Other boats in glassy conditions. Black explains how they caught a big lift, trying to stay in the middle of the channel for more current. And have more wind. Quite good for the moment for us. Unfurling the MH0. Pascal: I think we are around two.... MAPFRE is tacking. He goes below. Crew on the bow. Charles scans the horizon. Jack: What's the tack on? Daryl: We're gonna get the tide gate this time. Everyone else is gonna... [he gestures]. Carolijn: I like that. Sunset. Stacking forward. Triple heading. Winch close up. Charles and Pascal talk in French.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!High drone shot of Dongfeng sailing in light winds. Low drone shot. Kevin on the helm: We know we have two groups of boats. One going south in front of the front. Three of us who have gybed. Now we know that the ones who stayed in front of the front are doing better than us. Now we're working hard. We took this position; we'll see. Pascal and Stu argue about effects of current if they bear away or not. Marie and Kevin talking. Horace: Last night was a bad dream. We almost stopped in the ocean. He looks up at the main. "More mainsheet?" Kevin driving. Stu: I find there's nothing productive in getting upset about stuff you can't control. For example, the other guys who are cruising off, with a nice breeze, there's nothing we can do about that at the moment. The best we can do is to sail well with the wind we have. As long as we're doing well with the boats around us, that's all we can do. Might end up a day behind, but it won't be through lack of trying. Marie talks in French. Nav station: Pascal looks at routing. Closeup of a winch grinding. Another boat a few miles away ahead and to leeward: Looks like TTToP (yup; tracker confirms). HIgh drone shot.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.Sailing in the pre-dawn. "Beautiful morning." Full moon. Kyle and Abby do winch repair in the half-light. Kyle: Got a bit of wind coming in the next 24 hours, and the winch has had a few issues, so we're just pulling it apart and servicing it. Bouwe talks about winning the leg being a really nice icing on the cake after being first to Cape Horn. Disappointing results up to now, getting better and better, but the results haven't been there. But we've seen in previous races that a lot can happen from Brazil to the finish. So if we can score maximum points, maybe the cards will be a little bit on our favor.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.Brad, up the mast wearing a GoPro (realize it's a Garmin), looks for wind, calls down to the deck. View from deck level as they flop. Knotmeter: 1.6. Hoisting the J1. Luke stands by the MH0 clew. Luke: Brad's just up the mast to pop the battens. GoPro shot of Brad doing that. Luke: 2/3 of the distance through the leg, Scallywag just 4 miles away. Simeon: Brunel, Scallywag, and ourselves. Cecile: Hopefully the guys behind us get stuck in the same stuff. Shot of another boat on the horizon. Martine takes a bearing. Jules talks about "going over there to get in that breeze. Luke looks through the binoculars. Simeon talks down into the cabin: "Need to get more snacks. Keep up the motivation. Luke lies below. Nicolai eats. Simeon: All short-term plans. Luke: Sea state is calm. Going to get flatter as well. Winch closeup. Sunset.Closeups: The hull slicing through the water. Marie sleeping with earbuds playing music. Someone tearing open a food packet. Adjusting a fan. Triple-heading in light wind. Grinding a winch. Taking off shoes. Wake, shaking up a drink. easing a sheet. Black sleeping. Winch. Pressing a "Start" button on a "Volvo Penta" panel (starting a winch?) Galley. Grinding. Ratcheting a stack strap. Clipping on a D-ring. (Heh. I can't keep up.) Sunset shot of another boat (MAPFRE?) Tea kettle whistling.Brad and Martine on the foredeck peeling from J1 to J0? FR0? Stacking. Luke in the pit. Luke bailing below. Filling up water in the galley. Brad: Nine days in. Not the easiest 9 days. Blast reaching, throwing the boat around. When they get to the doldrums they'll want to get this again. "As long as you keep your gear dry." Richard asks, "Is your gear dry?" Brad shakes his head and smiles. "Soaked all the way through." He eats. Jules talks about their lead over Scallywag and MAPFRE. They'll lose some of that as they lead into the first doldrums area. He talks about strategy with someone. Shots of the conditions lightening on deck. Nicolai talks about light winds coming. Frustrating, but they knew it was coming. Ready for hard work. Unfurling a bigger sail (MH0?). Jules talks about strategy. Simeon scans the horizon for wind. Squall with rain and wind. Grinding. Winch drum. Jules talks about the nearby boats. Luke in the cockpit. Jules, in the companionway, talks about the clouds, and strategy.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.Shots of them sailing fast on starboard gybe. Winch, washing machine. Charles smiling on the helm. Carolijn trimming. Below, Frank says, "The plan is a long, downwind, starboard gybe with some wind variation." Sometimes an opportunity to gybe to position the boat for the next shift. When they pass Taiwan there will be a big wind shadow; have to anticipate that. Not easy to attack the boats in front. They have better wind. Shots of a gybe from starboard to port, then another gybe from port to starboard. Crew working in the cockpit.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.Below, Jack repairs a winch drum. Talks about how it has been dry and relatively flat on deck. Quite a nice change. On deck he reassembles the drum, tests it from the pedestal. Closeup of the instruments on the mast. Carolijn: Still in the lead, AkzoNobel on their heels. They've been following their line. Now Dongfeng is running out of the breeze first, so there's some compression happening. But now the pressure is building. MAPFRE and Vestas 20 miles to their east. Still a very long leg to go. Doldrums in about 2 days. Interesting and tough. Then the NE trades. By the wheel, Kevin taps on the intercom. "Franky? Did you get the position report?" Franck's voice comes from the speakers: Dongfeng first. AkzoNobel second, 2.6 miles. Third is MAPFRE, 7 miles behind. Jérémie, on the grinder, says something in French. Kevin: Still ahead, which is nice. Now need to go fast on starboard. Low-altitude drone shot from close ahead and to starboard as Dongfeng triple-heads with the sun behind them. Cool drone tracking shot across their bow. Drone shot from close astern and to weather.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.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.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.In the cockpit, Sophie works on the disassembled mainsheet winch drum. Sophie: "It's like winch school at SCA. When I was on SCA I learned quite a lot about winches." Ñeti talks about the hydrogenerator. Pablo talks in Spanish. Closeup of the hydrogenerator. Blair, on the helm, talks about Rio, and about winning the gold medal at the Olympics. Blair: "It's an awesome city and I have very fond memories of it."Sunrise. (That's the fourth OBR who has started a video with the 2017-11-15 sunrise.) A crewmember looks to leeward through bright orange binoculars. Below, someone (I think Alberto?) talks below, in shadow, about having a really good 24 hours and passing Vestas. Someone (I think Peter?) wipes his face with a cloth. Capey and Bouwe sit at the nav station. Capey: "Not bad." He laughs. In the cockpit, Bouwe asks Maciel how far he thinks they are from Vestas. Maciel: "Ten?" Bouwe: "Sixteen and a half." Maciel, to someone asking him from out of frame: "Three eighteen, sixteen and a half." He points to the starboard quarter. Thinking this must have been the 2017-11-15 1900 sched? Tracker doesn't show them quite that far apart, but it's close. Below, Abby takes off her foulies. In her bunk, she talks about having MAPFRE in their sights next. Carlo works the bow for a sail change, including slomo footage. Peeling J1 to FR0, I think. Slomo of bagging the old sail. Stacking, tightening straps on the stack. Carlo below, eating. Pully with line. Slomo of Kyle on the clew. Capey talking about the clouds. Carlo, below: "It's the best job I've ever had, mate." Winches.Pascal talks in the cockpit. They're off Brazil, can't see the girls on the beach but they're there. Talks about going around the St. Helena high. Below, at the nav station, Pascal talks on the intercom about the latest sched. Time-lapse view from the media station looking forward of Pascal at the nav station. Shots of Dongfeng reaching fast on port. Jack working on a piece of hardward (roller fitting from the head of a sail, maybe?). Jérémie, on the pedestal, slaps the top of the winch drum while spray covers him, then grabs a winch handle to bang on it. Carolijn in the washing machine. Charles grinding on a pedestal.Sunrise. Sophie, sitting aft in the cockpit, summarizes their situation. Dongfeng is 6 miles ahead, and they seem to be stretching out on the fleet behind a little bit. Wind is moving aft; currently true wind angle is 110 degrees. Closeup of a hand-bearing compass dangling from the binnacle railing. Sophie trims the mainsheet. Closeup of the mainsheet winch drum. Blair, on the low side, eases a headsail sheet. Distant shot of Dongfeng ahead of them. Winch closeup. A group of three in the cockpit: Ñeti on the mainsheet, Rob on the helm, Joan looking to weather. Joan: "It might get lighter initially under the cloud, and then there might be a little push." Rob steers and trims main; Támara grinds. Ñeti, on the foredeck, helps hoist a sail (maybe the MH0?). Pablo grinds in the cockpit, grimacing.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.Kyle, in the cockpit: "This winch is back-winding." Kyle disassembles a which. Kyle explains: "Just have some broken springs in the which, which started to back-wind under load, which could be very dangerous. If you've got a lot of load on the sheet, and the winch starts spinning backwards then the handles will spin and if it hits you and the thing's unloading you can break your wrist." Kyle, on the low side working on the winch, is wet from spray. He asks Annie, on the helm: "A little less heel, please, Annie." Close up of the broken spring. Below, Abby calls up: "Still got longer to come down." (Maybe she's securing the backing plate as the winch is reassembled?) Below, Kyle wipes his face with a towelette. Talks about being 40 minutes late to go off-watch. Realizes that there's a sail change to do, which will take him back on deck. Carlo, on the bow, pulls a new sail forward. Kyle grinds a winch. Kyle goes below. Shot of Kyle sleeping in his bunk with earbuds in.Nicolai, below, works on a broken-down winch: "We had a windy night last night, and when you have a bit of breeze it's always hard on the gear. We broke the winch we use to furl the sails, so just fixing that right now. Without the winches we can't pull the sails; we can't adjust anything... These are crucial. We need them all the time... So that's why I'm doing this now, and we'll have it back up in a hopefully couple of minutes, but probably half an hour."