OBR Raw Content

VolvoOceanRace.com

Sched

http://vor.jbcsystems.com/tag/sched

Charles and Pascal scowl at the computer. Looking at a sched? Charles chews on his neck cowl, rubs his eyes, talks to Pascal in French. Charles goes up, and Pascal moves into his spot. On deck, Horace says, "keep pushing." Carolijn asks about the other boats. Charles explains that the others are closer in mileage, but they have a straight line while the other boats have to gybe. So could be very close.

Marie, below: Big surprise at the end because we took a different option from Brunel and MAPFRE. So we don't know for the moment. We will have a position report in 40 minutes, so we will see how they are going. So a bit stress, eh? We cross the finger. We have good wind at the moment. We hope they don't have the same. So we wait and we wait. Horace: Almost 42 nautical miles to the finish. Hopefully the weather forecast is like they say, the offshore choice will have less wind. So we can have a chance to overtake them. We still fight for that, and try everything we can, push the boat faster to have the best VMG speed to arrive the finish line. Everything will be happening at the finish line. Always believe it.

Black and white. Night. Abby works the pit. It's super loud as they surf on starboard; some maneuver is going on. Water cascades into the cockpit. Abby coils. Below, Peter, from his bunk, asks Capey about the sched. Capey: It's half and half; could go either way. Looks like they're going inshore. [Talking about MAPFRE and Dongfeng, I assume.] Peter, in his bunk, explains to Sam: Just peeled to the J0. "So we go the J1 off, which is always nice. AkzoNobel seems to be going pretty quick with the J1, Vestas is down to leeward, a little bit behind. We're not very sure if MAPFRE and Dongfeng are going inside or outside; we're obviously going outside. Hope to find some good speed with the J0 and get to Holland."

Slomo washing machine. Trystan, below: Pretty moist... Last sched was pretty good. Think we were the fastest boat in the last sched. Next challenge is to soak as much as we can so we don't have to gybe to clear the tip of Scotland. Alex: You get used to it, this style of sailing. When we started it was pretty cool to sail downwind in 20 knots. Now it's same old, same old... We're all running pretty much the same sail setups, same speed. So it's about positioning. Get some macaroni and cheese in and hit the rack for four hours. Slomo washing machine.

Drone shot of Scallywag sailing in light conditions. Annemieke: In a transition zone... It's really light; super tricky. Parko on the helm. High drone shot of the boat passing just under the drone in glassy conditions. Bowsprit. MH0 flopping. Witty on the bow: This leg far from over. As we say, we never give up. Last sched we were only 13 miles behind. I think it's 100% changed me. More good than bad. But changed me in a bad way too. The good stuff is I'm more tolerant and definitely more patient. When you can be part of the development of someone like Nipper, or you go through the loss of like Fish and that's like circumstances or other things that have happened... if you're 5 minutes late to work you get caught in traffic or... your priorities change. My priorities have changed a hell of a lot. You realize you can't control anything. You can prepare better than you have in the past, but you can't control anything. Libby at the nav station gets the sched: We're third. I don't really understand the sched. We made a 3-mile gain on the fleet. they're in very light winds. We were the fastest boat by half a knot. As they flop, Libby: At the moment we're smashing the [bleep] out of it!

Witty reads off a sched while we see shots on deck: Only 13 miles behind... Should be able to almost see 'em. Witty at the nav station: Tricky transition coming. Hopefully we'll do okay in that. Back in the hunt. 970 miles to go. He sounds tired. Witty: All about the next transition, next 3 hours, 4 hours.

Drone shots of them sailing past Ireland. Ben: We're just off the tip of Ireland. Fastnet rock just down to leeward of us. Drone shots of land. Ben: We've caught up another 30 knots, so we're 30 knots behind instead of 60. Drone shots. Antonio: Happy to Fastnet rock again. Obviously not in the best position, but we are recovering. I think we are in the fight. Plenty of miles to go. Let's keep positive. Drone shots with bird. Antonio: We have a headland 7 miles, then go north upwind. Pass the high pressure and then a cold front passing and we start the fast speeds. Drone shot.

Drone shot of Scallywag passing behind an oil platform. Jack (new face!): It's just like riding a bike with team Scallywag. Never a dull moment. It was actually pleasant sailing yesterday, sailing down the river, but just ran out of wind. I've sailed with them for a number of years, with Nipper. Ben: Went through a cloud, a transition, 25 knots to 8 knots. Hopefully the other boats are going slower than this. Jack: We copped a heavy punishment for a little mistake... Put the bow down thinking we were in the new pressure, and we weren't, and fell off the cliff. Drone shot of them triple heading. Ben below asks Libby re: the latest sched. How did we do. Libby: 40 mile gain... Dongfeng is in 1 knot of wind... At the moment we're still gaining. And they have some tide against them. Parko, below: We made a mistake, and we paid dearly for it. Trying to fight back. Fell a hundred miles behind, and we've taken a big chunk of that back. Drone shot of Scallywag surfing with oil platform in the back. Parko: That was about as brutal as it gets.

TJ reports the sched (or AIS?) from the cabin. Jena grinds. Jena: Had a good start, not too much wind, but then it was a bit of shake the bag and see who comes out first. Right now we can see everybody; they're just right there. Need to give that little extra and then we've got them. Nick rigs the outrigger for the J2 lead. Hoists the J3 (I think). Other boat (MAPFRE?) in front of them. Jena bops her head and smiles at the person next to her in the cockpit.

Night shot of the moon. Instruments. Marie trimming, silhouetted by the moon on the water. Kevin, in the galley: 2 hours for the finish line. For the burger it's 5. We have no more food. He talks to Pascal at the nav station in French. Charles: Will it be a good or a bad surprise? Who knows? Pascal reads the sched: windspeed and distance for the boats ahead. Jack does an interview at night on deck: So we are currently t-minus 20 miles from Cardiff. (Marie's voice: Tacking! Tacking!) Jack raises a finger and gets up to help with the tack; Jeremie chuckles. We see them tack the MH0. Jack: It's quite light; quite upwind. But we have the current with us now which is great. Still pretty tedious now, actually. He and Carolijn talk to Jeremie on the bow. Carolijn: Hopefully, Akzo will catch Brunel. Jack: Turn the Tide catch MAPFRE... We're golden. (Carolijn laughs.) Carolijn: Scallywag... Jack: Scallywag roll everyone. Charles with a headlamp talks to Jeremie: Would have been better to be first. But Brunel and Akzo did a better leg than us. Sometimes in the Volvo it's not the best offshore team win the leg, eh? We have seen that in Newport. Jeremie: Maybe you should do more inshore sailing. Charles: Maybe. The Volvo is about the last 20 miles. Pascal: I don't know why but I think there is more wind here. It is more dark. Chuckles. Tacking in the dark.

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.

SiFi at the nav station. Reads out the latest sched. Gains on the boats ahead. Had a good transition into the northerly. Got ahead of the schedule on the routing. The guys in front are still a decent chunk ahead. But have made some gains, which is encouraging. So we're optimistic for what lies ahead. Things will get lighter and more complicated, more tidal, in the Bristol Channel.

Sunrise. Witty at the nav station. "214 miles behind. Imagine what the next sched's gonna be like." They flop. Peter, on the helm. Latest sched just in. (shakes his head) Leg over. Everyone else is doing 20 knots. We're doing 3 knots. Not even pointing at the finish. Unbelievable. Shots of empty milk jar below. Parko: We don't have any milk. We packed protein powder instead of milk powder. The shocker! We all make mistakes. Peter, on the helm. I packed protein. My name's Pete, and I packed protein. Laughs. Annemieke: I put protein powder instead of milk powder in the hot chocolate. I think It's pretty nice. Peter tries it. "Oh [bleep]." Laughs. "You did that on purpose?" Annemieke: No, no, no.

Sign taped to the aft side of the doghouse: "National Wine Day". Has wind forecast for each various times throughout the day. DTF 670. Libby: It is. It's National Wine Day. Libby at the nav station with Witty. Witty reads out the gains on the other boats due to the comression. Peter on the helm. Drone shots in light conditions. Foredeck. Slomo telltales. Antonio: 600 miles from the finish. Having to cross the light conditions. Libby and Witty at the nav station. Libby yawns. Flopping with the MH0. Slomo flopping. Antonio talks about the ETA. Flopping. Antonio: Still a bit far behind to talk about catching someone. If it were windy it would be harder, so it's good to have these conditions now. Peter shakes the main to try to pop the batten. Sunset.

Libby, below: Sailing into some light winds, so probably about to peel to the MH0. Fleet will compress and we'll probably come out in slightly better position than we are now. Front two guys have a solid lead. The rest of them are still in touch. She talks about how they dropped off the front of the fleet and then it's hard to get back in touch. Parko and Annemieke grind on deck as they peel to the MH0. They roll up and lower the J0. Peter, similing on the cabin, talks about laundry day now that the rough conditions have passed. Clothes laid out to dry on the cabin. Libby: Announces the sched. "Good one for us, yay! Gained 35 miles on the leaders." Muted enthusiasm... Peter: Shame that we've dropped back so far. Want to go into Cardiff with a good position.

Bouwe, below, reads the latest sched: Three tenths slower than Akzo. Akzo sailed 601 miles in 24 hours. Bouwe: That's a pretty nice effort. They're now 10 miles ahead of us. So that's the biggest news of the day. There's a big impact; he looks around concerned, then settles down. Sam: Are you disappointed? Bouwe: No. I said it yesterday. Records are made to be broken. I think we had yesterday 2 hours without 20 knots of breeze. That's how it is. It's all right. It's all about the leg, who wants to win the leg.

Spreader cam view of the cockpit with crew huddled on the stern. Washin gmachine. Bow cam. Stern cam. Survival mode in the cockpit. Witty on the PA from the nav station. "We were 23 behind Turn the Tide; we're 9 behind now." Still last. He talks with Luke and Libby. Luke: Talks about following the fleet. In two days we're going to run into a ridge and just stop... Trying to decide which sail to run with. It's difficult to change, because we have to slow down to limit the water over the boat. Have to choose which is quicker: Slowing down to be able to make the change, or staying with what you have?

Witty and Trystan at the nav station. They talk about the sched due in a half hour. Witty reads the sched over the PA. Annemieke and Ben grinding in the cockpit. Spreader cam view of washing machine. Nav station with boat tracks. Libby: Quite a big split in the fleet for quite long, which is quite unusual. She talks about holding onto the frontal system longer than they thought they should. The cowboy in me would have gybed at 8 this morning, but I resisted. But I'll probably gybe in the next hour. And it will be interesting to see how everyone manages to wiggle through the area of light winds.

Nina, to Sam: The secret, as an OBR, to get Capey to talk to you? Um... from my personal experience, making him a coffee when he looks a little stressed. Crack a few jokes. Sam asks Capey: Capey, what time is it? Capey: Coffee time. He holds up his mug. Sam takes it from him. Sam: In exchange, how'd the sched go? Capey: Good. We didn't lose much to Dongfeng; gained some on the boats to leeward. Lost some on the guy next to us, that happens. He gives thumbs up. Sam: Waht do you want? Capey: A little bit of chocolate. Sam rummages in the galley, gets a chocolate bar, gives it to Capey. Capey: Oh, champion, mate.

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.

Charles, below, talks about getting the wind, finally. But less than forecast, so they lost a lot to the fleet to the south. Now they're in a better position, though, for the next 6 hours, and the 6 hours after that. Fleet could join again. Pascal at nav station: 2 or 3 days everybody is going to arrive quite at the same time at the corner of the exclusion zone. 35 knots of wind with close reaching coming up. Charles: Next 24 hours are going to be very complicated to manage. Lots of wind. Not possible to always have the good sail; have to manage, to be smart, to always make the good call.

Bouwe eats below. Talks about the split. An ideal scenario for Brunel: if the southerly route pays off they can be ahead of the two red boats with lots of boats between them. We see Peter run out barefoot as Kyle gets his gear on. "Gybing" he says sleepily. Sam, to Capey below: What time is it Capey? Capey: Gybe time. We see the gybe through the hatch. Peter, below: Talks about the scheds being good, where the northern boats were light. They'll get the new breeze first; hopefully we'll be able to keep some of the lead. Kyle talks about hitting something. He's going to try to sand the leading edge of the rudder. Bouwe jokes with him about doing it naked. Kyle: Too cold. He tapes the sleeves of his survival suit. "Safety's no accident Sam." Pole shots of Kyle going over the side, sanding the leading edge of the keel. Drone shots of him ridding the tiller like a bucking bronco. Sam casually stands on the stern running the drone. Kyle, back on board. "It was so pitted." He jokes that the guys last night saw a fin the size of the mast. "We kind of think it was the Megaladon." He explains how there was a chunk out of the leading edge of the rudder. Shot of Peter, i slomo, grabbing something along the leeward rail while getting hit by waves. Noting that he wasn't clipped in. Sheesh.

Tony cleans a dish in the galley. He explains that it's the lasagna dish, which is the messiest because of the cheese that sticks in the bottom. He mentions that he owns the 24-hour monohull record and the transatlantic monohull record from sailing Comanche. Charlie puts his boots on. SiFi at the nav station. Charlie and he look at how they're doing against AkzoNobel, which makes them happy. Charlie talks about doing a fair amount of trans-Atlantic racing in the past few years. In the cockpit, we hear SiFi read the latest sched. He starts with the most exciting news: Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and Dee are all in 5-7 knots. Nick: That's so disappointing; I feel so terrible for them. Mark talks about having done two previous transatlantic crossings with this team. He points out AkzoNobel about a mile to leeward. Is actually the 6th transatlantic this boat has done; he's done all of them with Charlie and Nick. Tony, he says, has done 17 transatlantics. Tony, below: I reckon I've done the transatlantic this way 16 times. Every time is different. I'm still looking for the perfect crossing, but I think I've already had it on Comanche. We see him finishing his dishwashing.

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.

Bleddyn: 24 hours after the start. Lots of fog. Haven't seen other boats. Split this morning; we've gybed heading more northeast. Other guys are still going southeast. Expect they'll come north at some point. We're in lighter breeze, but we're going in the right direction, which is a positive. Crew in the cockpit talks and laughs about Welsh. Bleddyn gives langauge lessons to Bianca. Lucas, trimming the main, talks about hearing Bleddyn talking on the phone in what he thought was English, but then not being able to understand any of it. Lucas: "Wave. Main on." Surfing. Lucas sings "Surfing USA". Dee comes up with the latest sched. Everyone else is still sailing together in the better pressure. We fell out of the pressure, and we have the shift so we had to gybe. Hopes they'll come together and have a restart. Lucas talks about going north, and splitting, which will be cold. Annalise: Not looking forward to the cold. So it better work out for us. Bernardo working in the pit, tidying lines. Stacking forward. Liz slaps Bernardo on the back. Liz: "Nice one." Bernardo: I started sailing in Portugal when I was 8 years old. I wanted to start before that but my parents didn't allow me. So when I turned 8 I started straight away sailing the Optis. My background was always dinghies: Optis, 420s, 470s, a bit of Laser, then did the Olympics (London 2012) in 49er. Then did Youth America's Cup, World Match Racing Tour, and chasing a little bit this world, more big boats. I tried to do the last race. I couldn't make it. And fortunately this time I got my chance, my opportunity. And this is a lifetime opportunity, a dream come true. Not only a challenge, the toughest race on earth, but it's a ride with a big team, where the teamwork makes a big difference. Most is how to manage yourself. It's a challenge in a lot of different ways. That's what makes me wake up every day. Best memory: Arriving in Lisbon, in my home port. Getting home on the first leg of the Volvo means a lot. Toughest moment: When we lost John Fish. It's hard to believe and understand that he's gone. That was a really hard and a sad moment. Liz: Why did we choose Bernard? Mostly his good looks. We needed a charmer on board. Someone who could sell ice to Eskimos... Needed people who have their mind on the game, looking for the next step, on the right side of the shift. A key person to have around.

Parko sees Bermuda: "Land ho!" We see Bermuda as they pass to weather of it. Libby uses a sextant: "Plan B." Stacking below. Libby: Yeah; FR0's the next sail. Gybing. Ben: Lost 20 miles to a couple of boats because they gybed earlier. Still gotta stay positive. We all have the same reason to do the race. It's an awesome team to be a part of. Just like going yachting with your mates, really.

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.

Peter talks about his socks. Sched on the computer screen. Kyle talks about how Dongfeng is coming dwon on them in the sched. Nina: Hope we can hold them off. Very stressful. We can see them now on the horizon. Capey (in the background): I wouldn't sail above the mark. He calls out to Peteron the helm: He's giving up a lot of high for not a great deal of gain so far. Shot of Dongfeng on their weather rail several miles away. Carlo talks about how coming in last to Auckland was the worst. "It's definitely not happening this time." Peter, on the helm, talks about peeling to 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.

Drone shots of Scallywag triple heading. Antonio on the helm in the sunrise. Parko tidying lines. Wake. Peter: About 75 miles south of Bermuda. A few more hours on this gybe. Last few days have been pretty hard. Now we've got the same shift as everyone else. You gotta keep believing you can get into that leading pack. Have to keep sailing as if we're leading, sailing 100%. Witty: 48 hours ago were 235 miles behind. Now 130 miles behind. As we say on Scallywag, never surrender, never give up. Alex: What time is it? Talks witih Ben about how they've been on starboard for 8 days.

Sunrise. Liz hands over the wheel to Frederico. At 13 knots she had just under 10 on the keel; at 15 she brings it up again. She debriefs with him about height-vs-speed tradeoff. Dee at the nav station. "Just got the position report. Probably only about 36-40 hours of sailing left." Closed with Vestas, but everyone else is sailing faster than them. MAPFRE have just moved into view on the horizon, only 6 miles away. "Bloody red boat again... Race for third is full on, between ourselves, Vestas, and MAPFRE." She says she's gutted, but she has to be positive when she goes on deck. Martin steering, Dee comes up. MAPFRE is 8 miles away. Points out Brunel and Vestas ahead. Henry talks with her about the strategic situation. Annalise: Been able to see them both for an hour now. Had our suspicions that it was MAPFRE... A full-on last day into the finish. Hopefully we can finish strongly and be happy when we get into Newport. Drone show from low alongside the bow. Dee: The fight for third place... could be the difference is a rain cloud. Big depression with 35 knots of wind coming through... Boats could change places at the finish line with a puff of breeze. I'm kind of nervous and excited at the same time. Drone shot of them unfurling the J3 to triple-head.

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."

Charlie steering. Washing machine. Sunrise. Mark and Nick talk about breakfast food. Martin asks questions about Newport. "Which state is it in?" Nickname of the state? "The Ocean State." Jena didn't know that. Tony: "You're asking the wrong person." The name of the bay in Rhode Island. (Narragansett.) How many times did Newport host the America's Cup? Tony: "Must have been a lot." Phil: "I'm gonna say, three." Haha; Aussie's clearly weren't raised to know that one the way U.S. sailors were. Jena: That's a good question. Tony: I don't know. They had it for 100 years, did they? SiFi: 1851 to 1983. Stacey: I know who they lost it to. Australia. :-) Charlie comes up to give the latest sched. Wasn't horrible. Charlie on the best place in Newport to get breakfast. Bell's Cafe seems to be a popular choice. Nick: Black Perl for sunset cocktail. Charlie: New York Yacht Club. Nick: Inside Irish pub would be Fastnet... (some others). Other restaurant recommendations. (Sorry; I can't care.) Jena grinding. Foredeck.

Drone shot from close astern as Brunel surfs fast. At nav station, Peter talks about how they got screwed by a couple of clouds. Shows sattelite image. "Probably should keep compressing the whole way into the high." Pretty shify and tricky. He shows the routing and zooms in. "Doesn't look like it's going to get much easier; looks like a pretty good park up at the end. Hopefully have a few miles up our sleeves at that point." Drone shot low ahead as they surf. Capey bailing below in a Movistar shirt. Sam asks him the trick. He explains it's just like helming; you have to work with the waves. But it doesn't make as much difference. Sam: What do you have to say about Kyle Langford. Capey: He's the man. Used to the boy. Sam: How was he when he first came to you. Capey: Young champion. Young and dumb. Capey moves gingerly aft to the nav station. Bouwe: Last couple of scheds were not so good. That's what we expected sailing towards the high. Doing relatively well against Vestas and Dongfeng. (sound issues) Capey, at the nav station: We've gained a little bit back. Kyle, at nav station in the dark: Just got the sched, gained a little against Dongfeng. Surfing shot on deck. Abby: Currently got 20 knots of breeze, and we're sending it. Over there (gestures to port) is a big sucker cloud. We're hoping that Dongfeng is in that cloud doing 2 knots rather than 20 knots. We see a broach to clear weed. Drone following them into the sunset. Flies in and Kyle catches it, grins at the camera.

Mast cam, spreader cam: sailing fast with lots of spray. Washing machine. Slomo washing machine. Slomo of Ben grinding. Ben, below: Certainly wet out there. 20-25 knots of wind. Doing 20-25 knots of wind. 20-25 degrees of water temperature. Great sailing. Ben towels his head off in the hatchway. Trystan: Gained 20, 25 miles on the front of the fleet. Libby reads the sched: We are a small 171 miles behind. Trystan: Hopefully at the end we'll have a shot of beating someone. In theory we'll be finishing 2 and a half hours behind the leader. So there's still all to play for.

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.

Blast reaching with a reefed main. Washing machine shots from the stern. Peter, trimming the main on the stern, talks about it. We do that for 4 hour lots in the day, and at night - here we go, here is a crack (as a wave washes over) - we only do 3 hours at night. Witty, at the nav station, reads a sched over the PA: We are consistent. We lost 12 miles to everybody... Keep up the good work. Peter scowling in his bunk. Libby explains that they were faster, but weren't in the lifted pressure. Starting with the next sched should start gaining on the fleet.

Charles at nav station: For 24 hours we are the slowest boat. Wanted to check, so I jumped into the water. Maybe we had something; it's difficult to know. Maybe something came off as we backed up, before I jumped in. We'll see in the next sched. We then see Charles prepping for going over. He went over in the dark. Shouting in French. They pull him back aboard on the stern. He goes below, puffing and dripping.

Libby continues explaining how she conveys sched info. There are people who want to know, so you can't not tell them. And it kind of breaks the day up. It's kind of the "news of the day". Peter: Happy birthday, we're the fastest boat in the fleet now. Computer screen. Libby and Bessie at the nav station.

Libby at the nav station, reads the sched over the PA. Something about asking them to do fewer "wind checks"? Computer screen. Weather software. Libby explains the every-six-hours sched. Managing expectations, and how you share the information. I'm looking at the routings, so I always know what's coming. But the rest of the crew doesn't know that, and so if they take a loss they wonder have we been sailing badly?

Kyle, in his bunk: Capey got is in a good spot in the trades when we left Brazil, and we managed to get a few clouds and wiggle our way into the lead. Tradewind sailing, so it's pretty straightforward, so Capey's getting some rest. Getting caught up on Netflix. Title: 1300 Position Report. Capey gets gingerly out of his bunk. Settles into nav station. Pulls up position report. Sam: Is it one thumbs up or two thumbs up. Cape gestures. Title: That's 2 thumbs up. Kyle: He's monitoring our angle. Capey to the cockpit: Nice to work down a bit. Another degree down, if we could... Dongfeng's going shitty, but lower. [He shakes his head.] They lost 5. Kyle: He's taking it kind of easy now. In the next few days as we're approaching Newport he'll be busy. Bouwe talks about doing well. It's a competitive advantage having a mental coach. In the last race, we were doing poorly, and she helped us work on our communication and trust. It's an advantage, especially as the race goes on. Slomo shot of washing machine in the cockpit. Carlo working on the bow to hoist a new sail. Crew grinding in the cockpit. Peter: Reckon he's an 8 or 9 (on a scale of 1-10) in terms of being detail-oriented. Carlo: He likes to play around with all the leads when we're triple-headed. Playing around with the leads on the J2, J3. Perfect... everything. Perfect bowl of food, perfect sleeping setup. All about the 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.

Spreader cam shot of cockpit. Dee, at the nav station, looks at the latest sched, and annouces it via PA to the cockpit. Dongfeng 3 miles ahead. Brunel 13 miles head. Skua flies over the boat. Martin, below: disappointment after the bad sched. Gives us motivation to keep tweaking the boat, and find some speed. Endless tweaking. Bianca talks about Liz being good about tweaking. Liz trims. Liz, below: I'm restless. Can't keep still. You think something could be better. Liz: Smallest thing you can tweak? Tack on a staysail. Taht's getting pretty anal when you start tweaking that. Shot of the skua overhead.

Evening drone shots of them drifting in light winds with rain on the horizon. Parko, on the helm: This part of the world is known for a relatively easy crossing. The land breeze helps. Clouds. Peter brushes his teeth. Ben mixes up something in the galley. Bird on ddeck (black tern?) Ben looks at clouds. Trystan says Libby has a good point that looking at the scheds for the next few days will be pretty depressing. But there will be a compression coming into Newport, and that will make or break the leg.

Sam, to Capey: What's the race report. Capey: Good. We're winning the Volvo. The leg. For right now at least... [To Sam]: Are you the admiral? Sam: What? Capey: Admirals and assholes. Do you know that one?

Sailing under clouds. Rain dripping on TJ under the boam. Heavy rainfall, something brown in the water (Sargasso weed?). Stacey grinning in rain under the boam. TJ, on the bow, talks about the light conditions, wanting to go a little faster. Jena and Tony grinding. Skua overhead. Gybing the MH0 from port to starboard. Watching a whale to starboard. They sail through a big patch of sargasso. SiFi talks about it. SiFi, at the nav station, reads out the latest sched over the PA. They're in fourth, behind Dee, Brunel, and AkzoNobel. Mark: Just crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere. Talks about the sargasso weed. Accumulates on the foils. Just have to deal with it.

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.

Working on the bow. Crew laughing in the cockpit at sunrise. Charlie comes up from below to report on the sched: "Generally a little higher and quicker than those guys." He goes on to discuss strategy with Tom. Phil, on the helm, talks about his knee being sore, which is why he's standing on one foot. TJ does pushups. TJ, below, washes his shirt in a bucket, then wrings it out of the forward hatch. Shirt drying on a pedestal. Tom steering. Someone going out to the MH0 clew to put a new sheet on for the gybe; stumbles coming back over the rail. (Maybe Nick?) Tony, on the helm, explains that dongfent has gybed, so now they're going to gybe to protect their position. We see the gybe. SiFi looks through binoculars to starboard (presumably at Dongfeng), talks about them being on port tack.

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.

View looking up the slot. Drone shot with morning sun. Stu: Lots of nice sailing for today. Which is a nice change from the last day or two, which had unbelievable cloud activity. Talks about having a sudden squall with everything on the wrong side (stack, water ballast, OBR). Didn't work out well; lost a lot of miles. Shots out the cabin at night with lightning on deck. Horace works in red light as thunder rolls. Rain. Kevin reads a sched on the PA. "So we've been the slowest of the fleet except (someone)." Pascal talks in French. A bird (gannet? booby?) flies over the masthead. Drone shot. Carolijn on the helm.

Vestas sails toward a squall. Charlie reads the latest sched on the PA while the crew in the cockpit (Tony driving, Mark grinding, Stacey trimming) listens. "Hooray." "Thank you." Tony explains: Just got a sched in; last two were interesting because this morning we were in 30+ knots of pressure and sort of scattered the fleet. Now it's tradewind sailing. We weren't the fastest, but we're at the top and we held our height. "What's my secret? My secret is being heavily caffeinated." Then he talks about crackers: "They're a savory treat for us." Beautiful sunset clouds. Stacking aft in the dusk, "Two, six!" Sailing wiht the instruments illuminating. Tony on the helm (Tony's always on the helm.)

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.

Ben explains that they broke the stopper on the daggerboard, so they thought they'd have some afts and crafts in the afternoon and fix it. Witty reads the sched: We were 70 miles behind the leader; now we're 24. Peter: It's been light overall. J0 to the MH0. Frustrating really. Started the day badly, got hit by a lot of squalls. Hard for everyone last night. Stemmed the daage, but frustratingly light. Witty explains the situation. We don't want to go left, because left pressure left, more pressure right. Flopping. Night shots of them working the foredeck and cockpit.

Wrestling the J0 on the foredeck; stacking it. Pole shots: outboard, rudder, bow, keel. Crewmembers tired, sleeping. Parko: So, over the last two scheds we've been the most western boat. The other boats are pushing down over the top. Clouds... Tough night, quite a few sail changes. It's been a rough one. We've lost quite a few miles. Lost the strong position we were in. Fighting to work east a little bit, to get back in a position where we can tack again. Witty reads a sched from below. Repairs to the top of the daggerboard (I think). Mixing epoxy, applying it.

Night shot with moon behind clouds. Francesca, below in red light: I'm Francesca from Turn the Tide on Plastic. We are sailing just over a big cloud. The last sched was really good. Second sched in a row where we are leading, so it's fantastic. Wind conditions are tricky, up and down, try to focus on the trim, sail as fast as possible. We'll see tomorrow morning, but we think we are doing a really solid leg right now. Just need to keep doing it for another two weeks. And we will see.

Drone shot with sunset behind the boat. Crew sailing in rougher conditions. Frederico: Finally sailing on starboard, close reaching, after three days upwind. Did very well. We're the eastern boat. We think it will pay off, but is quite risky. But we are confident in our navigator. We see out the cabin as Dee comes out and relays the sched. Dee explains: We were the fastest boat in the sched. We've got more breeze, which is why we positioned ourselves furthest east. Just need to keep it up and stay focused. Annalise: A lot of upwind, which is slow. Prefer to do 20 knots... but it makes it easier when the position report comes in and we're doing well. Drone shot. Frederico's hand on a winch. Frederico below: The race is quite brutal.... It's just about self management. To take care of your emotions when you are so tired. It's hard, but you ahve to learn how to cooperate with everyone around... It's hard. I think I've grown to be a different man in all the legs so far. When we started very fresh, I never had experience offshore. Now we can sail the boat close to the other teams. I think everybody step up, and we're a really strong team now. Drone shot with rain in the distance.

Witty, on the helm, talks about strategy with the exclusion zone. Tacking now to cover the boats behind. A high percentage play. Not what he really wants to do. Tacking the MH0. Slomo grinding. Slomo stacking. Lowering the J1. Libby and Witty at the nav station. Witty: "Vestas is 1.7 miles behind the leader. That would mean the fucking Scallywags are leading... Well done all." Peter, on deck, explains that they've gone north and the rest of the fleet has gone east. It's a bit risky. Parko, on the helm: It's nice to be taking the lead after a shaky start. A couple of new faces on board, and took us a while to find our feet. But there's two different breezees right now and it's anyone's game. We've only just started. Sunset. Sailing as darkness falls.

Liz, in the morning, points to the high pressure to starboard. "That there is the center of hell." Elodie says "good morning" as she climbs out the companionway. Lucas steers. Bianca makes a face. Bianca: "Pain. Lots of pain." Elodie: "Happy morning, Freddy." Liz does a puppet show with two red gummy animals (dinosaurs?): "Hello. I'm a diplodocus." "I'm a dinosaur too, but I don't know what kind I am." She eats one of the dinosaurs. "It's all getting a bit weird out here." Bleddyn eases the runner, making a loud noise. "Sorry Henry." He does it again. "Sorry Frankie." Bianca: "Cape Horn feels like it was weeks ago... As long as we beat MAPFRE it's fine." Below, Dee and Liz get the latest sched. Dee: "They were doing 5.1 knots." Liz (excited, dancing in her seat): "We were doing 9.6! We were doing 9.6!" Dee laughs. "Ah. How sad for them." They both laugh. In the cockpit, Elodie and Bianca ask Sam about the position report. Elodie: "How is it?" Bianca: "Are you gonna tell us how it was?" Lucas, on the helm: "MAPFRE, 20 miles in front." They laugh. Lucas: "Another 10 days out here, Sam." He pumps his fist. "Yes!" Dee comes up from below, putting on her sunglasses to try to hide her expression. She laughs. "I can't hide it. I tried to look really sad but I can't do it." She claps. "We were twice as fast as them!" She summarizes the current distances. 99 miles ahead of MAPFRE with 660 miles to go. Dee, below: "Nice to have some good news." She and Liz talk about AkzoNobel; Dee doesn't think they're going to get them. Rainbow, sunset.

Lucas bailing, talks about how the VO65 is not dry. Slomo spray. Stern cam footage of near-roundup. Bleddyn: Pushing pretty hard for the last 2, 3 days. Not sure how many days it's been. Gybe in the cockpit. Liz talks about how as of the last position report they're the furthest south and closest to Cape Horn, so in the lead. More than halfway to Cape Horn. And it's a pretty special thing. Bleddyn talks about how they had a duel with MAPFRE. Shot on deck of TTToP sailing on starboard gybe with MAPFRE a mile ahead of them. Then MAPFRE abeam of them. Elodie: Pretty nice to see them, because we're pushing hard at the moment, gybing, which doesn't allow us to rest or eat properly. So it gives you another kick of energy to keep going. Dee: Have a crew that's been here before, so they're more confident. Good drivers, and we've made some good decisions. Does prove to the naysayers... but I always knew. Slomo big-wave shots. Slomo washing machine. Sam asks Dee, below, what the goal is now. Dee: Keep the boat on its feet, keep my crew in one piece, get them safely around Cape Horn, and get to Italjai... She talks about a restart after Cape Horn.

Simeon talks about the latest sched with Jules at the nav station. Close to North Cape of New Zealand. Everyone lining up behind them. Scallywag still in stealth mode. They'll probably use their stealth mode card in the next sched. Some light air expected at north end of New Zealand. Jules, on deck, says technically they're leading. Pretty evenly matched with Scallywag. Brad: Having the lead for most of the last two weeks has been pressure. As Kiwis want to win the leg into Auckland. Cecile: Auckland is my second home. It would mean the world to me to win in Auckland. Shots of crew sleeping, the instruments, sunset. Jules, Simeon, and Nicho at the nav station talking strategy. Nicho: 18 miles in the lead; pretty much point and shoot now. Trying to get around the corner while the tide is good. Then a parkup on the other side. On deck in the sunset, Brad talks about the upcoming situation. Shot of islands in the fading light (the "Three Kings", maybe?). Sunset sky.

Charles, at the nav station, talks about his emails with Xabi on MAPFRE. Told him it was his birthday, and asked for a gift: Let me pass you please. . Xabi replied that he'd already given them 5 miles in the last sched, and that was enough. Happy birthday. He emailed him back that Brunel was more generous.

Sunset. Stacking aft in lighter wind. Moon. Witty, at the nav station, explains the details of why Akzo will not show up on the next sched. He sounds frustrated. "How did I round up some of the dumbest human beings on the planet?" They get the sched. Dee's only 9[ miles behind us. Antonio and Ben look astern and argue over whether they're seeing a container ship or Dee. Witty: That means Akzo's somewhere between 10 and 25 miles. Antonio looks, doesn't see them. Witty uses the binoculars in the last light to look for them.

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.

Sailing in better wind on port. Below, Charles reads the latest sched over the PA. Scallywag to the west in the best wind, going 3 to 4 knots faster than us. Nothing they can do about that. Brunel made a mistake by going too far east. Good chance to pass them. And just ahead of us is MAPFRE. Chance to finish fourth. He talks about getting hurt by big clouds. On deck they stack forward. Kevin on the bow prepares to hoist the MH0 (I think). Pascal: For MAPFRE, amigos! He talks to them in Spanish. Fighting them to the finish line. Jeremie: Less than 3 days to go. Brunel in stealth mode and went west. Not good for them at the moment. So we're overtaking them. Trying to keep a good wind, and good angle, on MAPFRE. Let's see what happens.

Capey at the nav station. Chart software. Night shots on deck. Instruments on the mast. A crewmember shines a flashlight up. Spray. Talk about needing a line to tack the J3 (I think?). Sunrise. Alberto on the helm. Sally with the sun behind her. Bouwe: Unfortunately the weather didn't do what it was supposed to do. Center of the high pressure is right on our track. Not very nice, but the only way for us to go. Other boats have a more lifted breeze, more pressure. The next 24 hours will not be very pretty. We'll go from being near the top to being even last. Stacking aft. Peter and Kyle grinding. Bouwe calls up the (expected) bad sched results. Instruments. Kyle: Distance to finish number doesn't really go down very quickly. Almost more painful than not having it there.

Bouwe, at the nav station, talks about their strategy. Could see that they were falling off the pressure that the leading boats were in. So they went in stealth mode. Didn't lose too much distance because the boats ahead were sailing at a high angle to the finish. Peter on deck as they flop. Capey, below, talks about feeling bad. Thought they were through the lee of the island and moving, and they weren't. Night shots on deck, maneuvers on the foredeck as wind builds. Sally: This morning we had a huge sigh of relief when we saw that Dongfeng and MAPFRE chose to take the same direction we did. She talked about Bouwe coming on deck with that sched. Capey: At least the boats behind us weren't doing something different. Laying out the J1, peeling from MH0 to J1. Capey and Bouwe talk about strategic options at the nav station. Peter looks on. Louis watches from his bunk.

Early morning. Jules talks about how they can see Scallywag now. They've taken about 10 miles from them in an hour and a half. Bow with stack on it. Nicho looks toward Scallywag. Jules, at the nav station, talks about 1400 miles (to go in the leg?). About 1500 miles of sailing. Jules talking strategy. Cecile talking about how she's glad she picked this boat to be on because they're in a good spot. Still a ways to go. Until you get to North Cape with a decent lead, I won't think about anything. Jules and Simeon at the nav station look at the latest sched. Nicolai in the companionway talks about the competion. Luke talks about how they had a great sched. Talks about New Caledonia, how the other boats are picking different lines. Cecile with a hand-bearing compass. Nicolai, below: Four miles to Scallywag. Three weeks of work behind it, and can lose it in one cloud... Coming together more. Speed, experience, teamwork. Adds up. Jules, Simeon, and Nicho talking around a tablet. Sailing south in light conditions.

Stacking in the morning. Brian tells Dee about the good sched. She claps. "That's a nice start to the day." Drone shot (though it looks like it's from late in the day). Dee, on the forward pedestal, explains that they're coming up on the reef off New Caledonia. They're electing to take the middle passage through the reef. Their immediate competition appears to be going around the western side. At the nav station, Brian points out the reef on the chart. Four of the boats are going through the inside passage, and 2 going through the outside passage. An interesting split.

Peter goes aloft. GoPro shots. He calls the wind: "Absolutely nothing 2 miles in front." Bouwe: "Can we get him a bit higher? I can still hear him." Laughter. Back on deck, he points around at the lack of wind. Crew stacks forward behind him. "Just giving the guys some shit about their trim." On the bow, Carlo: "Had a bit of a fight with Turn the Tide. We parked and they sailed around us and never stopped. About 12 miles ahead of us. We just had no breeze at all. Shots of TTToP sailing past them. Lowering the J1 to peel to the MH0. Stacking aft. TTToP sailing a quarter mile to leeward. Sally: "I feel like they had no board the whole time." Carlo talks about the frustration, heat below, almost impossible to sleep. Especially when we have to run the engine. Shot below with engine running of crew trying to sleep in the bow. Sunset clouds in glassy conditions. Rain in the distance. Crescent moon. Rain in the dawn. Bouwe: It's still all right. Breeze should fill in from the east, and we are the easternmost boat. Not going to be a good sched because they've been very slow for the last several hours. "A crystal ball would have been nice."

Rain. Slomo rain. Nicolas at the nav station. Looking quite good on the ranking; are first, but won't be going straight-line. Rain on deck. Henry, grinding, talks about the sched. Annalise in the background talks about the fresh water. Biance, other crew, showering. Later, in a calm, Liz works on a winch. On the bow, Bianca talks about it being a painful day. Should be leaving the doldrums later this evening. Some nice reaching into New Zealand, hopefully arriving on the 27th.

Glassy conditions. Sunrise. Ben cranks the runner. Annemieke on the helm. Flopping. Sailing in rain. Marcus on the bow talks about a bad sched, and TTToP slipped through. And Brunel had a breeze from the east. Still in touch with everyone. A long way to go; can't get too hung up in the emotions of one sched. Pole shots. Trystan stands on the boom looking ahead. Libby and Witty talk about "dot to dot." Witty: I'm going to the bow; I've heard enough. On the bow, he talks about the luck of the draw. Sounds discouraged. Pole shot of the keel underwater. Instruments.

Bouwe calls for help on the computer from Capey. "I'm too stupid with computers; that's probably it." Capey eats. Bouwe: "Smells good." Capey troubleshoots. Bouwe: "We need the master." Bouwe: A very good sched. Gained 60 miles on the leaders. But I think the guys in the back will catch up as well. So it will be a restart. So positioning in the next 48 hours is key. A lot of things can happen along the New Zealand coast. It never ends until the finish. I think the feeling is the boat is going the best it ever has gone. I'm still attached to my leg. Guys were talking about amputating it... Hasn't heeled in 5 days. I've been going back and forth with the medical director. Maybe just wait until Auckland and see if we can heel it over there. On deck, cool shot as the camera follows crew as they go forward and around the foredeck. Carlo brushing his teeth as he works.

Dee, on the helm under clouds and sailing fast, talks about how they had a good sched. And the final birthday present for Bernardo is that they have Brunel in their sights.

Gybing at sunrise. Jules: Still unresolved on how to get through the band of doldrums. Depends on what you'll find on the other side, but that's still 10 days away. "Pretty random really." Sunrise. Nicho on the helm talks strategy with Jules and Simeon. Luke washes in a rain squall. Martine and Brad shower in the rain. Brad: Three showers so far today. Looks like number four shower. Rolling up the J3. Light winds. Martine: Still going through a lot of clouds. Everybody can catch up with us. You just deal with it. Hoisting the J1. Simeon: Hope we end up well. To win the race you need to win legs. That pressure is bigger for us than for any of the others. Jules talks from the cabin to Nicho on the helm. Cecile puts on a shirt below. Nicolai pulls down the J1. Nicolai: Just had a sched, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. This was a bad one. Lost 25 miles on the fleet. Knew that was coming; they're sailing into lighter conditions. Luke, in the cockpit: "A lot of snakes and ladders in this game." Sunset as they sail in light winds. Red-lit instruments show them sailing at 0.6 knots.

Slomo spray. Looking up the slot. Annemieke trimming in goggles. Ben makes the shaka sign. Ben talks with Marcus about them doing well strategically, for a change. Fish steering. Talks about the importance of the every-6-hours sched. In about 10 minutes time. Fisheye lense views of the cockpit. Witty at the nav station. He gives the sched via the PA. They've gained 20 miles on the leader; just 20 miles behind. Below, he eats. His favorite meal is probably the been stroganoff. More shots of spray as they sail fast on starboard. Below, Witty reads a new sched over the PA: They're now 6 miles in front. "Patience is a virtue." Witty talks with Marcus about the strategic situation. "Keep it rolling." Marcus talks about the pictures of clouds on the computer. "I don't know what it means." Witty: "I don't know what it means either... My son had to teach me how to play Minecraft."

Sunrise. Dee leads a "happy birthday" song as Bernardo comes up from below. She explains that they've gained 17 miles on Brunel; they're 35 miles ahead. Gained on the gus behind. And gained 30 miles on Akzo. Brian looking at a cloud, talks to Francesca on the helm. High drone shot of hte rain storm a mile away from them. Liz: Talks about the cloud growing in size; glad they were in front of it not behind it. Another little one starting in front of them that's going to take the breeze away. A fun game, catching clouds. When you get it right it's great. When you get it wrong it's painful. Time lapse shot of cloud building. TTToP sailing fast. Henry, below, on trying to shoot the gap between clouds. 100-degree windshift. Shots of him on the helm. Nicolas, at the nav station: It's not easy because the wind is not stable at all. Pretty sunset.

Crew in shorts working the cockpit in the half light. Drone shots with big rain cloud behind Brunel. Capey at the nav station. "We've just crossed the equator. Our next obstacle is to get out of the doldrums." Solomons coming up. Disappointing evening with the westerly boats making huge gains on us. We didn't get the wind. Hoping it would be the other way around. It was a choice I made. At the Solomons there will be another shutdown and compression, and we'll make the most of that. Have to take the good with the bad. Forecast and history, and a bit of luck. A bit of a cloud lottery here, the way they build and move. There is a bit of luck. But there's also skill in placing yourself in the right place. Next 10 days likely to be slow. Bouwe on the helm. Shifting the stack on deck, below. Mastcam view of washing machine in the cockpit. Sailing through rain. Washing machine. Mastcam view forward. Capey, from below, calls up about a good sched. "We took 50 miles out of MAPFRE... Only gained 20 on Turn the Tide. [Kyle asks how far behind they are.] Must be 50."

Rain in the cockpit; crew showering. Alberto is very happy, after a week. Grinding for a sail change. Sailing upwind. Carlo fiddles with a pedestal. Below, he and Kyle inspect the pedestal, which is broken. Kyle explains that the pedestal started slipping. To fix it they've had to pull the pedestal apart, requires coordination with the guys on deck. Found the issue, which was a chip in one of the sprockets. So he's shaved that down, and will put it back in place in the position of the pedestal that they don't often use. Carlo works n the sprocket. Lubing the chain. Kyle: I've seen a lot of people do this stuff, but I haven't done it much myself. On deck, Louis comes up to report on a very good sched. "Only 2,500 miles to go." They flp in little wind. Below, Kyle works on putting the pedestal back together. Coordinates with Carlo on deck. "Just be a bit rough with it, Carlo." Kyle: "Done."

Justin looks at clouds. Talks about the wind. Simeon on the helm looks tired. Rainbow to leeward. Justin: Basically have been bouncing from cloud to cloud. Playing snakes and ladders with the other boats. Puffs that last for 30 seconds to a minute. Brad on the bow as they hoist the J1 and furl the MH0. Justin on the helm. Rain. Stacking below. Jules looks at the computer. "Until we find some wind out of the westerly quadrant we won't make any gains." Sailing into the doldrums now. Guys behind have all seen them slow and have turned left (east), taking a lot of miles out of them. Luke: Jules and Chris and Simeon have spent a lot of time over the last week deciding where to cross the doldrums. Jules at the mast. Nicolai and Martine lower the MH0 after hoisting the J1. Lowering the J1, Justin gathers it in on the foredeck. Jules emerges from below to annouce the sched: Brunel is closest to the finish now. Brad in the sunset. Justin on the helm after sunset: Dismal couple of days. Who knows what's next.

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.

Dee, toweling off below: talks about how it was a hard 4 hours in which they moved little, and mostly in the wrong direction. Rain. A few more days of this. High drone shot of TTToP in drifting conditions with the sunrise behind them. Bernardo sleeping. MH0 flopping. Bernardo: Forecast was supposed to be 8 knots. We have 4. Not much we can do; just sail with what we have. A little bit frustrating. Dee on the helm. Drone shot. Nicolas, in the cockpit, relays a sched: Akzo and Scally are 200 miles ahead. Brunel is 40 miles in 20 knots. Dongfeng is 27 miles here (pointing to the stern quarter). MAPFRE is 35 miles here (port quarter). Lucas explains that he's working on a lashing for the cunningham. A bit chafed. Doing a splice. Closeup of him splicing. Talks about frustration. But comfort that they're with other boats as well. And race is still long, a whole other doldrums to go through. Sterncam footage of them in the washing machine. Below, Dee explains that it built to 30 knots very qucikly. Lost a lot to the leaders in the last night. But now they have the wind, so they can make up some ground. Spreadercam shot of the deck.

WItty and Libby at the nav station look at a sched (I think?). Witty: "When was the last time we had this much separation in a Volvo race?" He annouces the update via the PA. "Akzo did pretty well." Night shot on deck. Antonio doing something near the clew in the red light. Instruments show them going 11.4 knots.

Shot of the keel (with something on it?). Nicolas at the nav station: This sched is important; an upcoming tricky wind area. Important to see what wind the other boats have. We see a screenshot showing the sched. Not so bad. Francesca on the helm drinking water. Nicolas comes up and explains the sched. Henry explains: Looks like the northerly option is paying off. Stuck with their plan, and should get back in the game in the next day or so. Now on them to sail the boat faster and warrent being in that position. Liz on the helm. Drone shot.

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.

Sunrise. Dee, at the nav station, talks about how they had a bad sched, and are back at the back of the fleet again. But doldrums are coming up. Have to hope that the other boats get some unlucky clouds and they get a faster angle. Being positive, sailing the boat well. "Anything can happen when you're yacht racing." Drone shot of TTToP sailing on port tack.

Cécille, below, talks about how Jules strategy has paid off and they've picked up 40 miles on the other boats in one sched. Still a massive way to go and doldrums and stuff, but it's cool. Jules, at the nav station, looks at a chart. Jules, in the hatch, talks to Nicho, in the cockpit, about strategy. Nicho: Last two scheds are the two best scheds we've ever had. Now put some miles on Scallywag. And still some concern about Brunel and TTToP, with a little bit of leverage. "Minefield after minefield from here to New Zealand." When they were behind they were looking at these upcoming transitions as the opportunity to get past the leaders. So have to be careful. But still, rather be here than back there. Simeon trimming, Martine on the pedestal. Nicho (I think?) steering; Nicolai trimming.

Trystan on the helm (might have been mixing him up with Marcus; would be nice if the Volvo site team page had photos for either of them). Drone shot of Scallywag sailing toward the sunrise on port gybe. Witty and Libby laughing at the nav station. Witty: "You're starting to come around!" They seem happy about how they're doing on the other boats. Witty talks to Ben about how it's a balance; they've got "fugazi" (pointing to Libby) and "non-fugazi" (himself) and it works out pretty good. Witty: "We have just absolutely smashed them." He laughs. "All these other guys do the fugazi, and listen to the computer, and we sort of point where we want to go, and it seems to be working quite nicely." In the background, Libby is rocking back and forth, laughing silently. Witty: "It's only yachting mate, it's not science, it's not that hard... Libby Greenhalgh, she's done it again! We should have shares in Libby Greenhalgh!" Libby reads the sched on the intercom: MAPFRE doing 6 knots. (Meanwhile, they're sailing at 20.) Alex, on deck: "I heard a little rumor going round that we've actually done well. Apparently we're in front. We've got a better line down here... Long way to go. Fingers crossed we can keep on gaining... Still gotta go through the doldrums." Shot of sunrise. Drone shot of them shifting the stack on the bow. Sunrise drone shots.

Drone shots of TTToP triple-heading on port gybe under cloudy skies. Slomo spray, Dee grinding. Dee talks about why she loves racing. Harnassing that power of nature, and no two days are alike, so you're always learning. Crew in the cockpit. Dee talks about saling solo vs. sailing with a team. When you're alone it's all your responsibility. But with a team even when you're sleeping people are pushing, so the intensity is up. Slomo spray, washing machine. Chart showing their position and other boats. Brian reads the position report for 0100 UTC over the intercom. Have been going very much the same speed as the boats in front. "The great thing about this racing is it's so absorbing." Close competition with the other 5 boats. Dee talks about having the confidence of their boatspeed matching the leaders. Want to carry that through to the finish in Auckland. Drone shot from high overhead.

Spreader cam view of the deck as they sail fast on port gybe with the J0/J3. Spreader cam view of the cockpit; washing machine. Dee eats at the nav station. Dee: "All smiles. Everyone is soaking wet, but it's really fast sailing." Cold front met them before dawn; gybed. Really fast boatspeed toward Auckland. No longer pointing at Japan. Should have 8 hours with 30 knots of wind, then dropping to 20. Annalise bails water from below with a bucket. Talks about it having been nice for a while, but now it's back to being rough and bailing out. "But it's not too bad, because we're sailing fast in the direction of New Zealand." Dee talks about hoping to have closed the gap a bit with the leaders. Slomo spray on deck. Liz talks about sailing fast with the J0 up. Sailing at 24 knots. Bianca: "Going home!" Liz calls her The Cookie Monster, because she loves cookies and cream. Bianca gets wiped off the pedestal by a wave. Slomo spray in Liz's face on the helm. More of Annalise bailing water from below. Nicolas at the nav station: Not so far away from the first 3 boats. Akzo and Scallywag not too far away behind them. Not a bad sched. Spreader cam view of deck.

David Witt talks to the crew in the cockpit. He sounds like the caffeine is really kicking in. "We're gonna have to just take this on, right? I don't know what's gonna happen. We're just gonna have to take this on all night." Alex talks about the routing being different than reality; some big choices on how to route through the Phillippines. Witty talks about Parko saying a smart thing before, you have to think about what SiFi will do on Vestas. He doesn't know where we are, he doesn't know we're still leading. He'll want to say in front of "the Feng". I think he'll want to put himself between them and the finish. Witty: "And I just completely confused myself again." Discussion in the cockpit. Fish-eye shot from the bowsprit looking aft. Witty below at the nav station obsesses over the chart, current, strategy. "About 20 minutes from our final gybe into Hong Kong. Getting close." Stacking below. Witty: "It'll be the greatest yacht race I've ever won if we can pull this off. For a whole bunch of reasons... A smart man told me once that the way you win yacht races is you eliminate the ways to lose them. And we kept coming up with ways to lose it and then fighting back. That's probably what will make it the most special if we can pull it off." Witty on the helm; washing machine. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty announces the sched over the PA. Dongfeng is farther back in the latest sched, so he thinks it's a fair bet Vestas (who is in Stealth Mode) is further back, too. Witty: "Our rate of improvement is pretty amazing, really." Talks about the amount of hard work. "You've gotta believe in yourself first if anything's gonna happen."

Pretty sunrise drone shot. Martin, on the helm, talks about gybing into the Luzon Strait. Brunel should be somewhere around here. Brian [Johnson] and Dee look at the chart. Dee describes how Brunel is super close to them; just off their quarter. Drone shot. Brian talks about the tricky wind patterns ahead of them and the positions of the boats around them. Dee laughs about Brunel being right there, and how she's tired.

Drone shots of vestas. Mark and SiFi looking at the chart at the nav station, talking about strategy vis-a-vis the competitors. SiFi explaisn that they just got a sched, and are working out where to go through the Phillippines. Based on a big righthand shift they're going to go south. Looks like it will help them with Dongfeng. Shot of the sails on deck. Gybe at night from the cabin, looing at the cockpit. Closeup of chart showing their course zigzagging though islands. Red-light shots of stacking on deck. Another night gybe. Mark, on the helm, talks about how they're gybing through the Straits of Luzon and have made a good gain on Dongfeng.

Sunrise shot of the stern. Below, Witty and Libby are at the nav station. Libby: "As much as we had the cloud of doom three or four days ago, in hindsight it probably turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Because it gave us a more westerly approach to the following clouds; it gave us this lane." Grant sits next to her, holds up three fingers: "Only three Sidney-Hobart races to go to the finish." On deck, Luke steers with the sunrise behind him. "Every sched that they don't gain it makes it harder for them to catch us... It's all up to everyone on board now to execute as a group." Below, Trystan eats with Luke behind him also eating. Trystan talks about how they can't relax, because everyone is so quick behind, still a lot of choices to be made. Grant, on the helm: "Cha-ching!" He explains that Witty (standing behind him) has a deal where when they can hit 20 knots of boatspeed on course, they get a payout, $100. "Problem is the steering's a little too accurate lately, it's gonna cost him a fortune." Witty talks about how they've had emails from supporters and sponsors, and expectations are super high. Talks about the level of stress with 1,400 miles to go. Not wanting to let down the people who put them there.

Mark, in the cockpit, explians that they're going through a current line south of Guam, and there's an "unbelievable" amount of floating debris. Shots of them bouncing along. Shot of the mainsail bouncing as they hit chop. Below, Phil talks from his bunk, eyeshades pushed up on his forehead. "Not ideal for sleeping. It's bloody uncomfortable. Feels like we're doing about 5 knots and just slamming up and down." He calls to SiFi and Mark, who are looking at the latest sched. "How'd we go?" SiFi: "Reasonably quick but very high." Nick, on deck: "Sea state is very confused right now... Pretty scary looking at the rig sometimes." Mark, by the wheel, reports on the latest sched to Nick, Tony, and Stacey. "We were higher and slower than Dongers, and higher and faster than Akzo." SiFi, below: "Sea states's been pretty horrendous." He talks about some lighter winds ahead, and trying to figure it all out. Shots of the weather models on the computer.

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.

SiFi and Mark at the nav station talk about their course, routing, sched. Mark: "It's such a bummer because we did such great work on those guys for days. Had them in our pocket." They talk about how they can't crack off to the west too far. SiFi: "But when we've got the pressure to go down we take it down." Mark, on deck, talks to Nick: "They just completely cut the corner." Mark talks to Amory about how it's been a challenge, and he's learned a lot from SiFi. Keeping in touch with Charlie, who's trying to learn what he can from the information you get on land. His family is doing better, which is great. He's going to be on the dock in Hong Kong when they arrive. He's emailed them a few times with encouraging words. Patriot scores. "We haven't missed Charlie's hair, that's for sure. [Laughs] ... We've had a good thing going for a long time. It'll be really good to have him back for the next leg." Shot of them sailing on starboard gybe; sunset to port.

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.

Drone shot of Scallywag against the late afternoon sun shimmer. Ben sits on the foredeck. "We've lost contact with all the boats we found the other night. And we're a fair few miles behind, which is a bit shit." Still in the doldrums, though, so there's always a possibility, he says. Talks about working hard and getting close, and then you "have a bit of a whoopsie"... Below, Alex eats and talks about the competition. Shot of the wind map. Alex talks about Libby's predictions, chances of making gains in the approach to Hong Kong harbor. "It's not bad, Thai green curry." Drone shot. On the helm, Ben talks about how King Neptune was a bit ill during the equator crossing in the Atlantic, so he's had a bit of a holiday, and is going to make an appearance here. Grant emerges from the cabin as Neptune. (Not gonna win any Best Costume Design Oscar for this one. It's a... sheet wrapped around him? And an unadorned boathook as a trident?) Looks like the victims are Annemieke, John, Alex, and Trystan. "Where are the children of the South?" Neptune sprinkles water on people. "Do you wanna be welcomed to the North?" They mumble "yes" in reply. Witty walks by with spray-on hair color and sprays them. Then he throws a disgusting bucket of something on them. Annemieke explains that Neptune has made sure they are safe in the Northern Hemisphere. Shot of the bow-tie pasta in the green slime on the cockpit sole. Alex, covered in goo, says, "No more bad juju. It's done. We're good... We're gonna clear every cloud now and win the race." Below, Grant and Witty at the chart table pull up the sched. Grant does musical accompaniment. Witty: "Sun Hung Kai leading." Grant: "Hey!" Alex, on deck: "Hopefully we can hold our position here. But it's still only 6 knots of wind, so... still some clouds around." Shot of the sunset. Alex: "...and you can go from a rooster to a feather duster in the space of a sched." Alex says there's 7 days to Hong Kong, and they're back in the fight again, so that's good. Sunset with John on the helm.

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.

Rain pounds down with light winds. Carolijn in the rain. Franck, and everyone else, looks off to port. Franck talks in French. Camera pans forward to show a rainstorm; ahead of it is a competitor several miles away (probably AkzoNobel, but possibly Vestas). They tack the MH0. More rain. Shifting the stack in the rain. Sailing on port tack with the MH0 after the rain has stopped. Horace, on the bow with no wind, gives a recap. [Interesting that no headsail is visible forward of him. J1 is on deck, and the sail on the bowsprit appears to be furled. Are they bare-headed? using the J2 or J3 as a windseeker? Oh; I bet that's the MH0 on the bowsprit, and it's partially furled to make it a little windseeker, with the unfurled part invisible above him, out of the frame.] At one point a competitor is visible, out of focus, behind him. Again, probably AkzoNobel. Justine, on the bow, recaps the strategic situation. Closer to AkzoNobel, but Vestas, sadly, is a little further ahead. Shot of AkzoNobel. Sailing at 8 knots with dolphins under the bow. Then, flopping again. Franck, in the companionway, talks about strategy in the doldrums; picking the right side of the cloud, getting the wind. Now wind is down, but he's hoping to get into the tradewinds tomorrow morning. Carolijn steering at sunset. Jack sleeping in the bow. Dusk. Horace asks about Vestas' wind in the latest sched, the other competitors; Franck explains.

Sunrise as TTToP sails slowly (but moving) on port tack. Dee stands in the cockpit to report on the latest sched. "We haven't fallen out the back. But we've lost touch with those [gesturing forward]. Need to claw our way back." Later, we see Dee sitting next to Liz on the stack. Dee has her feet on the weather daggerboard. "17 miles at 010." Sounds like that's the distance to Vestas, the leader in the sched at 2018.01.10 23:05:49 UTC. Francesca: "Scallywag and Bruel behind. So, it could be worse after the cloud problems of yesterday. Of course it could be better... MAPFRE's really close. They are pushing, they are going really fast right now." Annalise looks at MAPFRE through binoculars. "61, 62." [bearing, I assume.] Shot of MAPFRE. Bleddyn talks about all the plastic in the ocean. "Crazy. Plastic everywhere." Drone shot with sunset.

In the morning light, Ben stands on the boom to look through binoculars ahead of them. Ben: "We've seen a sailing boat with a square-topped mainsail and a masthead sail, so we think it might be one of the other Volvos." Have been following them in the sched, and now have seen them in real life. Below, Libby calls out the latest sched. Sounds pretty happy. "Spotted Brunel about 40 minutes ago off our windward bow." Crew eats breakfast on the bow, talking about it. Witty: "One or two days ago we were a hundred miles behind the leaders." Ben: "We had to fucking work pretty hard the last two days." John talks about how they've worked hard, so to get where they can actually see and identify a yacht is cool. Witty talks about not giving up, keeping trying. "It's a really important leg for us. It would be catastrophic to come in last." Night shots of lightning. Witty on a PA tells the crew about Brunel being 9 miles away on AIS. "We're winning the sched for the first time, so well done lads." Talks about a rain cloud. "We've got this rain cloud which looks [BLEEP] horrendous." Beautiful shot of the waning gibbous moon rising through clouds behind the helmsman, silhouetting him. Next day, Witty talks on deck sounding despondent about getting stuck in the rain cloud with no wind. We see Libby at the nav station with Grant looking at Expedition's "Strip Chart" display. Libby: "True wind angle's at 120 here." Grant [pointing]: "So all this is starboard gybe..." Witty talks about losing 50 miles when they got stuck in the cloud and the other boats didn't. "probably lost 10 of the 30 miles there, and then we lost 20 of the 30 miles sailing 170 degrees off course... "We just did one of the stupidest things ever and now we're 30 miles behind running last again... We're the ones letting ourselves down. It's not bad luck; we're just being idiots. And we deserve to be here at the moment. And I'm just concerned that you don't get too many chances in this quality fleet to go from 30 miles behind or 100 miles behind to back in the lead. Somehow we've got 3,000 miles to figure out how we're going to do it. Again." He and Grant sit on the bow discussing it.

Mostly dark sky. Drone shots of Scallywag sailing in the doldrums. Alex below. Libby and Witty below at the nav station, checking a sched. Libby: "Made gains on the fleet. Fastest boat; going a whole 4 knots." Drone shot of sunrise. Witty: "We're worried about finding a passing lane between here and Hong Kong. Because we can't finish here into Hong Kong." Libby talks about another 250 miles of light stuff. Annemieke in the bow: "Boring!" Annemieke in the bow. Alex talks about his messy roommate, Bessie. Talks about the heat, difficulty sleeping. Shot of crew sleeping on the bow. Annemieke talks about the difference when they're moving vs. when they're not. She feels like they're doing well.

TTToP slats in the night. Dee, on the foredeck in the morning light talks about the other competitors, the position report coming in in 15 minutes. Sunrise. As the light grows they pick out the other boats. Bernardo takes bearings. At the nav station, Dee checks the sched. "We're still in the lead by four and a half miles." She announces the sched on deck. Vestas is 10 miles away bearing 059. Drone shot pulls away from the crew on the bow. Very high drone shot looking down on them. Pole shot underwater showing the keel. Dee talks about knowing where everyone else is. Difficult bit is in 12 hours when we think the breeze will start to fill. At the moment they're not stressed. Confident in their position. But it's about geting the boat going when the breeze fills. Then the stress will begin.

We see a shot looking down the foreward hatch into the bow, where Bernardo is lying on a pad. Next to him Francesca is sleeping; Bleddyn is putting a blue hat on his head. Bernardo laughs. On deck, Liz and Dee sit in makeshift tent. Liz: "Is this allowed? We're using all supplied equipment... all parts of the boat, so I figured it's class-legal." Brian asks Dee what she thinks. Dee: "I think it's a savior. An absolute savior." Shot of the glassy see in front of them, winch, the bow. Dee: "It is hot. Damn hot. So hot you have to put your shoes on to walk on deck. And we have a white deck." Liz shows sunscreen, hat, hand-bearing compass, binoculars "for potential bird-watching and looking at the competition". Dee describes the latest sched: "At the moment we are leaders of the pack." But she points out that 6 of the 7 boats are within sight of each other. "There's not a lot in it." Drone shot from above showing someone at the masthead and the deep blue water all around them. In the tent, Liz and Dee and Martin discuss optimizations. Dee says they never use the A3, so let's rip up the A3 and use that.

High drone shot of Brunel. More drone shots. Drone closeup of the cockpit, with Yann on the drone controls. Shots on deck of them going through a squall with rain and spray. Slomo of Carlo wiping water from his face in the pit. Slomo washing machine shots from the cockpit, the stern. Bouwe, below, explains that they're heading north toward the doldrums. Mentions that Neptune has a victim coming, because someone in the crew is a polliwog (or whatever it is they call them). Maybe that's Sam? Capey at the nav station. Bouwe describes the results of the latest sched. Boats ahead have less breeze now, so they should catch up soon. Lightning in the distance. Crew showering in a rain squall. Flopping with the J0 in no wind. Kyle, below, describes how they got stuck in a rain squall, then stuck in no breeze for an hour and a half. Drone shot circling them with no wind.

Grant, on the helm, makes the shaka sign. "Beautiful day. Tasman Sea at its finest." Drone shot of Scallywag from high overhead. Libby sits at the nav station looking at routing. "Pretty good sched for us." She talks about how for the next few days they should see a gain (due to compression). Shot of Parko on the helm with the sunset behind him. Liz at the nav station talks about letting the crew know what to expect, so they know when to expect a lot of effort and gybes, vs. when to expect straight-line sailing. Annemieke grinds on the pedestal. Pretty sunset shot. Witty at the nav station waits for the sched. Pretty drone shots of Scallywag with a squall in the distance. Drone shot. Witty: "We've gained, but not a lot." On the helm, Grant takes his hands off the wheel and lets the boat sail itself for a few seconds. Sunrise drone shot wth rain.

Drone shot of AkzoNobel with low sun behind them. In the audio we hear Jules announcing the latest sched, with distances to other boats. Switches to closeups of him talking in the companionway. Below, Brad talks to Nicolai about "Master and Commander". On the foredeck, stacking, Martine slips and falls. She sits in the cockpit and talks about "Master and Commander": "It feels like Master and Commander. We are chasing the French boat." Below, Jules talks about doing 11 gybes in 11 hours. We see the zigzag line on the chart screen. Nicolai, on the pedestal, talks about how they've been chasing Dongfeng, choosing to stick with them. Martine and Simeon talk about it as a battle. Martine: "It is fighting a battle but no guns. Just a lot of trimming the sails." We see a closeup of Cécile's finger (the little finger on her left hand) with a nasty slice as she bandages herself. She explains how she cut it on the handhold when she was thrown off-balance. In the cockpit, Brad, invisible in a balaclava and sunglasses, jokes about wanting to cut it off and cauterize it. "I wanted to do it today but she wouldn't let me." He explains that the pirates used to do it all the time. References Master and Commander again. Nicolai talks about Dongfeng and trying to learn from their moding (whether they sail high or low) and the sail combinations and setup. We see Dongfeng in the distance. Closeup of Cécile's hand with the bandaged finger as she trims. Great drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing fast, triple-heading with the A3.

Below, Jack repairs a winch drum. Talks about how it has been dry and relatively flat on deck. Quite a nice change. On deck he reassembles the drum, tests it from the pedestal. Closeup of the instruments on the mast. Carolijn: Still in the lead, AkzoNobel on their heels. They've been following their line. Now Dongfeng is running out of the breeze first, so there's some compression happening. But now the pressure is building. MAPFRE and Vestas 20 miles to their east. Still a very long leg to go. Doldrums in about 2 days. Interesting and tough. Then the NE trades. By the wheel, Kevin taps on the intercom. "Franky? Did you get the position report?" Franck's voice comes from the speakers: Dongfeng first. AkzoNobel second, 2.6 miles. Third is MAPFRE, 7 miles behind. Jérémie, on the grinder, says something in French. Kevin: Still ahead, which is nice. Now need to go fast on starboard. Low-altitude drone shot from close ahead and to starboard as Dongfeng triple-heads with the sun behind them. Cool drone tracking shot across their bow. Drone shot from close astern and to weather.

At the nav station, SiFi talks to Mark about the latest sched. "MAPFRE did the biggest run, and then we were next. The other guys were similar." Mark walks out to the cockpit to explain the situation. Tony's driving; Stacey's trimming, and Nick (I think?) is on the grinder in an unbranded (!) sleeveless teeshirt. Mark: "Got some good news. Gained on everyone except for MAPFRE. MAPFRE had the longest run; they're also the lowest." At the nav station, SiFi talks about how this leg is different from the last one, "not just because the sea temperature is 20 degrees warmer!" Last time the strategic options were more limited; just stay as close as possible to the ice gate. This leg there are more options. "It is enjoyable when there's a little more subtlety involved."

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).

Pascal reads the latest sched over the PA system. He talks with Martin in French. He talks with Charles. Charles: "Not so bad news. Vestas has not been so fast in reaching. We are leading again with 7 miles. In a good position... We can hope to keep this distance or increase it as of the entrance to Melbourne Bay." Talks about what happened yesterday, thinking it was their last gybe and then having the keel problem. "We don't know if we will be able to cant the keel to max cant on port."

Simon, at the nav station, looks at routing software and a sched (I think?). He talks about hopefully making gains, or at least holding even. "I"m just hoping we gained, or at least held them. Were getting lifted now, so it'd be nice for them to get lifted as well." He looks at the sched. "One longer, two higher." Charlie looks over his shoulder. They discuss the update. Charlie: "And relative to the last sched they must have been fucking 10 higher." Charlie: "C'mon. Difference in distance to finish 2 miles?" SiFi: "Good for the fans at home." They talk about getting lifted compared to the model; when to gybe. Charlie: "Nice to know we're a bit longer, a little faster... We'll run out of pressure before them. It's nice to be so close to Dongfeng, but that's a little inflated... Still fighting to the end, especially with double points." SiFi explains that they were talking about Brunel. "Next 24 hours is all about keeping the yellow boat behind us, and catching the red one."

Nick, in his bunk: "We have crossed that point where people have started losing it. And some of those people have also found the caffeine chewing gum. So things are getting quite loose on board." On the stern with the setting sun behind them, Tony shouts, "Cue the rainbow!" We see a rainbow ahead of them. "All we need now is a couple of icebergs to complete the set." Below, Nick continues: "Big Tones [Tony]; coincidently, he was talking about being in the Truman Show yesterday. So I'd say he's feeling the sleep deprivation pretty nicely at this point." Tony: "I thought we'd just sail round and round in circles, around the wall. That sounds just fine to me." SiFi, standing next to him: "By the top corner in the ice gate, we might be able to get through that little door and escape... It's good we're playing Truman Show and not Hunger Games. Hunger Games the consequences are way worse than this." Tony: "The Kracken would be climbing over the side to get us." Tom on the helm joins in. "Hunger Games and Truman Show [something I can't catch]. Becuase they can control the weather, they can control the... Remember they make that fire?" Nick below: "TJ is also probably feeling a bit loopy, but I guess that's pretty much on par with TJ, so shouldn't be too worried about him." Jena, below: "As hard as it is physical, it's also a mental game, this thing. There's a lot of time where you have time to make your thoughts, and wonder. Maybe the most reasonable person to talk to is yourself." SiFi sits at the computer. "Holy shit. That sched is about as bad as it can get. Had a pretty slow 6 hours, pretty light winds and pretty unstable breeze. and as expected everyone is else moving along pretty nicely... It's funny to see how people change when things get a bit lighter. There's a chance to relax a bit, have a joke. But I think we're all a little bit crazy." Shot of them surfing toward the rainbow. Tony: "I don't know who was in the technical department. They deserve a pay raise." Nick, in his bunk: "I would never ask TJ to make a big decision. It would stress me out." On deck, at sunset on the stern, Stacey asks a series of questios of Tom. "Would you rather be itchy or sticky." Tom: "Sticky". "Blind or deaf?" Tom: "Tough one. A sad one. I dunno. I can't answer that one." "Would you rather be in the Truman Show or the Hunger Games?" "Truman Show. Nah, Hunger Games. Changed my mind. You get some action." Sam: "Are you feeling the mental effects of being offshoe?" Tom: "Most likely, yeah. Every day, man. One hour at a time, Sammy, out here. One minute at a time." Stacey: "I've got a real good last question. What's the first thing you're gonna eat when you get to Melbourne?" Tom: "I want an avocado... and a coffee." He and Tony seque into a beer commercial. "And the best cold beer is Vic."

Drone shot of Vestas with the sun low behind them reaching in 15 knots of wind on starboard tack. (Think this is from late in the day on 2017-12-11.) Charlie, below, talks about the race so far. The plan they had when they left was not the best one, which put them on the back foot. "We've hit the reset button in the ridge." Simon, at the nav station, says they've just had the 0700 sched, and they look pretty good. He points out their position vs. the other boats: Scallywag, TTToP, then the other pack of boats about 20 miles south. Good to be further north. In 24, 48 hours it's good to be further north. "Certainly a more seamanlike [i.e., safety-conscious] way to go about it." Charlie, below, talks about "the weather, Friday, looks pretty fresh with nowhere to run." Setting yourself to be in the right place in three days' time in 50 knots of wind is more important. Simon shows the scary low on the computer forecast. Have to be careful to not get into a position where the wind and sea state are so bad you're pushed against the ice gate and have to slow down. Charlie: "Have to watch the weather pretty closely to make sure we don't find ourselves in a bad spot." Drone shot from ahead with the sunset behind them.

Below, Stacey puts on multiple layers of cold-weather foulies. She talks about how it's a long process getting dressed. Stacey: "Like Charlie said it's Monday; we've got one week of work and then we're on vacation." Shots of the crew in the cockpit as Vestas sails fast on port gybe. Wake. Washing machine. Tony on the helm. Tony goes below, takes off his cowl. "Wow. Another wet one." Tony talks about their performance being good, good scheds, 24-hour longest run possibility. Says there's a sched coming in now. Tony takes off his foulies and layers. Jena talks about how it's cold, but fast, and that a sched is coming in. "Hopefully still fast." Charlie, in his bunk, looks at SiFi at the nav station. SiFi: "Yeah; we're longest run again." Later he talks to Martin: "We're going well in this windy stuff which is nice. It's a race to the east, to stay in front of the front." Talks about it being tricky, needing to try to avoid the high pressure above and behind. "A couple of days of fast sailing, then it's going to get tricky."

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.

With Charles at the helm, Dongfeng gybes from port gybe to starboard as dawn is breaking. Slomo of the crew working in the cockpit. We then see them gybing back to port? Sunrise. Then they're on starboard again. Jack, sitting in the cockpit, talks about the tactical situation and the remainder of the leg. "We'll find out in two hours at the next sched report. Everyone's a bit anxious for that." Pascal, at the nav station, looks at the latest sched. He rubs his face. On deck, Dongfeng is sailing on starboard gybe around midday. Marie, sitting on the cabin: "I think it is not really good. We did a mistake, maybe, gybing too late. It's not a good moment to talk to Pascal. We have to let him... alone." Pascal stands in the cockpit, reading from a piece of paper. Marie and Horace stand close to him; Daryl steers. Pascal: "MAPFRE is 89 miles at 244." Marie: "Eighteen, uh, eighteen, uh..." Daryl: "Eighty-NINE." Marie: "Eighty-nine!" Pascal: "We are fucked. [beeped in FB video] Daryl: "We are what?" Pascal: "We are fucked. We are completely fucked." Stu: "Well, well, well. Three holes in the ground. I've seen some very strange stuff happen out here on the ocean. It's never over till it's over... Nothing we can do about it now, except keep sailing our boat. Who knows what might happen." [NOTE: This video does not appear in the Raw Content feed. I'm taking this from the version posted on the VolvoOceanRace YouTube channel, and taking the time of it from the time of the two stills posted to the Raw Content feed showing the same events.]

At the nav station with Charlie, SiFi talks about the 1300 sched, and where the other boats are. Akzo moved well on the inside (to the east), even though they appeared to be in an area of less wind. Now Vestas is on the outside (west), and hopefully will be able to gain ground.

Twilight shots of Scallywag sailing on a close reach on port. Spray. Parko, calling from the cabin about the latest sched: "Turn the Tide: 3.7 miles." Voice in the cockpit: "Where?" Luke: "At 155." Maybe the 2017-11-16 1300 sched? If so that's not twilight as much as a dark cloud cover. Witty, on the helm, talks about the competition with TTToP, the clouds. Shot of TTToP to port. Ben talks about TTToP, about how seeing them has kept the crew's energy going. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag at an altitude of about 90 feet. Appears to be under J0 and J3? Steve, at the nav station, talks to Witty in his bunk: Steve: "Honestly, with the FR0 I think we'd be dog-slow as well. I don't know that... I just think they're a bit quicker." Witty, from his bunk: "Guess I'll get up and see what I can see." Jules: "Parko wanted to have a chat." Drone shot at altidude of 30 feet as Scallywag appraoches and passes underneath. Parko talks with Witty that he thinks TTToP is faster because they have more people/gear/stack, hence more righting moment. Witty points out that they're gaining on everyone else as well. Witty: "This is their time to shine and our time to hang on." He and Parko joke about how he sounded quite sensible. High drone shot looking down on Scallywag. Parko: "That's a keeper, that one."

Sunrise. (That's the fourth OBR who has started a video with the 2017-11-15 sunrise.) A crewmember looks to leeward through bright orange binoculars. Below, someone (I think Alberto?) talks below, in shadow, about having a really good 24 hours and passing Vestas. Someone (I think Peter?) wipes his face with a cloth. Capey and Bouwe sit at the nav station. Capey: "Not bad." He laughs. In the cockpit, Bouwe asks Maciel how far he thinks they are from Vestas. Maciel: "Ten?" Bouwe: "Sixteen and a half." Maciel, to someone asking him from out of frame: "Three eighteen, sixteen and a half." He points to the starboard quarter. Thinking this must have been the 2017-11-15 1900 sched? Tracker doesn't show them quite that far apart, but it's close. Below, Abby takes off her foulies. In her bunk, she talks about having MAPFRE in their sights next. Carlo works the bow for a sail change, including slomo footage. Peeling J1 to FR0, I think. Slomo of bagging the old sail. Stacking, tightening straps on the stack. Carlo below, eating. Pully with line. Slomo of Kyle on the clew. Capey talking about the clouds. Carlo, below: "It's the best job I've ever had, mate." Winches.

Pascal talks in the cockpit. They're off Brazil, can't see the girls on the beach but they're there. Talks about going around the St. Helena high. Below, at the nav station, Pascal talks on the intercom about the latest sched. Time-lapse view from the media station looking forward of Pascal at the nav station. Shots of Dongfeng reaching fast on port. Jack working on a piece of hardward (roller fitting from the head of a sail, maybe?). Jérémie, on the pedestal, slaps the top of the winch drum while spray covers him, then grabs a winch handle to bang on it. Carolijn in the washing machine. Charles grinding on a pedestal.

Sunrise (wonder how many more OBRs are going to open their video with that shot?) Witty on the helm, John on the mainsheet. They seem kind of glum. Below, at the nav station, Steve talks about the sched with someone off-camera. Steve: "We were one mile further on Akzo but they were five degrees higher, but other than that we had the equal/worse run. The Plastics have the best run again of the whole fleet." Steve, to Konrad: "We had pretty good vision on them yesterday, and then they started moving really quickly. And we've just been bleeding miles to them ever since." Steve talks about TTToP having more people, making them heavier and that might be helpful in current reaching conditions. Witty, below, looking tired: "We don't have enough time in the boat, sailing at certain angles. Costly lessons." Witty pours hot water into his insulated bowl. Witty: "It's a new place for our team to be in, getting our head kicked in sched after sched and not really knowing how to fix it, not knowing what's wrong. Just gotta keep trying, mate. Becoming a little bit embarrassing. Hopefully the next sched will be better. Just gotta keep looking forward. Stop the bleeding, and then think about how we're going to gain. It's quite hard. Bloody hard, this race. And the opposition are bloody good." Oh, Witty. Don't make me have feelings for you. Witty sits at the nav station and puts on his reading glasses.

Video metadata curated by JBC – many thanks!

Not in any way associated with or endorsed by Volvo Ocean Race
All video and photo content Copyright Volvo Ocean Race 2017–2018