Beautiful sunset (I think) drone shot, with AkzoNobel coming into view. Albatross in the foreground with crepuscular rays. Are you kidding me? Nicolai, below: You're never going to take it easy. You're going to use the boat as hard as you can, push it as hard as you can. Seeing the other boats doesn't make me more nervous; it just makes me want to keep the boat going. Do the daily checks; keep the boat in one piece. Brad, on the stern: Maybe take it a little more cautiously, make sure we don't come a cropper. Nicolai: Lots of monitoring systems, checking the load of different hydraulics. In the lighter stuff can check everything, including steering systems. Looking up the rig. Brad explains that what you're looking for when looking up the rig. Nicolai: Things break every day. It's just about finding it in time and fixing it before it snowballs. Washing machine shots. Favoriting mostly for that drone sequence.Nicho, below, talks about the loss of John Fisher. A good man. Deeply affected; offer our thoughts to his family and friends. Slomo on deck; albatrosses flying past Southen Ocean waves. Nicho: From their own boat's point of view, has been full-on Southern Ocean conditions. Coldest one he can remember in quite a while. Has given them a bit of a beating. The place is beautiful and ferocious at the same time. "I'll be glad to get out of here."Crew below engaged in various tasks. Pascal gears up to go on deck. Carolijn goes on deck. Slomo of albatross and epic big waves astern. Washing machine. View from the cabin of the cockpit as they gybe from port to starboard. Carolijn: "Have to tweak her down a bit. Can I use this winch?" Below, Kevin works on a winch drum. Jack eats. Pascal pulls on boots.Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Dongfeng sails fast on port gybe in the sun. Carolijn: Champagne sailing in the Southern Ocean. Will look different tomorrow. Charles describes a maneuver they're going to perform. Then we see them performing it (looks like a headsail configuratio change). Crashcam footage of... something. They continue working on things. Below, Charles talks in French. Horace gets his gear on, then talks to the camera in Mandarin (I assume). Horace goes on deck. Washing machine in the sunset. Albatross flying on their starboard quarter.Drone shots of TTToP sailing under MH0 and J3 in light winds. GoPro shot of Liz going to the masthead. At the masthead she holds Wisdom and voices him: "Hi everybody! Volvo... Ocean.. Race... 'm going flying, watch me! They're fixing a sail down there. Look, ther'es another bird. Hi! I'm going back in Liz's pocket now. It's scary up here." Back on deck, Wisdom talks about wanting to really fly. Dolphins under the bowsprit. Jérémie takes video of Liz taking a picture with her phone. On the foredeck, Bianca (?) works on repairing a sail. Martin and Frederico also repairing the sail. Frederico: "On my Finn boat it's just put some duct tape and that's it." Lucas paces in the cockpit. "Long way to Melbourne like this, I'll tell you that. Seven knots. We might be there by NEXT Christmas if we're lucky.... No matter how sloe we go, Christmas keeps getting closer." Nicolas talks about high pressure costing them access to the wind, could be 8 days to Melbourne.Slomo of Jules on the stern (steering?) in purple cap. He looks up. Focus shifts to show albatross. Slomo shots of albatrosses. Slomo waves off the stern.Epic slomo shot of a big Southern Ocean wave. Nicho, below, eating: "Batten fouled again and another repair again. Getting there. Main's back up, so it's not slowing us down any." Justin, below, repairs a batten. "This is Frankenbatten. It's now got four different battens in it." He shows his work: The batten with multiple clamps holding the pieces together while glue cures. "We're obviously trying to be tidy Kiwis who use as much [something] as we can, 5200." There are clamps made from vice grips, from channel lock pliers with a big rubber band around the handle squeezing it closed, and a high-tech looking black clamp. Don't tell the media guy, but I've raided his camera box and found a clamp. Which I'm sure he's going to work out when it gets back that it's been used for some sort of repair." Nicho: "We don't mind doing all these running repairs all the time as long as we can go at pretty much full pace. But it wears everyone out. I don't think Brad has had a full off watch for a long time now. [To Brad.] When was your last full off watch?" Brad (sitting near the galley, pulling off bits of tape): "Can't remember my last full off watch." Brad, to James: "Haven't seen land for over a week now. As far away from anything as you can possibly be, more or less. It's not too bad. It's actually quite cool. Really good breeze, good waves. Good sailing." Martine coils lines in the pit, gets washed over by a wave. Below, she talks to Konrad: "Southern Ocean has been pretty cool, going downwind, in these big waves, sailing during the night with big seas. Cold weather as well. Everythying is dripping on the boat, but sailing has been pretty good, besides our breakdown. As long as we have all the sails up, it's all good." Nicho: "You have moments when you wonder what you're doing down here. Other moments quite in awe of the natural bueauty and harshness of the place... How vulnerable you are down here on a little carbon shell in the middle of nowhere. You want the leg to be over, but also how special it is to be here." Slomo of Nicho on the helm, albatross flying by. [Side note: Again, no Simeon. I'm increasingly of the view that Nicho is actually functionally skipper at this point.]High drone shots of TTToP surfing. Drone shot buzzed by an albatross. Drone shot of the beginning of a gybe.Slomo shot of waves through the wheel. Interesting slowed-down audio. An albatross flies by. Slomo grinding. Slomo faces; Carolijn on the helm. Slomo trimming. Below, Carolijn takes off her gear. She talks to Martin; behind Fabien is making food in the galley. Carolijn: "Yes, it's painful. Not necessarily painful, it's just tough. It's very tiring. You get to a certain stage where you're so tired that you start tripping over your own feet. If you don't watch out it can be quite dangerous." Talks about even 20 minutes lying down in your bunk, even if you don't sleep, helps you get the energy to make the next gybe. "I've lost count. I don't even know if we're halfway yet. Just in the last 3 hours of my off watch we've done 6 gybes?... Entertaining stuff." Fabien eats with a bit of a 1,000-yard stare. (Looking at the tracker through this section it's been brutal; Dongfeng and MAPFRE are at the front of the fleet within AIS range of each other having a running gybing battle to see who can stay closer to the exclusion zone.) Pascal, below, drops his head and rubs it. Looks tired. We pull back and see he's watching Charles at the nav station from his bunk. Charles talks to Martin: "It's very simple. During 30 hours we're having to gybe every hour so it's a nightmare. Not very funny but we have no choice. We have the ice limit for a good reason... You have to stack every time, 600 kilos each time... You don't manage to sleep... That's life at the extreme for sure. On the positive side, we are ahead with MAPFRE and fighting for the first place, so it's good."Sophie, below, stands close to the companionway. She is turning her head under a blast of air associated with the running engine, maybe? "I just found my hair dryer. It's so good. Ah! Who needs the hairdresser? For the first time getting dry hair. It's getting pretty cold out actually. I'd say the water is 5 degrees or colder. The Southern Ocean's awesome. We are making a lot of miles very quickly. We're going good I think. The albatross are pretty cool. There's like 10 of them following the boat. It's super cool. But it's pretty wet and a little relentless. It's what we expect I guess. It's a little crazy." Intercut with shot of the cockpit, slomo washing machine, albatrosses behind the boat. Nice portrait by Jen of my unproblematic fave.Pretty clouds. Crew shifting the stack as AkzoNobel sails downwind with the main lowered. Nicho explains that they've just finished stackign in preparation for hoisting the main. Talks about the repair; difficulty of getting a glue cure in the cold conditions. Maybe having a chance to catch some boats. Main goes up slowly. Nico, on the stern: "Tracks popped straight off. So obviously it couldn't hold in the conditions... Hopefully we'll get it down now, and... try it again. Still 3,000 miles to go." (Side note: It sure seems like Nicho has basically taken over the boat. Is Simeon even in command at this point?) Lowering the main. Martine gets washed off the cabin top by a wave; catches herself. They struggle to lower the main. Jules talks about the fleet being gone, not wanting to get down south and have to beat back, which they can't do. Nicho responds: "Well, we can step it down later in the day. Get a plan for this track. Even if the fleet's gone, get to Melbourne on time... for the next start." Below, Brad takes off his foulies. Looks very discouraged. "Pretty frustrating working two or three days to get it done, it pops off so quickly afterwards." Talks about trying to jury something else up, hope that that works. Slomo albatross. Below, working on the track repair, Nicolai watches Simeon eats in the background. "We've got five tubes of glue left, which means after this we've got one more. So this better work." More repair attempts on the mast. Emily watches from the stern. Nicolai, below, explains that the glue needs 6 to 8 hours to cure. Going to sail some more, and then try to hoist again before sunset.Oh wow. My jaw literally dropped watching that. Drone footage of AkzoNobel sailng under FR0 and J2 (I think?) with no main, as two crew members up the mast repair the track (I'm assuming). Epic low-altitude shots with Southern Ocean waves heaping up between the drone and the boat. Sheerwaters or albatrosses (gotta get a field guide to identify those better) swooping right past the drone multiple times. Final shot of crew working on the mast, then pulling back and climbing to show AkzoNobel surfing alone through the Southern Ocean. That's, like, the shot of the race for me right there.An albatross (Wandering Albatross, maybe?) soars by them in windy conditions. Washing machine action in the pit as someone (can't tell who) coils line under a reefed main; rest of the crew on deck is at the back of the boat. Stu and Jack, who is climbing onto the boom, secure the loose main at the bottom of the reef. Black, on the aft pedestal, gives two thumbs up. Shots of crew on the stern from the cabin.Drone shot follows an albatross in the foreground with TTToP sailing on port tack in about 10 knots of wind in the background. Dee, in the cockpit, explains that they're a few miles north of 40 degrees south, and some of the crew wants to go south to get in the Southern Ocean officially, others want to get to Cape Town. Temperature has dropped, and they've seen albatrosses.Liz, sitting on the stack, jokes that Freddy's not very happy with the cruise he booked. Frederico, on the helm, goes along, talking about how he didn't see as many islands as he expected, but the food was very good. Can't complain. "The company was the best. You can see all my girls here." [laughter] "Not my girls; my friends. Sleeping was also very good, very comfortable, now that we are using the sleeping bags." Francesca, on the leeward side, talks about trying to see land, but being unable to see anything. Per the tracker, this would have been around 2017.11.21 09:09:58 UTC, when they were passing within a few miles of Tristan de Cunha. Liz, looking to leeward: "It's a bit of a dilemma on the old 'Land Ho' call. You'd normally need to see it to be able to make the call. We know it's 7 miles away, and you can see a little darkness in the fog. Do you call it? Or not?" We see an albatross to leeward. Liz (?) takes a gopro on a strut forward and gets slomo shots of spray from the J2 tack. She laughs. Slomo of Henry on the helm in the washing machine.Slomo shot of a dark albatross gliding in their wake. Emily, below, getting out of her bunk: "It's cold." Jules, at the nav station, talks about how they're still riding the front, but have high pressure a few days ahead. Simeon repairs some piece of gear, hands it to someone, and talks about the upcoming winds and strategy. "In general we've been sailing the boat well." Nicho, on the stern: "Number one challenge is how we're gonna get ahead of some of the boats ahead of us." Talks about how boats can get stuck in the approach to Cape Town. Slomo of spray coming into the cockpit.Wake. There's a bird visible; doesn't look big enough for an albatross. Liz looks out and comments (I think) on the cold. Below, Nicolas talks about wanting to finish the race quickly and see his new daughter. mast cam view looking down. Below, Henry mixes a food packet. Henry: "Just making the mac and cheese, mate; just coming off watch." Sam: "So what's the rundown?" Henry explains they're getting east as fast as possible, trying to stay with the front, after which Dee and Nicolas will need to decide whether to go north or south. Nicolas, at the nav station, says he needs a coin to decide. Dee, in her bunk, jokes: "It's a big week for Nico, coming into Cape Town." Henry explains that Nico was on MAPFRE in the last edition of the race as they finished in Cape Town, when SCA overtook them when they became becalmed and they came in last for the leg. On the stern, Liz points out an albatross. Liz: "There's the real Wisdom! Pretty cool."