ugo: "You really miss out on the special days doing this race. So it's nice to be able to celebrate Christmas with Santa on the boat." Below, at the nav station, Santa/Bouwe types at the computer.Annie is in her foulie bottoms below. She's movnig a little gingerly? Puts on her foulie top. "I was trying not to go up when it's windy, but it's always windy. I can't stay below anymore. We'll see what Bouwe says when I get on deck. At the moment he won't let me grind, so not very useful. But we'll see." She finishes gearing up, goes on deck. Right into the washing machine. Later (how much later?) she's back below. Talks about how it's cold and wet, so "not the perfect conditions for recovery." But she's getting there, she says. Below, Bouwe talks about her spirit and drive; good to see she's getting better.At the nav station, Capey talks about how they've gybed and are heading north. "Exactly one Hobart Race away from being in Melbourne." Bouwe, below, talks about Vestas and how they have a shot at third. Vestas went into stealth mode this morning. Ridge of high pressure to cross; still tricky. Brunel might go into stealth mode in the high pressure, he says. Stern cam / crash cam view of Brunel sailing fast with full main on port gybe. Then, handheld shot from behind helm of Brunel on starboard gybe. Washing machine. Sunset off stern. Helmsman (can't tell who) gives a thumbs up. Slomo shots of washing machine.Night time crash cam/stern cam. Brunel is on starboard with lots of spray. It looks like they broach; person [Carlo, it turns out] moves forward from the aft pedestal to free the headsail sheet. Easing headsail; sails flapping. More crew move forward. Grinding the headsail back in. Below, Peter watches the crash cam video on a tablet. Peter: "That's us broaching now." Carlo looks at the video, laughs. Peter: "Yeah. I was, uh, driving last night and probably pushing a little too hard into a squall. Wiped out at about 30, high 20s, quite lucky, because it got up to about 40 later once we got it under control... Generally it happens when the bow gets stuck in a wave at the wrong time, and you can't bear away. Lose the rudders... Done it a fair few times now, so everyone knows pretty well what to do. Not too dangerous for anyone; just a bit risky for the FR0... Have to push the boat hard. Everyone else is pushing the boat hard... Definitely prefer to go that way than the other way." Carlo: "I'm the guy on the aft pedestal, grinding for the main. We start to broach, so I go forward to the pirmary where the FR0 sheet's connected to. I dump 3 or 4 meters of sheet... It's pretty difficult, you can tell by the video that it's not that easy, there's water in your eyes, water everywhere, your orientation is a bit messed up. At the same time you don't wnat to wash off the boat as well, because at the time I wasn't that secure. [Rewatching, I think he was not, in fact, clipped in.] With the heel of the boat as well, it's quite a challenge to actually get there and do the work. But it's nice to see that. I'm actually pretty happy with it... We came out of that pretty well."Brunel is sailing in the sun in about 14 knots of wind on starboard gybe. Annie emerges from the cabin to walk on deck. Kyle: "Get her on the bow!" Annie: "Get my harness on." Annie takes a few practice turns on the grinder handles. She raises her arms. Annie, sitting on the stack: "Below doesn't smell that good anymore. It's quite nice to be out in the fresh air even if it's cold." She explains taht she talked to the doctor, and he thought she should only be making tea and coffee. She's only on deck because conditions are so light, she says. She turns the grinder handles under load.Below, Bouwe says their current ability to hold onto Vestas means they're doing a good job. He thinks they'll have a chance when they approach Melbourne. Shots on deck. Shifting the stack forward. Slomo waves. Drone shots of Brunel triple-heading with the A3.Annie writes a sign on the whiteboard: "CAFE IS OPEN! TODAYS SPECIAL: 'THE VESTAS CHASER'". Annie in the galley preparing something. "Feeling much better. Finally out of my bunk after 72 hours. It feels amazing. They've been really good. I feel like I have an email relationship with Spike now. We speak every 6 hours... I keep asking if I can push through the pain, and he doesn't like that... I think by lunchtime today I'm going to be negotiating on when I can go back on deck... At least I can make breakfast. Do something for the team, which feels good, because I've been watching them work for 3 days. Yesterday, at least I can make the meals, and clean a bit. If it helps the guys have more time in the their beds, hopefully it's helping a little bit." She preps a meal in an insulated box. Talks with Abby. "With gravy? I'll see what I can whip up."Peter, below, talks about making gains against Vestas, who are now relatively close. He sounds fairly exhausted. Stacking on deck. Gopro shots of grinding, steering. Drone shot of Brunel's bow with someone working the bowsprit (Carlo?). Drone shots of peeling to the A3, major spray on the bow.Annie, with no foulies on below, puts her foot down and holds on, wincing, as she slowly adjusts her position to get out of her bunk. She says something to Abby, next to her. Lying down, she describes getting pushed into the guy wire against the back of the boat. Big pain in her right side, couldn't move her right leg. Couldn't stand up, couldn't crawl. Ice gate was coming up; guys had to drag her along the deck and put her in the bunk. Shot of them taking her foulies off as she describes the pain. "It's like a burning pain." Bouwe: "Suggest the only thing is get the gear off now, and get her in the sleeping bag." Later, as she's lying down, she describes the pain to them: "It's like a 6 most of the time. And then sometimes it's a shooting pain that's more like an 8." Bouwe: "Most important thing is get her down, even if the ice gate is coming up... Security first. Before any medication I just made a quick call... Because if there's any internal bleeding then of course you can do wrong things." Every 4 hours she's getting [something; presumably painkillers]. "But she's a tough cookie." Shot of Bouwe on the phone at the nav station, writing notes, crew pawing through bag for medicine. Bouwe talking to Annie in her bunk. I think they're talking about where the pain is. Bouwe: "It's basically on the [bum?], yeah? That's good, because I was worried at the time [something]." Annie: "It's my lower back." Bouwe pats her on the shoulder. Annie, in her bunk: "Since then for the last 24 hours I've been in my bunk. Bouwe called Spike [?] yesterday, I've been on painkillers, I've just emailed him a few hours ago to see if he knows what it might be and if there's any way to fast-track getting me back on deck. At the moment we're going along the ice gate and we're gybing a lot and I feel very bad that I can't help everyone with the stacking and gybing. It's hard to stack myself. The goal is to get back on deck as soon as I can. We're not even halfway through the leg yet, so, yeah. I really need to recover quickly." Carlo, below with Sudocrem (?) on his lower face, goes through a bag labeled "First Aid". Louis: "It's one pair of hands less on deck, so it's obviously much harder, there's much more work to do. So if you're with four persons on deck there's always one who can rest. So now it's 4 hours full on, grinding, trimming, driving. So then you suddenly realize how much Annie does. I really miss her in my watch for sure."Kyle getting dressed below. He talks about how the water temperature is 6 degrees. Miserable on deck. Good motivatino to keep grinding. Carlo, below, talks about how cold it is. Kyle lists the layers of clothes he's wearing. "Rugged up as much as possible. But you still get wet, and cold." More getting dressed. "I think the worst thingis putting on a wet balaclava." He goes on deck. Carlo: "The best thing when you come inside is that you're not on deck, getting firehosed all the time. But the worst thing is you have to take off all your gear, and it takes 30 minutes." He takes off his gloves, shows his hands. He talks about how little cuts from on shore become infected. "You have to take care of your hands." We see Alberto below.Bouwe, below, talks about how Dongfeng and MAPFRE are ahead of the low and have a better wind angle than Brunel does. Talks about where the boats are. How they were sailing yesterday in a top speed of 60 knots. "People have to remember that's Force 12. That's pretty scary. But everything is fine; the boat is in one piece. That's the most important thing. The people are fine as well." Talks about the outlook, that the people in front get to ride the front longer than them. But you never know; there's 4,000 miles to go. Coming into Melbourne can be tricky. "We got a mail from the Race Office that they had some breakages. Of course it's unfortunate for them.. just one of those things, a mistake.. of course it's expensive in multiple ways, result-wise probably not very good, and probably get a penalty as well, so it's a double whammy." Slomo shots on deck: waves, someone steering, grinding, washing machine in sun and high wind. Wake with birds. Someone on the bow with a new sail.Below, the engine is running. (Maybe they run the engine continuously in these conditions so the keel hydraulics stay powered up?) Kyle talks about how they're really in the Southern Ocean now. 50 knots earlier, and consistently 45. Waves are huge. "It's awesome downwind sailing. It's all on." Talks about how you enjoy it when you're on deck, driving and trimming. But coming below it's like you're in a washing machine. Peter: "Had an experience pretty similar in a Sydney-Hobart a couple of years ago." This is a little easier because they're going with it. Happy they got the front sail furled before it hit. Just have the J2 and a couple of reefs, blowing 45. Talks about how they're slowing down a bit in the big puffs. Stern cam shot from the deck in sun as they surf. Bow cam. Mast cam. Seas are gnarly and very confused.Brunel flops in no wind. Carlo scoots out on the bowsprit with a hammer (?) to free something, presumably. Sails flop in the foretiangle. Closeup of the windspeed indicator reading 3kt. Below, Louis recaps recent weather. "This morning we had a transition; we even had a couple of hours with 0-5 knots of boatspeed." Now they have gybed and are sailing fast on port gybe. AkzoNobel is 10 degrees off their bow, still on AIS. Farther ahead are MAPFRE and Dongfeng. Shots on deck of them sailing on port, double-heading in strong wind. Spreader cam views of someone working around the mast. Closeups of the wheel, holding the mainsheet. Reefed main. Spray. Shot of a second (third?) reef being put into the main.In the cockpit (trimming the main, I suspect) Alberto talks about the next 24 hours as they head toward the depression. "At least for the moment it's still warm." Chuckles. Peter, sitting on the low side of the pit, talks about how conditions are going to change completely in the next day. Slightly lifting at the moment, later will gybe over, then on port will see "first bit of real Southern Ocean action for the leg. Yeah; it's gonna be pretty windy." Has his warm clothing downstairs. So far pretty nice this trip. Looking after the boat. Shot of someone working the bow in spray. Alberto grinding. Shifting the stack aft. Carlo working the clew of the headsail on a halyard. Abby repairing the pit winch. A rainbow ahead of them.Slomo shot of Carlo working the foredeck, going to weather in windy conditions on port tack. Other boats astern as they're leaving Cape Town. Bouwe, the next day, talks about the spectacle of leaving Cape Town. Talks about other boats, points them out. Abby, below, does something with a rod. Sunset shot from the first day of the boat sailing on starboard with reefed main on starboard tack. Below, Annie, below on the next morning, talks about everyone being pretty tired, it's been upwind, nearly 40 knots. Now it's dropping. She talks about the other boats. Hard, shifty conditions. Capey grinding in the pit. Carlo and Annie on the foredeck. Louis on the helm. Dongfeng sailing to leeward and abeam on port tack, about a quarter mile away. Shot of Dongfeng behind them, on their starboard quarter. Shot of MAPFRE dead ahead of them, a half mile away. Abby studying Dongfeng through binoculars. Bouwe, sitting in the cockpit, talks about how they've been sailing the boat better and better, and it's good that they're now keeping up with MAPFRE and Dongfeng. "Because they've showed some heels to us in previous legs." Drone shots of Brunel sailing in light winds, including a low-altitude shot and a shot with Dongfeng a half mile away to leeward of Brunel.Onboard before the start, Louis talks about being excited to be back in the race and looking forward to the Southern Ocean. Abby talks about how they've already got 30 knots, and they're all geared up for a night of slamming, banging in a big breeze. Footage of the start, racing around the buoys in close proximity to the other boats. Video has a glitch, with the video freezing at 1:00 while the sound continues, then sound drops out and we just see the frozen video frame for the last 48 seconds of the video.Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the competition. Joan, below, talks in Spanish. In the cockpit, Blair lies on his back to turn the middle pedestal handles with his feet, Team New Zealand AC-style. Ñeti does it too. Drone shot from close to the bow of the J1 being hoisted, then of crew clearing the old sail, then drone shots from low altitutde, coming really close to getting dunked by a wave, on the starboard quarter as MAPFRE reaches on starboard, then a drone shot pulling away to higher altitude.Below, Joan talks in Spanish. He then translates: They have a pretty steady breeze, and a reach with increasing wind, so they estimate finishing in Cape Town Friday afternoon or evening, 1700 or 1800 UTC.Steve, at the nav station, talks about the strategic situation with Witty. Witty, to Konrad: "It's an extremely difficult situation which looks like a lose-lose for us either way." Shot of computer screen with routing visible. Steve, to Konrad: "It's obviously the most complicated thing I think I've seen. I'm not shitting you." Witty, looking tired, talk about how they've fought to get ahead, and now it looks like it's actually going to hurt them. "This leg is getting more and more... We've worked so hard to get from nowhere to where we've got to, and now we're acutally being handicapped... It's like beating my head against a brick wall." Steve talks with Witty about the decision [to gybe south?]. In the dark, we hear a maneuver happening. Shot of routing software. On deck, we see the cockpit with two crew grinding in morning (?) twilight. In the morning, Witty, on the weather rail as they sail again on port gybe, talks about the decision to gybe south. Says the other boats went earlier, while they went later, and that it gave them (Scallywag) a little jump on the competition. Annemieke: "And we are again on the same tack, as if nothing had happend in the last 24 hours." Witty talks about how they have two more scheds of stealth, and when they come back online they'll have made a jump on the other boats, which will give them a psychological advantage.Ñeti grinds on the aft pedestal while talking in Spanish. Clew of the MH0 (?) visible behind him. Rob, below: "It's been difficult for us the last 24 hours, guys behind catching up." Ñeti talks in Spanish. Sophie, below: "The battle between us and the boats behind is pretty intense. Basically living off every sched... catching every wave we can." Pablo on the helm. Crew in the cockpit. Night-vision stern cam shot of cockpit.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.Shot of foulies hanging below. On deck, Sophie is bundled up. She talks about how it's become colder and all the clothes she's wearing. Not going to go much further south, though. Pretty cold at night, but not as bad in the day. Windier, so wet, so that adds to the cold. Támara, in a cowl, puts sunscreen (?) on her lips and cheeks. Slomo closeup of Rob scowling in his ear-flaps hat. Below, in the galley, Ñeti makes coffee. He talks in Spanish. On deck, trimming the mainsheet, he drinks it. From the cabin, he hoists his coffee mug to the camera.Drone footage of MAPFRE sailing in fog. They're on port in about 10 knots of wind, triple-heading with the MH0. Sped-up drone footage that transitions to slomo as the boat passes the drone. Drone shot of the stern, someone (I think maybe Ñeti?) waves.MAPFRE sails on starboard gybe. Xabi talks about how they've been sailing around the St. Helena high, and last night gybed [to starboard] to go southwest to hook into the front and head for Cape Town. Ñeti, trimming the main, talks in Spanish about where the other boats are. Xabi says he thinks they have a good position despite gybing quite early. He and Rob talk about the other competitors' positions relative to them in the latest sched. Joan reads from the tablet, telling Rob, on the helm, where the other boats are. Joan talks in Spanish about the other boats. Sunrise. Sophie trimming the main. Blair and Xabi grinding. Shifting the stack. Shot of the bow as they are triple-heading on starboard. Translations here: https://youtu.be/LqY11k_IjCI.Willy talks in Spanish: "I miss land in general." Rob, on the helm, talks about missing things on shore: "Communication with the outside world, human interaction." Támara talks in Spanish. Sophie: "Not having any nice food, fresh food, veggies." Xabi talks about the good sched and where they stand compared to Dongfeng and the competitors behind them. Rob talks about the hydrogenerator, how much they've been using it. Xabi and Joan at the nav station. Willy goes up the mast; shot of them grinding him up in the cockpit, him calling to them to stop. Sunset. Very-low-altitude drone shots.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.Crash cam footage from the stern camera. We see Ugo going forward with a camera with a long lens. He sets up by the weather shrouds, shooting back toward the stern. An unexpected wave soaks him; he comes aft. Crew, laughing: "Ugo is wet." "Oh; Ugo got smashed." "Ugo is wet." Hope his equipment was okay.Sunrise. Sophie, sitting aft in the cockpit, summarizes their situation. Dongfeng is 6 miles ahead, and they seem to be stretching out on the fleet behind a little bit. Wind is moving aft; currently true wind angle is 110 degrees. Closeup of a hand-bearing compass dangling from the binnacle railing. Sophie trims the mainsheet. Closeup of the mainsheet winch drum. Blair, on the low side, eases a headsail sheet. Distant shot of Dongfeng ahead of them. Winch closeup. A group of three in the cockpit: Ñeti on the mainsheet, Rob on the helm, Joan looking to weather. Joan: "It might get lighter initially under the cloud, and then there might be a little push." Rob steers and trims main; Támara grinds. Ñeti, on the foredeck, helps hoist a sail (maybe the MH0?). Pablo grinds in the cockpit, grimacing.Drone shots of MAPFRE reaching on port gybe at sunset. Includes a low-altitude shot showing a flying fish flying away from MAPFRE toward the droneUgo talks vlog-style in Spanish. Rob emerges as King Neptune, performs the ceremony. Tamara cuts her pigtails. Blair and Ugo get reverse mohawks.Sophie brings a wrapped present from below and leads the crew in singing 'Happy Birthday" to Joan. Joan talks at the nav station in Spanish. Rob talks at the nav station about the equator and King Neptune. Blair talks to Ugo about how they're both pollywogs. Ñeti talks in Spanish. Támara talks in Spanish.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.Sophie, on the foredeck in the warm sun, shows how the J3 bag is torn. Sophie: "Well, this is what a bunch of water over the deck will do to your bag. So I'm going to try to sew it up so we can use it again." Shots of Sophie sewing. She talks about how the calm weather is a nice time to dry out and fix things for the next windy patch. Willy, on the helm, talks in Spanish. Shot of Rob, shirtless, on the wheel. Clothes drying on deck. Crew sleeping in the bow. Rob doing pushups. Sophie: "We're all warming up now, and taking our weather gear off. Hopefully we'll get some rain clouds soon and we can pull the soap out and have some showers. Clean ourselves, it'll be good. We're all sweaty and pretty gross at the moment." Willy and Sophie continue to talk about the doldrums and showers. Behind Sophie we see AkzoNobel a few miles east of them. Sophine puts the J3 back in the repaired bag. At sunset we see AkzoNobel, now on the west side of them silhouetted by the sun.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 shot of the pit area as crew coordinates a maneuver. Daytime shot of Tamára and Pablo grinding on the aft pedestal as MAPFRE surfs fast on starboard gybe. Rob on the helm getting hit with spray from the washing machine.Joan, below, talks about how windy it has been, with up to 30 knots. Got lifted as they headed offshore, then gybed to the south. Xabi, below in red light, talks in Spanish. In the background, Sophie preps a metal bowl of food, then sits and eats it. Joan: "At the moment we're ahead in terms of distance to Cape Town, but that doesn't mean much."MAPFRE during the departure from Lisbon, running fast on starboard gybe. Xabi, in the cockpit, eases a sheet. Shot of Scallywag behind them. Washing machine as they head into the setting sun. Crew huddled aft. Lots of waves over the deck.View forward before sunrise as the J3 (?) is being unfurled as a staysail. Sophie working the bow in the sunrise. Shot of the masthead. Foredeck work. Blair: The wind's been up and down all night and into the morning. Quite gusty between 18 and 12 knots, so we've been changing sails a little bit... So far so good... We've got about 60 miles to go now to Lisbon. Pretty nice sailing at the moment, but it's going to be tricky at the end, quite light wind. Guys have been telling me some good stories about past races into there." More foredeck work, grinding in the cockpit.We see them tacking from port to starboard, then stacking the sails forward on the port side. Interview with Willy (in Spanish) about Dongfeng. Sunset shot of the helm; closeup of a winch being cranked.Wide drone shot of MAPFRE at sunset as they were approaching the virtual waypoint on the evening of October 26. More cool drone shots. Ñeti talks about how the virtual waypoint was good for them, because they did well against the other boats. (I think.) Blair working the pit. Xabi grinding. Below, Joan talks in Spanish about the approach to Lisbon. On deck, Ñeti talks about the tricky approach to Lisbon, and how that will be their best chance to catch up with Vestas. Blair and Ugo discuss who's in focus (first Ñeti, then Blair, then Ñeti again).Sophie talks about how they had 20 knots of wind, then gybed and had the wind drop faster than they expected, so they changed to the Masthead 0 to keep the boat moving. Shot of Sophie working the bow. Shots of Xabi on the helm and Pablo in the cockpit; Sophie working the bow; Rob flaking a sheet; Blair and Willy grinding.Sophie, Blair, and Xabi in the cockpit as MAPFRE sails fast on starboard gybe; spray. Joan (?) eats below.Xabi talks, first in English and then in Spanish, about the challenge of passing the Strait of Gibraltar, how it was the first time this team had been in that much wind together, and he thinks they did well and have recovered well. Then he talks about how it was a rough couple of days for them being out of touch with the fleet, but they pushed hard and did well, and now are approaching Madeira. Interesting that this clip must have been recorded the afternoon of October 25, but was posted two and a half hours after the one showing them rounding Porto Santo that night.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.Helmsman silhouetted againt the pre-dawn with Venus. Then, in daylight, Blair talks about how they're out of the light wind and into better breeze, and about Vestas. Sunrise.Drone shots: Distant shot with sunrise; very low-altitude shot overtaking boat from the starboard quarter. Shots on board of slatting sails, instruments with low-wind/low-speed readings. At night, Joan and Xabi talking in Spanish at nav station about a position report. Then, in the dark, we hear Joan (?) relaying the position report in English to Rob (?), talking about how they're doing vs. Vestas (ahead of them) and the peleton (behind them).Rob at the wheel: "The wind's only going to get lighter from here, the next 24 hours, and we're just trying to find the best way through this light transition. Talks about Vestas. Xabi on the helm. Sophie fiddling with the stack on the bow. Then Sophie sitting on the stack while Blair pops up out of the hatch looking at the camera like a gopher.Night shots of crew working in the cockpit, washing machine. Someone (Ñeti?) below repairing something. Xabi talks to Ugo the next morning as MAPFRE sails under A3 and staysail. Xabi (in Spanish): talks about the prevoius night's windy conditions in the Strait of Gibraltar, the competition. Shots of crew in the cockpit, moving the stack. Sophie repairing one of the binnacle compasses.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.Red-light shots at night: stacking, sails. Joan (in Spanish): talks about rounding Cabo de Gata, wind. Sunrise drone shot, circling MAPFRE. Early morning light shot of Scallywag ahead of them with A3 and J2 flying. Shot of Sophie on MAPFRE on port watching Scallywag pass behind them on starboard and Brunel passing in front of them. (This was the big gybe in toward the Spanish coast where Vestas went before the other boats and took the lead.) Shot of Joan with MAPFRE now on the starboard gybe talking (in Spanish) about strategy. In the background, Xabi and Rob talk strategy (in English), mentioning Akzo, Vestas, and Brunel.