Charlie on deck in what looks like fog (maybe just a foggy lens). On track into the last 100 miles into Gothenburg. Conditions lightening up. Land. Jena: Very happy to see the coast of Norway. We nearly can see Denmark as well. Means we're close to the finish. Probably could have used a few more miles to gain the fleet back, but always hapy to see land. Big waves on deck. New sail going up. TJ on the helm: A lot of back and forth right now. We're within two miles, back to three. Just hope we can get a good gain on them somewhere along the line. Reefing the main. Nick: I'm not saying anything. We're in fifth place right now.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.Stern cam shots of washing machine. Shot from inside the cabin of the cockpit. Mast cam view of the stern. SiFi at nav station: It's a little bumpy at the moment. 35, 36 knots, 80 true. So it's not the comfiest wind angle downstairs, and pretty heinous for the guys on deck. Sailing fast but into the waves. Need to find a little pace to get past the boats around us. [Laughing] I'd much rather be involved in the fight for the podium, although I guess it's nice not to have the stress. You can just watch it unfold. Dongfeng have been struggling a bit. Brunel has really found some wheels and has caught MAPFRE up. It's going to be some fairly nervous hours on those three boats. Spreader cam view of the bow; cabin view of the cockpit. Jena comes below, takes off her foulie jacket, pulls up her headband. Phil comes down below, takes off his gloves. "Best way to deal with (something) is just count down the hours. It's pretty wet and nasty out there. It's not too long to go. Counting down. I thought this was going to be an easy leg. It's not easy. It's shit out. Stern cam/crash cam of a wave slapping off the side of the boat.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.Xabi, below, says they have to be happy where they are. Everyone knows about the mast track problem. Yesterday they did some reinforcements, which aren't brilliant, but are enough for them to push hard to Cape Horn. They're 50 miles back from the lead, which is nothing. [Big bang. It sounds like they hit a pretty solid chunk of water.] He repeats his explanation in Spanish. Stern cam, and then spreader cam, views of the cockpit as they sail fast with big waves washing over them. Washing machine. Mast cam looking forward as they surf.Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Epic drone footage of Brunel surfing big waves in 35-40 knots in the Southern Ocean. Looks like they're under the FR0, J3, and a triple-reefed main. Bouwe, below: Of course the sailing is really fun, but it's hairy because if you do something wrong it can go terribly wrong, so it's always to find that balance. He says that if they'd been closer to the ice gate conditions would have been worse, so they played it a little safer and the rest of the fleet did the same, so positions are the same as when they entered the ice gate.Sunrise rays through the clouds. Double- (triple- ?) reefed main and no headsail. Crew in the cockpit works on repairing the runner block. Witty, below, explains that as they were gybing for the ice gate the runner got twisted and the block broke. "We were lucky. We could have snapped the runner and lost the rig." Managed to jury rig. But now they're 110 miles behind. "Happens." "You can deal with little setbacks, but when it sort of the final nail in your coffin for aspirations for a good result in the race, that you've spent years trying to do it, how do you think it feels? But we never give up, got 4,000 miles..." Keep pushing, maybe when we get around the Horn... We were 100 miles behind and won into Hong Kong, and were 100 miles behind and finished second into New Zealand. "Plenty of fight left in this dog." Closeup of jury-rigged runner; washing machine. Witty below: "I think when you consider yourself a reasonable level of yachtsman, you've gotta do this leg. And you've gotta get through this leg... I'm gonna finish the leg and I'm gonna do well and give it a good go. That doesn't mean I'm gonna wanna do it again though, I'll give you a tip. Bloody horrible." Crash cam footage from the stern of someone (Witty?) being washed off the wheel by a wave.Sam asks Lucas, on the helm in fairly mellow conditions at sunset, "How does your Southern Ocean song go?" Lucas sings: "I am an albatross, and I fly across the seaaaa!"Night-vision shot in the cockpit looking aft. Bow-cam view at night; someone is hauling the tack of a new sail forward. Mast cam view of the foredeck crew getting buried in a wave. I see Kevin; not sure who the second person is. Cockpit crew grinding. Jack, below, talks about the cold conditions. The air is heavier, so the wind is "windier". And you're a long way from anywhere if things go wrong. Much more dangerous. Really for the driver to take as little away as possible. Doing the work on the foredeck as quickly as possible, but you want to be safe. Hurt my arm a couple of days ago. Had my arm on the forestay, and got lifted horizontal by a wave. Have to be very wary. More nighttime foredeck work. Favoriting for the epic foredeck shots.Drone shot as Scallywag sails on starboard gybe with the Australian coast visible beyond them. At the nav station Libby explains that there's a big split, with 3 boats offshore, Brunel in the middle, and them inshore. Teams offshore have had more pressure and have made a bit of a gain. Shot of Scallywag sailing upwind from slightly outboard; Konrad must have the camera on a pole. Low elevation shot alongside the boat; wave hits the camera. Below, Libby talks to Witty at the nav station. Libby tells Konrad that it's been helpful to have Witty and Grant, who have lots of experience in these waters, to go with the weather model information. Libby talks about how impressive it is that new team members have been integrated so effectively. More pole shots of spray alongside. Below, Witty eats while talking to LIbby: "I'm making a point of not making you feel like I'm looking over your shoulder. Is it working?" [Libby laughs.] Witty explains that they don't have big egos. Everyone is part of the team. Washing machine shot of the cockpit. Witty talks about picking good people. Says Libby's fitting in well. He jokes that she's gotta get in front of her brother (on MAPFRE) before she gets a Scallywag tattoo (I think he said? Before she's fully accepted, I assume he's saying.) Drone shot of Scallywag with Austrailian coast in the background.Slomo of Jules on the stern (steering?) in purple cap. He looks up. Focus shifts to show albatross. Slomo shots of albatrosses. Slomo waves off the stern.Epic slomo shot of a big Southern Ocean wave. Nicho, below, eating: "Batten fouled again and another repair again. Getting there. Main's back up, so it's not slowing us down any." Justin, below, repairs a batten. "This is Frankenbatten. It's now got four different battens in it." He shows his work: The batten with multiple clamps holding the pieces together while glue cures. "We're obviously trying to be tidy Kiwis who use as much [something] as we can, 5200." There are clamps made from vice grips, from channel lock pliers with a big rubber band around the handle squeezing it closed, and a high-tech looking black clamp. Don't tell the media guy, but I've raided his camera box and found a clamp. Which I'm sure he's going to work out when it gets back that it's been used for some sort of repair." Nicho: "We don't mind doing all these running repairs all the time as long as we can go at pretty much full pace. But it wears everyone out. I don't think Brad has had a full off watch for a long time now. [To Brad.] When was your last full off watch?" Brad (sitting near the galley, pulling off bits of tape): "Can't remember my last full off watch." Brad, to James: "Haven't seen land for over a week now. As far away from anything as you can possibly be, more or less. It's not too bad. It's actually quite cool. Really good breeze, good waves. Good sailing." Martine coils lines in the pit, gets washed over by a wave. Below, she talks to Konrad: "Southern Ocean has been pretty cool, going downwind, in these big waves, sailing during the night with big seas. Cold weather as well. Everythying is dripping on the boat, but sailing has been pretty good, besides our breakdown. As long as we have all the sails up, it's all good." Nicho: "You have moments when you wonder what you're doing down here. Other moments quite in awe of the natural bueauty and harshness of the place... How vulnerable you are down here on a little carbon shell in the middle of nowhere. You want the leg to be over, but also how special it is to be here." Slomo of Nicho on the helm, albatross flying by. [Side note: Again, no Simeon. I'm increasingly of the view that Nicho is actually functionally skipper at this point.]Crash cam footage from stern camera. AkzoNobel is preparing for a gybe in high winds from starboard to port. They gybe happens, but goes too quickly (?), the main slams over, and there's a loud bang that sounds very ungood. We switch to handheld camera on the stern as crew is shifting the stack to port. They send someone aloft, where we can see the main has some major luff-car issues (?). Shot of the helmsman (Nicho?) on the port wheel with a nasty-looking squall beyond him. Awesome shot of him surfing the boat as a wave breaks on their port quarter; shot pans forward to show the crew working around the mast. We see them lowering the main, which has been detached from the mast with lines on the cars to help control its descent. Below, Nicho explains what happened. Had to gybe in 35-40 knots. "Had a bad one. Thought we had a good wave to go down, and as we went down the boat slowed up, stopped; I should have pulled out. We probably would have broached..." But what did happen is they slammed the main into the runner, breaking the battens and pulling the track off the mast. Getting the main down was tricky, with a 50-knot squall happening at the same time. Now just have a jib up, doing 16 knots in 45 knots of wind. Plan is to get the track screwed/glued back on, repair the battens, over the next day or two. But it's going to take time to get to 100%. And they have to be careful.