Annemieke, below: Plan is, we're gonna bear away, and catch the whole fleet and finish first. Simple plan but it will work out. Witty: It's like leg 2 into Cape Town, the middle of the bloody Southern Ocean and we're gybing on top of each other. Nothing's changed. I think the boss is quite surprised at how tight and close it is. 100-footers were close but nothing like this. I don't want to look at the AIS ever again in my life. I'm sick of looking at the AIS. We've sailed 40,000 miles and we're still watching the boat next to us to see if they moved a sail a meter forward or back... I think now everyone's at the realization that tomorrow we never have to get on one of these things again and put ourselves through this. I think everything's coming home to roost of just how agonizingly frustrating and mentally tough it is, and we're now counting down the hours. I think if you thought like this any earlier in the race you wouldn't have been able to get yourself mentally right to do the next leg. Owner talks about the course from the cabin to the cockpit. Annemieke: I think as Witty always said, we're a bunch of good lunatics. But yeah, I think we've really bond. Everyone will not say to each other, but I think we're gonna miss each other. We went through so many highlights and major... disasters. Losing Fish. And I think Fish is a big part of the crew, he's with us, you know. Talking for myself I think about him every day. I miss him, and I think that counts for all of us. I think that's a big thing.Capey at the nav station, chin in hand. Peter sitting below, shirtless, eating and scowling. Closeup computer screen showing their positioon and AkzoNobel's AIS symbol just ahead of them. Pans down to show courses diverging around an exclusion zone. Bouwe on deck explains the traffic separation scheme. Breeze shifted so much that they had to sail down to miss the traffic separation zone. And they'll lose Akzo as well, because they tacked well before. Bouwe: "Can't change it."Louis grabbing his gear below. Sam: What's going on, buddy? Louis: The boats ahead of us got a header, and they have tacked. So we've gotta tack as well. Stacking on deck. Bouwe: Just got a big windshift; basically a 90-degree windshift. Sunset. Bouwe talks about the tricky conditions, clouds and big shifts. MAPFRE has done the best. Abby below. Peter in a bunk. Peter talks about being hurt by a shift to the left; hoping for a knock back to the right. 'This update brought to you by...' Sam to Capey: You want any coffee? Capey: Oh yes please that would be good. Sam hands the cup to Abby, who fills it, then he gives it back to Capey. Sam: So what's the dinnertime update. Capey, raising his hand to the lens: No camera... [I think this is a running gag based on that Pascal meme.] No; lot of racing to go... Drone shot. Capey: Dongfeng are doing good. Leading right now. AIS screen. Drone shot of Brunel sailing against the sunset. Bouwe on the helm. Drone shot.Stu on the rail with a hand-bearing compass. Clouds. Kevin: Okay to tack without stacking? Pascal talks about the course. Charles is on the helm when they tack. Horace, below: A big right, so everybody is tacking. Nav station. Kevin, below, talks about how Pascal had them tack quite early. "We have now to be fast. Pushing, pushing, pushing... First big step of this leg." Carolijn: Pascal, when you can can you give us some info on AIS modes compared to the other boats? Pascal looks at the computer.Night. Capey is getting his boots on (or off?) below. Sam: What's going on, Capey? Capey: Sail-change time. Sam: You were just sleeping pretty soundly... You pretty excited to go on deck? Capey: Yup. Capey at the nav station. Chart screen, which shows their position and other boats via AIS: even with Dongfeng and a few miles short of MAPFRE. Wind strength symbols appear to show them in a building wind, currently at 25 knots. Louis, getting ready below: Wish me luck, Sam. Sam: It's not easy, right? Louis: It's a very difficult peel. Lowering the jib in 25 knots. Whew. Wish me luck. Abby in the pit hoists the J2. Crew (Peter, and presumably Carlo on the bow) goes forward and the J1 starts coming down. Sam loses his balance in the hatch and falls. Sam, under his breath: "Fuck!" He gets the camera back on the crew on the foredeck. Looks like there are at least 4 people gathering in the J1. Stacking the J1 aft. Abby working in the pit. Peter, in the cockpit: Allright; J3 to deply in 2 [maybe? for double-heading?]. Grinding as the sail deploys.Washing machine shots from behind the helm. Trimming. Reefing the main (maybe single to double reef?). Daryl below looks at AIS. Just popped up again. Doing 14 and a half. Coming in lighter and heading. Compression. Nice to be in touch. We've got Turn the Tide 3 miles down to leeward here; the other guys 5 miles back on our line. Lost track of time but I think it's like 3 days' racing. Close reaching across the North Sea... Looking like getting in 10:30 tomorrow night.Spreader cam view of the foredek as they haul down a sail - maybe J0 to MH0 peel? Or vice versa? Brad grinding on the aft pedestal: Had a rough night last night. Reckon we had something on the keel; tried everything and ended up having to do a back down. That cost us 4 miles, dropped us back in the pack. Justin driving. Jules and Nicolai talking below about sail combinations. Jules in the nav station: We are very close to 5 miles off second, and third, fourth, and fifth are all within 2 miles of each other. Pretty good wind, not good visibility. Can only see them on AIS. Pretty crap couple of hours. Just about going around the top of the Hebrides in the next couple of hours, and then heading for the Orkneys. Chart screen.Capey looks at the nav computer, goes thorugh the other boats' positions. Sunrise shot of MAPFRE sailing on their port beam. Alberto talks about the position of the other boats. MAPFRE gaining on us due to some current line, probably. Shot of the old crescent moon.A ship on the port quarter in the fog. Slomo of Kyle and Bouwe grinding. A competitor in the fog (Akzo). Peter: Every now and then they appear out of the fog. Abby: So, we have a match race on our hands. It's pea soup fog, but we can see them on the AIS. Expecting a header. It's all to play for. Nina puts her hands in front of the camera. "I don't know what to do with my hands."Horace, bailing, talks about how awesome it is to sail fast. That's why he came to this race. I hate the life on board, but I love fast. Kevin looks through the endoscope and sees something below. He gets the swim gear on and dives in from the bow. Big piece of seagrass on the keel that he gets off. That loooked cold! Drone shot circling the boat in light conditions. Horace interviews Pascal on the bow: We're going to arrive the day we arrive. Marie: Maybe three more days, eh? Stu: Both are stressful. I find the heavy weather more stressful, especially when you're driving at night. Pascal on how difficult light conditions are. Stu: I'm going to right about how hard it is to have a shit on the toilet when the boat is sailing 30 knots. Carolijn below, brushing her hair, comments how the person on the boat who doesn't have any hair made a comment about her appearance. On deck, she gives some of the hair she pulled out on Kevin's head. Daryl, on the helm, talks about sailing into the high pressure ridge. Big line of clear blue sky ahead, where there will be zero wind. Pascal and Charles talking on the bow in French. Glassy conditions. Kevin to Pascal: We don't see them on AIS? Pascal shakes his head. Bird flies over. High drone shot. Other boat (I think Vestas from the tracker) on the horizon behind them as Stu steers in light wind. They tack the MH0 onto port. Low drone shot approaching from far away.Slomo spray, grinding. Drone shots of TTToP. Other boat on the starboard quarter (Dongfeng, I think). Bianca: Annalise came up and told us we've overtaken MAPFRE and we can see Dongfeng on AIS. And we can see them down here. It's a nice surprise for breakfast. Dee jokes about Dongfeng being astern them: "Maybe they just want to look at my bottom when I take a pee. Pascal will be up with binoculars." They laugh. Bianca dances? Poses? Not sure. She practices with Annalise, who tells Martin to stop filming. Bianca: Professional. Need some practice. Before we arrive it will be perfect. Sail change (J0 to MH0?) Folding up the sail on the bow. Another boat to leeward. Liz crawling into a sleeping bag in the bow; waves to Martin. Light conditions. Brian: I can see Dongfeng up there has a big lift. So we'll probably be getting that soon... Very shifty at the moment. We can see Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's not far. Got an interesting race on our hand. Brian, on the bow, discusses the latest sched. Lucas goes up the mast to pop the battens through. Flopping with dolphins. Looking through binoculars at Dongfeng. Drone shots of TTToP sailing in light air; flopping. Shot of them passing the drone wit a partially rolled up MH0 as a windseeker. Sunset.Washing machine on deck. Below, someone digs around in the gear while the engine runs. Alberto and Abby work on the sail in the bow. Abby: Always something to do. Small tear in the J2 that needs fixing. And AIS isn't working, which is a real hindrance in terms of seeing the rest of the fleet. Working through these mishaps. Sewing the sail. Definitely getting colder, a lot of condensation inside the boat. Carlo working on the foredeck. Peter, below, talks about being only 150-200 miles off the ice gate. At some point going to have to move toward Cape Horn. And are going to get rolled over by a front. And a gybing frenzy. Routing it isn't the most simple crossing. I think we're all going to be tired by the time we get to Cape Horn. I don't think anybody is ready for six days of gybing; I think we'll all be pretty broken by the time we get there. But I think it will be good fun a good challenge. Kyle (hard to identify, because his name has worn off the back of his foulies) clambers out to the clew. Washing machine.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.Sunrise drone shot. Sailing into the sunrise on deck. Annalise: Little under 2 days to get to Auckland. Everyone on board is excited. Chance to make some gains. Henry talks with Brian about the strategy. Brian talks about the 1:00 sched being quite interesting as boats go into and out of stealth. They've gained on Scallywag, but Akzo has gone into stealth. Hoping to see them on AIS tomorrow morning. Bernardo in the cockpit: Next few hours will be exciting. Close to the finish in a good position. Light patch ahead, and they're the boat in the middle so they have a chance to gain. Brian talks about the section from North Cape on will be super light and complicated; 3 to 4 knots of wind. Direct line vs. going offshore for more wind. Options. Then last 100 miles into Auckland the wind will pick up. Dee: Final miles quite critical, a lot of transitions. Need to take advantage of their extra crewmember. Will go to a standby watch so there are extra people to move things around. And then everyone up for the last part.Red light shots at night. Light conditions. Fish talks about how they were heading round the reef at the top end of New Caledonia. Only a few miles from Akzo, and a cloud came between us. Witty: good thing is that they're out of AIS range. For the last 20 minutes literally going nowhere. They're going 13 knots. That whole distance is just one cloud. Fish: Just one of those very frustrating hours. Want to pull your hair out. Witty talks about how they almost had them. Bird (I think a Blue-footed Booby? Something like that.) Witty announces the latest sched on the PA. 7.8 miles behind Akzo. Annemieke talks about how they're all in one lane now. Sunset. Birds. A booby on the bow pulpit.Drone shots of Scallywag sailing upwind on port tack under cloudy skies. Someone on the helm; think that must be Marcus. Antonio, below, talks about being almost in second place. Lost some gauge when clouds passed. But still in the fight. Ben at the mast during a reef. Marcus on the helm. Witty on the helm. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty talks about how they're doing fairly well. Libby is talking in the headset (to the cockpit, I assume) giving real-time updates on how they're doing vs. a competitor on AIS (I think). Drone shot circling them with a competitor in the distance. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag from astern with MAPFRE and Dongfeng a half mile ahead and only a few boatlenghts apart. Shot from on deck of Dongfeng and MAPFRE dueling ahead of them. Trystan, sitting on the stack forward in light, sloppy conditions, talks about the wind changes and trying to use the boats ahead of them to figure out what to do to gain in the transition. Shot of instruments as they sail in stronger wind. Shot of John Fisher grinding with Brunel to leeward of them. Circling drone shot showing MAPFRE to leeward of them.Rome points out MAPFRE on the horizon. Bouwe steers in the dusk. They sail in the darkness in light wind. Sunrise astern. Very low-altitude drone shot overtaking them on a glassy sea. Drone shot circling them high overhead. Flopping in the morning sun. Jens points out more breeze ahead. Sailing in a building wind. Shot of the plot. Bouwe explains that a big rain cloud appeared, and they kept going in the same direction, while the two nearby boats put up a jib and sailed higher. And then Brunel parked up under the cloud, and the two boats behind saw that on AIS, and the two boats (especially MAPFRE) made a lot of distance on them by pointing higher. Now TTToP is just to leeward of them. "Just a matter of keep pushing hard and never give up. The race isn't over until the finish" (he says through slightly clenched teeth).Sunrise. Vestas sails toward a raincloud. Nick, trimming the headsail: "We are coming into a cloud line; the morning rollcall of clouds." He points back to where AkzoNobel and Dongfeng have been closing in on them. Radar screen showing clouds, and with what I assume are the AIS positions of two boats to their southwest, 2 and 4 miles away, respectively. Shot of AkzoNobel and Dongfeng a few miles away. Nick and someone (Tom?) in the cockpit in the rain. At the nav station, Mark talks about how they're stuck in a cloud with no wind, while AkzoNobel, a mile away, is doing 11 knots. "Pretty annoying. Build up a nice lead on them overnight, and it's evaporating very quickly... Let's go." Shot of Akzo in the rain. Shot of routing software. Drone shot of Vestas bouncing with no wind in leftover chop. Someone on the foredeck. Shot of the mainsail looking up, with Stacey standing next to it. SiFi at the nav station, looking at what I think must be the 2018.01.12 01:00 UTC sched, in which MAPFRE had surged north well to the west of them. "Wow." He eats. Amory: "Brutal." SiFi, as he eats: "They probably got in the western edge of this. But they're only in 3 knots [of wind]. So they've gotta deal with the wake [?] as well. The hope is that we break out of this first." SiFi comes up on deck: "Yeah. As scary as we thought it would be." Tony: "Those guys sailed around?" SiFi: "They're due west of us, about 26 miles. They're only in 3 knots, but they are in an easterly." They peel to the MH0. Hannah sits on the lowered J1, tying it with sail ties. "Just put themasthead back up, and got breeze from closer to the direction we're looking for." SiFi: "Pretty painful morning. A cloud moved through last night and decimated the wind field... Filling in now. Got 8 knots of breeze from 060. And it's northeasternly, which is the future. And actually it's gonna continue lifting." As the wind builds we see them unfurling the J3 to double-head with the MH0. Wake shot with them moving at 10 knots.Below, Lucas talks about the importance of catching waves when the wind isn't as strong (like now) to increase average speed. Drone shot of TTToP on port gybe in borderline-surfing conditions. On deck, Lucas talks about how he does more surfing than sailing. Liz, on the aft pedestal, talks in surfer dialecdt about his surviving the ECC ("east coast current"). Lucas sings: "Let's go surfing now..." Below, Liz talks: "Lucas is a natural with any water sports, who does all water sports and does them all very well." She talks about the first time she took him sailing on "one of these boats", and there were "massive waves; he jumped on the helm and absolutely sent it." Francesca and Bianca do an embarrasing/culturally insensitive wind dance in the cockpit. Dee: "We desperately need to arrive in Cape Town as soon as possible." At the nav station, Dee and Nicolas talk about the strategic decision to dive south to avoid the high ahead of them. Nicolas, laughing: "At least we all agree. Perhaps we are wrong but [we] agree." Dee talks about being surprised AkzoNobel didn't activate stealth. Dee, later, talks about how they've gybed, and AkzoNobel and Scallywag are on AIS but have not gybed. Later, closeup of AIS screen. Nicolas explains that AkzoNobel has gybed. "At least if I have made a mistake I will not be the only one who made it."At the nav station we see an AIS screen (I think?). Steve talks about how they did a good job overnight holding onto the "big sail", and have stayed in the front, making a 7-mile gain on TTToP. Also, AkzoNobel has been farther to the south and has made a big loss. Steve: "We've just made an 18-mile gain on them." Shot out the cabin of Alex and Parko (steering) in the cockpit. Below, Witty talks about how they've done well, looking forward to finding out if it's continued in a few minutes. After getting the sched, Steve announces that they're ahead of AkzoNobel. Witty: "Yes!" In the pit, Ben says he's happy about it.