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Slow-mo

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Tanker on the horizon; Dee talks about watching it to see if it changes direction. Dee gets her hat on and goes up. Slomo steering. Francesca, below: It's a real tough leg, it's short, but a lot of corners, different sails peeling, different conditions, full Volvo style, 30 knots, now we are sailing in 18 knots, so it's quite changeable waeather. It's quite nice. We were able to put more distance between us and Scallywag, and we can see Dongfeng in front, so everyone is really close. Bianca grinding on deck. Dee trimming. Slomo grinding by Liz. Scallywag behind them. Francesca: We have to beat Scallywag and put a boat between us and them. We'll try to catch the people in front. Maybe not in our hands; if someone wants to finish behind us it's perfect. Liz, on deck, talks about trying to keep the staysail happy. Nicolas at the nav station. Bianca and Dee in slomo.

Washing machine shot from inside the cabin. Martin driving. Stern cam of spray coming over the cockpit. Dee on the helm. Slomo washing machine past sthe cockpit winches. Martin grinding.

Blair, below: So, real interesting one. Final appraoch to the Hague and the end of the race, and we knew it would be the case, but there's these TSS's that are a massive exclusion zone. Have to make a choice off Denmark which way to go. We were lining up to go on the inside, down toward Germany and along the beaches on the top of Holland; made a late call to go to the west. As a result we lost quite a lot on Brunel and AkzoNobel who had decided to go this way earlier, and doing so we split from Dongfeng who were carrying on down. It's a tricky one, but at the end of the day we have to do what we think is right to get us there fastest, and both the boats we had to beat are going different ways, and we feel this way's fastest. Got Brunel about a mile above us now, so we're gonna have to fight to the end. But that's the way it is. All good really. Wouldn't want it any other way. Not long to the finish now, definitely in the final sprint. Probably no sleep now for sure. Not that there's been much sleep. There's gonna be compression toward the finish as well. Lot of light stuff and gybing... Plenty to play for. Just glad we're here and in the fight. It's been a busy few days, just looking forward to finishing off well. Black and white shot of the cockpit. Mast cam view of lowering the J1. Loud shot of the cockpit. Conversation between Blair and Joan at the nav station. Xabi in the pit. Slomo. Blair on the helm.

Slomo washing machine from the cockpit. Kyle, below: Just broke the padeye that holds the port outrigger on, lost the forward outrigger, snapped the end off it, and it took a big gouge out of the daggerboard, and had to replace that, which was pretty horrible in 25 knots power reaching. So just spent 45 minutes under water with Carlo trying to replace that. And we did that, and lost quite a bit, unfortunately, about a mile and a half to AkzoNobel and the rest of the guys. Back underway, and hopefully make some gains on those guys soon. Spreader cam shots of Kyle and Carlo working on the broken outrigger. Reefing the main.

Drone shots of Scallywag sailing upwind wih TTToP a half mile away. Parko, below: We've basically been match racing with them since the start of this leg, and the position between us has changed a half dozen times now. I don't think anyone's going to change to a smaller sail, and after a couple of hours the breeze should lighten up a bit. Crew working in the cockpit in rougher conditions. Annemieke and Seng Huang Lee on the pedestal. Parko, below: Going through the moding, and you have to laugh sometimes; all the sails are flapping and you're still going 20 knots... Last chance to drive these boats hard before the Hague, in this edition. Slomo washing machine. Parko: It's always amazing toward the end of these campaigns. Amazing events, getting to compete against the best in the business. I think we're going to be close to them the rest of the way; I wouldn't be surprised if our position changes again before the finish. Drone shot.

Slomo of Dee grinding. Liz on the helm. Slomo. Tacking the MH0. Drifting conditions. Scallywag bare-headed flops on the horizon. Nicolas looks at his tablet. "It's a flapping sail." Stacking. Dee and Bernardo. Bianca. "We have passed the mark." Everyone cheers. Sitting forward. Francesca: How many miles to the Hague? Bernardo: 400. Bianca: 400 miles to the finish line. Francesca: 6 days. 10 days. We don't have enough food. Dee: But it's not just the finish line, Franky. It's the ultimate finish line. Francesca: The extreme finish line. Life at the extreme. Bianca: Look at us we're blasting along now. Furling the MH0 for a gybe. Scallywag a half mile away. Dee and Francesca talking on the rail. Dee explains that they've just rounded the virtual mark, and expect to finish Sunday evening... It's felt so far like the longest in-port race ever.

Knotmeter on mast reads 5.7. Stacking amidships. Francesca: Of course it's a mix of emotions. You want to push, because it's the last leg, and you want to gain a position on the leaderboard. But in a week and a half it's over, and you need to work out your work plans, dream plans... it's a bit weird for everyone. I think we did some good legs during the race. Maybe we deserve something more than to finish last in the race. This leg seems quite open. MAPFRE and Dongfeng had a big lead yesterday, and they lost everything in this light patch. Every thing is open to the finish line. Everyone is quite tired. But the other boats are in the same position as us. Cannot complain, and just do what we know to do in the few hours we still have of this Volvo Ocean Race. Bernardo: I think we didn't sleep one straight hour... Lucas: My eyes are bleeding. Slomo of Bernardo, Bianca, Bernardo and Lucas eating below. Grinding.

Neti talks in Spanish in the morning light about wind, the fleet, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: Busy night. Pretty tied with Dongfeng. Not too far from the top mark. Last evening had upwind and reaching condiions in medium breeze. Now compression, Dongfeng and us have escaped from the other guys before, now we have to keep in front of them. Loud footage of foredeck work, darkness. Then drifting conditions in the pretty gorgeous sunrise with Dongfeng a quarter mile away. Slomo sailing with Dongfeng behind them. Willy sleeping on the stack forward. Blair, through the hatch, puts his hands up: What?

TTToP sails a hundred yards away on their port quarter. The boat owner is on the helm again, gripping the wheel like he thinks someone's going to try to take it away from him. Witty at the nav station: Have you realized the boss is the king scallywag of all scallywags? It all flows from the top down. It seems really happy to have him on board for the leg with all we've gone through and stuff. I think we can pass a few boats and get a good result now with him on board. Nav screen showing other boats around them. Witty talks about what's happened in the race with them lately. Still pretty confident. Only a mile between the back four boats. Nothing to get too worried about at the moment; still plenty of passing lanes. One thing the boss did notice, is people just work harder when things get hard. It's a big thing that I'm proud of with this team. We don't give up. Don't throw the towel in and just work harder. Slomo washing machine. Witty talks about the less experienced crew: Pretty big step up for Alex and Nipper, guys like Parko have been fantastic helping them along, teaching them the ropes. Trystan Seal joined us halfway through the race. They're all cut from the same cloth. Bessie is mad as a cut snake (?), the toughest human I know, and the most positive human I know. And a life friend of mine now, for sure. Couldn't be more proud of her. I think she's the only person in 55,000 miles has never said a negative comment, never got angry at me. When you pick people to be part of a team, you judge them on their character before you judge them on their ability. When you go the other way around you might end up with ability, but you don't end up with a team. One thing I've learned you probably can't be all one way, can't be all the other. Probably need to be more in the middle. But the Scallywag family is growing pretty fast, and the boss has plenty of plans, and plenty of boats, and plenty of stuff to do. So I'm sure the guys that are new to the team for this leg will be around for a long time to come. And I'm sure there's going to be plenty more Nippers and Alex's to come along. It's one of the biggest kicks I get out of doing it. Sunset. TTToP sailing ahead and to leeward.

Rob, in the midnight sun: In and out of Aarhus today. It was hard. It's been nonstop all day. In fact this whole leg's been nonstop. Got out of phase, a bit shifty. Was pretty good to see all the people on shore. Just been fighting, fighting, fighting. Waiting for a chance to get by. Be patient. Wait for them to make a mistake. Keep nibbling away. Pablo: Talks in Spanish about being tired, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: We're tired, like eveyrone I guess. The important thing is to keep the boat fast. Couple of hours of sleep. We are with Dongfeng; they are very close. Have been fighting all day. Meter by meter. Hopefully we can take them over tonight. More discussion in Spanish. Pablo: We have been doing a lot of maneuvers. And in my case I have been on the wheel. Good fun; with Dongfeng we have been fighting. Slomo of RIB alongside. Willy. Joan with his tablet, looking at Dongfeng. Spectator boats following them. Tack. (Oh, this is their Aarhus footage.) Crowd cheering. Xabi in the pit. Vestas crossing their bow. Tamara talks in Spanish while trimming. Slomo of Dongfeng ahead of them. Blair on the foredeck looking SO punchy. Xabi looks through binoculars. Lowering the J1. Slomo of Xabi in the sunset.

Slomo of Brunel sailing a half mile away on their port quarter. Justin, to Jules: He's still got a zero [J0] up. Jules looks. Furled. Brad: Good to get past Brunel; we've been battling with them all day. Jules nailed the layline, and they screwed it up and had to do another gybe, and that was our passing maneuver. Slomo of Martine grinding with Brunel behind them.

Liz steers as Scallywag sails a quarter mile to leeward. Scallywag in front of the wind farm. Francesca grinding in front of Scallywag and the wind farm. Scallywag a hundred hards on their port quarter. Slomo of Scallywag behind them with Dee scowling in the foreground. Liz: Not a lot of ocean going on in the Volvo Ocean Race at the moment. Have to sail into a harbor, sail back out, sail back up to Norway. Not much sleep. Have been dueling with Witty the whole race. [Re: beating Scallywag]: I ould not describe it. It would be perfect. Slomo foredeck, grinding. They look exhausted. Bleddyn, Bianca grinding. Liz stacking with Scallywag behind. Clew of the MH0. Scallywag 100 yards ahead and to weather. Rolling up the J3.

Scallywag on their starboard quarter. Grinding. Slomo gybe, steering, stacking. Annalise triming, not even paynig attention to the low-level washing machine. Bianca grinding. Martin: A tight race with Scallywag. Got closer and closer on the downwind leg. Heading over to Denmark. Bleddyn: The main thing for us this leg is not only to defeat Scallywag but get a boat between us. We're ahead of them; try to catch AkzoNobel or Brunel, in front of us, over the next day. Haven't had much sleep. Can sleep after we get to the Hague. Scallywag to starboard. Bianca yawning. Gybe. Stacking.

Blair, by the runner, talks about the competitive situation. They've stretched out on the boats behind on this downwind stretch, but have managed to stay close to Dongfeng. As we've come in toward Denmark now we've compressed a bit. 1.5 miles behind them. J0 ("joe") reaching at the moment. All's good, but hopefully we can catch these guys some more before the Hague, and catch them. Everyone's running on 20 minutes sleep; I should go below and get some sleep. (Asked about Brunel.) Good that they're 20 miles behind, but they need to keep focused on the guys in front. Beautiful drone shot of them surfing with the sun behind them. Drone shots of them triple-heading. Blair on the helm. Slomo of someone taking spray on the foredeck. Wind farm. Spreader cam shot of Dongfeng ahead of them.

Trystan and Ben go thorugh the food stores in the galley. Trystan: Baby food. Libby at the nav station. They ask her how long on this gybe. Ben: Lots and lots of gybing. Lots of short gybing. Not much sleeping. Slomo washing machine on deck. Ben: Looking back on it in a couple of weeks time sitting on the couch watching Netflix you'll be going you know what, it would be pretty cool to go back out there and send it. Slomo on deck. Gybing in about 25 minutes. Hopefully enough time to have some freeze dry. Slomo on deck. Alex: Whoever gives up earliest. Gotta do what you've gotta do. Slomo washing machine. Since yesterday afternoon it's been nonstop. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Alex: Look fondly on these memories in the future.

Epic slomo washing machine shots with the newly risen sun behind them. Annemieke does a slomo shaka sign.

Drone shot of Brunel to weather and astern, then AkzoNobel in the foreground. Shot with Nicho driving and Brunel behind them. Slomo Martine in the sunset. Martine: It's a pretty cool sight. Today's the longest day of the year. Which means we'll have the longest night. Was forecast 35 knots, upwind and cloud. It's actually quite nice. A bit slower. It did change quite a bit in the beginning. Now on a big line with that group there, Dongfeng and MAPFRE, our group here, us and Brunel, and those down below. Drone shot with AkzoNobel silhouetted by the setting sun.

Charlie on the helm in the prestart. SiFi: One minute to go. Charlie: Racing! Other boats. Jena grinding. Jena: Goodbye Gothenburg! This is the last leg going into the Hague. Almost 20 knots. Ready to rock and roll! Brunel pokes a bow above them as they round th elighthouse. Charlie: Right on the edge right now. SiFi: A little more high please. TJ in the pit. Stacking. Phil speaks with a fake Dutch accent about going to the Hague. Start was good; a bit of a frenzy. Got rolled by a couple, managed to hold the lane... Bow forward and off to Norway. Rounding the big daymarker; Brunel, TTToP, and MAPFRE behind them. Stacking to leeward. Slomo tack. Bearded guy grinding on the aft pedestal (American accent): I've been following this race since '73. These guys are all heroes to me. Every one of them. Slomo shots of crew.

Prestart with 5-minute horn. Rob: About 40 seconds sailing, a minute sailing back, below layline. Start with Dongfeng, TTToP to weather, Tacking below AkzoNobel and Brunel to make the pin end of the line. Behind the other boats. Slomo spray. Jumper jumping. Slomo of Neti hiking. Going past the daymarker/tower. Pablo's upset on the wheel: Fucking hell mate. Rob: Yeah. Might have to just press through. [Looks like he's upset about TTToP right on their bow; chooses to dive below them.] Slomo of Brunel crossing them, TTToP crossing them. Pablo on the helm. Sophie: We got a bad start, weren't in line with the pin, and had to tack, and had to give Brunel room. Last over the line. We've tacked out now, and we're above everybody, so hopefully we can gain back on them. Plenty of opportunities, so we'll see what we can do.

Slomo parade. Simeon, Nicolai, Luke, Martine, Emily, Jules, Justin (carrying a small child). Dockout. Simeon: This is where I learned sailing. It's going to be good fun. Nicolai on the helm in the prestart talking about their approach. Simeon: "3:20!" On the line, Brunel, Dongfeng, TTToP nearby. Jules calling nav on the upwind with his tablet. Other boats: MAPFRE. Dongfeng just behind. Nicho: Just be a blocker for the next 3 days. Good start by Nicolai. Now get up the coast and probably match these guys a little bit. Good start; just keep trying to put the best foot forward. Jules: Going better now, Nicolai. Nicolai on the helm.

Pre-dockout mingling and parade. Henry in the tent. Lucas pushes Bianca playfully. Dee brings up the rear. Slomo parade. LIz, Martin, Annalise, Dee, Nicolas. Martin does an interview as he's walking. Dee says goodbye to well-wishers; gets a kiss from a child. Annalise talks with Stacey Jackson about waffles. Dee and Stacey shake hands. Dee: I'll buy you waffles.... Winner buys. Bleddyn hugs someone. Lucas: Final time to dock out for an offshore leg. Their goal: To put a boat between them and Scallywag to move up from last place in the standingss. Martin interview: Fantastic week in Gothenburg. Very emotional send off now. Handshakes in a line as they thank well-wishers. Francesca dances. Lucas does an interview. Dockout. Bleddyn waves. Wisdom steers the boat (courtesy of Liz). Interesting that I thought I saw Henry Bomby hanging out in crew gear, but then he's not on the official site's "Onboard" crew list?

Stern cam / crash cam of AkzoNobel reaching in strong conditions. Nicolai, on the helm, calls out, "Big wave. Hang on." and a big wave slaps off the side of the boat, sending spray in the air. Martine getting geared up below. "This is what they call summer. I can't believe it. We need winter gloves in summertime. Although we're only two or three miles away from everybody it's very bad visibility, very bad weather." Nicho comes below, talks to Jules: Consensus on deck is J1. Jules talks with him about the course. What's the best compromise? Nicho to Brad in his bunk: Bradley. You know how it's your off watch? We're gonna go to J1 now. Is that funny? Brad: Eh, not that funny. Nicho: I actually think it's reasonably funny. Brad (half asleep): You just doing this for fun? Brad talks about his lucky (red) socks. Kiwis... Nicho, below: We thought we had a terrible watch, not on our numbers, but Brunel was the only one that gained on us. We have the wrong sail up, so probably everyone has the wrong sail up. So we're gonna change the sail. Slomo spray on deck. Jules looks at an actual paper chart. [I love real charts.] Jules: Just about picking your right sail... Barometer's rising now, so the wind's going to shift right and drop at the same time. Exclusion zones... And get around the Skaggerak, which is the top of Denmark. Thread the boat at the fastest speed through a narrow straight line, which should be quite simple, but it's always easy to make complicated.

Slomo of helicopter hovering off their stern. Washing machine. MAPFRE is visible a few miles behind them, barely. Below, Peter empties the pee bottle out the hatch. Sam: What's going on, Pete? Peter: That was a refreshing piss I just took. Apparently Norway's somewhere down there (points to port). Quite gray and raining. Can still see MAPFRE; they're 1.2 miles behind. A lot better than 1.2 miles in the front. Sam: How far to go, and how confident are you about keeping them behind you? Peter: No idea how far in miles, but Capey assures me it's about 8 hours, which means I'm not going to get any more sleep... Pretty good. Sam asks him about how he just sends it in the last few hours. Peter: The leg finishes seem to be quite tricky for us. End up in a park up. Hopefully this one won't. There always tricky; heaps of peels, coming back closer to land, and lots of trimming, stacking. Generally means we're awake. Sam: Yeah, but generally your more wired than usual. Peter: Well, you're coming close to the finish, mate. Getting back to land, have a shower, not that the food program's not great on board but you get to have some different food. [Looking forward, presumably at someone prepping a meal.] Sorry. [Continues.] You're finishing the leg. It's exciting. What more do I have to say? It's exciting, Greenie! Sam: So you're admitting that you become like a coiled spring, like a meercat, at the end every single leg. Peter: I feel like everyone is a coiled spring. Very coiled. Later, Peter talks to Capey at the nav station before going on deck. Peter: Do we want to be punchy here, or...? [I guess, making a change they've been discussing quickly rather than slowly.] Capey: Not super punchy. But let's have it in our minds that it could be... [snaps his fingers] Peter goes on deck. Crew in the cockpit in the gray light.

Sophie, below: Well, we've been fighting it out with Brunel. The last couple of hours they've been catching us. They're just faster. We've been trying everything we can. Sea state is pretty rough. Making it hard to go fast. They've actually overtaken us now, which is a shame, but we're right on their tail and trying to keep up. In about 60 miles we'll be at the bottom of Norway, and hopefully we'll be putting up the J0 (prouncing it "Joe") and bearing away a little, or getting lifted. And hopefully they don't get too far away from us, and it's not over till it's over. We all realize it's the second to last leg of the whole entire race, there's no point in sleeping. Might as well put in everything we've got to the finish line. Everything's putting everything they've got to get to the finish line in Gothenburg. Shots of Brunel passing them to weather. Looks like they're triple-reefed with J2/J3. MAPFRE crew in the cockpit. Slomo Xabi looking sad. Pablo on the helm, likewise sad. Blair: Sad. Shot of Brunel ahead of htem. Blair looking pissed, blinking the spray from his eyes.

Scallywag blasting in windy conditions with reefed main / J3. Antonio on the stern: Come and do the Volvo and see the world! He gestures at the waves. Witty at the nav station: Rubbish. We're last again. Three lasts in a row. Plus a did not finish. So basically we haven't got any points since New Zealand. So since we were third on the table we haven't got a point. Reaching on deck. Slomo wake. Witty: In 196 miles I get a cold beer, and a piece of steak I can use a knife and fork with, and I get a cuddle from Lynnie. Anniemieke on the stern rubs her hands. "If your hands are warm, your head is warm, your heart is warm." Witty: 30 years of yachting. I don't think I've ever seen a harsher penalty for one very small error, that could have actually not been an error as well. [Thought at first he was talking about Fish. :-( ] 10 miles maybe, even 50 miles wouldn't have been harsh. But we lost 100 miles the first 6 hours of the race, and we're going to finish 25 miles behind them. Slomo spray, wake. Witty: Quite a lot of traffic coming into Gothenburg, ships and stuff, separation zones. So my job the last two watches has been to sit in front of the computer and make sure we don't run into a tanker. Because that would put the icing on the cake, wouldn't it? Massive seas, raining, can't see 6 foot in front of you. 195 miles to go man. Slomo spray on deck.

Stern cam as they sail in reach in strong conditions. Sam (or at least someone wearing the OBR foulies) is standing at the aft pedestal (which is unusual for the OBR, since he's not supposed to be grinding). MAPFRE is visible on the bow. Title comes up: LOSS OF SIGNAL. Closer shot of MAPFRE ahead of them with double- (triple- ?) reefed main. Looks like Brunel is double-heading with J2/J3. Mast cam footage of MAPFRE, spreader cam view of the cockpit, again with the OBR-jacket-wearing crew on the pedestal (though not in position for grinding; just holding on astern of it). Closing on MAPFRE with intense wind noise. Shot in the media station below showing the video screen with MAPFRE only a few hundred yards ahead of them on the spreader cam; what makes it cool is the noise level below is so intense. Slomo of them passing MAPFRE with the other boat to leeward a few boatlengths away. That's it. That's the race. MAPFRE astern, shot from the cabin, with a crewmember in the OBR foulies still on the pedestal. So that must not be Sam in the OBR foulies. Someone else wearing it. Capey, below: Sort of a luffing match with MAPFRE. We prevailed in the end, and we were losing a lot on the other boats, so they decided to come down. That's all I know about that one. Bouwe, below: Pretty windy for the last 12 hours; 35, 40 knots. But we've done well. Just took over MAPFRE about an hour ago. Took the lead, which is a nice thing. Still a long way to go... Have to see how it all pans out. But it's better to be in the lead than be the chasers. Shot of the cockpit with MAPFRE behind them. Washing machine.

High-wind reaching. Brad: We've got fresh to frightening (?) conditions here on the last day of Leg 10. It's pretty heinous. Sailing 70-80 true, gusting 45. We've got Dongfeng back here, Turn the Tide back here; MAPFRE just in front of us. Pretty ready for this to die off a bit and get some normal conditions. Slomo spray. Emily in the cockpit: It's a little wet. A little uncomfortable. But at least we're moving and aiming at Sweden. Could be a little more pleasant on board; can't say anyone's sleeping. It's like trying to sleep on a slip-and-slide. Trying to get to Sweden today. That would be nice. Slomo shots of the cockpit.

Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. He repeats in English. Just rounded the north point of Scotland. Two hours quite intense, sail changes and wind shifts. Still have Brunel and Dongfeng at 4 or 5 miles. Happy, because there's more compression and we still have them Brunel is the one who has cut the distance; now within 1 mile of Dongfeng. We need to win this leg. If we win this leg we will be leading again, and will put some points between Brunel and us, with Dongfeng on equal points. Sailing the boat is very hard. 24 hours to Sweden, and probably won't sleep very much. Slomo of Sophie bundled up in the cockpit. Slomo of Blair in a neoprene cowl. Compass. Tamara trimming. Blair on the foredeck. Willy with a halhard.

Jack on the helm. Jack, below: I am enjoying it. The conditions that we've got; 25 knots at about 90 true. So broad reaching. Plenty of water over the deck. Reefs in reefs out... Really nice conditions, chewing up lots of miles. But it's very wet. [chuckles] Really wet. Washing machine shots. Jack: We're still pushing really hard. Coming into the team new, I can see how much the team has improved. They're really sailing well. Tough incident at the start, losing 100 miles, but still in great spirits. Montage of crew showing high spirits in the cockpit: Mugging for the camera. Parko. Annemieke. Antonio. Trystan. Libby at the nav station: Went from being flat out on our MH0, came around the corner and it got lighter. Tricky for that reason. Crew work on the foredeck. Libby: We gained 15 miles on the leader, are 27 miles from the next boat. I expect that will close a bit more, which will be good. Slomo washing machine shot. Libby: Still a couple of peels and sail changes, and if someone makes a mistake in that they can drop a couple of miles... We'll see. Slomo washing machine. Libby: Pretty strong conditions coming up. Not that you wish for anyone to break anything. But it's a strange angle, one we haven't done much in sailing around the world. We could find a good mode. It's definitely a good opportunity. Slomo washing machine.

Slomo of high-wind washing machine forward and in the cockpit. SiFi at nav station: Blasting along doing 24 knots, which is good. Things are going to get trickier in a few hours in the wind shadow of Scotland. Doing poorly in the last 24 hours. Looking forward to slightly less wind at the top of Scotland, chance to catch up, bit of a respite on the way over to the Orkney Islands. Then a kicking in the North Sea. Slomo washing machine shots.

Jack gets his heavy weather foulies on below. Jack: Like a newborn man! [He laughs.] Crash cam footage of cockpit washing machine Libby calls out the predictions for more wind. Ben in the cockpit getting dressed: We're just going around the Hebrides, and we're getting ready to peel from the MH0 to something else. Breeze has built since we went off watch. 30 knots at the moment. Shots on deck of whitecaps. Slomo washing machine.

Washing machine. Sailing fast on starboard gybe. Spreader cam view of Jack (I think?) on the bow. Foredeck work in anticipation of a sail change. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Spreader cam view of cockpit during a peel. Grinding. Slomo washing machine. Jack (I think) on the bow as the old sail comes down. Folding the sail in firehose on the foredeck. Kevin grinning in slomo. Carolijn takes off her gear below. "The joys of peeling in 27 knots... Just a lot of water. Peeling from the masthead to the J0." Fabien takes off his gear; comments on being wet inside it.

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 a distant red boat with AkzoNobel coming into view in the foreground, triple-heading. Slomo drone shot of stacking to leeward for a gybe. Slomo of the gybe from the drone. Nicolai: Finally in the breeze now. Long and difficult day, getting through the ridge into the new pressure. Now we're all heading to the north of Scotland. MAPFRE just in front of us, we're in second place. Fleet behind... Setting ourselves up for a big battle and big winds. I think the boat's ready for it. We're pretty much ready for anything. Slomo washing machine; Martine in the cockpit.

Slomo grinding. Annemieke easing the mainsheet. Witty on helm. Witty at the nav station: Just gybed, heading toward the top of Scotland. Everyone's gybed at the same time. Others are about 25, 30 miles to the west of us. It's anyone's match. In tennis terms it's 2 all, end of the fifth, and started to rain. So the best player with the best wet-weather footwear will win. Slomo grinding. Witty at the nav station: If the meterologist next to me has gybed at the right time we'll win. If she's gybed at the wrong time we'll come last for the third leg in a row. So really it's all on her shoulders. How does that sound? Libby: Bring it on. Witty: Bring it on. See? Scallywag, bring it on, never give up. All good; be positive. Breeze will fill, breeze will head. Scallywag will be first at the top of Scotland and reach into Gothenburg. Slomo shots on deck.

Tacking with MAPFRE behind them. Three boats inshore of them. Bouwe on the helm. Stacking aft. Capey at the nav station: MAPFRE's planning to go between the two [islands]. Peter, from his bunk: Gonna be quite close with us. Capey studies the screen. You can feel Sam wanting to talk to him, but not doing it because Capey is visibly thinking. Capey keeps glancing up at one screen, then down at the other. He blinks in surprise at something. Peter gets out of his bunk. Capey: Fuck. He gets up. Sam follows him. Capey talks to Bouwe in the cockpit. Peter gets his foulies on, goes up. MAPFRE crosses them on starboard just ahead. Dongfeng and another boat is visible beyond them. Peter is confused: Akzo appears to be goose-winging the jib. Or maybe he's on the other tack; can't really tell. Vestas is parked up here. (We see Vestas.) Alberto: Tricky situation; there's a couple of big islands. We just lost a couple of dozens of meters to MAPFRE and Dongfeng, but I think we have a good opportunity to gain again. Capey and Peter look to port. Peter: Should we go here? Capey goes to the nav station. Capey agrees. Peter: Go now! He starts shifting the stack. Bouwe seems to be letting them make the call. Tack. Abby and Louis grinding in the pit. Nina talks about there being a fishing farm that's not on our maps, so it adds a little stress to the afternoon. Fish farm nets as they sail past. Three boats ahead of them in the afternoon light. Waves on a headland to starboard. Bouwe's face on the helm. Slomo shots of islands, another boat as they sail upwind with the J1. Slomo of Alberto trimming. Sunset. Kyle explains. They had a parkup, then Turn the Tide took off. We didn't do the best job in the islands; kind of got spat out the back. Akzo, MAPFRE, Dongfeng, and Vestas are all ahead of us now; Turn the tide is behind us. We were in a good position, but now our position isn't too good. But going upwind, with some good opportunities, some good splits.

Willy talks in Spanish on the bow as they sail in light conditions. He repeats in English: 24 hours after the start, pretty much in the same spot they were at the start. Together with Dongfeng and Brunel. Three or four days to go. Forecast is to start going upwind. Probably the Volvo decided in the next 10 hours. Because after that the wind comes and it's harder to pass people. Drone shots: stacking aft, sailing with competitors in the background, rounding Irish headland, Blair aloft with Ireland behind him. Other boats all around them. Slomo of Xabi. Brunel and Dongfeng. AkzoNobel, TTToP, Vestas. Rob on the bow talks to Joan about strategy. Joan reads off his tablet about Dongfeng's status. Three other boats and Fastnet Rock. Dongfeng and Vestas behind them. Sophie calls to Rob: There's seaweed everywhere. Rob: Tricky race so far. Gave Dongfeng a 5-mile lead at Fastnet. Tricky transition. Akzo and Vestas coming from behind.... I don't know what we did wrong, but it was all very difficult. Now beating up west side of Ireland, around islands. Evening's been good so far, but it's going to be a long night. Last tacking exhange overtook Brunel; they're about 3/4 of a mile behind them, Dongfeng 3/4 of a mile ahead, and then Vestas ahead of them. Busy night with lots of tacks. Got some sleep on the first night. No one's resting today or tonight. Going to have to keep pushing hard. Keep the coffee coming and we'll see how we feel in two days time. Slomo of Xabi grinding. Stacking. Slomo spray on the bow. Tack. Irish coast. Xabi looking through binoculars: Yes, he has tacked. Drone shot of them sailing upwind with Dongfeng a quarter mile ahead. Beautiful drone shots with clouds and land, other boats.

Ben, below, says the breeze has built to 18 knots. Just peeled to the J0, and are trying to chase down the fleet. Ben: Hopefully they're in less breeze than we are now, so regain some miles back and hopefully rejoin the fleet. Slomo grinding. Libby: We're averaging 20 knots, so in theory we're gaining quite a lot. Leaders coming into the lee of Ireland, so we're gaining back. But last sched we lost another 50 miles, so we're 104 miles behind, which is quite a lot to be in less than 24 hours. Wouldn't have thought that was necessarily possible. Cockpit shots. Libby: Hopefully by the top of Scotland we'll be 20 miles behind. And then anything can happen in theory. Slomo of Alex in the pit. Libby: Have to keep doing all those things to try to gain.

Going through locks. Spectator boats. Bouwe hugs the jumper goodbye; he jumps off. Peter: It's not good timing, but you should drop it in somewhere that over half that crew is under 30. Good knowledge. Carlo on the foredeck. More horse, more carrots. Peter on the helm in the prestart yells at MAPFRE: Hold your course! He's altering course here! (Looks like a port-starboard with Brunel approaching on port and talking ahead and to leeward of the starboard-tack MAPFRE.) Bouwe holds up a protest flag. Bouwe: Come down, you're early. Big dip! Dongfeng on their stern. Capey looking at the fleet. Carlo on the foredeck as they tack. Bow with ripples. Carlo: We were over the line for a minute, but managed to squeeze back. Struggling to get some speed going. Luckly we have the tide with us. All trying to reach this pressure line. Spectator RIB with a Brunel flag. Capey points out wind to Peter on the helm. Carlo: A lot of tacking here. Decision between current and breeze. MAPFRE drifting to port. Kyle talks about not much wind. Dongfeng from last to first. MAPFRE not so lnicely. TTToP drifting through a tack. Sun reflections on the water. Slomo drifting.

High drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in light conditions. Trimming. Slomo of Martine and Emily on the bow. RIB drives alongside; Justin waves to them from the helm. Justin stacking forward. Sunset. Justin: Whole leaderboard got reversed... Can just see Dongfeng on the bow. Plastics and Scallywag forward and to leeward. Luckly Vestas is behind us. That's always a bonus. Doing 11/12 knots toward Fastnet Rock. Good for the progress toward the finish, but not so good for the leaderboard. Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing toward the sunset in flat conditions.

Slomo parade with kids waving flags. Slomo dockout with Simeon waving from the wheel. Luke: just coming out of the Cardiff lock, just coming down to sea level... Exciting toward the end; "thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening." Start sequence in drifting conditions. Jules and Nicho talking about a competitor getting a helicopter puff. Jules: Trying to make use of the turning tide here. Sailing offshore into the middle of the channel. Sailing with better wind.

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.

Time lapse footage. Dolphins swimming alongside. Slomo dolphins. Dolphins under the bow. Kevin: Quite a few. Pretty nice, out of the fog, sunny. Sliding up to the finish, and still pushing hard, and things may happen in the river. Dolphins alongside. Stu laces through the lifelines and goes max-hike. Stu on the helm: Every result from here is going to be super important. Every team is going to be working as hard as they can. If it finishes like it is now it closes up the leaderboard a lot. Instruments.

Drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing in misty conditions. Brunel on their starboard beam. Jules talks about how it was unlucky we went into 7 knots of wind... Justin interrupts: It's not unlucky it's just [bleep] light. Simeon looks at Brunel through binoculars and talks about their sail combination. Jules: Trying to defend our lead, which is very slim at the moment. Slomo crew work: Grinding, foredeck, steering, stacking. Jules: Still with 350 miles to go you don't wanna get too involved in a straight match race. You don't want to give them free reins to sail past. Staying with him, minimizing the risk, but also sailing the plan to get there as quickly as possible. Slomo crew work: Hoisting a sail. Drone shot.

Stern cam footage of washing machine. Cockpit washing machine shots. Pole shot outside the rail. Trystan, below: It's good, it's wet. Averaging 23, 24 knots. And current, so doing 25 knots over the ground. Alex, below: It's like getting a firehose in your face for 3 hours. And then going back down to go to sleep for 3 hours and then doing it again. Slomo washing machine in the pit. Toweling off below. Getting in a bunk. Spreader cam shot of major whitewater in the cockpit. Trystan: Pretty relentless. Just takes it out of you. Pretty energy sapping. But conditions are pretty stable, not gybing a lot. Not too bad. But relentless. Cockpit washing machine. Slomo. Alex: It's probably the last long leg where we have long periods of just sending it as hard as we can.

Washing machine shots out the hatch as they sail fast. Moving below. Epic washing machine on deck. Alberto getting geared up below. "It's too hard, to find the balance. Trying to put the gear on. It's only a few days." Slomo washing machine shots out the hatch. Bouwe, below: This isn't normal. Just putting your jacket on is difficult. Sam to Bouwe: What are you thinking about right now? Bouwe: About going outside. Peter, below: It's beautiful. Nice and warm. Slight slamming motion now and then; makes it hard to walk. But hey the boat's going fast. So it's what we live with. Abby, in her bunk: Impossible... Lurching around. Doing about 25-30 knots of boatspeed. Constant acceleration, deceleration. Just moving around the boat it's pretty hard work just trying to do anything normal. Abby bailing in the stern. Alberto: It's very dangerous. It's very easy to lose the balance. Peter and Abby move trash bags below. They get out the research buoy and deploy it. Sam: Oh no; the cable. Peter below getting geared up. Epic shots out the hatch, super loud, as dusk falls. Slomo washing machine from astern looking forward. Nina carrying a bucket and emptying it out the hatch. Kyle gets in his bunk. Abby eating. "Nothing on board is normal. I'm eating my meal. Someone could be on the toilet 6 feet. Kyle's just had a pee behind me. So nothing's normal. It could be worse. Could have been Nina the other day who got the poo bag exploding all over her." Shot from behind of someone peeing into a pee bottle. Carlo chuckles: "Life at the extreme."

Washing machine on deck. Sailing fast. Slomo. Spray. Jack, below, is eating. You have to spend about half your watch thinking about nice stuff. When you think of this stuff you think it's what you want to do, but when you're in it it gets tedious pretty quickly. Moving around the boat you're crawling; in your bunk is the best place, but even there is hard. And on deck you're getting thrown around. Driving is two hours of having your eyeballs assailed by salt water. Hard work. Slomo spray. Charles, below: Ahead a big light spot, and I hope compression. For the leader there is a wall of no wind. I don't think anyone will be able to cross it, because it is moving with us. A big compression, a big mess, and then the winner of this leg will be the most lucky boat. Slomo spray.

Slomo washing machine on deck. TJ on the stern. "Thirty knots of breeze! Trying to go fast!" Jena below, at the galley: "It's tricky. The race? Or holding on? Everything's a little tricky now. We keep trying. And we're still in the game. We need a little more speed... Trying to hold on, and make food." She climbs into her bunk. "See you in three hours." TJ, in the galley, sprays water on his face. Stirs up his food. "Plenty of hot sauce." Plenty of wind, fast sailing. Unfortunately not as fast as we would like. Had the wrong sail combinations up. Ripping now... It's going to get lighter and lighter... Charlie absolutely nailed the meal. Charlie, at the nav station, talks about not wasting propane. TJ: Sleeping is hard. Launching off waves, you can hear the foils cavitating. Nav screen: Sifi talks about the ridge coming up. SiFi: Pretty fast sailing over the past 24 hours. Wind's just starting to moderate now. First time in a few days when the wind has been under 30. Pretty wet, pretty cold, everyone's been getting firehosed on the deck. Charlie looks at the nav screen. SiFi: Looks like at least one boat will do a new Volvo 65 record. Unfortunately it's not going to be us. But we're optimistic; we get to the ridge and can make opportunities. TJ on the stern: Challenge is moving around, eating, trying to sail fast all the time. That's what I enjoy: the challenge.

Slomo washing machine shots of and in the cockpit. Fist bump.

Slomo shots of rough seas. Martin on the helm exercising his cold hands. Bernardo scowling. Winch drum. Liz in the pit getting soaked. Everyone in neoprene hoods. Lucas in a helmet with faceplate. Dee on the pedestal. The usual "slomo washing machine from the hatch" shots, but the slomo and the focus on the faces really works well. Bianca coiling in the pit. Bleddyn ducks to take whitewater over his head. Dee and Liz are heads-up, keeping their eyes on everything. Great stuff. Bernardo comes below, pulls off his hood. Bernardo: "It's pretty wild. We just came out of 30 knots, did a peel to the J0, and the waves are quite messy. Just sorting everything out. And get ready to go back on the bunk for a 2-hour nap." Bleddyn: Do I enjoy it? Yeah, it's good! It's nice to get a bit of breeze... This has been the breeze we've been waiting for for a while, will take us most of the way there. Cardiff here we come." Shots on deck of the big seas. Bianca dancing at the pedestal. Liz joins her, dancing on the helm. Bernardo, trimming on the stern, pulls his hands across his eyes John Travolta-style. Liz, tucked under the coaming, does her tube stance. "This is a barrel tube!" More washing-machine shots. Crash cam shot of a triple wipe-off: Helm, trimmer, and pedestal all knocked down by the wave. Epic!

Joan talks below in Spanish. Lots of mention of wind. Rob, below: Right now we're not in great shape. The leaders, first 3 boats, have extended quite a lot. That may change in the ridge. Dongfeng not that far away. Scallywag probably going to overtake us in the next sched. Dee not far away. Podium still a possibility, but we're going to have to get some luck with the upcoming ridge. Joan talks more in Spanish; discusses the limit of the Gulf Stream. Rob: Had a very cold night last night. Water was down to zero at one stage. Passed an iceberg; could see it on the radar. Water's probably 10 or 12 now. More Joan in Spanish. Washing machine shots of the cockpit from the hatch. Slomo washing machine. Neti grinding. Crew putting on foulies below. Stern cam shots of big spray. Sail change: Hoisting the FR0. Sophie wrestling the sail. Spreader cam shots of the sail change. Drone shots of them triple-heading wiht the FR0 and full main: Must be in lighter wind than some of the other boats. Looks like 20 knots of wind or less from the sea surface. Favoriting for those drone shots at the end.

Slomo line-handling in the cockpit. Horace in the pit: Amazing! This is an offshore race. Very strong weather, downwind. Never stops. Intense. And fast! [He raises his fist.] Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Stu and Horace grinding in the pit. Carolijn below: Very, very wet.

Stern cam, spreader cam shots of sailing fast with massive washing machine. Nick on the face plate: It was pretty fogged up. But I think he needs it. I think we all need it. Slomo washing machine. Nick: We are totally miserable out here. He points out other crewmembers. Not sure where they are right now; picked up a meander in the Gulf Stream, probably. Sea state worsened. Tony on the helm. He gets off the helm, faces aft. Takes off his face shield: "Here you are. Good for nothing." Talks about it being 45, 46 knots of wind. Tony comes below, talks about how his life preserver inflated. "Well, the automatic part works." SiFi at the nav station talks about playing with the Gulf Stream. Helps push them, but also messes up the sea state a little. Pretty cool phenomenon, the Gulf Stream. Apart from saving Europe from being a frozen icy tundra. Also gives us a lot of current to play with when we're racing. Charlie: Because sea surface temperatures all over the world are rising, there's less of a gradient, and the Gulf Stream is flowing slower. Which means it is pulling less water out of places like Chesapeake Bay. Will contribute to sea level rise there over the next 100 years. Slomo of crew falling down in the cockpit. Nick, in the cockpit: We stand here, basically 2 hours at a time, getting the [blee] beat out of us, all for a freeze-dried meal.

Slomo washing machine. Slomo of Nicolai's face with red eyes. Nicolai below: It's fast and furious these two or three days now. running and reaching with big sails. Brunel is doing it the same. Are pushing it. Full on. Driving is a little bit hard, and your eyes are bleeding every time you go off watch. But that's part of it, it's good fun. The faster the better and the more fun it is. Hopefully one more day of fast sailing before the wind drops off. Slomo washing machine. Nicolai: Currently sitting in second, fighting with Brunel. And it's the same on the leader board. They're not going to give up and neither are we. Footage from the stern cam, mast cam looking forward, spreader cam looking at the cockpit, as they sail fast. Nicolai takes his clothes off below. Nicolai: It's pretty heinous on board. It's actually worse down here than it is up there. You don't want to walk around; you'll get hurt. Get some food and jump in your bunk pretty quickly. Nicolai eating, getting in his bunk. Simeon at the nav station: Everyone is in some good breeze. Last 6 hours we did 147 miles. So that's pretty big for these boats. We're going pretty well; had some current with us that helps a bit. At the moment the boatspeed doesn't drop below 24 knots. This is the last chance in the race. After Cardiff won't be doing this. Nav station.

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.

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.

Slomo spray, grinding. Drone shots of TTToP. Other boat on the starboard quarter (Dongfeng, I think). Bianca: Annalise came up and told us we've overtaken MAPFRE and we can see Dongfeng on AIS. And we can see them down here. It's a nice surprise for breakfast. Dee jokes about Dongfeng being astern them: "Maybe they just want to look at my bottom when I take a pee. Pascal will be up with binoculars." They laugh. Bianca dances? Poses? Not sure. She practices with Annalise, who tells Martin to stop filming. Bianca: Professional. Need some practice. Before we arrive it will be perfect. Sail change (J0 to MH0?) Folding up the sail on the bow. Another boat to leeward. Liz crawling into a sleeping bag in the bow; waves to Martin. Light conditions. Brian: I can see Dongfeng up there has a big lift. So we'll probably be getting that soon... Very shifty at the moment. We can see Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's not far. Got an interesting race on our hand. Brian, on the bow, discusses the latest sched. Lucas goes up the mast to pop the battens through. Flopping with dolphins. Looking through binoculars at Dongfeng. Drone shots of TTToP sailing in light air; flopping. Shot of them passing the drone wit a partially rolled up MH0 as a windseeker. Sunset.

Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Hard to recognize people with everyone having their heads down. Sunset.

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.

Phil: Atlantic is important to us. It's been good at times, bloody difficult at times. Drone shot. Stacking aft. Slomo washing machine. Phil: If we can get into Cardiff we'll be in good shape. Points are irrelevant to us. Showing that we were always here, always a contender. That's more important to us. Drone shot, slomo spray of Phil on the helm. Phil: Just to show to our sponsors and ourselves that we belong in the top few in the fleet. It's gonna be a busy 8 days for us. Drone shot.

Drone shot of AzkoNobel triple-heading under gray skies. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Martine gets doused at the pedestal. Below, Nicho, Jules, and Simeon look at weather models on the computer. Jules: Mixed bag performance wise. Had some good spells and some not so good spells. Crossed a bit of the Gulf Stream. Radar, AIS; he was short on sleep all night. Drone shot. Spray by the shrouds. Simeon getting greared up below. Some good moments, some difficult moments. Keep the hammer on. Nicho takes slomo spray. Major whitewater near the mast looking aft. This is when the boats are most powerful. Jules at the nav station looks at routing. "Still a long way to go, changing conditions. The forecasts not really lining up." More slomo washing machine, drone shot of AkzoNobel surfing.

Washing machine in the pit. Pascal at the nav station talks on the PA. Horace grinding in slomo in the fog. They get doused. Horace talks in Mandarin as he coils in the hatch. Slomo winch drum turning. Nav instrument screen.

Xabi, at the helm motoring out, talks in Spanish. Sophie: Super nice to be back on board. Not fun sitting on the sidelines. Gonna be pretty windy, and that's exciting. And we all realize how well it is to do well on this leg. Rob: This is probably the most important leg of the race for a lot of teams. So we'll be giving it everything. First time to the UK since 2005, which was his first race. Looking forward to arriving; hope they arrive in daylight. Slomo parade with wacky slowed-down audio. Xabi says goodbye to young boy, who puts his hands over the lens. Spectator boat with MAPFRE on the side waves and blows horns. Sailing upwind with Dongfeng to leeward. Slomo of Tamara tailing. Dongfeng on their weather quarter with the A3 up. More slomo grinding. Brunel crossing astern on a downwind leg. Sailing past the bridge. Slomo behind AkzoNobel heading into fog as someone (Blair?) gets doused on the bow. Dongfeng on their hip as they reach in the fog.

Slomo dockout. Mark talks about it being a double-points leg. Weather tricky in the first few days. Nick: it's incredible looking at all the boats given the weather. Start. Dongfeng crossing behidn them. Yelling starboard at the weather mark. (Looks like TTToP was clear ahead to me.) Setting the A3. Lowering the J1. Rounding a buoy. MAPFRE luffing them; F-word from Mark. Stacking aft in the fog as SiFi tells them 12 minutes from turning up. SiFi: Hectic start. Fog cleared up to do the lap in the bay, but now it's socked in. Near the other boats; fast reaching to Nantucket Shoals. "Gonna have to stay on our toes."

Libby and Witty at the nav station. Peter watches. Sched. People smiling. Everyone is looking forward to the leg being over, it looks like. Ben: Expecting the pressure to build. 30 plus knots. We'll be reaching into Newport in the early hours of the 8th. Slomo washing machine with crew smiling at the back of the boat. Sunrise with crepuscular ray.

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.

Slomo of water on deck, Charles on helm. Gybing to port in the high. Carolijn near the bow. Carolijn, on the stern, asks Pascal what's going to happen tonight. Pascal answers that there will be wind, and speed. He discusses how it will get 10 or 15 degrees colder in a few hours. Slomo washing machine. Cool sound editing. Charles: We are more afraid of what's going to happen when the wind drops. It's a tricky situation. We are in a good position, but we know the back of the fleet will come back. So it's stressful. MAPFRE is very close, and Brunel is doing a fantastic comeback. Lots of washing machine shots in the pit. Daryl, below: 33 knots, so it was good that we did the peel; was 28 when it started. Jack: Just starting to get dark, so it's going to be quite entertaining.

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."

Slomo with compeititor two miles ahead of them. Jack on the wheel: Always nice to be the hunter. Charles in bunk reading. Talks in French about what he's reading. Jeremie asks him something in French; Charles answers "no". Slomo of Carolijn on the helm. Carolijn: A couple of nights ago had a bad night. Probably caught some of it. Took us about 12 hours to decide to do a backdown. Charles even went in the water, and had a look. And after that the boat took off. Guess we had to clear our minds; had 24 difficult hours. And here we are now. We didn't see them for 5 or 6 days, and now I can read the "Brunel" on their sail... Game's on again. Slomo of the bow with spray and Brunel ahead of them. Daryl grinding. Daryl: Less than 1000 miles to Newport. Going to be a pretty interesting and busy few days. A gybe coming up in the high pressure system; battling it out with Brunel. Slomo wave, stern wake.

Grinding. Slomo washing spray with Witty on the helm. Libby below: 3 or 4 days to the finish. But a lot's going to happen. Heading toward the high pressure. Going to have to gybe. Leaders will go into lighter breeze, so we'll gain. As much of a realist I am, I think it's going to be hard to overtake anyone, but we'll get back in touch with the fleet. You can never say never. Antonio bailing. Spray on deck. Bagging garbage. Washing machine shot of the hatch from inside.

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.

Sail change, with Parko in the pit. Slomo shot of Parko's face. Spray. Parko on the helm. Parko getting doused. Parko: Challenge is being out there by yourself. Scheds are hard. Like all endurance sports, it's easy to pack it in. But the highly competitive group here, we won't give up. Couple of thousand miles left. Gotta put ourselves in position to take them whe they arise.

Cockpit, Slomo washing machine. Below, Charlie and Mark talk about how they went to Brown U., but they only slightly overlapped (Charlie was older). We lived in the same house, but not at the same time. Mark: We were both far too big to be sailing small boats. Charlie talks about doing poorly at nationals. Mark talks about going to the unveiling of a new sailing center. Mark talks about pollution in the Providence River. "I would never eat shellfish from the Providence River... That's all the questions." SiFi on the helm. SiFi below: In our third day of sailing through the tradewinds. And then all the action in this leg is going to happen at the end. Going to get lifted and have to pick our moment to gybe out of the high pressure. Main competition is further west. They have better pressure, but we might get the shift first. Can hopefully come out ahead of Dongfeng and maybe Brunel. He shows the computer screen with the competitors on it, and follows the routing north to where they're going to need to gybe near Bermuda. Slomo shot of the weather rudder, the stern with the US flag and horizon.

Slomo washing machine. Crew grimacing. Kevin: We are the boat that is the most west of the fleet. We chose to keep this gauge in order to have more wind in the next 48 hours. It's not an easy position. Since you're going first into the high pressure you have less wind than the boats behind. We'll see in the next 48 hours if this was a good choice or not. Slomo spray, serious crew faces. Marie's water bottle.

Bouwe talks about seaweed in the sargasso sea. Slomo shot of sargasso. Drone shot from high overhead of sargasso. Sam: Why so unhappy Kyle? Kyle, on the helm: A lot of weed. Peter: It's a bit of a pain, really. It gets stuck all over the deck, all over the lifelines. Shots of weed in the lifelines. Bouwe brushes his teeth below; Abby picks off weed at the base of the mast. More weed washes onto the boat in slo motion. Abby: It's not making us go fast. Might be good for the environment, but it's definitely not making us go fast. Bouwe, below, talks about how to clear it off. Peter, below, explains that they've got enough wind to "broach it off." Kyle demonstrates. Drone shot of them doing big S-curves to clear weed. Bouwe: We seem to be doing it all right. We see the polar percentages go down, we do our little trick, and the polar percentages go up again. Drone shots. Slomo washing machine. Abby grinding. Peter trimming. "Hold there." Peter, at the shrouds. "I think the 2 might be a little bit loose... Yeah."

Drone shot tracking behind them as they sail fast. Wake. Rudders. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Spreader cam. Stacking.

Sailing fast. Slomo weed going past the keel. Parko on the helm. Various angles of sailing fast. Alex, eating below: Yeah, not a lot of change going on. Windspeed's the same, wind angle's the same. This is what the Volvo's all about. Blast reaching for 4 or 5 days. They've been losing miles in the scheds for the last several days because they haven't had the wind. It's frustrating, for sure. We planted a seed a little earlier in the leg, and it didn't pay off... That's ocean racing sometimes.

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.

Drone shots circling Dongfeng. Charles, below: Since the doldrums we are fighting for first place with Brunel, who is a bit ahead of us. They are fast... We are also fast. Are still three legs to go. And they are sailing better and better. So we are not only focusing on MAPFRE. Shots on deck; long lenses. Horace in the pit. Daryl on the aft pedestal. Horace sprays water on his face. Slomo washing machine cascade from inside the hatch. Carolijn on the stern, talks about all the boats pushing really hard. We won into Newport last time, and haven't won a leg this time so it would be a nice one to win. Slomo of determined look on sailors' faces. Charles below: Of course winning this leg would be fantastic. This place is probably the best arrival, people love sailing, all the city is waiting for the race. Slomo water in the cockpit with sargasso weed.

Drone shots of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Slomo spray. Martine grinning on the helm. Crash cam footage. Martine eating below. Brian: Any good? Martine: Hunger is the best spice. Nico comes below, hangs up gear. "One you've gotta acknowledge it's a bad situation you didn't want to be in. 100 miles back from the leaders. You'd rather be neck-and-neck. Trick now is to push just as hard. Hoping for the weather at the end. The nature of the sport is you try all the way to the finish line. I've seen plenty of races where it happens... We need something to happen weather-wise for us to reel in the leaders... But it is nice doing 20 knots roughly toward where we want to go. Might like to take a month to wear them down, but we've got 6 days. Martine: Still very wet. It's not easy. In the first week we had 19 headsail changes in two watches. But we're going to have a lot of this so we're gonna get tired of this. Drone shots.

Stu grinding in slomo. WAshing machine. Jack, below: We're out of the doldrums, which is really nice. Next four days of wet fast reaching. Kevin on the helm in slomo with spray coming over the bow. Horace trimming the main on the stern. Pascal at the nav station: All the fleet was afraid to bear away... Was a small difference in distance. Plenty of things to do. Everybody wants to fight. Slomo spray. Marie on the pedestal, grinding.

Capey at the nav station. He comes on deck, reports on the competition to Peter. Sam: What's the concern, Pete? Peter: Capey's our navigator. He's very experienced. It was his tenth time around the Horn. Does an incredible job on the charts, keeping us safe. (Capey pees off the transom in the background, then moves gingerly around with an obviously painful back issue.) Peter tries to engage him in the story; Capey's not having any of it. Just talks about the race. Bouwe: I think he's one of the best in the world. And we just have that mutual understanding. It's straightforward. You have a plan, and you execute the plan. I think that's why I like to sail with him. Abby comes up and does a Capey impression. "It's that itme of day and I'm coming through." She goes to the stern to mime pooping. A funky yellow fishing boat comes by: Drone shots from close aboard as they haul pots. Carlo: I had wet boots in the Southern Ocean, and this nail, for some reason, is starting to fall off. He shows his left big toe, which looks kind of scary and discolored. Carlo: Capey says we're driving in about two hours. Have Akzo to windward. Need to put a second sheet on the masthead zero. We see from the drone as Nina puts the sheet on. Bouwe talks about a big cloud, and how it affects the wind. He explains that they'll probably gain some on Akzo due to the cloud. "Very often the luck of the draw is involved in it." Drone shot of hte stern, bow, and barbecue on the aft deck of a big container ship: "Shanghai Highway". Crew of the ship waves and jumps up and down. Kyle, in the sunset: Had a lovely day today. Sam had the drone over a container ship where they were having a lovely barbecue. Nina: I feel like Kyle has his Saturday best on. "It's a good day for Kyle; maybe not for us." Beautiful sunset clouds, slomo with moon.

Reefing in a squall. Rain. Parko in the rain in slomo. Parko eating below. Clouds. Parko: Each morning it's a rollcall. We get smacked by a fresh cloud, sail change... Trying to balance that so the boat's on course with not too much or too little sail. Near the equator at sunrise and sunset there's a lot of clouds. When they rain they're pushing or sucking air. In the light conditions have large sails up, and then it's easy to be caught out. Slomo foredeck work. Stacking. Libby on the helm. Annemieke grinding. More stacking. Shot of spray washing off hte foot of the headsail. A skua flying overhead.

Alberto, in the cockpit, explains that they had a very bad night, and lost a lot of distance on TTToP and Vestas. Bouwe, on the wheel: Turn the Tide and Vestas made a very nice move and gained 20 miles on everybody... Just keep trying, trying to improve, sail against numbers... And hope soon we can crack the sheet a little. Below, Louis talks about trying to improve. In the cockpit, Alberto: The secret to going faster is a good engine and a lot of fuel. But don't tell anyone; it's a secret. Awesome low-altittude drone shots, slomo, from in front with a competitor behind them. Kyle, below: Today is ANZAC day. Nina: A good day to catch up wiht friends and family, have a few drinks. (She waves.) Peter: It's our biggest wartime memorial we have every year. Obviously a long way from both NZ and Europe, but definitely thoughts with them. Shot from the stern as they prepare for a maneuver. Drone shot with competitor behind. Kyle: King Neptune is coming to the yacht to visit Nina. Alberto: Nina's the one who's very excited. Nina: Can't even deal. The torment, with the equator and King Neptune, it's started already. It's gonna be three or four days. They're too excited about it. I'm very nervous. Bouwe looking serious as night falls. Peter: She reckons we could sell the hair we're gonna get off her head. Or donate it, to kids. It's up to her to decide. Nina: I don't think anyone will want it anymore [after all this offshore yacht racing]. Someone calls down below for a peel. Abby: Too many. Crew comes up, they hoist the new sail. (MH0?) Slomo of sunset. Nina: I wanted to say to Caitlan, that I'm really sorry if I don't have any hair when I'm maid of honor at her wedding. Maybe if Caitlin also pays to King Neptune, maybe he'll take only half the hair, or an eyebrow... Sorry Caitlin. Night time shot of stars.

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.

Stacking on the foredck in light air in the early morning. Jack talks about how they have a very different mix of nationalities and backgrounds. Kevin talks in French about the same thing. More stacking. Carolijn: Language can be a barrier sometimes; have a lot of frogs, a lot of Frenchies, on board. Kevin talks in French. Daryl: Can be challenging at times to get the right message across. But we've all worked really hard on that in thte training, and we all get on well together. Crew grinding. Sunset. Jack: I think we've found quite a good balance to make it work for everyone. No real egos, which is really nice. Horace in the pit. Horace: We from different part of the city and speak different language. It's not about a different country. It's a human. Everybody learn... Charles in slomo on the helm in the sunset. More pretty closeups in slomo with the sunset: Carolijn, Daryl. Kevin talks in French. Horace: Every person is like a different book. Like a different weapon. And you learn how much you can. Pascal talks in French. Carolijn translates: Scallywag's got 12 knots. Stu's face. Sunset slomo of Carolijn.

Slomo shots. Sunrise. Liz on the helm. Drone shot of TTToP sailing into a sunbeam. Liz: Doing really well. Winning at the moment, which is really cool. Upwind conditions, it's really gusty. Shots of Liz working the pit during a sail change. Liz: It's good being first, but then it's hard if you fall back. Hopefully learn from that. Lucas: Ups and downs are hard. But need to keep a level head. All a part of the game. Keep chipping away. Liz: Matching boatspeed with everybody, but you can see clouds coming up. And it only takes one or two clouds and you're out the back door. Sometimes you're at the mercy of the wind gods. Hoisting the J1. Dee: Got a big cloud to weather, increased pressure, so we switched from the masthead to the J1. Shot up the slot as they sail under the J1. Bianca: When the lead is changing this early in the leg, you can't get too wrapped up in it. It's awesome to be at the front, and it does make you feel a lot better, but you can't get yourself down when you're at the back. Liz: Couldn't get much more different from last leg to this one. We're in tee shirts, flat water. But the racing's just as intense. Whole fleet together; quite stressful. Drone shot from close overhead.

Rain in the cockpit. Witty in the hatch jokes that the boat should have been designed longer and higher, so it would be more comfortable. Libby talks about tacking. We see the tack. Annemieke: "There's another breeze coming." Slomo stacking. Stacking below. Another tack on deck. Libby at the nav station talks on the PA: "Yeah, that's Akzo on the bow." Ben below: Another tack? J1 going up, with Ben then hauling on the furling line to furl the MH0 (or J0). Parko, below: That was a four-hour frenzy. Plenty of tacks. Plenty of MH0 to J1, and moving all the equjpment. We can see almost everyone in the fleet, so pretty much restarting. Libby: This is racing like people race at their club. Nip and tuck. And we're doing that for 20 odd days at sea. Sunset with clouds.

Drone shot of TTToP sailing past an oil platform, and a drilling ship with a big flare-off putting out a lot of flames and smoke off the stern. Deck-level shot of the drilling ship and flames. Martin, on deck: Day 2, in the middle of the pack. Sailing through this oil field. MAPFRE and Dongfeng to weather. Akzo, Vestas, and Scallywag behind us. Good morning. Got a fair bit to go this way, then tack to the north. Drone shot. Martin: It's fantastic to be back after my knee injury. I've been smiling since I started. Doing quite well at the moment; it makes it easier. Martin talks to Lucas about somthing. Dee: It's really nice to have Martin back. The big concern was that he be fully recovered. But he's had his knee surgery. It's nice that Martin comes from previous winning campaigns. So he knows how to go fast. And having his calm experience in the mix... hoping for an even better result. Slomo of Martin trimming, oil ship with flames behind them.

On-screen graphic: Who is Alberto Bolzan? Different crewmembers laugh, make non-answers. Slomo of Alberto trimming. Kyle: good drive, good sailor, very emotional. Mark-rounding footage. Kyle: He hates all freeze-dried food. Footage of Alberto eating. Carlo, in his bunk: whenever we eat pasta he says itn's not real pasta. (We see Alberto complaining about pasta.) Sam asks: What's the secret to surviving the volvo ocean race? Alberto: Talks about focus. Kyle, Bouwe talk about his skills. Bouwe: "Not the tallest guy." Alberto trimming. Alberto below, talks about his hobbies. Shows photos on his phone of paragliding. Talks about his girlfriend, who's a world champion at it. Shows photos of his cat. Talks about flying. It's like sailing with a third dimension. He shows photos of the day before he left Brazil. What he loves about flying is the strategy. Where the thermals are, can make a lot of distance. The world record is 565 km. Shot of Alberto trimming with two other boats visible a mile to leeward. Alberto: I'm really competitive with everythign I do. I can't beat my girlfriend. She's too good. That's the worst part of flying. Drone shot of the bow of Brunel with dolphins swimming in front of them.

Slomo parade. Dockout. Liz on the helm waving at the shore. Frederico talks about the stopover and the next leg from the foredeck as they motor out. Francesca calls "four minutes" in the cockpit. Start with other boats ahead. Dee driving after the start. First mark rounding; good action on board. Dee: "Nice guys; nice." Lowering the J1. Sailing downwind under A3. Frederico calls for the furl approaching the leward mark. He calls to the boat behind them, "No water! No water!" Henry talks about leaving and heading north for Newport. Did a good in-port section. MAPFRE just ahead. Coming into the first light stuff they've had for an opening of a leg. High drone shot of competitors.

Sunrise washing machine. Jack: Why does it seem like we're always slowly going backwards? Video then reverses, runs backwards. Reverse slowmo washing machine shots. Jack: Acutally no, let's get to Italjai; full speed. Let's go. Wake shot. Fast reaching.

AkzoNobel closes in on Cape Horn. As they leave it behind, Simeon talks about how it's good to get past it. Have to give everything now and try to catc up with the guys in the lead. Slomo of Cape Horn with the binnacle in the foreground. Nicolai: Happy to be here in one piece. Hard to get to. Nicho, on the pedestal: Used to see this stuff as a kid in books, early explorers. Never imagined doing it himself. But now he has 5 times. It's why he has all the gray hair. Closeup of Cape Horn.

Charles, on the helm, grins as Cape Horn recedes on their port quarter. Jeremie also grins. Marie, Jack, Kevin, Carolijn, Pascal, Horace: slomo portraits with Cape Horn. Below, Marie talks in French. Horace talks in Mandarin. Horace then talks in English: He was very excited this morning. He passed Cape Horn, unlike 3 years ago (when they were dismasted short of the Horn). Now it's time for a fight to the finish line.

Spreader cam view as Vestas surfs. Washing machine shots, slomo washing machine. Phil, below: Cape Horn's a big day in any sailor's life. This is going to be the fourth time I'm around it. Last time with Abu Dhabi, Chuy Bermudez was on the radio with the lighthouse keeper, and apparenlty it's voluntary thing for 12 months. He'd been there with his wife and kids for nearly a year. Slomo in the cockpit. Hannah, below, talks about Cape Horn. She had no idea how tough it was going to be. So windy, waves like nothing she's ever seen before, non-stop. Surfing shots on deck, grinding. SiFi, below: One of the toughest Southern Ocean legs I've ever done. Relentlessness of it, constant high winds, cold, snow. People have been doing a great job to battle on. Reaching the Horn will be a good moment to celebrate and reflect on the leg so far. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.

Fast wake shot. View forward as they stuff the bow. Fast surfing shot looking aft at massive waves. More shots of epic big-wave surfing. Brian, in the companionway: "I've got my skis, poles, boots; I'm just gonna go out now. Snows up. Should be perfect powder. Southern Ocean... I'm gonna go enjoy it." Slomo of stern as snow falls. Spreader cam view of washing machine in the cockpit. Dee and Brian at the nav station talking strategy. Brian jokes about the motion: "Hang on in the underground train." He explains to Sam: They're less than 2 days from Cape Horn. Have to do 2 more gybes to get to Cape Horn. Critical to get the timing of the gybes right. Very shifty winds, both direction and speed. Are in a good position in the fleet; need to get to Cape Horn in good position. Not time to go crazy and break the boat trying to get first to Cape Horn, because Brunel's going to be first to Cape Horn.

Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. Slomo of wake peaking up into a geyser of whitewater. Nicho on the helm as they surf fast in big wind. Wake shot with big waves overtaking. Slomo of stuffing the bow and whitewater coming aft over the cockpit; Justin ducks. Slomo big-wave shots. Slomo of crew stacking aft. Nicolai on the helm with big waves behind him.

Night-vision crash cam view; looks like they stuffed the bow and did a round up. Slomo of two sailors in the cockpit (I think maybe Rob and Sophie?) giving a peace sign and a thumbs up, respectively. Willy and Blair by the mast setting the outrigger in epic surfing conditions. Slomo of surfing. Crew in the cockpit. Wake shot, surfing. Ugo's out in it to get these shots. Good stuff. Blair, below, his breath and steaming body backlit from the companionway.

Crew below engaged in various tasks. Pascal gears up to go on deck. Carolijn goes on deck. Slomo of albatross and epic big waves astern. Washing machine. View from the cabin of the cockpit as they gybe from port to starboard. Carolijn: "Have to tweak her down a bit. Can I use this winch?" Below, Kevin works on a winch drum. Jack eats. Pascal pulls on boots.

Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. On deck with Nicho on the helm, we see a squall coming. Nicolai: We've got a bit of hail coming. In a squall usually it's rain, but in the Southern Ocean it's hail. Hurts when it hits you in the head. Slomo shots of hail/snow. Martine (I think?) shakes her hands. "My hands are freezing. It hurts." Nicolai talks about easing the sheet, keeping the wind at 75 apparent. More drone shots of them surfing. Below, Martine squeezes water from her pigtails. "For a Brazilian this is very cold. I've never sialed in this cold before. I was freezing my hands outside. It was pretty cool; we had a pretty cool watch." Nicho, below, talks about gaining bearing. How it's funny that if they sail fast it's safer. If you have a breakage and slow down it's more dangerous, as they found in leg 3. [Favoriting for the epic drone shots and squall/snow.]

Drone shots of AkzoNobel surfing big waves in the sun. On deck with Nicho on the helm, we see a squall coming. Nicolai: We've got a bit of hail coming. In a squall usually it's rain, but in the Southern Ocean it's hail. Hurts when it hits you in the head. Slomo shots of hail/snow. Martine (I think?) shakes her hands. "My hands are freezing. It hurts." Nicolai talks about easing the sheet, keeping the wind at 75 apparent. More drone shots of them surfing. Below, Martine squeezes water from her pigtails. "For a Brazilian this is very cold. I've never sialed in this cold before. I was freezing my hands outside. It was pretty cool; we had a pretty cool watch." Nicho, below, talks about gaining bearing. How it's funny that if they sail fast it's safer. If you have a breakage and slow down it's more dangerous, as they found in leg 3. [Favoriting for the epic drone shots and squall/snow.]

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.

Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Mark, below, talks about how they're approaching Point Nemo. Halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, closest humans on the space station, yada yada. (Sorry. I've heard that bit a lot.) Compass. Washing machine. Hannah: I thought it would feel more remote... Pretty cool that all the boats are so close together. SiFi at the nav station. "Probably one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places. Except that at the moment there's the 10 of us on a 65-foot boat and 6 other boats." Epic drone shots of Vestas surfing in big waves; way high/distant drone shot emphasizing how tiny they are. Mark, below: Talks about how the other boats will come to their aid in an emergency, and that's comforting. Sunset slomo washing machine shots. TJ: "I don't know about Point Nemo; sounds like a long way away from Cape Horn. I want to get there right now." Nick: "The fish named Nemo could not live there, because it's too cold." Favoriting mostly for those drone shots.

Drone shots of Brunel sailing under FR0 and full main. Crew gearing up below. Abby sorting through some gear, putting drops in her eyes. She talks about how everything is wet below, with condensation dripping. "Everything is a challenge." Nina in her bunk with a headlamp. Condensation close up. Thomas takes his gloves off, flexes his hand. At the nav station, Bouwe talks about the dangers of the boat making a sudden stop. He talks about how it's easier for the boys to have a peeing bottle; "for the girls every time they have to go to the toilet. Take their gear off. We just take our willy out and it's easy." Sunset on deck. Peter eating below. Bouwe talks about all the layers of clothing you need to put on.

Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Mark, below, talks about how they're approaching Point Nemo. Halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, closest humans on the space station, yada yada. (Sorry. I've heard that bit a lot.) Compass. Washing machine. Hannah: I thought it would feel more remote... Pretty cool that all the boats are so close together. SiFi at the nav station. "Probably one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places. Except that at the moment there's the 10 of us on a 65-foot boat and 6 other boats." Epic drone shots of Vestas surfing in big waves; way high/distant drone shot emphasizing how tiny they are. Mark, below: Talks about how the other boats will come to their aid in an emergency, and that's comforting. Sunset slomo washing machine shots. TJ: "I don't know about Point Nemo; sounds like a long way away from Cape Horn. I want to get there right now." Nick: "The fish named Nemo could not live there, because it's too cold." Favoriting mostly for those drone shots.

Drone shots of Brunel sailing under FR0 and full main. Crew gearing up below. Abby sorting through some gear, putting drops in her eyes. She talks about how everything is wet below, with condensation dripping. "Everything is a challenge." Nina in her bunk with a headlamp. Condensation close up. Thomas takes his gloves off, flexes his hand. At the nav station, Bouwe talks about the dangers of the boat making a sudden stop. He talks about how it's easier for the boys to have a peeing bottle; "for the girls every time they have to go to the toilet. Take their gear off. We just take our willy out and it's easy." Sunset on deck. Peter eating below. Bouwe talks about all the layers of clothing you need to put on.

Rob, in red light below, says as expected wind has built to 35-40 knots. Borderline survival conditions. Willy, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Something involving his gloves. Sophie, below, says when you're holding the mainsheet it's always wet. "For me that's the coldest time for my hands. It's basically painful." The other thing about doing the main, she says, is that you're not really moving. "So after an hour and a half of that you get pretty cold." Willy talks in Spanish. Rob: In previous Southern Ocean legs got massive torrents of water through the boat, wiping out the helmsman. So we've built a wave breaker, which is on leeward side now so it's useless. Slomo shots on deck. Shot of the "wave breaker" (a mesh on the railing in front of the wheel) on the starboard (leeward) wheel.

Slomo washing machine in the cockpit, with camera being washed into th wheel. Below, Stacey: "It's hard work, actually." Surfing and plowing into the waves brings water over the deck. It's cold, and 45 knots. More slomo washing machine shots. Someone on the stern (I think Phil?), trimming the main, has a whole discussion about how bad the conditions are, how it's cold and no one's talking. "Am I scared? No. A little bit bored and friggin' cold." This isn't his idea of an ocean race to Brazil. "How many days is it to Cape Horn? Four." He calls out to TJ on the pedestal: Which would he prefer: the doldrums or this? TJ: "Neither!" Nick: "We went from 8 miles behind Dongfeng, took our mainsail down, and somehow ended up 3 miles behind them." Jeremie laughs; "maybe take the main down!" Nick: "That's what we said; make it way easier." Slomo washing machine. Favoriting for Jeremie's getting out in the elements and getting such good personal stuff; really conveys what it feels like to be in the cockpit on these boats in these conditions.

Rob, in red light below, says as expected wind has built to 35-40 knots. Borderline survival conditions. Willy, below, talks in Spanish. Pablo, below, talks in Spanish. Something involving his gloves. Sophie, below, says when you're holding the mainsheet it's always wet. "For me that's the coldest time for my hands. It's basically painful." The other thing about doing the main, she says, is that you're not really moving. "So after an hour and a half of that you get pretty cold." Willy talks in Spanish. Rob: In previous Southern Ocean legs got massive torrents of water through the boat, wiping out the helmsman. So we've built a wave breaker, which is on leeward side now so it's useless. Slomo shots on deck. Shot of the "wave breaker" (a mesh on the railing in front of the wheel) on the starboard (leeward) wheel.

Slomo washing machine in the cockpit, with camera being washed into th wheel. Below, Stacey: "It's hard work, actually." Surfing and plowing into the waves brings water over the deck. It's cold, and 45 knots. More slomo washing machine shots. Someone on the stern (I think Phil?), trimming the main, has a whole discussion about how bad the conditions are, how it's cold and no one's talking. "Am I scared? No. A little bit bored and friggin' cold." This isn't his idea of an ocean race to Brazil. "How many days is it to Cape Horn? Four." He calls out to TJ on the pedestal: Which would he prefer: the doldrums or this? TJ: "Neither!" Nick: "We went from 8 miles behind Dongfeng, took our mainsail down, and somehow ended up 3 miles behind them." Jeremie laughs; "maybe take the main down!" Nick: "That's what we said; make it way easier." Slomo washing machine. Favoriting for Jeremie's getting out in the elements and getting such good personal stuff; really conveys what it feels like to be in the cockpit on these boats in these conditions.

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Nina gets dressed below, then works the foredeck, the pit. Below, she talks about how she and Kyle haven't had much chance to rest, because they keep gybing in the off-watch. Thinks the next gybe will come during their off-watch. Stern cam footage of them surfing on starboard in big winds. We see a gybe in big winds. Nina, below: "It's super windy and the swells quite big. I think I'm getting my first taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race is really like. It's pretty tough." Washing machine from the stern cam. Nina: "Yeah, I did enjoy it. The waves are crazy, and the boys are just fearless when they're steering. And all you can do is just hold on with the mainsheet at the back of the boat; hold on for dear life. It's quite a ride. I'm enjoying it, but it's really hard." Slomo washing machine.

$Big waves. Marie and Jeremie getting dressed below. Jeremie talks about this storm being smalled compared to what they'll have in a few days. This is 30-40 knots, still sailing with the fractional, sea is quite rough. A bit intense. Not always sure how we're going to finish. Have to be in one piece. Marie talks about having her helmet. Shots of crew in the cockpit. Washing machine, maneuver. Kevin (I think) goes forward to the mast. Freaks me out to see him unclipped. Stern cam shot of 6 crew grinding (gybe?). Crewmember on the aft pedestal dabs. Wake.$

Stern cam shot of stuffing the bow wiht major washing machine. Crew below. Nicolai: Talks about how wet things are below, and how the boat is like a roller coaster dropping off 20 and 30-foot waves. Surfing shots on deck. Crew comes below dripping. Brad, below: Waves are inconsisent. 38 knots down to 15 knots in a couple of seconds. Pretty tough life on board. Luke, below, dripping: Just passing Vestas. Again. Very wet and cold on deck. Prepping hot drink in the galley. Nicolai, getting dressed: Everything is wet. Wet for a week. I'm tired of being wet. I want to be dry. More stern cam washing machine shots of Nicolai on the pedestal betting doused.

Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Bow cam view looking aft. Someone (Martine?) looking forward through binoculars, presumably at a competitor. Shot forward from behind the wheel of washing machine and a competitor crossing ahead of them (Dongfeng). Nicolai, standing on the stern trimming the main, talks about Dongfeng and (unfortunately) MAPFRE crossing them. Last night they were behind us; now they've crossed us. Not the best morning. But still 15 mornings to go. Shot of the other boat to port. Stern cam footage of them sailing on starboard. Jules and Nicho sit at the nav station talking strategy. Nicho, eating: "No shortage of breeze." Martine below. She guesses she got the most sleep, but not anymore. Going to be gybing. Luke: With the two gybes in his off-watch he got about an hour of sleep during his four off. Jules talks about having lost a lot of distance to the boats nearby. Did some good gybes, got a couple of hundred meters behind Brunel. But now they've coughed up some distance. Spreader cam view of shifting the stack aft.

Rob, below, explains everyone trying to maintain a southerly position. Other boats nearby. 20-25 knots right now, then they'll come down to the ice barrier and gybe. Neti: Second in the fleet right now. Exciting; they passed Vestas. Pablo (something) on the wheel. Fighting with Dongfeng. After 4 or 5 days in the ocean, are 3 boats fighting within a mile. Found a bit of a fast mode today compared to Vestas. We'll see how it goes. Shot of two boats in teh sunset on their weather quarter. Slomo shots of the sunset, other boats. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the other boats.

Fast sailing sunset shots; Sam getting around on the deck to show the action rather than just hiding in the cabin. Slomo washing machine. Dee, on the helm: We've had some wet wild rides, and some sunny beautiful sailing. We've seen the fleet go in front of us, which is annoying. So we're doing our best to hang in there. And it's getting colder.

Kyle works on the clew of the MH0 (leech line?) while Alberto helps him. Alberto: Strange feeling now that the next land will be Cape Horn. Talks about going south; cold, big breeze. Abby, with windswept hair, talks about making the most of the sun and warmth while they can. "After a pretty heinous 24 hours of bouncing around." Kyle, in the dusk: Saying good bye to New Zealand. Going to a very remote part of the world. Compass rose closeup. Crew below getting undressed, workin on something in a headlamp. Abby getting doused in the pit. Slomo washing machine. Crash cam from the stern of Thomas being washed off the aft pedestal. Thomas, below, talks in French.

Daryl on the helm takes spray in the face as they sail fast on port gybe. Horace, sitting behind him, talks about the wind is coming. Going fast to get to the south. Fighting with everyone around them. Slomo. Kevin drinks water in slomo. Slomo washing machine. Carolijn spraying and wiping her face below. Getting undressed. Other boat alongside; presumably that's TTToP when Dongfeng passed them. Carolijn and Daryl eating below. Carolijn: Conditions right now actually very nice compared to what's to come. Noticing the water cooling down. Heading straight south at 23 knots. It's very noticeable that the air and water temperature are going down.

Nicolai handles a sheet, takes spray. He talks about J0 vs. MH0. Talks about how it's good getting south; he doesn't mind the cold. "Must be close to Dongfeng though?" Slomo spray. Surfing fast with Nicho on the helm. "A week of pretty full on with 30 to 40 knots, maybe gybing along the ice gate. Need a bit of gybing practice anyway I reckon. Be all right this time. I was doing plenty of gybes coming into Auckland with everything up. Won't be doing that bit of drama again, guaranteed. Slomo washing machine. Martine below getting her foulies on, stretches her neck. "It's already pretty wet, and we haven't even got there... It's not going to be easy, but looking forward to the highway that takes us all the way to South America." Slomo of her taking spray. Favorite mainly because of that brief interview with Nicho talking about gybing.

Slomo spray looking forward. Cockpit washing machine. Ratcheting the stack. TJ, at the nav station, talks to SiFi: "That's an interesting one. What did happen? Because I was asleep. I woke up and we were in front." SiFi: A little bit lucky, but well-executed by the boys here. He explains that they could see the boats in front just stop. TJ goes on deck. Nick with a newly shaved mohawk (?) takes spray in slomo. Below, Charlie (also with a newly shaved head) talks about leading. Don't put too much stock in it. But a confidence boost. He puts on his foulies; talks to SiFi about their performance. Late to go to the masthead. Charlie goes on deck. "We're going well." More washing machine; more slomo spray.

Sailing south on port tack at sunrise. Washing machine. Bianca, in the cockpit, cheers they're having entered the Southern Ocean (she thinks). Dee: We're still winning. Enjoy it while we can. We had a great first 48 hours. Now have the fleet breathing down their necks. Sending it into the south. Isn't getting cold yet but it will be. Slomo washing machine cascade from the companionway.

Shifting sails to leeward for a tack. Crew working on the foredeck with a hovering helicopter ahead of them. Slomo of Frederico grinding with Brunel and a New Zealand headland in the background. Bianca, below, talks about sailing away from New Zealand. Awesome going into the Southern Ocean again, going around the Horn. Thanks Auckland for the support, spectators, especially her family and friends. Frederico (I think?) in his bunk. Liz, in her bunk, recaps that they've sailed upwind a couple hundred miles from Auckland to East Cape, tacking, peels. Not much sleep; a lot of stacking. Went pretty quick. More slomo with Brunel in the background. Liz: On the southern highway, straight to the ice gate for us. About 48 hours... Way too wired to go to sleep. (She mimes going to sleep.) Bianca spills up spilled rice in the galley. "I want my mum." I haven't exactly found my sea legs yet. Lucas: It's not as bad as the time I spilled shit everywhere. That was a lot worse. Bianca asks Sam, "Were you on that leg? It was a full explosion." Lucas: "Nah; he was on another boat. Getting _ridden_." Lucas, brushing his teeth, talks about lack of sleep: You think everything's funny. You think everything's shit, or you think everything's funny. Bianca: Just let me clean up my shit... in peace. Lucas: She hasn't got to the funny part yet. [They laugh.] They keep talking (with Liz commenting in the background) as we see a drone shot circling TTToP sailing upwind under J0/J3. [Favoriting mostly for Sam's cool slice-of-life on board. Really feels like being part of the crew.]

Slomo foredeck action beating out from Auckland. Slomo grinding. Slomo sunset, headland. Witty, below: Had a bad start, so pushed really hard to catch up. Haven't had any sleep, really. Slomo shot of land. Witty: We can see everyone. At the top of the Bay of Plenty. Drone shot circling Scallywag as they sail upwind. Ben, below: Upwind for almost 24 hours. No one's had much sleep. Get right into it, huh? Ben stacking below. Like the Cape Town start. He talks about Tom, the new crewmember: Tommy's great. Unreal. New bit of fresh energy for the team. Tom: A bit of a baptism of fire. Nine years since I did the last race. Not as fit and agile as I used to be. Shot of him moving he stack on deck. Drone shot of Scallywag pounding to weather. Tom, below: Balance between not dropping off the pack, yet not busting the boat. High drone shot with East Cape (I think?) in the background. Favoriting mostly for the first drone footage of the leg, flying the drone in stronger wind.

Slomo foredeck action beating out from Auckland. Slomo grinding. Slomo sunset, headland. Witty, below: Had a bad start, so pushed really hard to catch up. Haven't had any sleep, really. Slomo shot of land. Witty: We can see everyone. At the top of the Bay of Plenty. Drone shot circling Scallywag as they sail upwind. Ben, below: Upwind for almost 24 hours. No one's had much sleep. Get right into it, huh? Ben stacking below. Like the Cape Town start. He talks about Tom, the new crewmember: Tommy's great. Unreal. New bit of fresh energy for the team. Tom: A bit of a baptism of fire. Nine years since I did the last race. Not as fit and agile as I used to be. Shot of him moving he stack on deck. Drone shot of Scallywag pounding to weather. Tom, below: Balance between not dropping off the pack, yet not busting the boat. High drone shot with East Cape (I think?) in the background. Favoriting mostly for the first drone footage of the leg, flying the drone in stronger wind.

Parade out to the boat. Someone shouting, "¡Vamos! ¡Vamos!" Blair thanks the crowd; tussles a kid's hair. Shakes hands, gives kisses, makes the shaka sign. Blair and Tamara wave as they dock out. Blair and Xabi fist-bump. Lots of fans. Start. Ñeti on the bow gives distance to the line. AFter the start, sailing with the other boats. Rob: "Bit of a righty here." They call to Dongfeng: "You tack!" They tack. Close duck by TTToP, Vestas. Grinding. Comig into the leeward mark. Dongfeng close astern. Slomo of Ñeti on the bow. Blair fiddling with the clew. Sophie and Tamara stacking the J3.

Parade out to the boat. Someone shouting, "¡Vamos! ¡Vamos!" Blair thanks the crowd; tussles a kid's hair. Shakes hands, gives kisses, makes the shaka sign. Blair and Tamara wave as they dock out. Blair and Xabi fist-bump. Lots of fans. Start. Ñeti on the bow gives distance to the line. AFter the start, sailing with the other boats. Rob: "Bit of a righty here." They call to Dongfeng: "You tack!" They tack. Close duck by TTToP, Vestas. Grinding. Comig into the leeward mark. Dongfeng close astern. Slomo of Ñeti on the bow. Blair fiddling with the clew. Sophie and Tamara stacking the J3.

Parade out to the boat; conch being blown. Simeon steers with one hand and waves with the other as they leave the dock. Brad, on the bow, talks about a lot of emotions but trying to keep the eyes on the prize. Auckland put on a great show. Hard to leave it to be honest. Start, with AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Nicolai on the helm: "Okay; we're racing." Brad hiking. Sailing upwind with other boats crossing (all the other boats in the shot). Brad hoisting the A3 as they approach the weather mark. Rouding the weather mark. Shot of TTToP screwing up; heeling bigtime with their A3 not deployed (keel position issue?). Gybing, running. Simeon talks about leaving Auckland, nice conditions at the start. Going into the open ocean now. Slomo spray as they go to weather. Slomo on the foredeck as they pack the A3, while sailing to weather under the J1.

Parade out to the boat; conch being blown. Simeon steers with one hand and waves with the other as they leave the dock. Brad, on the bow, talks about a lot of emotions but trying to keep the eyes on the prize. Auckland put on a great show. Hard to leave it to be honest. Start, with AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Nicolai on the helm: "Okay; we're racing." Brad hiking. Sailing upwind with other boats crossing (all the other boats in the shot). Brad hoisting the A3 as they approach the weather mark. Rouding the weather mark. Shot of TTToP screwing up; heeling bigtime with their A3 not deployed (keel position issue?). Gybing, running. Simeon talks about leaving Auckland, nice conditions at the start. Going into the open ocean now. Slomo spray as they go to weather. Slomo on the foredeck as they pack the A3, while sailing to weather under the J1.

Sailing south fast. Pole shots of the crew in the cockpit. Simeon on the helm. Double-heading with J0/J3? Cecile grinding. Simeon at the nav station reads a sched (or AIS?) of Scallywag's position. Jules: just passing the southern end of New Caledonia. Sailing a little further to avoid light air. Still heading south. Brad pulls a sail out from below. Sail change on the foredeck. Slomo washing machine. Simeon: Gained some bearing. Luke, below: Weather could allow Dongfeng and MAPFRE to cut the corner. Still anyone's race. Brad and Luke rock out, sharing a pair of earbuds. Jules and Simeon at the nav station. Jules talks about using the J0 now to give up some distance. Nicho talks about how they can do some things with Scallywag, but not with Dongfeng and MAPFRE because they're too far away. Can't get caught up in that. Pole shot of stacking the A3?

Crew goofing: "Ooooh! Let's go sailing." Sailing on port in stronger wind. Outrigger. Alex, Marcus smiling. Libby at the nav station. Pressure to the south. The more they can hook into that, the better. Trystan puts on foulies; talks about it being nice that they're dry again. Slomo shots of them sailing fast. Spray. Libby talks about trying to pass Akzo. Trystan lies in his bunk. Four days to go. Alex, above him, says it's three. "Last day doesn't count." Annemieke steers in goggles. Slomo spray coming over the bow.

Nighttime view up the main with the moon. A bird (from the silhouette it looks like a booby) perches on the head of the mainsail, then flies around near the masthead. Bianca talks about it. Henry: It's like the third bird encounter we've had. High drone shot during the day showing birds flying around them. Slomo shot of a booby (good view of it; I should check to ID it.) Lucas explains that they've just gone through the channel off New Caledonia's northwest tip. At the nav station, Brian and Nicolas talk about the passage, and about working out strategy. Brian focuses more on the next 6 hours. Dee, on the helm, says she doesn't know if having 2 navigators is a help or a hindrance. Brian jokes about them not fighting for the trackball. Dee talks about how it's good that they have a navigator looking at the strategic situation 24 hours a day, while still getting rest. Dee: So far it's worked out quite well for us. Below, Brian lies down to sleep while Nicolas continues at the nav station. High drone shot, again with birds. Nicolas talks with Annalise on deck. She wants some pineapple. Nicolas says they have some dried pineapple? Annalise: Yeah. And you're always pretty lucky if you get any. Annalise: Hopefully Akzo and Scally are in the 3-4 knots forecast up there (gesturing ahead). Nicolas talks about the wind.

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.

Carlo wears the Peter Gabriel cam on the foredeck. In the cockpit, Kyle says, "I hate it. It's the worst place on the yacht." Peter: "Occasionally you get absolutely soaked." Kyle: You're gonna get hammered. Have to have all your kit on, or just know you're gonna get cold and wet. Carlo, on the PG-cam, checks the hanks on the J1. Back on the stern, he talks about being the bowman. "I didn't really choose it, but we started as a team, and the position was open, and Bouwe just sort of pushed me into it. I had no experience on the bow at all. And through a lot of mistakes and patience of my teammates, I think I've got a pretty good grasp on it now." Bouwe, below: I think all great sailors have been a bowman at some point. People come on the boat and get stuck there, and strangely it's a key position. If you make a mistake it affects everyone. Carlo: I like it. Slightly dangerous, but I guess that makes it a bit more fun as well. Carlo on teh bow in the PG cam in slowmo. Peter: I don't think Carlo has a substitute for his role up there. Kyle: It's a bit of a Mexican standoff to see who's going to be the other one to go forward and help him. It's usually Pete, Louis, and myself who go forward to help him. And Capey. It'd be nice if he was a bit more independent, and didn't require so much help. [He grins at Carlo, on the helm behind him.] Bouwe, below: He's taken a job, a responsibility, and he does't make mistakes anymore. PG cam footage of Carlo on the bow gathering in the J1. Capey, below: I was a bowman once, about 35 years ago. I know what goes on up there. Bouwe: I could probably do the bow again on a small boat, a 30-footer. Capey: That's a job for young fellows. Fit young fellows. Carlo takes off the helmet cam and hands it back to Yann.

Pablo, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish about the competition. Rob gives a recap: heading southeast through the monsoon. Westerly breeze, big clouds, 10-30 knots of wind with big direction changes. A lot of work. They're a day behind the fleet. Giving it their best shot. Dongfeng on the bow. Fingers crossed we'll see AkzoNobel again before Auckland. Xabi looking through binoculars. Louis on the clew. Easing sails in a squall. Slomo spray on the bow. Blair and Willy grinding in slomo. Grinding in a squall. Rain clouds. Slomo rain. Tamara makes the shaka sign.

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."

Witty on the helm in stronger wind. Ben gives the shaka sign. Washing machine. Witty at the nav station: Very good 24 hours for the Scallywags. Have left the fleet 232 miles behind them. Witty: Just dumb luck. "Point and shoot." A little bit early days for the two red boats to think they've got it locked up. But time will tell. Washing machine. Sailing fast on starboard gybe. Libby: "There's very little you can say about the weather that's fact." Witty: "That's coming from a meteorologist." Libby talks about how this wind they're in was something they were planning for for a long time. But it then fizzled away as they were heading toward it. (But now it's here.) Washing machine. Antonio on the helm, then below: "It's great. We put all our cards on this one, and it paid off." Still a long race to go. Still the other doldrums to pass. Obviously it's good to have a 200 mile lead. But you never know. Slomo spray.

Drone shot of Scallywag approaching. Washing machine shot from the cabin. Witty with glasses at the nav station. 415 miles to the doldrums. Roll the dice. Would be nice to have a 15-mile lead instead of a 28-mile deficit to Akzo, but it's still going to come down to how they play the doldrums. Slomo washing machine. Antonio eating. "It's been relentless every day... Tough conditions." Looking forward to drying out in the doldrums. Haven't been dry in a weak. Slomo of Witty taking spray in the face on the helm. Closeup of the winch. Marcus talks about how he hasn't been across the equator yet. A little bit nervous. Witty: "King Neptune might be on board but it's not me." Ben grinding. Witty on the helm as they sail fast.

Drone shot of Scallywag sailing upwind under the J1 on port tack with an island in the bakcground. Witty on the helm. "I like to be in front, everyone likes to be in front, everyone likes a winner. Long way to go, though." Witty reminisces about racing in the good old days; not with this freeze-dried food. Cocktails. Drone shots. Doubleheading in strong wind. Washing machine. Trystan grinding. Alex on the helm. Slomo of Trystan (I think?) spraying water on his face. Water in the cockpit. Fish getting drenched in the pit. Annemieke wearing ski goggles while trimming. Marcus (maybe?) grinding in slomo. High drone shot looking down.

Simeon talks below. Fantastic to lead. Long way to go. Have to have confidence. Upcoming doldrums. Jules at the nav station talks to Simeon. Computer screen shows weather. Simeon: Pressure of being in the front and making choices that everyone else sees. A bit of a vulnerable spot. Justin, below: A lot of hurdles to get through. Maybe first into the doldrums, first out of the doldrums. Everyone working well. Good feeling. Cecille: Nothing's set in stone. Far from it. Washing machine shot of the cockpit from the cabin. Slomo spray from the cockpit. Nicolai getting drenched. Waterline pole shot. Slomo of cockpit. Pole shots from outboard. Nicho on the helm in rain and squally conditions. Simeon grinding. Looking up the slot with major firehose action. Martine and Jules grinding on one pedestal. Cecile: "It's wet! But fast." Nicolai, below, talks about blowing out a Cunningham ram. Losing oil for the Navtec system. Nicolai and Simeon working on the hydraulics below. Nicolai explains that the bigger problem is that the cunningham uses the same oil as the other systems. If they run out of oil it will affect other sail control systems. More shots of repairs as they bounce around.

Blaire, below, explains that they're in the northeast trades, and are dueling with Dongfeng. AkzoNobel and Scallywag down to leeward. Hoping next transition works in their favor. Knew this race was going to have a lot of transitions and compressions. Guys who went a different route managed to get in front, but there's at least two more transitions to come. Dongfeng is very equal in pace. Slomo washing machine shots from the companionway, cockpit, stern. Rob on the helm taking spray. Tamara trimming. Stern cam, mast cam, spreader cam footage of MAPFRE sailing fast on port.

Pablo, below, talks about the tricky conditions. Being in front of the front, losing the wind, and compression happening. Needing to decide where to be to catch the next wind. They're a little to the northeast, and they think it's good for them. It's middle of the night, Brunel, Dongfeng, and TTToP all very close to each other fighting to get the next pressure. Shot of them sailign fast on port, triple-heading. Dongfeng to leeward. Pulling down the J0 on the foredeck. Shifting the stack. Slomo of Dongfeng to leeward, of Xabi on the helm. Washing machine. Then light winds. Sophie on the foredeck as they slat in no wind. Stacking forward, with headsail rolled up as a windseeker. Chart screen. Drone shot of them triple-heading with Dongfeng behind them. Cool drone shots.

Nicho, below, talks about how cool it was last night pushing in 28 knots of wind. Can't talk on deck; just focus on your job. When the front that they're on breaks down there will hopefully be some compression. Pressure on the team, and has been since they damaged the mast in Leg 3. He thinks they're a better team than where they're sitting overall. Nicolai, below, talks about Simeon getting blown off the wheel, making a big bang. "Only one thing can make a bang that big, and that's him falling off the wheel." He just ran for the wheel and grabbed it. Crash cam footage of the incident. Simeon: "Reminds me of when I fall out of a tree as a young boy." At the nav station, Jules talks to Nicho about Dongfeng doing a peel; maybe that's why they fell back. Nicho: "We're just quick Jules." Jules: "The other two are quicker." Nicho laughs. Washing machine shots on deck, closeup of the rudder. Cool fisheye perspective shots. Stacking, shot from outside the lifelines with a GoPro on a pole. Slomo washing machine. Spray. Brad grinding. Someone (Luke?) gives a thumbs up. "Finally moving!"

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.

Charles driving fast on port gybe; firehose in his face. Washing machine with what loooks like J2 and a reefed main. Kevin, below, talks about going through a front. Is why they've been going northeast. To catch this pressure. If you're not overpowered you need to put up more sail. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.

Washing machine shot of cockpit. Slomo spray. Marcus, below, talks about how wet the boat is. "I've never seen boats like this. They are just So. Wet. It's epic. It's good fun though. Nonstop spray in your face; no reprieve." Fish, below, talks about fast sailing. Slomo spray on deck. More spray. Annemieke talks about holding on, it's pretty bumpy. Slomo spray washing over Annemieke. Alex at the nav station, with Libby behind him, makes a wrap with a tortilla and something in it. "It's almost like normal food." To Libby: "Cutting the corner again." Witty talks about food, mangoes. Libby talks about how the northern group will get into some lighter winds and they'll be able to close some distance. Shots of nav software. Fish: "It's all to play for. Like we saw in the last leg going the other way." The nav team is pretty happy with where they are and where they're going, and he has every confidence in them.

Kyle emerges from the cockpit. Major washing machine. Slomo washing machine soaks Carlo on the helm. Bouwe (I think?) trims on the stern. "Going to New Zealand now!"

Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy. Blair, below, talks about it being full-on going fast in the strong wind and big sea state. Talks about the competition. Dongfeng behind them, Brunel to leeward. Going well speed-wise against those guys. No wind in 12 hours. Night vision shots of the cockpit. Stern cam shots of rough conditions, washing machine. Spreader cam. Cockpit washing machine shots. Slomo of Támara getting doused while trimming. Slomo washing machine. Sailing fast in strong winds.

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.

Támara talks in the cockpit in Spanish about the competition while trimming. Rob is on the wheel behind her. A boat is visible on the horizon behind them. Rob, on the helm, talks about passing Taiwan and sailing north, away from New Zealand, to set up for a better wind angle once they get to the tradewinds. Slomo of Brunel to port of them, then of Brunel and Dongfeng. Slomo of Támara, Xabi. Grinding, slomo grinding by Blair. Closeup of winch. Pablo on helm with Brunel behind them and to leeward. Willy on the bow lowers a furled headsail.

Bird (a Brown Booby, I think?) flies overhead in slomo. Shot of a sheet, the horizon through the lifelines, nav software. Nicolas talks about being close to Brunel, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng. But just had a very bad cloud. Think they were on the right side, but then were on the slow side with very light wind, and so lost 3 or 4 miles. Which is a shame because they're fighting to stay close. Nicolas on deck talks to crew in the cockpit. Bianca talks about being on pace with the leaders. Henry looks forward. Someone (Liz?) gives Lucas a massage by stomping on his back with her feet. Liz talks about being up with the leaders. Nicolas, below: "On the third day of racing are still able to see the leaders. So for sure it's better for the mood, to have more motivation to fight... Hopefully they can have also a bad cloud and we can catch them." Slomo of booby.

Slomo on deck. Henry gets out of his bunk. Jokes about it being hard to get out of bed. Dee, below, talks about the difficulty of getting back up to speed in rough, upwind conditions. But good to have the energy provided by the crew who've been off for a leg. Lucas talks about it being a bit of a shock going offshore again; takes a while to get back into the rhythm. Bianca talks about struggling to find her sea legs. "But I've always been clumsy." She laughs. Nicolas: "Was good to have a leg off... I was quite tired... Enjoyed a bit my family; we had a baby on Leg 2... As a father I'm quite lucky." Henry: "I don't think I've missed the 3, 4, 5 wakeups a day you have to put up with." Dee: "I hope we did well. I've been driving... We're with the two red boats. And they always say if you're with a red boat you must be doing all right." She crawls into her bunk. Slomo on deck of Henry driving. Slomo spray.

Louis eats below. Someone (Peter?) is mic'd. Later, Louis is mic'd. It's pretty cool gettting good audio. Louis talks about the other boats, pulling away from them. Talks about sailing into the lee of Taiwan. "Always good to see them getting smaller, for sure." Going to sail into lighter wind, then increasing to 30 after they peel to the J2. Still fresh; only 24 hours into the race. Sally: The J1 peel is one of the hardest ones, and most annoying I think. On the bow getting hammered by waves. We see them in windier conditions, slomo of spray coming over the bow (with the J2 up). Sailing to weather in big waves and wind as the light fails. Epic stuff. I don't know quite what it is, but I love the cinematic look and feel Yann gets.

Rob, on the weather rail, talks about leaving Hong Kong, hard on the wind as expected, to the corner of Taiwan in the background. Also in the background (ahead of them): Dongfeng. Louis, with another competitor visible behind them (maybe Scallywag?) talks about working on the foredeck going to weather, getting washed into the J2, the uncomfortable nature of going to weather. Slomo of Louis. Shot of three competitors to weather: maybe (left to right) Dongfeng, AkzoNobel, and Brunel? Slomo spray on the bow. Slomo of Xabi gesturing, strapping the stack. Crewmember on the bow in spray. Rob grinding, slomo of Rob in spray securing the stack. Sophie talking a halyard forward. Lowering the J1 in rough conditions to switch to the (not yet unfurled J2) with 7 crew on the foredeck. They secure the J1, then unfurl the J2. Then, in lighter wind, Dongfeng a few boatlenghts to leeward, then passing in front of them with both boats under the J0.

Bernardo and Nicolas talk about being in the wind shadow of Taiwan. Francesca explains the wind reduction; quite shifty, just peeled to the J0. Can see the other boats quite close. Shot of two boats ahead of them. Nicolas talks about the wind. Brian, at the nav station, talks about the wind acceleration around the island. Got thorugh the first challenge, the monsoon wind between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Now in the lighter winds of Taiwan's wind shadow, but soon will be in the acceleration zone around the southern tip of Taiwan. Winds up to 30. Hope to get the J1 packed away, and the J2 and J3 ready. Going to be a bigger sea state, also. "That's our challenge tonight. Then tomorrow should be better conditions." Bernardo working on a bagged headsail; slomo of Lucas, Henry, and someone else in spray on the bow with competitor visible in the distance ahead of them.

Libby, wearing a GoPro (that really is a Garmin) in the prestart: "20 to burn; 1:10 to go." Witty, on the helm on the final approach to the line: "Deploy the MH0 guys! When you're ready deploy the MH0. Go, go!" Libby: "No burn time." We see the MH0 deploy. Libby: "No burn time; we're late." Close action as they're tacking out. Witty: "Nice to wn the start in our home town." Tacking out with other boats close. Slomo grinding. New crewmember Marcus talks excitedly about the good start. Marcus, grinding: "I"m still feeling it. Didn't get much sleep on the plane, so I'll be looking forward to getting a bit of sleep tonight. I doubt it though." He laughs. Libby on the LIbby-cam: "J1 on the next tack." António smiles in slomo. Witty steers.

Dockout. Francesca gives hugs. Dee talks about wanting to do a better job. Prestart. Other boats, sailing upwind out of Hong Kong with rest of fleet ahead of them. Nicolas looking at the tablet being held by Brian (dueling navs). Liz: Talks about the fleet already being a mile ahead, so they have some catching up to do. "It's what we do best." Liz steers in slomo; Nicolas scans the horizon for wind.

Slomo washing machine in the cockpit. Drone shot of TTToP sailing fast. Surfing shots from the drone. Francesca in the cabin: "We need to keep pushing." Bernardo, crouching in the pit, explains that they did well in the last sched, but they're to leeward, so their distance-to-finish hasn't gained as much. But they think the wind will favor them. In the hatch, Francesca talks about how good things are: Sun. "Elodie is driving so we are going fast. The sky is so nice. We have more than 20 knots. It's perfect." Shot of Elodie on the helm. Drone shots of them sailing fast. Bernardo: "We have to push... and see what the outcome of the leg is." Were unlucky crossing the equator with a few clouds. Wake shot.

Sunrise washing-machine shot on deck. Below, Abby does boat-captain stuff: bailing (?), inspecting things. "So, we're right in the back of the boat, checking for water." Pretty dry, she says. Giving a once-over to the hydraulics and other systems. "Part of the routine is preventative maintenance." On deck, she explains the boat captain role: Doing checks on the boat, wear and tear, systems maintenance. She tries to do it when she's on-watch, but sometimes she has to do it in the off watch. She puts on her foulies. She explains the watch system: 9 people on board, navigator is out of the rotation, so everyone does 4 on 4 off, staggered so someone comes on every 2 hours. She climbs into her bunk. Back on deck, she talks about calling all hands .Shots of her driving in the washing machine, grinding, slomo of her getting doused in the pit. She says it generally ends up that she cooks the meals, and keeps up with the food bags. Shot of her prepping a meal in the galley. "It's pretty non-stop... Never a dull moment." On the helm, she talks about how nice the conditions are. They're on-schedule, so no need to ration food or fuel. Talks about how they smell like they've been at sea for two weeks. Talks about how nice it is to get out of the doldrums and doing tradewind sailing.

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.

Closeup of chart software. Slomo of Bernardo on deck. Bernardo, below, summarizes their position. Talks about how all the gear makes them sweat a lot. Liz works on the watermaker pump, explaining what she's doing. Brian [Carlin]: "You would have made a good dentist." Dee talks about how Liz is very good at fixing boats, but doesn't have the empathy to work on humans. Shots of Liz soldering on the watermaker pump. "It's in, it's installed, it's working. We're gonna make some water to celebrate. It's like champagne. But it's water instead."

High drone shot of Scallywag sailing fast, triple-heading on starboard. Slomo washing machine. Grant, trimming in the cockpit: "When David Witt says to me, 'Come and sail the Volvo 65 with me', I said, 'Oh, that sounds like fun. Are they very wet?' He said, 'A little bit.' 'Are you sure?' He said, 'Wetter than anything you've ever sailed in your life.'" Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Ben on the helm. Drone shots.

Daryl on the helm in 20 knots of wind. Carolijn and Horace grinding. Charles clinging to the stern with rain beyond him. Washing machine. Horace makes the "No. 1" sign. Wake. Slomos: horace taking spray on the pedestal. Kevin on the bow moving a furled sail. Stacking. grinding.

Joan, in the cockpit, talks in Spanish as MAPFRE flops with no wind under cloudy skies. Rain; slomo of Sophie, Joan, Xabi grinding in the rain. Sophie and Támara on the bow in the rain. Moving fast in the squall, and... becalmed again. Crew looks for wind; Xabi discusses it. Blair hauls the clew aft.

Annalise stands on the bow with a glassy sea and clouds around her. Shot of raincloud behind them. Frederico points to port. "We have a twister. It's somehing new for me as well. And this one is connecting to the water already. It's not as big as the other one we have, but it might have a lot of breeze... Wait and see." Shot of the funnel cloud. Rain falling; crew rushes into the cockpit to shower. "Give us some soap!" Francesca, on the helm: "Main on. Someone!" Dee interrupts washing her hair to grind. Slomo of Martin grinding, grinning at Dee. Shots of dolphins under the bow. Dee, sitting in the forward hatch, points out where the different boats are. "It's the first time we've been clear north of everyone."

Crash cam footage from the stern cam: They're sailing in light wind and heavy rain in a squall. There's a flash of lightning and a loud crash. Rome, on the helm, jumps off the helm platform to crouch down in the stern. They laugh. Rome: "Holy shit!" Below, Kyle and Sam watch the footage on a laptop. Kyle: "He's very easily scared, that Rome-y. You'll walk around a corner and he'll jump. Very easily frightened." More of them watch and laugh. Rome: "Shat my pants it was so close." Sam, on deck, talks about having the lightning strike quite close, feeling the static through their bodies. "Bit close for comfort. Lucky we got out with the instruments unscathed." Night shot of distant lightning. Shot of the mast instruments at night. Bouwe at the nav station. Closeup of the compass dial. Slomo wake shot. Shot of passing Ghupuna; drone shots of passing Ghupuna. Sally, with a Scopolamine patch behind her right ear, looks at land. "Nice. It's a little bit of something besides blue water." Jens: "It's always nice to see land. It's only halfway, looks good. Have a couple of boats we want to catch." Yann, to Bouwe on the helm: "You like the green you're seeing, or...?" Bouwe: "No. I like more the beach, actually. I'm more a beach man." Shots of the island. Abby and Sally working in the pit. High drone shot of Makira behind them.

Slomo shot of sunrise clouds on the horizon ahead of them with a distant sail: AkzoNobel. Brian shoots from the foredeck facing aft; Dee is sitting near him, while Liz calls from the wheel: "I told you I had a halo, but nobody ever believes me." Dee: "We were in sight of Vestas, and now AkzoNobel and a red boat [Dongfeng] which is very exciting." Dee discusses their position with Annalise and someone else on the bow in the half-light. Night shot of stars, red-illuminated sails. Sunrise shot slatting with no wind. Elodie looking thorugh a hand-bearing compass. Bernardo and Francesca sit nearby. Francesca points out the nearby boats: "Dongfeng is there, AkzoNobel is here. And Vestas is there. We are in second. It's all about Elodie." Elodie laughs. "No. What is important is our spot at the finish." Bernardo: "It doesn't matter how you start; it's how you finish." Elodie: "It's good for the morale of the troops." Shots of a distant competitor. Shot of someone on the helm (maybe Annalise?) with the sunrise behind her. Elodie, on the bow, calls to the stern: "Three degrees we gained." Then quieter, to Francesca sitting next to her: "I think." She takes more bearings; they talk about Támara on MAPFRE. Drone shot of TTToP sailing in light wind.

Joan talks in Spanish about the Solomons, wind, squalls, complicated strategy, Dongfeng ahead, and the other boats behind them. Xabi talks about how they've been in this situation before, lead by Dongfeng through much of the leg. "Now we've gained as much as possible, and wait for our opportunity." Talks about the doldrums coming up. Night shot of distant lightning silhouetting the helmsman. In the day, Xabi in the pit. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them and to port with an island below them. Stacking. Green island to leeward. Pablo grinds with an island below them. Stacking forward. Shot astern with a whale surfacing; then slomo of the whale surfacing. AkzoNobel behind them. Dongfeng ahead and to weather. Light winds. AkzoNobel close behind them. Willy looking through binoculars. Drone shot of a fishing boat with a purse seine and MAPFRE in the background. Circling drone shot of MAPFRE with Dongfeng visible in 3 miles away, ahead and to weather.

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.

Xabi, at the nav station, talks in Spanish about squalls, competition, Solomon Islands. On deck, Rob talks about the wind and the squall; future conditions. Pablo talks on the deck in Spanish about the competition. Closeup of nav computer screen showing the four lead boats all lined up. Shots on deck of fast sailing in a rain squall. Crash cam stern cam footage of Xabi getting washed off hte aft end of the cabin and ending up on the cockpit sole next to the middle pedestal. Hope he's okay. Slomo shots of competitors: AkzoNobel and Dongfeng to port, and Vestas to starboard. Slomo faces in the rain. Low-altitutde drone shots of MAPFRE sailing under full main and MH0.

Spreader cam view of Liz working the clew. Shot looking forward at outrigger lashed to the lifelines next to the stack. Liz, on the helm: "Spend long enough next to the good guys and it's bound to rub off." They're up at the front of the fleet. "We might have been called the rookies, but we've got a lot of skill and talent on board." Bleddyn takes the helm from Liz: "Nice to see that we're back in the game." Frederico on the pedestal talks about their improvement. Annalise: "I think we're getting better at figuring out modes. That's what the other teams have on us; they've just got so much experience." Slomo closeup of Bleddyn's hands on the wheel.

Justine trims. "Main on." Jérémie grinds. We see a series of closeups: The chain drive in the pedestal turning. The drive linkages and drive shafts. The winch drum. The drum turning. The sheet coils on the drum. The mainsheet block. The mainsail, looking up. Time-lapse view of the instruments on the mast. Fom top to bottom: Boatspeed, True Wind Direction, Relative Wind Angle, True Wind Speed, Heading (degrees True). Speed gradually builds during the time lapse from 16.3 to 18.9. Shot shifts to slomo as spray comes over the bow. Shot of the keel bulb under water to weather. Kevin working the bow in spray. Crew in the cockpit: Carolijn on the helm, Horace trimming, Daryl on the pedestal, Franck standing to leeward. A small ship is several miles away to leeward, approaching on a collision course. Kevin looks at them through binoculars. Charles talks to them in French on a handheld VHF. Kevin explains that Charles talked to them, and they said they were happy to bear away a bit so as not to cross in front of them. Kevin: "Charles told them that was very nice, but that if they can also grab AkzoNobel to leeward of us that's perfect as well." Martin asks if they could be pirates. Carolijn laughs: "Very friendly pirates." Kevin explains they are laying cable or a military vessel or something like that. Carolijn makes a lanyard-pulling motion (like "honk your horn!"), then waves to the ship, which is approaching them a half mile away on their leeward quarter. She gives a thumbs up. Carolijn: "Looks like something military. They are French-speaking, so I'm guessing something to do with New Caledonia." Slomo shots: Carolijn and Justine grinding on the aft pedestal, someone trimming, Franck on the helm, spray, Carolijn taking coils off a winch, Horace giving a thumbs-up from the clew of the J3, Carolijn spraying her face from a water bottle.

Bleddyn trims. Beyond him, Vestas is a few miles to leeward and slightly ahead. Bleddyn: "Earlier, MAPFRE sailed past us as if we were anchored, which was a bit frustrating." Now Vestas is doing well against them too. Trying to match speeds with them, which will drag them to Hong Kong with the leaders. "That's the aim. It's frustrating, but it's good. We're pushing ourselves hard." Closeup of Bleddyn's hands. "I'm like a snake; I'm just peeling my skin." Closeup of the eye lead of the J3 (I think?) as crew shifts stack forward in the background. Dee talks to a crewmember about a competitor: "The header we're expecting, they've just sailed loads of extra miles for no reason." Dee calls the chant as they shift the stack forward. Closeup of tightening the stack ratchet. Slomo of someone (Francesca?) looking through a hand-bearing compass at a competitor. Martin, on the helm in his max foulies, talks about a squall with a twister that they just managed to avoid. "The waterspout was to leeward and we had the top of it to weather. We went straight under it."

Great drone shots of Brunel triple-heading on starboard gybe. Good overlapped audio from the boat. On the stern Bouwe talks about how they're not as fast as the other boats in the middle wind ranges. Maybe trimming, driving. A bit of an Achilles heel. Losses less than on the second leg. Managing to hang on; hopes the gap doesn't get any bigger. After the Solomon Islands will be other conditions and opportunities. Slomo wake shot with interesting cascading-curtain-of-water effect.

Sunset washing machine shot of the cockpit from the cabin. Slomo sunset shot. Dee and Liz at the nav station wave at Brian, shooting them from the media station. Slomo of Bleddyn spraying fresh water on his face and grimacing. Elodie, below, talks about the conditions: 20-25 knots; the sea state makes things difficult. Had a not-very-good sched; not as fast as Dongfeng and AkzoNobel. Slomo sunset shot of Bernardo on the aft pedestal in spray. Below, Bernardo says: "It's kind of like living in a washing machine. No, it's kind of, having a house by the water, and you can listen to the waves every night. But then you go for a swim every half an hour... Not that bad. Can't complain."

Drone shot of Scallywag triple-heading on starboard with a low headland behind them. Alex, taking off his foulie top below, explains that the routing has had them gybing along the coast. "It's just been a gybe-a-thon." Drone shot from before continues, showing Scallywag gybing to port. Audio has engine start (for keel ram hydros) and winches; I think it might actually be live audio recorded on the boat edited in with the drone footage. Which, if so; nice. Annemieke grinds. Closeup of a winch during what looks (from the wake out of focus in the background) like a gybe the other way (from port to starboard). Below, Alex talks about how his watch was lucky, because the gybing was mostly happening while they were on-watch. But the off-watch got basically no sleep at all. Slomo spray on deck. Washing machine. Below, John says, "Five days in Melbourne and everything seems rosy, and then you get back on board and go, Oh my God; what am I doing?" Talks about having missed off watches due to gybing. He preps some food, shows it to the camera. "Looks like baby food." He tries it. "Not too bad." Another drone shot of the gybe aftermath.

Drone shot from close ahead as Brunel triple-heads on starboard gybe. Nice audio editing; I doubt it's true audio recorded onboard during the drone shots, but it's integrated nicely. A voice (I think Rome's?): "Little trim. Hold that." Drone shot from port quarter of Brunel surfing; as the drone circles astern we see TTToP a few hundred yards ahead and to weather. Closeup of Rome trimming. Kyle, on the stern, talks about TTToP: "Turn the Tide are two boatlenghts behind us. We're trying to fight them off. They rolled us on the gybe before, then we managed to sneak through to leeward of them. Now they've accelerated again and are threatening to roll us. Nice and close. We'd rather be at the front of the fleet, obviously. But we're battling it out for last place." Shot of the cockpit with TTToP chomping along in their wake. Slomo washing machine. TTToP surfing behind them. Rome, below, talks about being in the front pack at the beginning of the leg, but now they've fallen back a bit. Talks about TTToP interaction. Still in touch with the front of the fleet. He talks about how on other boats crews have sailed together for years. "Kind of learning as we go. Hopefully we get back in touch, and get back in the game." Shot of a gybe in the cockpit.

Slomo spray, washing machine. Clear sky with low sun behind them. Shot of MAPFRE crossing ahead of them under cloudy skies. Dongfeng gybes from port to starboard. Justine grimaces as she grinds on the pedestal. Shots of MAPFRE ahead of them on port gybe; Vestas farther ahead of them on (I think) starboard gybe. Sunny washing machine shot of cockpit. Closeup of compass. Sunset spray. Charles at nav station, talks about the last 26 hours. "A bit fight against all the opponents. Speed, clouds, very interesting, very complicated. Lots of shifts. I think we are all exhausted. Now there is a big split." Three boats going offshore, rest going inshore. Sunset wake shot.

Slomo shot of washing machine cockpit with Brunel to leeward. Francesca, on the stern, with Brunel now behnid them to leeward. "If we have made some gains it is perfect. We will have time to sleep in the coming days. I think we need to push as hard as possible now." Slomo of Brunel just ahead of them and to windward. Dee, sitting behind Liz on the helm, talks about the competition. Dee: "The fact that they are that close, but more importantly that we can see all of the others makes it very exciting." Bleddyn leans out to run a line through the stern-rigged outrigger while someone else holds him by the waist; Brunel is visible to leeward. Brian T., leaning against the stack: "It's going well. We're within sight of every boat. Which is great after 24 hours of sailing... Everything you see on the video about how wet they are is totally true, Brian. They are soaking wet. But really nice, really strong boats. Really incredible sailing with the crew." Dee talks about the upcoming day. "When the other boats are this close nobody really cares about how tired they are about gybing."

Lightly attended dockout parade. Motoring out, Xabi talks while steering. Pretty sure he misspeaks, saying, "we're starting Leg 4 from Melbourne to Auckland" (rather than Hong Kong). Happy with how things are going, and with the crew. Only team not changing the crew. There's a shot of Joan at the nav station with a bunch of crew hovering behind him as he explains something. Then (weirdly) the audio cuts out as the video continues. Then we see the dockout from the deck. Rob, on deck, says he's surprised at the number of crew changes happening. Their aim was to keep the same crew as much as they could. Xabi, on the wheel, says he hopes their time sailing together can give them an advantage. Shots of the start. After the start, Louis stacks the J3 forward. Shot of Brunel ahead of them and to leeward. Sophie shifting the stack to leeward. Slomo spray. Epic spray on the bow engulfing Louis. Vestas ahead of them and to leeward as they reach down the coast. Willy in slomo spray.

Internal stacking. Liz explains they had to sail upwind to Mornington, and now have to sail out of Port Phillip Bay. Slomo spray. Decided to peel to the J2, but then decided to stay with the J1. Had a big sea state against the tide ocming out the entrance. "It's been like a washing machine." She talks about Scallywag and AkzoNobel behind them to weather, and points out "Straya".

Dongfeng sailing upwind on port tack with the J1 inside Port Phillip. Looks like this is the final tack toward the exit from Port Phillip, so the boats ahead of them are (right to left, that is, near to far) Brunel, MAPFRE, and Vestas. Crew shifts the stack to leeward, meaning they're coming up on their tack to starboard. Outrigger is rigged forward, so presumably it will be a reach after they tack. Next they're on starboard reaching. Spray. Someone's hat blows off. Slomo spray. Brunel close ahead to leeward. Then they appear to be abeam. Slomo with sunset.

Slomo of AkzoNobel sailing upwind, close-hauled on port tack. Nicolai, below, talks about the remaining leg for them. Nicho, at the helm: "Learned the same lessons I think I've been taught before: never to be complacent. I don't think we were complacent, but we had one terrible gybe which I'm more responsible for than anyone, and that cost us the leg. And the usual story, that you make that mistake in the middle of nowhere, and you can pay for it for a long time. So that's what we did this leg." Martine, on deck: "What I've learned on this spedific leg? Probably a lot of patience. And try to find joy, and happiness, in little things every day... Sometimes a bird, or whale-watching, has made my day, a funny joke; anything. Always try to find the thing that makes you happy." Brad sleeping on the foredeck in bare feet. Nicolai, below: "I think this leg's been quite a challenge for many of us. Not so much a normal Volvo leg, physically a challenge, but more mentally and team-wise, it's been a tough one. But it's also been one that we probably needed to have to keep getting better and better, and hopefully learn from it, all of us, and become a stronger team. And I think we are handling quite well the headwinds we have, no issues within the team, it's all head down and keep working whatever we find ourself in and that's quite positive and quite good." Slomo of someone's hands on the wheel.

Ben, on the aft pedestal, takes a washing machine wave in the face in slomo. He turns to the camera and says "Merry Christmas."

Vestas sails fast on starboard gybe with a reefed main (I think?). Slomo washing machine shot from behind the helm. TJ, below, is eating. On screen title: Tom Johnson presents / A Christmas Story. Tom: "Hello Sam, said TJ. There once was a boy trying to make it home for Christmas." Stacey, eating below, talks about how they're 2 days away from Christmas. Stacey explains that she's not from that part of Australia, but a family is coming to see her. TJ talks about the big, cold low-pressure system that prevented them from gybing to get north. Shot on deck shows helmsman NOT standing on the helm platform, but instead on a stacked sail. Below, Sam asks Stacey, "Motivation to go faster?" Stacey: "Yeah. We've been down in the cold too long, and we're pretty keen to get out of there... Any minute now it's gonna be balmy and warm." Below, Tony eats, and explains that real Christmas for him is getting away with the family for a summer holiday. Stacey jokes that this isn't warm. Tony exhales so you can see his breath. TJ keeps telling his Christmas story, trying to get there to see his family on Christmas. Father and mother; his sister he hasn't seen for 3 years. And his niece Lucille that he's never even met. Talks about that being a hard thing about his job: Always moving. Charlie talks with Simon (off camera) about how they should do stealth mode now, becaue once MAPFRE is within 200 miles of the finish it will end. TJ talks about stealth mode. Charlie talks about how they've decided when to gybe, strategic consideration with Brunel. TJ: "TJ's storytelling voice... You'll find out how the story ends in a couple of days. Hopefully it's a happy story." Tony on the helm. TJ: "He's bringing his sled. A big sled, Vestas Wind."

At the nav station, Capey talks about how they've gybed and are heading north. "Exactly one Hobart Race away from being in Melbourne." Bouwe, below, talks about Vestas and how they have a shot at third. Vestas went into stealth mode this morning. Ridge of high pressure to cross; still tricky. Brunel might go into stealth mode in the high pressure, he says. Stern cam / crash cam view of Brunel sailing fast with full main on port gybe. Then, handheld shot from behind helm of Brunel on starboard gybe. Washing machine. Sunset off stern. Helmsman (can't tell who) gives a thumbs up. Slomo shots of washing machine.

Slomo shots of the crew working in the cockpit. Washing machine. Nicho comes below, takes his gear off, washes his face in the galley. Nicho: "You see when you take certain medication, 'Don't operate this vehicle when tired and drowsy'? Well, everyone's operating this vehicle tired and drowsy." Talks about getting rest, food, makes for better decisions. Martine comes below, takes off her gear. "For me sleep and food go side by side. The less I sleep the more I have to eat to have energy." Martine eats. Nicolai talks below about the balance between sleeping and eating. Brad: People sacrifice a lot to get a couple of minutes extra sleep. People don't brush their teeth to get a couple more minutes of sleep. Don't want to name names." Martine gets in her bunk. Nico, talks about the upcoming stronger conditions. "Plenty of sleep. Just look at me." He grins.

Spreader cam view as TTToP triple-heads on starboard with J2 and J3. Bow cam view looking aft. Stern cam view of washing machine. Martin (I think) on the helm. Spreader cam looking at the cockpit, mast cam looking at the bow. Slomo of Dee rimming the main from the stern. Washing machine from cabin.

Spreader cam view of AkzoNobel sailing in 10 knots of wind under MH0 and J3 on starboard gybe. Slomo shot of which being trimmed. Below, Nicolai talks about his second Volvo being different than his first one. "Still having issues and battles, and that's part of the race... Not where we want to be right now, and we're in a tough position; we know that. All sailors... are used to being in deep holes, and having to dig their ways out." Slomo closeup of Nicolai. He talks about how you always have to put a huge amount of effort in just to be in the race, to compete. "Of course it's a bit painful that you don't get the result you aim for, but you gotta keep your head down and keep putting in the effort, because it will change eventually... You can never regret putting in the effort, no matter how it turns out. That's just the way you do it. You'd rather aim high and fail rather than aim low and hit." Slomo shots of him. Slomo shot of the helm, the horizon.

Below, Bouwe says their current ability to hold onto Vestas means they're doing a good job. He thinks they'll have a chance when they approach Melbourne. Shots on deck. Shifting the stack forward. Slomo waves. Drone shots of Brunel triple-heading with the A3.

Liz is steering as TTToP sails on port gybe with full main in 15 knots of wind. Francesca trims the main. Bianca carries her gear to the stern where she gets dressed (maybe she was using it as a bathroom too?) Liz talks about how they're not THAT isolated, because they have the fleet around them. Also there are a lot of islands in this part of the Southern Ocean, so there is shipping and fishing boats. "It's the next part of the Southern Ocean where you feel really isolated." Frederico talks about isolation not crossing his mind much; too busy sailing the boat. In the companionway, Bleddyn brushes his teeth. Cabin shot of the crew on the stern, Elodie, trimming, calls "Main on." Wisdom tucked into the pit coaming. Below, Bleddyn (?) gets dressed. Slomo closeup of Bianca bundled up on deck. Slomo closeups of Nicolas, Francesca (who laughs), Dee, Lucas, Martin. Drone shot from close to the port quarter as TTToP triple-heads on port gybe. More cool drone shots with low sun behind them. Interesting that I think Jérémie managed to get everyone in the crew (other than himself) in this video.

Cabin shot of the stern with Dongfeng sailing fast under gray skies. Slomo waves, spray, washing machine. Of the three on the stern, in closeup it looks like Marie grinding. She makes a shaka sign. On the helm, Fabien eats something orange. On the mainsheet, Stu looks resolute; starts to eat something. Below, Charles takls about the remainder of the leg. Five days to go, 2,000 miles. Two big decisions: first one tonight, second one in two days, when they decide to go north to go to Melbourne. That will be the key probably. For the moment, strongest point of Dongfeng, reaching. MAPFRE was quite fast downwind. "I would say that 80-90% of the race now is downwind. Unfortunately it's not the big reaching. I think everyone is happy to be ahead of MAPFRE, but everybody knows that they are not far... We will do it but for sure it will be a great fight.... As you know it is a very important leg... To be first is good but it's always a lot of pressure." Shot of writing on a Dongfeng bumper sticker on the cabin bulkhead: "Never give up. - Wolf" On the stern, Marie throws bits of food for the person trimming the main (Stu?) to catch in his mouth. He succeeds; they high-five.

Slomo of Jules on the stern (steering?) in purple cap. He looks up. Focus shifts to show albatross. Slomo shots of albatrosses. Slomo waves off the stern.

Slomo through wheel of the ocean. Slomo water in cockpit, Martine's corn rows. Below, Martine talks about how the double points in the leg are going to really hurt them. "It's a bit disappointing. But it's still a long race to go so the chances are still there." Simeon: "We're up to speed, but yeah, a long way behind the pack. We're doing good polars... fingers crossed there are still some opportunities." Nicho: Talks below about the same thing (double points, finishing at the back)... "One maneuver gone wrong, and before that we were competing nicely. People gotta... draw faith that we can do it. We can match up with these guys. Frustrating part now is we've gotta wait for our next opportunity. We probably won't get another opportunity on this leg. Sadly I think we're done. It's not gonna stop us trying." Simeon: "It makes you realize that one bad gybe can cost you a lot in one day... Yeah, it's a setback, but the race's not over." Martine, chewing and staring into space: "Well. You gotta have the bad ones to realize the good ones. Yeah."

Dee, at the nav station, explains about how the ice limit has been moved since they started racing, and the effect of that is that they have different wind conditions to sail in. "To the north of us is a big high pressure, to the south is a barrier we can't quite cross, and it leaves us this very narrow corridor of breeze to sail in." She explains this is her sixth time in the Southern Ocean, and she doesn't remember sailing this far north in this area. Doesn't think she's sailed north of the Kerguelen Islands before. Talks about climate change as a possible factor in pushing the ice further north. Harder work to sail this way, but better safety. Screenshot of the ice limit and Kerguelen Islands. Stacking. Francesca does the Twist to pull a stacking pole from the deck. Franchesca on the helm. Crew plays roshambo. Slomo washing machine over Bianca (I think) on the aft grinder pedestal.

Epic slomo shot of a big Southern Ocean wave. Nicho, below, eating: "Batten fouled again and another repair again. Getting there. Main's back up, so it's not slowing us down any." Justin, below, repairs a batten. "This is Frankenbatten. It's now got four different battens in it." He shows his work: The batten with multiple clamps holding the pieces together while glue cures. "We're obviously trying to be tidy Kiwis who use as much [something] as we can, 5200." There are clamps made from vice grips, from channel lock pliers with a big rubber band around the handle squeezing it closed, and a high-tech looking black clamp. Don't tell the media guy, but I've raided his camera box and found a clamp. Which I'm sure he's going to work out when it gets back that it's been used for some sort of repair." Nicho: "We don't mind doing all these running repairs all the time as long as we can go at pretty much full pace. But it wears everyone out. I don't think Brad has had a full off watch for a long time now. [To Brad.] When was your last full off watch?" Brad (sitting near the galley, pulling off bits of tape): "Can't remember my last full off watch." Brad, to James: "Haven't seen land for over a week now. As far away from anything as you can possibly be, more or less. It's not too bad. It's actually quite cool. Really good breeze, good waves. Good sailing." Martine coils lines in the pit, gets washed over by a wave. Below, she talks to Konrad: "Southern Ocean has been pretty cool, going downwind, in these big waves, sailing during the night with big seas. Cold weather as well. Everythying is dripping on the boat, but sailing has been pretty good, besides our breakdown. As long as we have all the sails up, it's all good." Nicho: "You have moments when you wonder what you're doing down here. Other moments quite in awe of the natural bueauty and harshness of the place... How vulnerable you are down here on a little carbon shell in the middle of nowhere. You want the leg to be over, but also how special it is to be here." Slomo of Nicho on the helm, albatross flying by. [Side note: Again, no Simeon. I'm increasingly of the view that Nicho is actually functionally skipper at this point.]

Slomo shot of waves through the wheel. Interesting slowed-down audio. An albatross flies by. Slomo grinding. Slomo faces; Carolijn on the helm. Slomo trimming. Below, Carolijn takes off her gear. She talks to Martin; behind Fabien is making food in the galley. Carolijn: "Yes, it's painful. Not necessarily painful, it's just tough. It's very tiring. You get to a certain stage where you're so tired that you start tripping over your own feet. If you don't watch out it can be quite dangerous." Talks about even 20 minutes lying down in your bunk, even if you don't sleep, helps you get the energy to make the next gybe. "I've lost count. I don't even know if we're halfway yet. Just in the last 3 hours of my off watch we've done 6 gybes?... Entertaining stuff." Fabien eats with a bit of a 1,000-yard stare. (Looking at the tracker through this section it's been brutal; Dongfeng and MAPFRE are at the front of the fleet within AIS range of each other having a running gybing battle to see who can stay closer to the exclusion zone.) Pascal, below, drops his head and rubs it. Looks tired. We pull back and see he's watching Charles at the nav station from his bunk. Charles talks to Martin: "It's very simple. During 30 hours we're having to gybe every hour so it's a nightmare. Not very funny but we have no choice. We have the ice limit for a good reason... You have to stack every time, 600 kilos each time... You don't manage to sleep... That's life at the extreme for sure. On the positive side, we are ahead with MAPFRE and fighting for the first place, so it's good."

Elodie, belwo, talks in French. I got nothing; the word "boat" occurs several times. We see her coming off the deck, dripping and her breath fogging. She preps a warm drink. Epic washing machine shots of the stern from the cabin as she steers. Shots from on deck as they surf fast. Slomo washing machine from the cabin. Cool drone shots of them surfing FR0, J3, and reefed main. (Seems like they're sailing a bit on the cautious side for the conditions, sail-area-wise. Which I'd expect, give Dee's brood of chickens she's trying to get safely to Melbourne. They're already likely to beat at least one boat that pushed too hard at the wrong time.)

Liz, below, smiling. "Basically, Lukey had one. He went hammering down a wave, nosedived, the rudder's came out of the water, I think. The cockpit filled up with water, and he was heeled over so much that the water came flying down the hatch. Because we were heeling over the wrong way. It went straight on me in my bunk." New socks were wet, boots filled with water, bunk now unusable so they have to share a bunk with the OBR. "Yeah." She nods. "Got a bit damp, really. Good day at the office." Crash cam footage from stern cam of the nosedive with Lucas on the wheel. Someone else is trimming the main behind him; Elodie is on the aft pedestal. She moves forward (in preparation for releasing the headsail if they gybe?), but Lucas gets it back. Slomo spray. Washing machine.

Sophie, below, stands close to the companionway. She is turning her head under a blast of air associated with the running engine, maybe? "I just found my hair dryer. It's so good. Ah! Who needs the hairdresser? For the first time getting dry hair. It's getting pretty cold out actually. I'd say the water is 5 degrees or colder. The Southern Ocean's awesome. We are making a lot of miles very quickly. We're going good I think. The albatross are pretty cool. There's like 10 of them following the boat. It's super cool. But it's pretty wet and a little relentless. It's what we expect I guess. It's a little crazy." Intercut with shot of the cockpit, slomo washing machine, albatrosses behind the boat. Nice portrait by Jen of my unproblematic fave.

Pretty clouds. Crew shifting the stack as AkzoNobel sails downwind with the main lowered. Nicho explains that they've just finished stackign in preparation for hoisting the main. Talks about the repair; difficulty of getting a glue cure in the cold conditions. Maybe having a chance to catch some boats. Main goes up slowly. Nico, on the stern: "Tracks popped straight off. So obviously it couldn't hold in the conditions... Hopefully we'll get it down now, and... try it again. Still 3,000 miles to go." (Side note: It sure seems like Nicho has basically taken over the boat. Is Simeon even in command at this point?) Lowering the main. Martine gets washed off the cabin top by a wave; catches herself. They struggle to lower the main. Jules talks about the fleet being gone, not wanting to get down south and have to beat back, which they can't do. Nicho responds: "Well, we can step it down later in the day. Get a plan for this track. Even if the fleet's gone, get to Melbourne on time... for the next start." Below, Brad takes off his foulies. Looks very discouraged. "Pretty frustrating working two or three days to get it done, it pops off so quickly afterwards." Talks about trying to jury something else up, hope that that works. Slomo albatross. Below, working on the track repair, Nicolai watches Simeon eats in the background. "We've got five tubes of glue left, which means after this we've got one more. So this better work." More repair attempts on the mast. Emily watches from the stern. Nicolai, below, explains that the glue needs 6 to 8 hours to cure. Going to sail some more, and then try to hoist again before sunset.

Southern Ocean waves. Slomo waves. Crew on stern as Vestas sails downwind in large seas. SiFi, below, describes what an ice gate is. Shot of the computer screen showing routing software and their track bumping up to the ice gate. Charlie, below: "It would be nice to have a little bit more freedom. And we wouldn't actually have to do this. But because we do we've gotten pretty good at." Explains that it takes about 40 minutes to gybe due to stacking. Talks about how many times they have to do it. SiFi talks about sailing along the edge of the exclusion zone with all the gybing. SiFi getting dressed. "It's quite nice on deck. Gearing up's a little inconvenient." Shots of crew on deck. Grinding, Stacking. Charlie steering. Jena, below: "I hope we don't see any icebergs." Chuny, below: "Safety first." On the stern (trimming the mainsheet, I think), Tony points out where the ice gates are, 60 miles away. Sam: "Who builds these gates?" Tony: "I don't know. Maybe they've got a deal with Trump. An imaginary fencing company. I wonder how high it is. Twenty-one feet?" Tom (I think?) says it could be like The Truman Show. The clouds coult be painted. Stacey and Tom join in. Jena: "We're actually in a big pool of water, and they're just moving the water underneath us. And we're not going anywhere." Tony: "We're actually in a room with a green screen behind us, and they're throwing buckets of water on us." Epic surfing shot from astern. Slomo washing machine.

Martin gets dressed below. Dee says something to him. He goes on deck. Washing machine. View of him steering. Epic slomo shot of spray enveloping the stern from both sides. Slomo spray off bow. Martin gets major spray in the face.

Bouwe, below, talks about how Dongfeng and MAPFRE are ahead of the low and have a better wind angle than Brunel does. Talks about where the boats are. How they were sailing yesterday in a top speed of 60 knots. "People have to remember that's Force 12. That's pretty scary. But everything is fine; the boat is in one piece. That's the most important thing. The people are fine as well." Talks about the outlook, that the people in front get to ride the front longer than them. But you never know; there's 4,000 miles to go. Coming into Melbourne can be tricky. "We got a mail from the Race Office that they had some breakages. Of course it's unfortunate for them.. just one of those things, a mistake.. of course it's expensive in multiple ways, result-wise probably not very good, and probably get a penalty as well, so it's a double whammy." Slomo shots on deck: waves, someone steering, grinding, washing machine in sun and high wind. Wake with birds. Someone on the bow with a new sail.

Apocalyptic slomo shot of light through dark gray clouds as spray swirls around the wake. Looking forward from the stern, they're sailing under J2 (I think) on the outrigger and reefed main. Someone calls "main on", and Nicolai grinds on the aft pedestal. He turns to the camera as he's grinding. "Into the Southern Ocean. This is where the fun begins." In slomo, Álex grins at the camera makes a peace sign, a thumbs up, and gestures forweard. Slomo spray.

Scallywag sails in heavy wind on port gybe with J2 (I think?) and reefed main. Slomo: Tom, on the helm, ducks spray. Parko (I think?) works on the outrigger rigged forward on the starboard (leeward) side. Slomo shots of spray as they sail on port with reefed main and J2. View of the stern with crew stacking aft. Washing machine. Slomo of someone grinding on the aft pedestal.

Xabi, below, talks about managing to be in the front in the first 24 hours, where the competition is, waiting for the wind to pick up. Repeats the same stuff (I assume) in Spanish. In the background Sophie does something in the galley. Shot from the cabin of crew at the back of the boat in windy conditions. Slomo washing machine shots. Grinding.

Docking out; waving to the shore. The start, with other boats converging on them from the weather side. Pablo on the helm; Sophie on the grinder as they interact with Brunel just below them. Someone (Blair?) calls out: "Come down, come down!" Shot of them overtaking Vestas from astern and to weather. Sophie holds a protest flag up; Brunel's bow is visible to weather. Vestas to leeward. Slomo of going to weather on port tack. Slomo of Sophie and someone else (Joan?) grinding on the aft pedestal. Dongfeng unfurling their FR0 (or J0?) to weather of them. Below, his face in shadow, Xabi talks about the leg so far. Good start around the triangle, now going upwind in almost 40 knots. "Right now we're fighting hard with Dongfeng and Brunel so we're very happy." Slomo of Támara in the cockpit cringing away from spray. Slomo of spray curling over crew in the cockpit, backlit by the sunset. Below, Xabi talks about how well the crew is doing so far. Cold and windy, but it's going to be like that for the next two weeks. Slomo spray on deck, double(?)-reefed main, Cape of Good Hope (?) in the distance. Below, Pablo leans against a bag labeled SURVIVAL SUITS, sleeping.

Simeon walks along the side of the boat, shaking hands with shore crew standing on the dock. Motoring out, Brad talks about how funny it is to be talking to lots of people on Facebook, on shore, and then leaving and realizing it's just the 10 of you for the next few weeks." Nicho, standing on the stern, talks about leaving. "Not nervous. But quite motivated, to take this thing on. This is a big leg, a double-point leg... It's a high-wind, high-risk, high-speed leg." The start; other boats. Scallywag dives below them from astern. Footage of them going very slowly in light wind. Someone (Nicho?) talks about getting the FR0 stowed. Nicolai on the helm as they sail fast on port tack. Nicho talks about them getting stuck in a light patch and the boats inshore getting away from them. "Long, long way to go yet." Slomo grinding.

Scallywag crew walks through the crowd during the dockout ceremony. Slomo of Fish hugging a young man/boy (son?) across the lifelines. Someone (António?) says goodbye to a toddler (son?) behind held by a woman. The boy holds a Wisdom plushie, inadvertently bopping the woman holding him (mom?) in the nose. Parko side-hugs a girl (daughter?). Witty at the helm takes them out from the dock with crowds visible behind them. Motoring out, Witty talks about double points on this leg. "We Scallywags need a podium on this leg into Melbourne, which would be nice." Talks about the wind on this leg. Standing by the mast as they motor out, Alex talks about being a bit nervous. It's his first Southern Ocean leg. "The race doesn't start here. It starts tonight." Parko, in the pit: "This is an important two miles out of 6,000. So it's just about sailing smart." We see the start, with all the other boats to leeward of them. Close action. Ben, on the bow, moving a sail.

Slomo shot up the slot as TTToP sails on port talk toward the sunrise. Drone shot from astern with AkzoNobel a few miles directly ahead of them; drone then circles TTToP and we see Scallywag a half mile astern of them and slightly to weather. Henry, in the cockpit with Scallywag visible behind him: "It's been all right. Pretty intense. Scallywag breathing down our necks, trying to catch AkzoNobel." Close drone shot as TTToP sails past the drone. Martin is trimming. Martin: "Traveler up... Hold." Sam: "How's the intensity, Martin?" Martin (glancing astern): "A bit too close for comfort I think. It's going to be a long, long day with this setup with three boats within two and a half miles. It's going to be an interesting finish." Drone shot of TTToP from bow with Scallywag close behind them. Henry, laughing: "Three boats have already finished, so it isn't that close. Nothing like fighting for a wooden spoon." He sticks his tongue out. Henry: "Never fought so hard to be not-last in my life. But if you're not first your last so it doesn't matter!" Francesca, on the helm, makes a face. Another drone shot, slowly circling to show Scallywag behind them, AkzoNobel ahead.

Pascal, at the nav station, talks about the last 100 miles to Cape Town. Standing in the cabin hatch, Stu talks about one time coming into Cape Town having a breakdown at the end that almost cost them a position. He sprays fresh water from a drinking bottle onto his face. Stu: "That is beautiful." Slomo shots of the cockpit: Carolijn trimming a line, Pascal (?) looking thoughtful, taking a line off the pit winch. Loud wind audio; mast cam view of two crew working on the bow in the spray. Looks like changing down to the J2, maybe? Bow cam shot, looking aft, of the new sail unfurling. Crew pulling the old sail, bagged, off the bow. Stern cam view, looking forward, with reefed (double-reefed?) main and crew at the mast. Grinding. Charles on the helm. Spray.

Tight slomo closeups of Simeon's face, hands as he steers. On the rail, Simeon talks about pushing for 5th place as the only realistic option. Talks about TTToP and Scallywag. Shot on their weather quarter of both of the other two boats, with TTToP on the right and Scallywag on the left. Below, in his bunk, Brad untangles earbud cords. Brad: "You never start a race wanting to come last, or even second to last. Pretty painful to know that the race is over for the rest of the guys, more or less, and still have a day to go, at least." Nicolai, below: "If you finish last you basically could have delivered the boat. So you put in a lot of work, a lot of effort, just to come in [he shrugs] last... Coming 5th is not the result we want, but you can accept it." Simeon talks about the team having pushed and done a good job, and the points being important, and it being a long race. "Let's enjoy the last little bit of good racing."

Slomo shot of disembodied Bouwe head on a black background.

Slomo shot of Kyle on the stern.

In the cockpit, Charles talks in French. Below, Stu talks about how obviously they're pretty disappointed to have fallen behind from the controlling position, but hard work has gotten them back into it. "Got a real race on our hands with Vestas, who are just a few miles behind us. And MAPFRE, a decent chunk ahead but certainly not out of touch." Charles talks about Table Mountain, and its effect on the wind. Carolijn, below: "When everything's against us is when we get the best out of ourselves and push really hard. Marie: "As Pascal [said], we have to be faster and lower." Stu: "We have to remain positive and keep chipping away." Slomo shots of the cockpit, washing machine. Daryl laughing at the pedestal, on the bow. Wake. Below, a loud sound of a sheet being eased. Stu: "A minor wind check; nothing to be concerned about." mast cam view of the deck, spray.

At the nav station, Xabi talks in Spanish about the other leading boats. Shots on deck of MAPFRE sailing fast on port gybe. Slomo spray. Pablo, in his foulies hood, smiles in slomo. Slomo spray on bow, water dripping off the clew of the reefed main. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.

Liz, sitting on the stack, jokes that Freddy's not very happy with the cruise he booked. Frederico, on the helm, goes along, talking about how he didn't see as many islands as he expected, but the food was very good. Can't complain. "The company was the best. You can see all my girls here." [laughter] "Not my girls; my friends. Sleeping was also very good, very comfortable, now that we are using the sleeping bags." Francesca, on the leeward side, talks about trying to see land, but being unable to see anything. Per the tracker, this would have been around 2017.11.21 09:09:58 UTC, when they were passing within a few miles of Tristan de Cunha. Liz, looking to leeward: "It's a bit of a dilemma on the old 'Land Ho' call. You'd normally need to see it to be able to make the call. We know it's 7 miles away, and you can see a little darkness in the fog. Do you call it? Or not?" We see an albatross to leeward. Liz (?) takes a gopro on a strut forward and gets slomo shots of spray from the J2 tack. She laughs. Slomo of Henry on the helm in the washing machine.

John, below: "I suppose what makes it long is the intensity of the battles you have. We're 7 miles away from Turn the Tide... Every mile gained is a good thing; every mile lost is a bad thing." Slomo washing machine on deck. Alex, below, on the competition. More slomo washing machine. Parko on how the newer guys are learning. John on how not everyone was a professional at the outset. Alex on people from different backgrounds coming together. Parko on how limited the number of people who do this are. "It's just an incredible experience. It just sucks you back in." Slomo of John (I think?) on deck grinning in spray.

Kyle gets dressed below in the full-on gasketed foulies. Talks about the competition. Peter, below, talks about opportunities when it goes light again. Bouwe, below, talks about their choosing a more northern line. Peter and Kyle talk about how bad the conditions are on deck. Slomo washing machine footage of cockpit, shifting the stack. Annie: "Don't go to the death zone. Also known as the bow." Stack. Coiling line. Slomo winch. Abby rubs water from her face. Bouwe on the helm. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit, grinding.

Slomo shot of a dark albatross gliding in their wake. Emily, below, getting out of her bunk: "It's cold." Jules, at the nav station, talks about how they're still riding the front, but have high pressure a few days ahead. Simeon repairs some piece of gear, hands it to someone, and talks about the upcoming winds and strategy. "In general we've been sailing the boat well." Nicho, on the stern: "Number one challenge is how we're gonna get ahead of some of the boats ahead of us." Talks about how boats can get stuck in the approach to Cape Town. Slomo of spray coming into the cockpit.

Below, Horace talks about being south, and it getting colder and windier. Horace: "I prefer cold more than hot." Jérémie, below, eats and talks in French. Horace: "If we sail fast, maybe four and a half days. And if we sail slow will be 5 days or 8 days more." Slomo washing machine shot of the cockpit from the cabin, and then from the cockpit looking forward. Horace on the aft pedestal. Slomo shots of spray from the mast. Marie on the helm, looking forward.

Below, Luke gets out of his bunk, gets dressed. Luke: "When it gets a bit rough and hard out here, there there are a few things I miss. Mainly one of them this time compared to the last race is my family. There are two young kids at home. You see I've got their pictures on the bulkhead here. They're big fans of the race and the team. I find myself thinking about them, and what I'm missing out on their lives." Closeup of two children's drawings. The one on the right shows a person at the helm. Above an adult has written: "by Teb. I love you Daddy" The one on the left shows a person with yellow hair and a brown beard. Text above the figure reads, "Brad just about to sleep in his bunk." (Nice likeness of Brad Farrand.) Luke talks about missing his bed and pillow. On deck, we see Luke on the helm. Next, below, we see a close-up of Nicolai's salt-water hands. Nicolai talks about what he misses from home when it's rough and wet, as it is today. Dry warm bed, time off. "Instead of putting yourself through pain and suffer, as we do these days." Shot out the cabin of washing-machine action in the cockpit. Jules calls out from the cabin to the crew. Jules: "A really good [something]. Probably another five or six hours. Should still slowly bend left. I think we're good." Luke, below, talks about how they're 5 or 6 days from Cape Town; looking forward to getting in and seeing the family. Slomo shot from behind the wheel of major spray coming over the cockpit.

Slomo shots of spray as Scallywag sails on port gybe under gray skies.

Shot of foulies hanging below. On deck, Sophie is bundled up. She talks about how it's become colder and all the clothes she's wearing. Not going to go much further south, though. Pretty cold at night, but not as bad in the day. Windier, so wet, so that adds to the cold. Támara, in a cowl, puts sunscreen (?) on her lips and cheeks. Slomo closeup of Rob scowling in his ear-flaps hat. Below, in the galley, Ñeti makes coffee. He talks in Spanish. On deck, trimming the mainsheet, he drinks it. From the cabin, he hoists his coffee mug to the camera.

Kyle sleeps in his bunk. Carlo touches his shoulder to wake him up. Kyle: "Fuck." Kyle talks to Bouwe, off camera, about Dongfeng's location. Bouwe: "No, no. They're 40 miles away." Kyle, to Carlo: "Wet hands." Carlo: "It's so wet outside." Kyle: "Yeah, it looks it." (Wonder if this is referring to the same fog from the 09:12:27 MAPFRE video.) Dishing food, eating. Annie eats in the background. Kyle: "Having lunch, which is rice slop, with tomato, I think. Which is very similar to every other meal we eat." Carlo walks by. Kyle: "He likes to wake you up with wet hands, which is very uncomfortable." Carlo: "C'mon, seagull; you like it." Capey, at the nav station, explains their situation. Kyle puts on his foulies. Goes on deck (yeah; looks heavily overcast at least, if not foggy), takes the wheel. Slomo shots of passing water. Shot of the "Team Brunel" branding on the foulies hanging below.

Slomo of spray coming over the bow. Below, Capey talks to Bouwe in red light at the nav station. Bouwe announces below: "Gybing." mast cam view looking down, pit cam view looking aft, as Brunel gybes from starboard to port at sunset. We also catch a glimpse in the pit cam view of Richard (OBR) on the stern with a camera, then see his footage of Kyle grinding. Bouwe, in the cockpit, talks about the strategy of when they gybed, hope to cross Vestas. Below, Abby stacks. Sunset.

Sunrise. Kyle coils a line while silhouetted against the sunrise. Below, Bouwe tells the crew they're gybing. On deck, we see the gybe from port to starboard. On the helm, Bouwe says it will be interesting to see if Vestas continues on the old gybe. Maciel points out Vestas. Telephoto shot of Vestas. Capey and Annie looking through binoculars. Stacking below. Abby, on deck: "We're on opposite gybes; looks like Vestas is just crossing in front." We see Vestas, on port gybe, cross a few hundred meters ahead of Brunel. Per the tracker, this cross was at 2017-11-17 1118 UTC. Slomo of cross. Peter on the helm with Vestas in the background. Carlo, in the cockpit: "I've never been racing so long, and still within a couple of minutes of each other." Capey at the nav station. Slomo of Carlo.

Shot of a raincloud to weather. Rain dripping off the boom. Jules talks about the morning squalls, weather patterns. Nicolai talks about how they're leading the fleet (based on being so far east), and how Jules put them in a good position. Now they need to see if they can hold onto it as the wind goes left. Nicolai: "Hopefully pick up a bit of low pressure soon and head to Cape Town." Drone shot of AkzoNobel's masthead with a reefed main and some masthead sail (J1?). Wider drone shot showing AkzoNobel triple-heading with reefed main. Slomo of Nicolai on the helm. Simeon, on the stern, talks about their having had a good 24-hour run, separating from the fleet. Simeon: "Always a bit of risk when you sail away from the others... Everyone's positive. Everyone's fit and strong." Shot up the mast. Slomo grinding.

Pablo, on the middle pedestal, grinds as he talks about the competition, about how when you're close you have to keep pushing or you will lose out to the other boats. Rob, on the helm, talks about how conditions are always changing. Blair, on the aft pedestal with his equator-crossing reverse mohawk, talks about the constant trimming. Blair, gesturing to their port quarter and then to their starboard bow: "So far we're doing all right, but we're very close to Brunel here behind us and Dongfeng down here." Xabi and Sophie in the cockpit. Robs talks about how they're on a drag race south with no tacks or gybes. Rob: "Obviously we're always pushing hard." He talks about how this will not decide the race, that it will probably be decided in the south Atlantic. Slomo shots of Támara trimming, Rob on the helm, Xabi looking forward.

Vestas reaches fast on port. Tony grinds the aft pedestal. Charlie steers. Mark, on the rail, talks about how they've been racing close to Brunel, but now they (Vestas) are going a little more west. (Actually, looking at the tracker, the other leading boats are on the same line with Vestas; it's Brunel who's diverging east.) SiFi, in the hatch: Talks about the cmpetition with Brunel, how they've been a little faster in these conditions. But they think they'll be faster when the angles change. Slowly diverging courses. SiFi: "We're getting to a place where we're sailing around the South Atlantic High." More downwind eventually. Tom, on the mainsheet, talks to Tony, on the helm. Slomo of Tom grinding.

Bouwe, on deck, talks about passing the equator and heading south in the tradewinds. Below, at the nav station, Capey talks about strategy for the south Atlantic portion of the leg: Getting south as quick as they can now, then hooking into a front. Capey: "Last couple of hundred miles will be the decider. So that's what you've got to get in position for." Closeup of instruments. Hands holding a sheet. Slomo shot of Vestas a mile or two ahead of them. Slomo shot of Alberto on the low side, squinting up into the slot. Carlo working on the foredeck. Spray on the clew of a headsail. Closeup of winch turning, easing. Kyle talks about speed gains of 0.1 knot being quite significant. Artsy slomo closeups: Winch, Alberto. Below, Richard asks Capey about Vestas: "Do we follow or do we do our own thing?" Capey: "We do our own thing." Sunset.

Slomo shot, with spray, looking up the slot at sunset.

Slomo shot of relatively small-looking dolphins jumping alongside.

$Beautiful drone shot of AkzoNobel reaching on port at sunrise. Nicolai types at the nav station. He talks about how they just peeled to a fractional sail. Falling a little bit behind the other boats; looking for speed. Mast cam view of the deck. Jules, on deck: "We're struggling a bit with the reaching setup; the guys in front of us stretching away from us." On the stern, Emily washes up. Peter, on a sheet, talks about how they have some nice waves and are trying to catch most of them without getting too low. Luke talks about how it's frustrating that the rich (ahead of them) are getting richer. Brad, below, talks about the frustrations of leaders pulling away without their being close enough to see their sail setup. (Note: He has a raspberry-colored buzz cut from the equator-crossing ceremony, which didn't show up so far in a video.) Nicolai talks about working hard, not panicking, getting faster day by day. Slomo shot of Emily and Nicho working the foredeck.$

Slomo shots: Jack grinding in the washing machine as water drips from his hat. Compass and spray. Horace in a foul-weather-gear cowl. Spray coming over the cocpit. Stu in the spray. Three egrets flying alongside Dongfeng. Below, Charles takes out a food pack from a storage locker. Jérémie says something to him in French; Charles answers and they both laugh. Shots of the food (some special treat?), Charles calls out the hatch to the cockpit: "I went to the bakery this morning!" The food being shared around among the crew in the cockpit. Charles, a nav station: "It's always good to have a sweet, a surprise." Talks about being in a tough battle, warming conditions, sweat. Charles showering in spray on deck, then rinsing off below wiht water from the galley. Carolijn in her bunk: "Twenty days is too long without a wash... I've just washed my neck, hair; it's nice."

Joan, at the nav station looking at a display of a chart showing the leg, talks in Spanish. Closeup of the chart as he zooms in on the Cape Verde Islands. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy and the other boats. He repeats it in English. Xabi: "Everyone's happy. We just overtook two boats last night. We just hope to catch Dongfeng. We will fight very hard with these two guys, with Vestas, and with Dongfeng of course." On deck in the dawn, Ñeti sits, Tamara grinds the aft pedestal, and Pablo steers. Shot aft, through the wheel, of Vestas a few miles behind them. Slomo shot looking up at Xabi on the helm. Slomo shot of Sophie during a sail change taking spray on the bow.

Slo mo shots: Alex stands on the cabin, reefing the main as Scallywag reaches on port in windy conditions. Annemieke smiles at a sailor in the foreground, holding a sheet and unclenching a hand to show white discoloration. Someone (not sure who) being drenched in the pit by a cascade of white water.

Slomo shots of a bird (guessing some type of sheerwater? need to check)

A+ drone work from drone-master Sam. High drone shot of TTToP, looking down. Fast tracking low-altitude drone shot, overtaking TTToP from their port quarter and passing astern. The boat is sailing with a lot of heel and a close reaching angle under Masthead 0 and a J3 staysail, backdropped by a beautiful sunset and crepuscular rays. Drone shot from ahead of the bow as Liz scoots out on the bowsprit and fixes some velcro fairing (?) around the tack of the Masthead 0. Shot slows to slomo as Liz looks at the drone.

It's afternoon, with MAPFRE heading south on port gybe in about 10 knots of wind. Ñeti, at the middle grinder handles, talks in Spanish. Pablo pops into view and says something in Spanish. Sophie, at the shrouds: "It's a little bit frustrating, because it looks like they have a little more pressure, and we're trying to catch them. I think when you have another boat in sight, especially in front of you, the whole boat is working as hard as they can. It give syou something to push for. We just changed sails [to the A3, visible behind her]." Ñeti talks more in Spanish. Shot of crew shifting the stack. Sophie on the foredeck helping to hoist the A3. Crew in the cockpit grinding. Ñeti, on a halyard, goes out to the clew of the A3. Wide (pretty) drone shot of MAPFRE in the sunset. Blair, on the helm as MAPFRE sails on starboard gybe in the morning: "The last 24 hours on average for us have been a little bit bad; we've lost a lot on Dongfeng, Vestas, and AkzoNobel, but in the last hours of the night or very early morning we've gained on them very quickly and have them right here." [gestures to the port quarter] Pablo talks in Spanish about the competition. Shot of crew working in the cockpit; shot of AkzoNobel, slomo telephoto shot of AkzoNobel.

Carolijn, on deck in foulies, gives a thumbs up. Carolijn, below: "I'm lucky enough to be on watch with Stu Bannatyne, AKA 'Magic Stu'. When it's heavy weather downwind sailing, that's the man you want on the wheel. He's doing over-hours for the last couple of days. But the boat just smokes when he's driving." Shots of Stu on deck, slomo of Stu on the wheel. Stu, below, as Carolijn and SiFi take off the foulies in the background: "There's definitely a bit of technique to driving well in heavy airs, especially at night. It's mostly about trying to be accurate, small movements. A bit like trying to drive a car when you're fast. Just try to use very small movements of the wheel... At night might use stars if there's any around to help keep the boat going straight, otherwise it's just a bit of a feel for it, keeping a steady heel angle, and not being afraid to push the boat hard to keep it going fast." Shots of Stu on the wheel at night, slowmo of him being hit with spray at the wheel. Charles, below: "I wanted someone with experience going south. This guy did it eight times, the Volvo Ocean Race. He's probably one of the guys in the world who has raced more in the Southern Ocean. There aren't so much people have a lot of expeirence in this part of the world. I think it's because he spends hours and hours pushing the boat in eight Volvos, and this is the best school to learn in. In France we come from singlehanded sailing, we don't drive so much; we have autopilots, so we can go fast with the pilots but for sure we don't drive enough. This guy has made eight Volvos since he was a kid; probably one of the guys in the world to have much hour driving fast in big waves. That's why he's so strong." Slomo of Stu at the wheel.

All slomo shots: Martine on the helm in the sunset with spray. Washing machine cockpit shots. Emily on the aft pedestal with the outrigger plowing through the water, then with spray washing over her.

Capey, at nav station at night, refers to chart and talks to someone off camera (I don't think he's talking to Richard, though): "We could always just go down the coast, if we wanted to kick our ass." (?) Annie, below in daylight: "There was a point last night where I sort of thought it would be really nice if there was a bit less wind and it could be really dry. But I'd regret thinking that in a couple of days when we're in the doldrums and it's hot and no wind. So we should enjoy it right now... The America's Cup boys they do a good job, yeah. Driving hard. They may not like the lack of sleep, but none of us do. Yeah; sending it." Slomo shot of Peter on the helm. Epic washing machine shots. Bouwe, below, talks about the weather patterns and winds. "The more you're getting down to the equator, the breeze will go further to the east. If you go too early you never can make westing anymore. So the more westing you make, it looks very horrible, the more cheap it is in the end." Annie: "We've got some miles to make up now; the others got a better shift, Dongfeng and MAPFRE. Just trying to chase them down again now." Shots on deck: Kyle on the helm looking dour. Peter, Alberto, and Kyle shifting the stack in preparation for a gybe. Slomo spray on the foredeck.

Slomo shots of Nico on the helm. Nico below: "Got sore arms, I'd have to say. It is funny; all those muscles that haven't been used for a while, driving... Just like riding a bike." Nico steering at dawn. Nico below: "It's interesting tactically; everyone's super super cautious with staying together. Perhaps as the race progresses people will run more risk. We're almost like kids chasing the soccer ball together at the moment; we're sticking close. In general we're sailing the boat pretty fast, we're good on the numbers. Different sail wardrobe, people are working out how to sail the boats quick." Slomo shot of Nico on the helm with sunrise behind him. Slomo shot of the bow.

Pablo, below in his foulies, still wet from coming off the deck: "The crew is performing very good. We are all very happy. We are figthing hard, because the beginning of the leg is very important." Blair, below, in progress on getting out of his foulies with sunscreen on his face: "It was cetainly a pretty fast start. Wind's a little lighter now. Managed to get some sleep. Lots of gybing. Everyone's a little bit tired but not too bad." Pablo: "This morning we were leading, we were in front of the boats, probably a little furthe south than them. Then we had to gybe... Dongfeng crossed our bow. Now we are getting to Madeira." Slomo shots on deck: tailing line, spray, Xabi on the helm, bow spray, Pablo on helm. Sunset shots of Mapfre running fast on starboard gybe. Sophie stadning on the stern trimming the mainsheet. Ñeti on the stern with the mainsheet talks in Spanish about the wind, passing Madeira, the other boats.

Slomo cockpit washing-machine shot with the sunrise behind them. Slomo spray on the bow as crew works the foredeck. Slomo washing machine drenching someone working in the pit.

Shot of them in the evening sailing past Porto Santo Island on its north side, surfing on starboard gybe. Steve, below at the nav station: "Second night, just to the north of Porto Santo, which is actually the island we rounded in Leg 1 of the race." Slomo shot of them approaching Porto Santo with the sunset behind it. Steve: "Just down to leeward now, well, 20 miles away, is Madeira. Always a bit of a decision which side of these islands you go in the tradewinds, because they leave a huge wake of disturbed wind beneath them. So we're passing over the top here. And also just trying to keep in contact with the fleet. Been a fairly windy first 36 hours of the race, so people are pretty tired. Breeze has calmed down now; just good fast sailing." Slomo shots of cockpit washing machine in deep dusk.

Slomo washing machine shot of Tom (I think) getting doused on the aft pedestal.

Uninterrupted stern cam shot of TTToP surfing at high speed toward the setting sun. At first the shot is sped up time-lapse style. Then it suddenly slows down and becomes slomo as spray comes over the boat, then continues at normal speed.

Martin on the stern as TTToP surfs on starboard gybe. Martin: "This is one of the best moments in the race. We've just left all the marks, all the shit (?)... stack is up, and now we're sending it; 30 knots." Major washing machine shots looking forward into the sunset, looking aft, mast-cam view of the stern and the wake with the person on the helm (Francesca?) working hard as they surf. Bianca on the cockpit sole being helped up by Liz after being washed off the stack, which inflated her PFD. Bianca, panting and dripping under the coaming: "So I just went to windward to go and get the halyard to tie it off, sat in front of the winch to try and clear it, just as the wave came and took me out. But I was clipped on, mom; don't worry." She laughs. Slomo shots of sending it, wide-angle shot showing Dee on the helm and another boat (Vestas?) crossing their bow; then changes to slomo shot of spray. Liz clipping in and climbing out the sheet to the clew of the Fractional 0; Martin helps her back on board. Slomo washing machine shots in the cockpit. Slomo spray and grinding with sunset in background. Epic stuff.

Slomo spray during the departure from Lisbon: Crew on the foredeck with the setting sun ahead; two grinders on the handles getting doused. One of them grimaces with a rainbow behind him.

Slomo shot of Brad looking at the sunrise.

Charlie on not getting too high or too low emotionally. "We've seen some things happen in this river before. It's not a very straightforward finish." Mark on the helm, sunset, slomo wake.

Steve, at the nav station, talks about the addition of the virtual waypoint to the course. Steve: "The nice thing is we're going downwind, and we're going fast. The boats are averaging over 20 knots now." Intercut with slomo shots of the washing machine. Steve: "It's a little bumpy at times. When you're reaching in these boats it doesn't take much wind for it to be uncomfortable. But no, so far it's been a relatively easy trip." Talks about benefits of racing next to Dongfeng and Brunel, "second-generation" in this race. Steve: "It's an opportunity to test and to learn." More slomo of the washing machine, Witty on the helm joking about the water on deck.

Brunel surfing at sunrise on starboard gybe on the run north to the virtual waypoint. Abby on the grinder. Washing machine. Capey, in the companionway, calls up a position report to the sailors on deck. Capey: "AkzoNobel 22 or something on the bow; MAPFRE 26 on the beam [gestures to starboard]; the other guys [gestures to port]..." Carlo, standing astern: "It's good sailing; we're doing about 20 knots average. I think Vestas is behind us, I mean Turn the Tide, and Scallywag just a couple of miles in front of us. So we still have a bit of catching up to do. When we went around the rock we had a couple of issues, with again something under the boat, so we had to do another back down. It cost us a couple of miles. So Leg 1 maybe not going as well as we hoped, but still pushing." Slomo washing machine shots, wake, grinding (with overdubbed regular-speed audio).

Charlie grinds as they run in medium winds. Charlie: "It's a little wet and wild; I should probably be wearing a jacket." He talks about the wind, the competition, upcoming virtual mark. Slomo shot of sunrise and spray.

Slomo shots of bow wave, rudder, wake.

Brad, on deck, as AkzoNobel sails upwind in 7 knots with the Masthead 0 on starboard: "I guess the longest I've been at sea is a week. We're planning on doing three weeks plus. I think the days will slide by pretty quickly, especially after the first four or five days. I'm feeling optimistic. I'm enjoying it. I don't know how it will feel when we're doing the last long stretch across the Atlantic in eight months' time, seven months' time, but it's good fun so far." Slomo shots of Brad on the helm.

Slomo of Peter at the helm, Abby coiling line. Peter talks about how the first two nights of the race were such a contrast: quite windy the first night, very little wind last night. Talks about them sailing in a group of four boats trying to chase down the leaders. Under the Masthead 0. Peter: "We're learning a lot sailing along so close to these other boats for such a long period of time." Shots of Alberto on the helm, distant boat to leeward (I think Dongfeng).

Slowmo glamour shot of Martine in sunglasses on the helm.

Shot of boat sailing fast on starboard gybe around dawn, with Nick (I think?) on the helm and Hannah (I think) on the mainsheet. SiFi, below at nav station, looks at the latest position update. SiFi talks strategy on the exit from Gibraltar. "Good to see they're behind us and not well down inside us... Hopefully we can stay on this gybe for a while, start getting south, I can get some sleep, and, yeah, start sailing towards the light stuff." Slomo shot of Damian on the bow in spray.

Shot of Mark on the bow looking at Gibraltar as they approach it. SiFi talks about how they're coming into Gibraltar, and it's going to get pretty busy. SiFi: "We've got current against, and then the wind is going to build a lot; probably 30-35 knots... It's going to be an exciting few hours, but we've just gotta make sure we get through it in good shape, don't break anything and look after the boat and the people." Shots of the shore, cockpit shot with waves coming over the bow (washing machine), Stacey Jackson on the grinder with setting sun behind her. Slowmo shots of grinding, spray.

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