Drone shots of AkzoNobel triple-heading. Martine: Today is a beautiful day, with boats in sight. Shot of another boat to starboard. Martine: And we are expecting a gybe for the last 2 days. More wind, so we're going faster than expected. Drone shot. Martine: We're going to have quite a bit of breeze two days from now. So still have to keep our eyes open. And then reaching the UK. So I guess we're gonna have to enjoy this. It's not gonna last too long. Nicho: Should have good breeze for a while longer, then gybe. Have been thinking we'll gybe for a day now, but the breeze hasn't shifted. Drone shot. Nicho: Had a pretty honest debrief after the last leg. And then a bad in-port race, and another debrief. We've needed it for some time. It's a challenge: Step up or get left behind. Drone shot with clouds.Parade. Dee hugs Trystan; they joke about the race of the Welshmen (Bleddyn and Trystan). Witty's goodbye kisses. Dockout. Ben talks about the fog. Trystan talks about coming from Wales, a stopover in Cardiff. Was always in his mind to do this leg. He talks about Bleddyn, and how there's a rivalry between the two. Libby: First few days is about wriggling throgh exclusion zones. All the boats in a line. Then building breeze over the next few days. Libby with her tablet in the cockpit. Witty: Really really cold, and really really cold, and really really cold. Just stay patient and stay with the fleet and grind it away. You won't see the Scallywags doing anything different this time. He grabs the wheel. Start. Antonio on the rail with the boats lined up for the start.Parade. Dockout. Annalise waves. Bleddyn: Pretty exciting leaving Newport. Can't wait to get home. Gonna be exciting. Start. Scallywag below them. Gulls (Great Black-backed Gulls?) Close action upwind. AkzoNobel crosses them. The close tack with Vestas. I think they were always clear astern. Nerves of steel, that Dee. Going under the bridge. Dee on the helm. Going into the fog with Scallywag ahead. Slomo bow work. Dropping the J1 in spray on the bow. Martin does something at the clew. Bernardo, below: Start worked pretty well. A nice beat. Made a mistake on the top mark, delaying the tack too much and we had a penalty, which took us to the back of the fleet. And it was hard to recover. Still in contact; keep our heads up, move forward. Hopefully we can catch up with the fleet. Liz: We're completely lost in the fog; we have no idea where we are. Brian, at the nav station: It's a complete mystery. We're in the Bermuda Triangle. Sailing in the fog. Brian: Cold front behind us. Can choose to stay with the wind ahead of the front, but eventually that wind will die out. It's a balance between taking the light air earlier to get the new wind earlier. Watching how it develops. That's north vs. south in the routing.Drone shot with competitor in the background. Charlie talks with crew in the cockpit. TJ steers. SiFi: It's a little different than forecast. He talks about the clouds, the convergence line. Big header coming into Brazil. Squashed hte fleet up a bit. Made good gains on Dee, but Brunel has closed up a bit... Have to see what happens during the day. Land breeze now; sea breeze later. TTToP to port with a rainbow. Drone shots. TTToP approaches on starboard; they gybe ahead to cover. SiFi talks about tomorrow. Crew stacks to weather. TTToP on their starboard quarter. A small fishing boat; Mark waves. TTToP astern in rain. Crew shirtless in the cockpit. Phil showers under the boom. SiFi looks at a tablet to explain the latest sched. Stacey: It's been a busy day; rain clouds and shifts. Gybing. But a good result for us. We're all in a line, going out to sea, bow forward and leeward boat. And we had a shower. It was overdue; it is day 8. First shower of the race. Drone shot of Vestas triple-heading.Stacey at the mast. Rain squall behind them. TJ bagging up the J1. Stacking forward. "Ready, two, six!" Deploying the MH0. Stacey working in the pit. She laughs: I was just thinking how different this evening is from any evening on the last leg. Sun hats and tee shirts, no one is complaining about anything weather-related. Even when it does rain it's short-lived. Quite warm inside the boat. In the Southern Ocean it's constant condensation dripping down below. Nick and Tony in the galley. TJ grinds. Wake. TJ on the helm. "Where'd the hat come from? Australia. I asked my dad what's the best hat to buy. Akubra." He talks about the hat, about sun protection.Xabi talks about how the weather has been changing, and there's a big split in the fleet. Louis: Dongfeng about 8 miles behind. Hopefully get a chance to catch Brunel in the next few days. Wind changes so quickly in the New Zealand that the forecast is changing every 4 hours. Anything can happen. Shadow on the sail as Louis takes the tack of a sail forward. Willy and Tamara grinding as Louis works the foredeck on a sail change. Sophie grinding. Xabi trimming.Circling drone shot in 20 knot winds showing Scallywag sailing fast on port gybe. Looks like they're double-heading with the J0 and J3? Witty, at the nav station, points to a weather screen on the computer. "This is a grid file." Shows them as the southernmost boat pushing along with the front. "But really, the whole thing is smoke and mirrors. Navigators make it up so they can charge me money. Really it's just a bunch of pretty pictures, and whatever happens happens. It's all bullshit. All I know is we're now pointing at New Zealand instead of pointing at Japan." Shot of routing software; Witty lounging at nav station. High drone shot of them sailing fast. Fisher in the pit. "Just another day in the life of Team Scallywag." Pressure down a bit, so less firehose. Cleaning up. Keep with the plan. Ben works his way aft in the cockpit. Below, Alex watches a movie on a phone in his bunk. Ben eats, says the food isn't that bad. "Got a hybrid; mix a couple of freeze-drieds together, get a hot sauce... It's quite good." Witty at the nav station: "Go to bed, get up, steer 110." Cockpit shot; drone shot. Ben on the forward pedestal Libby at the nav station points out the current strategic situation, and how they have an opportunity to stay with the breeze a bit longer than the leaders. "Watch this space; 12 hours." Drone shot.Simeon looks at Scallywag, sailing a quarter mile astern and to leeward. Simeon talks about sailing north, away from New Zealand. Talks wind and clouds with Nicho on the helm. Nicho looks for shadows of clouds. Martine on the helm. Nicolai on the helm, waving "goodbye" to Scallywag. Justin talks about staying in touch with Scallywag. Jules talks about a front coming. They flop in light conditions Shifting the stack forward. Nav station. Brad on deck as they go slow. Luke on the helm: points out the front behind them; expecting big things in the nxt three or four hours. Martine, Simeon putting on foulies. Sailing in more wind. Simeon in the pit; Cecille on the pedestal. Sail changes as it gets dark. Looks like J1 going up, MH0 coming down?High drone shot of Scallywag and AkzoNobel sailing a quarter mile apart on starboard gybe. Low-altitutde drone shot of the same. Ben talks about the leg win being a confidence boost, but now they need to back that up. Pressure to do well coming into Auckland. Marcus on the helm. John talks about wanting to win a leg, but the competition is too good to just expect to do it. "If we have the opportunity again we will do. We'll try and take it." More shots of AkzoNobel, drone shots. Witty: "Yeah, we regret it. Grid file is a little different than we thought. Grid files said that the other guys would fall into a big hole, and then once we made the decision to go up, the grid file changed... It's fugazi, fugazi... It's not real." Drone shot of AkzoNobel. Fish-eye lens view. Scary-looking clouds. Witty: "Meteorologists get very excited about this stuff. This is weather." Antonio talks about the wind change, being near Japan, needing to head for New Zealand. Libby talks about the weather: Not quite salvation, but this is the front they've been waiting for. They got caught in light winds and the others didn't. But they'll probably all converge in 7 days anyway. Witty puts on his foulies in the cockpit. We see a gybe from the cockpit with Witty on the helm. Annemieke working in the pit. Stronger wind, washing machine as they sail on port gybe.Mark, in the cockpit, explians that they're going through a current line south of Guam, and there's an "unbelievable" amount of floating debris. Shots of them bouncing along. Shot of the mainsail bouncing as they hit chop. Below, Phil talks from his bunk, eyeshades pushed up on his forehead. "Not ideal for sleeping. It's bloody uncomfortable. Feels like we're doing about 5 knots and just slamming up and down." He calls to SiFi and Mark, who are looking at the latest sched. "How'd we go?" SiFi: "Reasonably quick but very high." Nick, on deck: "Sea state is very confused right now... Pretty scary looking at the rig sometimes." Mark, by the wheel, reports on the latest sched to Nick, Tony, and Stacey. "We were higher and slower than Dongers, and higher and faster than Akzo." SiFi, below: "Sea states's been pretty horrendous." He talks about some lighter winds ahead, and trying to figure it all out. Shots of the weather models on the computer.Brian and Dee stand in the cockpit looking at cloud activity. Brian: "That cloud is getting a lot bigger." Brian and Martin talk about the ideal wind scenario. Dee explains that the hard bit is trying to get north. Brian: clouds are always bad; sometimes very, very bad. "If you can stay just in front of it, that's okay. But if you get enmeshed in the back of them, you can be stuck there until it decides to release you from its grip." Shot of the nav station with weather displayed. Dee, on deck, talks about how the forecasts aren't very good in this region. Martin: "We need to be on our toes."Nicolai, on deck in his neoprene cowl in fairly light air, talks about how they're the most southern boat right now, and have just gybed. Fleet split into two groups; they're wth MAPFRE and Dongfeng. Below, Martine (in cornrows) bails out water. Jules and Nicho, at the nav station, look at routing software. Jules talks about being a bit disappointed in the latest sched, vs. MAPFRE and Dongfeng, Brunel. Nicho: "We coughed it up there last night." Separately, Nicho talks about how each of the boats separated; probably due to breeze. Shot of Simeon on the helm, scowling in his cold-weather cowl. Álex, in the cockpit, talks about how we are here, in the Southern Ocean, but it isn't normal conditions. "Like a pit stop before the next depression comes, with 35, 40 knots, straight to Melbourne." Nicolai talks about how variable the Southern Ocean is. "It's like a spring day in Denmark up north. So I'm enjoying it."Blair grinds the middle pedestal. Sophie on the mainsheet: "Hold." Xabi talks to her; they both grind. Xabi, to Jen: "It's all going pretty well." Talks about other boats around them: Dongfeng, Vestas, AkzoNobel, Brunel. "Tricky wind; up and down and very shifty." Gybing early morning. Pablo talks in the cockpit about the routing. "Maybe we do... 50 knots?" Sophie: "Fifty? Oh.. my... god.." Xabi on the helm: "We won't do 50." Pablo: "Right now the routing says that." Sophie: "And that's... 20 knots?" Xabi: "Yeah." Xabi, to Jen: "It's looking like real windy, next days... In a couple of days, 40 plus for a couple of hours." Talks about the ice gate. So get rest and food now, for later. Jen: "Any advice for me?" Xabi, smiling: "For you? It's gooa be good. It's gonna be rough (shrugs) and cold. Good fun." Sophie and Pablo convo continues, about how long it's going to be: up to 6 days. Sophie, to Jen, talks about making sure she's organized, has the right gear on, try to rest as much as she can tonight. "Just take it as it comes." Jen: "Any advice for me." Sophie laughs. Blair, from the pedestal: "Hold on." Sophie: "Hold on, Jen. Stay down below if you want to." Blair: "Have a nice stay in your bunk. That's what I'd do if I could." Shot of AkzoNobel on their starboard quarter.In the cockpit (trimming the main, I suspect) Alberto talks about the next 24 hours as they head toward the depression. "At least for the moment it's still warm." Chuckles. Peter, sitting on the low side of the pit, talks about how conditions are going to change completely in the next day. Slightly lifting at the moment, later will gybe over, then on port will see "first bit of real Southern Ocean action for the leg. Yeah; it's gonna be pretty windy." Has his warm clothing downstairs. So far pretty nice this trip. Looking after the boat. Shot of someone working the bow in spray. Alberto grinding. Shifting the stack aft. Carlo working the clew of the headsail on a halyard. Abby repairing the pit winch. A rainbow ahead of them.Closeups: binnacle compass, hands on the wheel, easing the mainsheet. Marie, trimming the main, talks about the weather being warm, and no birds. It's sad they are too far north, not in the Southern Ocean. "Maybe tomorrow; we will see." Stu, on the helm. "Definitely not the Southern Ocean. We don't wear sunglasses in the Southern Ocean." (He laughs.) "This is far too nice." Black talks about the blue sky and being quiet warm. Wake shot. Below, at the nav station, Pascal talks about strategy with the approaching low, gybing during the night to get the good position, the good pressure. Difficulty of routing with the exclusion zone/ice gate. No way to get away and be safe. Tomorrow night, maybe gusting to 45 knots. Increasing wave state. He shows the routing software with the low moving through.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.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.AkzoNObel reaches on port gybe with a reefed main. Simeon sits on the weather rail; Emily sits forward of him on the mainsheet. Simeon talks about having a rough night, having been stuck under a cloud and lost a bit. Slomo of bow. Shot of them racing in a rain squall. Nicolai talks about two kinds of clouds: a "sucking" cloud or a "dropping" cloud. "Dropping clouds are the good ones, they come with rain but they also come with winds. The sucking clouds are the bad ones; they just take the breeze and you park up." Shots from inside the cabin as rain pours down on the cockpit. Below, Jules talks about the squall; it was their first big one, 33-35 knots. They saw it on the radar but were late reducing sail and so "got a bit low in it". Jules: "I just got washed back by a wave as I was trying to go forward, got knocked back on my backside, which was a little embarrassing." Shot of Jules being washed off his feet in the cockpit by a wave. Jules talks about seeing the size if the cloud after coming out of it. Slomo shot of water pouring in the cockpit. Martine, soaking wet below, talks about not being able to find her shoes, but it being a good opportunity for a shower, then she resumes looking for fresh clothes.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.