Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag

crew Alex Gough, Annemieke Bes, Ben Piggott, David Witt, Grant Wharington, John Fisher, Libby Greenhalgh, Luke Parkinson, Marcus Ashley Jones, Steve Hayles, Tom Braidwood, Tom Clout and Trystan Seal
Witty, below, puts talcum powder in his foulies. "Look at this: I apply the talcum powder like Bes told me." He shakes talcum powder all over himself. This is the best theory. You just get as much of it as you can, and you just cover yourself. This could almost be for the last time. He pulls on his foulies. About 6 hours to the end of the VOR. The V-O-R. He jokes about throwing beer in each other's faces. Annemieke, in her bunk: It's sure he will do it again.Annemike, trimming: Battling here. Don't want anyone between us and Plastics. Very important few hours. Witty: Looks like a photo finish, doesn't it? What other way would you want to finish the Volvo Ocean Race? He describes the position of the boats. Describes the possibilities of how the finish could play out. This has been an amazing mental, emotional roller coaster this race. In 47,000 miles not one thing has changed. As critical as I have been of the boats, and I will stand by that, this is the most amazing round the world race I've ever seen. For a whole bunch of different reasons. Antonio and Trystan grinning on the weather rail.Annemieke, below: Plan is, we're gonna bear away, and catch the whole fleet and finish first. Simple plan but it will work out. Witty: It's like leg 2 into Cape Town, the middle of the bloody Southern Ocean and we're gybing on top of each other. Nothing's changed. I think the boss is quite surprised at how tight and close it is. 100-footers were close but nothing like this. I don't want to look at the AIS ever again in my life. I'm sick of looking at the AIS. We've sailed 40,000 miles and we're still watching the boat next to us to see if they moved a sail a meter forward or back... I think now everyone's at the realization that tomorrow we never have to get on one of these things again and put ourselves through this. I think everything's coming home to roost of just how agonizingly frustrating and mentally tough it is, and we're now counting down the hours. I think if you thought like this any earlier in the race you wouldn't have been able to get yourself mentally right to do the next leg. Owner talks about the course from the cabin to the cockpit. Annemieke: I think as Witty always said, we're a bunch of good lunatics. But yeah, I think we've really bond. Everyone will not say to each other, but I think we're gonna miss each other. We went through so many highlights and major... disasters. Losing Fish. And I think Fish is a big part of the crew, he's with us, you know. Talking for myself I think about him every day. I miss him, and I think that counts for all of us. I think that's a big thing.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.Grinding in the sunrise. Libby, below: We just peeled from our MH0 to the J1. Now wobbling along the northwest edge of Europe. Three boats have taken this route... Surprised to see the leaders split like that. Map screen showing the split. She talks about the western group. After a shot in the cabin hatch, the same clip of Libby is repeated. Libby calls up fleet positions from the nav station. "Struggling a bit with our speed... Hats off to Turn the Tide. They've got some good moding. A few peels to go; we seem to be better at peels, we gain a bit when we do that. So it's never over till it's over."Bernardo on the rail lashes the stack. Scallywag is visible a half mile behind and to weather. A coastline is visible behind them and to starboard; is that Norway? A German or Dutch island? Keel shot. Rudder shot. Nicolas: We are going offshore; in a few hours will have 30 knots (yeah, this is off Norway). Bleddyn works on the outrigger. Dee steers. Dee grinding. Reefing the main. Stronger conditions; washing machine. Liz, below: Pretty gnarly. We're sending it across the North Sea from Norway down to Denmark. 32 knots of breeze, pretty bouncy sea state, and we're sitting on speeds of between 24 and 27 knots. Really really fun.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.Flopping. TTToP crossing them a half mile away. Drone shot of the two boats. Ben: Pretty frustrating night. A big game of luck almost, who can pick the right shifts. We just went around a virtual mark. Can't seem to shake Turn the Tide yet. Drone shot. Ben: It's a massive undertaking, this race. It's relentless. It's never-ending... It really shapes your character. Relentless mentally and physically. A good test of the person and of the team.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.Ben and Trystan go through food packs by the galley. Libby tells them 10 minutes to the virtual mark. Witty asks how far. Libby: 4.7 miles. Fleet compressed; at one point everyone was within 6 or 7 miles; now they've spread out again. Might be able to get past Turn the Tide. Will see in 40 minutes. Boats around the "mark" are going slower than boats still going upwind, so wind is light. Witty calls to be ready for a tack. "Hopefully get across Plastics." They tack. Owner on the grinder. Drone shots of them converging with TTToP, both sailing very slowly.In the semi-dark, sailing with Scallywag a half mile behind them. Passing a buoy with two boats ahead of them. Martin, on the helm: Got Scallywag behind us, and have Brunel and Vestas just ahead. Sunrise silhouetting Vestas and Brunel ahead of them. Wind is dropping a lot. Have to change the mode quite a bit on the boat, probably change the sail as well. A lot of work for us. (Sounds super tired.) Boatspeed: 10.3. Folding a furled sail on the foredeck. Competitor on the horizon ahead.Someone (Martin?) sleeping below. Sailing past land in lighter conditions. Nicolas and Bernardo look at Nicolas's tablet. Stacking below. Tacking in the cockpit. Bernardo and Bleddyn on the forward pedestal. Scallywag 100 yards ahead of them. Entering Aarhus. Nicolas looks at his tablet. Nicolas: We are going to go inside the harbor. Winds are very tricky. We are fighting with Scallywag. Three boatlenghts. Have to be ready to do everything. Spectator sailboat motors alongside with Danish flag. Tacking. Nicolas: We are almost layline now. We have to tack guys. Bleddyn, on the helm, calls the tack. Scallywag crosses ahead on port. Sailing past a 12 meter in the harbor. Repeat of earlier Nicolas clip explaining the upcoming harbor transit. Passing the lighthouse. Scallywag exiting above them. Spectators along quay. Tacking around the buoy. Exiting past the crowds. Annalise: A little bit tight in there; wind was a little funky. Had a few messups with our Masthead Zero. Nearly heading to the finish. One more mark by Norway. Loads of people there, which was really cool... I think everyone's pretty tired on the boat. We're now on the home stretch... Sleep when we get to the Hague. Gybe. Scallwag to port. Lumpy furl of the MH0. Liz: Have to drop it. Wrestling with the badly furled sail on the foredeck. Scallwag gybes ahead of them. Lucas fiddles with the sail. Lowering the J1.Drone shot of Scallywag triple-heading. Libby: I'd be pretty keen to split the stack now, so we have options. TTToP a few boatlenghts behind. Libby: We didn't do to well coming in. Turning in a marina which is always pretty exciting to watch. Close rounding, bit of a frenzy. Passing lighthouse. Rounding the turning mark. Libby: A3 up as soon as you can. Libby: No rest, lots of corners, lots of sail changes. We're just trying to get to the Hague. Witty: I haven't been in Denmark for 20 years. There you go; that was in and out. Done.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.Drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard. Drone shows TTToP to weather of them. Alex: Turn the Tide. We've been next to them the whole time. We're just reaching along, boatspeed the same. Happy with how we're going. You go the same speed most of the time, then you have your moment when you're quicker. Both boats waiting to capitalize on a mistake; tension is pretty high. Pretty stressful. Drone shot of triple-heading wth the J2 flapping. Alex: Yesterday we were ahead; now we're even. Just gotta have patience. Drone shot as J2 is furled.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.Tack in the semi-darkness. Mark rounding. Someone (Annemieke?) counts down to the mark. Someone else shouts "deploy, deploy, deploy..." TTToP behind them. Libby: We're just off the coast of Norway. Half a boatlength between us and Turn the Tide. But we did a better peel inside them, so we got better distance on them. Witty gives the owner instructions on the helm. TTToP a few boatlengths astern of them.Sailing toward the sunset and clouds. Grinding. Bernardo points out whitecaps coming down. Tack. Stacking below and on deck. Scallywag to port. Sailing into the sunset. We see the blown covering tack by Scallywag from TTToP's perspective. Bernardo: We are sailing upwind with 22 knots. Put us back on the fleet again. Game is on; we have Scallywag really close to us. Time to get our heads up and fight for our position. The game is on. They want to do it the hard way; it's not going to pay off. Shots of Scallywag on their weather quarter. Sunset.Scallywag tacks a boatlength to windward of TTToP in the sunset. Not a great tack; takes a while to get the sail in, and it looks to me like TTToP escapes to the lee bow. Jack, below, describes it. "A mid-ocean lee bow... They came in with plenty of pace; had a bad tack." All pretty tight, with Akzo and Brunel not too far in front. Shot of TTToP on their lee bow.Libby looks at her tablet. Witty: I've told you many times over the last 12 months: Nothing good comes from a cloud... Not in great shape, but the boat we need to keep ahead of [TTToP] is back there [points behind them]. MAPFRE went from miles behind to leading... gutsy move. TTToP sailing below them. Sunset. Ben: Always nice to get a good result, a podium. Need to stay ahead of Turn the Tide to avoid the wooden spoon.Trystan passes up "toasties". Lightweight frying pan, ham and cheese. Annemieke jokes about being far down the queue. Annemieke: End of an era. Scallywag in the Volvo. Trystan cleans dishes. Gives Annemieke a toasty. Trystan: Everyone's talking about how much we're going to miss the sailing. All the spectator boats. It's a great race, and I'm for sure looking forward to doing the next one. That's my goal. Libby eats her toasty, talks to Trystan about her favorite version. "Next race."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.Bianca, below: I think as a team we've grown massively. Talks about their needing to develop a playbook. Unfortunate that we're getting to the end of the just as they're getting to that level. Talks about trying to get a boat between them and Scallwag. Bernardo talks about the tactics of the start. Believes there will be three boats fighting for the committee boat end. They plan to start clear of that and farther down the line. Bleddyn on the helm at the start. Dee: Last chance. Last chance to stand and deliver. Keeping my everything crossed at the moment. Not where we are in 24 hours, but where we are in 72 hours when we cross the line. Want to give them their moment of glory and moment to shine. Bleddyn on helm with Bernardo calling tactics. Bernardo: Max left... meas we can lay our gate from the pin. Nicolas calls time. Start. Bleddyn looking nervous on the helm. Francisco: We're racing, full speed guys. Liz calls about the runner. Sailing upwind. MAPFRE behind them. Lucas: That's not good. MAPFRE closing behind them. Bernardo: Wind shadow starting in the next minute. Passing a lighthouse. MAPFRE below them. MAPFRE above them. Ah, I see what Pablo was upset about. He tried to stick their bow up to weather of TTToP when rounding that mark, but they didn't give him room and made him go to leeward of them. Helicopter. Martin easing a sheet. Martin below: Very even I think. Behind on the reach, but we've caught up quite a lot, and are fighting to be first boat to the north. I think it's going to be very tight. Don't have to go too close to the Swedish rocks. Quite well-known for crashing boats. Liz, on deck: a couple of hours since the leaving mark. Talks about the other boats. Waiting for a header so they can all tack. Martin climbs into his bunk below. Dee on the helm. Bianca in the pit. Nicolas comes up and gives an update from AIS on how the other boats are doing relative to them.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.Dockout. Witty: Feeling pretty good. We've been sailing well. Haven't been getting the result, so we're due for one. Got the boss driving... [Seng Huang Lee, I guess?] The minute you start trying not to run last, you run last. We're not having that conversation. Libby: Bit of a battle on, you realize that an epic journey is coming to an end. Does play on your mind a bit. But ultimately it's gonna be a fast and furious two and a bit days. Alex previews the leg. Sounds excited. Parko: The non-sleeping Olympics. We'll get to Norway around midnight, and next mark a couple of hours after that. Start. Owner actually is driving the boat, though he's not mentioned in the official site's Crew page. Witty tells him where to point the boat. Parko: These legs are pretty special. Finishing the race for Fish, that's pretty special in itself. Might be the last time we get to sail with the same crew. These are the moments in our sport that don't come around too often. Shots of the owner on the helm. TTToP to port. Dongfeng ahead nad to leeward of them. Trystan and Ben on the foredeck. Owner is gripping the wheel like someone's trying to steal it. Owner: It's very exciting. I haven't sailed in two years, so it's good fun. Always good to spend time with the crew. I'm a little bit of the monotony after ten legs. Looking foward to spending a few days with everyone. [Now I'm wondering if he had to go through the certification all the other racers did. Sounds like he didn't.]Prestart with TTToP behind them. Peter on the helm: Tacking here. Other boats: MAPFRE, Vestas, Scallywag, AkzoNobel. Start with Peter asking for traveler up. Mark rounding with MAPFRE a boatlength behind. Other boat: Dongfeng. Abby on the rail: Pressure building now. Peter and Bouwe on the stern. Passing a lighthouse close to shore. Capey and Bouwe talk about not tacking at the mark, but rather just hardening up. Other boats crossing behind them. Scallywag and Dongfeng cross ahead of them. Shifting the stack to leeward for a tack. Abby, eating below: Didn't have the best start. Had to pinch to make the pin end. MAPFRE didn't make it and had to go around. So we did better than them. Peter, eating below, explains where they are with respect to the other boats. Dongfeng had a pretty good start. We'll have to see again in two hours.Early in the leg, Jules looks at a tablet. Nicho calls "main on". Boats behind them: Dongfeng, TTToP, Scallywag. Pan across the cockpit showing crew sailing the boat upwind: Nicolai on the helm, Martine and Emily (I think) grinding. Justin trimming the J1. Simeon in the pit. Luke sitting just forward of James (the OBR).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 shot with big wind. Double- (or triple- ?) reefed main. Instrument readout at nav station: TWS 38.4. Trystan, below, gets his foulies on. It is pretty windy. Had about 38 knots last night. Upwind, J3, well, pretty well upwind. Gonna be heinous. Cockpit shot. Trystan: Last day now; difficult to gain miles. But as the wind eases we'll be changing sails, so we'll need to do a good job with that. Entering Gothenburg. Keep it going. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Trystan talks about sleeping as soon as he gets below. "Love sleep." Antonio: Also lots of rain, and it feels like needles when it hits your eyes. Need eye projection. It's what it is; it's the same for everybody. Bow pounding. Antonio: Should arrive today, this evening. He gets confused about what time it is; laughs. "It doesn't matter. It's daylight all the time."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.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.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.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.Drone shot of Scallywag sailing in light conditions. Annemieke: In a transition zone... It's really light; super tricky. Parko on the helm. High drone shot of the boat passing just under the drone in glassy conditions. Bowsprit. MH0 flopping. Witty on the bow: This leg far from over. As we say, we never give up. Last sched we were only 13 miles behind. I think it's 100% changed me. More good than bad. But changed me in a bad way too. The good stuff is I'm more tolerant and definitely more patient. When you can be part of the development of someone like Nipper, or you go through the loss of like Fish and that's like circumstances or other things that have happened... if you're 5 minutes late to work you get caught in traffic or... your priorities change. My priorities have changed a hell of a lot. You realize you can't control anything. You can prepare better than you have in the past, but you can't control anything. Libby at the nav station gets the sched: We're third. I don't really understand the sched. We made a 3-mile gain on the fleet. they're in very light winds. We were the fastest boat by half a knot. As they flop, Libby: At the moment we're smashing the [bleep] out of it!Witty reads off a sched while we see shots on deck: Only 13 miles behind... Should be able to almost see 'em. Witty at the nav station: Tricky transition coming. Hopefully we'll do okay in that. Back in the hunt. 970 miles to go. He sounds tired. Witty: All about the next transition, next 3 hours, 4 hours.Drone shots of them sailing past Ireland. Ben: We're just off the tip of Ireland. Fastnet rock just down to leeward of us. Drone shots of land. Ben: We've caught up another 30 knots, so we're 30 knots behind instead of 60. Drone shots. Antonio: Happy to Fastnet rock again. Obviously not in the best position, but we are recovering. I think we are in the fight. Plenty of miles to go. Let's keep positive. Drone shots with bird. Antonio: We have a headland 7 miles, then go north upwind. Pass the high pressure and then a cold front passing and we start the fast speeds. Drone shot.Drone shot of Scallywag passing behind an oil platform. Jack (new face!): It's just like riding a bike with team Scallywag. Never a dull moment. It was actually pleasant sailing yesterday, sailing down the river, but just ran out of wind. I've sailed with them for a number of years, with Nipper. Ben: Went through a cloud, a transition, 25 knots to 8 knots. Hopefully the other boats are going slower than this. Jack: We copped a heavy punishment for a little mistake... Put the bow down thinking we were in the new pressure, and we weren't, and fell off the cliff. Drone shot of them triple heading. Ben below asks Libby re: the latest sched. How did we do. Libby: 40 mile gain... Dongfeng is in 1 knot of wind... At the moment we're still gaining. And they have some tide against them. Parko, below: We made a mistake, and we paid dearly for it. Trying to fight back. Fell a hundred miles behind, and we've taken a big chunk of that back. Drone shot of Scallywag surfing with oil platform in the back. Parko: That was about as brutal as it gets.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.Sailing upwind in light conditions with MAPFRE, AkzoNobel, and Vestas on their starboard quarter. Stacking in the evening twighlight. Scallywag to leeward. Annalise points out the other boats around them. Dee on the bow: We're kind of like the home team, a lot of people came down to visit, so a busy stopover. Really nice to leave with that kind of energy. Leg is complex. Lots of corners, lots of tidal gates. Pretty busy job for the navigator. Brian at the nav station talks about the course. Brian: Biggest challenge is all the land effects. The weather models are accurate in the oceans, but with land heating up and cooling down it's a little unpredictable. Looking where the fleet is going, where the wind is, where the tide is. Martin on the helm with MAPFRE behind them. Lucas looks at them throgh binoculars. Dee: Still want to be as competitive as possible. Haven't had a good result. Think we deserve it. Have been chipping away at Scallwag. Want to not be at the bottom of the leaderboard by The Hague.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.Knotmeter reads 1.0. Libby at nav station: We're going backwards. We're building the anchor. And the rest of the fleet is still going forward at 10 knots. It's not exactly how you want to start a leg off. Assembling the anchor in red headlamps. Libby: it all happened very quickly. Never really managed to get back into the same wind as them. Anchor assembly. Libby: Nearest boat is 13 miles. She talks about the tide. It's kind of a double-whammy. As my friend says, if you're not winning your learning. Whole pot of learning going on right now. Anchor goes over. Ben, in the dark: We've just dropped the anchor. Waiting for the breeze to build or the tide to change direction. Knotmeter reading 0.0. Ben: I think the tide will probably change first before the breeze fills in. We see the anchor chain with tidal current flowing past it. Ben: You're definitely not going anywhere. So time to hit the rack I think.Dock out. Dee waves. Liz steers. Looking at the chart below. Brian explains strategy before the start. Dee plays air drums on teh wheel. Bianca's boots and socked feet. Lucas goes up the rig to kick battens/look for wind. Grinding. Start, with Scallywag ahead. Cool shot out the pit. Francesca waves the protest flag; judge's blow whistle and penalize Scallywag. Watching other boats with helicopter noises and they slowly sail out.Xabi talks in Spanish about the start, competition. Repeats in English. Good start in Cardiff. Tricky conditions. But then the wind dropped to nothing and the guys behind got better wind in the middle of the channel. Could be worse. Now Dongfeng a little ahead of them, Brunel to weather. Now we need to work our way back into the lead. Brunel in glassy conditions. Blair talks strategy. Sophie up the mast to kick battens. Other boats: Vestas, Dongfeng, Scallywag. Drifting. Pablo on the helm. Sophie hosting a sail on the bow, stacking aft. Boat on the horizon ahead of them.Witty sits despondent. Libby talks about the penalty at the start. Slow and no wind at the start. Doing different directions... heading out to some pressure out here. Think there'll be some anchor-building. Ben on the bow talks about lack of wind. Looks like there's more pressure where they're heading. Witty: Shitty light air.Drifting start. Other boats. Fabien looks at other boats. Kevin on teh foredeck. Sailing past TTToP on starboard. Unrolling the MH0. Tacking. Kevin: Not a very good start. Very light wind. We are quite good; we went in the shadow of three boats. So we've lost a lot and a lot to gain. Very light during the night... Have to do our best to take the lead back before the end of the bay.Jumper prepares to go over. Charlie: "Everybody say bye to the Ice Man." Jumper dives over. Postponement flag on the committee boat. Countdown starts. SiFi calls time and distance. They start on port. All clear. Charlie on the leeward wheel looks at other boats. Tacking to starboard with Akzo and Brunel behind. Then Dongfeng and TTToP behind. Jena on the bow looks for pressure. Mark: Warm sunny day leaving Cardiff. Up in the front with MAPFRE. Seems like a sitaution where the leading boats gain. A little anticlimactic, but plenty of spectators. The slower we are here the windier it could be up at the top of the UK. Tony pops the batten over after a tack. Charlie on the helm: Tenuous start, certainly. Did a good job keeping the rudders straight. Phil: I think it was a nice start. SiFi talks about the thermal activity and tricky Bristol Channel winds. Tony talks to Charlie about wind. SiFi talks about hitting a tide line. Charlie passes the helm to Mark. Jena looks at MAPFRE ahead of them. Tack. Charlie: If they let us, happy to switch. How much do we have depth-wise? Stacey points out a windline. Crew sits forward. Glassy conditions as they tack with MAPFRE. Current is pushing them against no wind. Nick says to Jeremie: What are you doing? Turn that shit off. He sounded serious. Was Jeremie filming something they didn't want him to? Or was that just joking?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.Trystan, in the prestart, talks abut the glorious weather. Trystan: We know we have the ability. Libby talks in the cockpit about the upcoming conditions. Trystan: Once they clear the southwest tip of Ireland should start to build. Try to stir the leaderboard up a bit, salvage a bit of self respect. And prove to everyone we still can do it. Libby and Witty at the start. Witty: Probably the most magnificent day I've ever seen in the UK. Alex at the start. Judges flag them with a penalty. Witty gestures: "what?" They spin; Parko grinding.Scallywag flopping in the sunrise. Slomo flopping. Annemike: I see not so much wind at the moment. Hopefully some breeze later on. Not really what we expected. Rolling up the MH0 as a windseeker. Radio forecast with light variable winds forecast. Libby: Right now we're somewhere off the southwest tip of Ireland, not far from Fastnet Rock. Alex is excited about rounding it. Leaders are finishing; we're about a day behind. Unfortunately with these shorter legs you can get behind and not have a chance to catch back up. Later: There's Ireland! Sunset. Dolphins. Alex: Sun's going down, plenty of dolphins on the bow. Just need Fastnet Rock over there. Just two more nights and we'll be in. Nice afternoon sail. Fun. (He nods to himself.) We see the light on Fastnet Rock (I guess?) blinking.We look into the hot chocolate with protein powder cup. Peter: "It's kind of summing up the last day." Started out with so much promise when you get handed a coffee mug. And now I"m just left wiht a very confused cup. Is it a protein drink? Is it hot chocolate? Do you want it?" Richard: No. Peter: Here's to Neptune. (He tosses it over the side.) Changing sails on the foredeck. Trystan: Yesterday was a pretty dark camp aboard Scallywag. High pressure ridge; last to enter it. Hoping for a bit more compression. Got 10 knots of breeze, and moving nicely. Having just come on watch it's a happier place than it was 6 hours ago, that's for sure. Stacking below. Stacking on deck.Sunrise. Witty at the nav station. "214 miles behind. Imagine what the next sched's gonna be like." They flop. Peter, on the helm. Latest sched just in. (shakes his head) Leg over. Everyone else is doing 20 knots. We're doing 3 knots. Not even pointing at the finish. Unbelievable. Shots of empty milk jar below. Parko: We don't have any milk. We packed protein powder instead of milk powder. The shocker! We all make mistakes. Peter, on the helm. I packed protein. My name's Pete, and I packed protein. Laughs. Annemieke: I put protein powder instead of milk powder in the hot chocolate. I think It's pretty nice. Peter tries it. "Oh [bleep]." Laughs. "You did that on purpose?" Annemieke: No, no, no.Sign taped to the aft side of the doghouse: "National Wine Day". Has wind forecast for each various times throughout the day. DTF 670. Libby: It is. It's National Wine Day. Libby at the nav station with Witty. Witty reads out the gains on the other boats due to the comression. Peter on the helm. Drone shots in light conditions. Foredeck. Slomo telltales. Antonio: 600 miles from the finish. Having to cross the light conditions. Libby and Witty at the nav station. Libby yawns. Flopping with the MH0. Slomo flopping. Antonio talks about the ETA. Flopping. Antonio: Still a bit far behind to talk about catching someone. If it were windy it would be harder, so it's good to have these conditions now. Peter shakes the main to try to pop the batten. Sunset.Libby, below: Sailing into some light winds, so probably about to peel to the MH0. Fleet will compress and we'll probably come out in slightly better position than we are now. Front two guys have a solid lead. The rest of them are still in touch. She talks about how they dropped off the front of the fleet and then it's hard to get back in touch. Parko and Annemieke grind on deck as they peel to the MH0. They roll up and lower the J0. Peter, similing on the cabin, talks about laundry day now that the rough conditions have passed. Clothes laid out to dry on the cabin. Libby: Announces the sched. "Good one for us, yay! Gained 35 miles on the leaders." Muted enthusiasm... Peter: Shame that we've dropped back so far. Want to go into Cardiff with a good position.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.Mounted camera on the starboard rail by the helm as they surf fast on starboard gybe. Washing machine.Witty and Parko talking below about making the sail change. Fixed-camera shots of making the change. Stacking aft. Heh. Richard is going nowhere near any of this (not that I blame him). Annemieke coming below. Parko, below: We've put a bigger sail up. We're a bit lifted. Going 2 knots faster. Which is good, but means we should have done it earlier... It's super frustrating when you realize we could have been on a different sail sooner by an hour and a half. Probably lost 3 or 4 miles just on sail selection.Spreader cam view of the cockpit with crew huddled on the stern. Washin gmachine. Bow cam. Stern cam. Survival mode in the cockpit. Witty on the PA from the nav station. "We were 23 behind Turn the Tide; we're 9 behind now." Still last. He talks with Luke and Libby. Luke: Talks about following the fleet. In two days we're going to run into a ridge and just stop... Trying to decide which sail to run with. It's difficult to change, because we have to slow down to limit the water over the boat. Have to choose which is quicker: Slowing down to be able to make the change, or staying with what you have?Parko in the cockpit. Crew on the foredeck making a sail change. Peter on the helm. Sunny, with lighter winds. Witty on the helm. They talk about setting the J3. Libby, from the nav station, reads the sched on the PA. Second-fastest boat. Everyone looks similar wnid strength and direction. Trystan tidies lines in the pit. Spray in the slot. Slomo spray. Annemieke in spray works on a jib lead. Crew on the bow; hoisting the FR0, maybe? Grinding. Wrestling sails on the foredeck, bagging and stacking. Peter, below, talks about his snack: This is regressing to be like a five year old. You need a tub of Nutella, and a carrier. The carrier is the wrap. And you shove it in your mouth. My girls would be proud of me.Libby talks about the big unknown: When to gybe. Turn the Tide looks like they're in bad shape, but they could actually do better. Dongfeng and MAPFRE; we chose a longer route, but better pressure all the way. But generally you don't know. Sunset, clouds, washing machine on deck. Slomo water running along the deck. We see the gybe at night from the stern camera. "Big grind guys."Witty and Trystan at the nav station. They talk about the sched due in a half hour. Witty reads the sched over the PA. Annemieke and Ben grinding in the cockpit. Spreader cam view of washing machine. Nav station with boat tracks. Libby: Quite a big split in the fleet for quite long, which is quite unusual. She talks about holding onto the frontal system longer than they thought they should. The cowboy in me would have gybed at 8 this morning, but I resisted. But I'll probably gybe in the next hour. And it will be interesting to see how everyone manages to wiggle through the area of light winds.Sailing fast under cloudy skies with a reefed main. Trystan gets buried in the washing machine. Below, Alex takes his foulies off. Talks about the wild ride on deck from going through the Gulf Stream. But making good progress toward cardiff. Stern cam footage of washing machine. Foredeck view fro mmast cam. Cockpit view from spreader cam. Alex: AkzoNobel 2 and a half miles behind, us on our stern. And Turn the Tide another six miles. And in front of us just to leeward, Vestas, and Brunel, nine miles ahead. Witty: Terrible. Gulf Stream. What a [bleep]. Trystan, below: Still in the fight with the pack. Decision now is when to gybe. 25-30 knots of breeze. 25 knots of boatspeed. Making some miles.Windward-leeward after the start. Mark roundings. Grinding. Slomo grinding. Spetactor boat going through a wave. TTToP behind them in the fog. Vestas Behind them in the fog. Working in the cockpit. Crash cam footage of them folding the J1. Spreader cam of folding the J1. Parko: Full frenzy. Seventh combination, and we've been out here an hour. Witty on the helm. Spray on the bow. Triple heading. Forever Fish logo on the reefed main. Satellite dome on the stern. Antonio helming. Witty: Who's that on the bow? Libby: Vestas. Libby: Came out of there in pretty good shape. Then the fog. Peeled to the right sail, got to the FR0, and pulled up into third for a bit. But then held the FR0 for a little too long. But fleet's all within about 5 miles of each other. And can't see two boatlenghts. Front will come through tonight. Will probably see a bit further tomorrow.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.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.Parade. Simeon holding a little girl. Justin kissing a young child he's holding. Dockout. Nicho: Double pointer, only 8 days. People think it's short, but if you push it hard you feel it. Start. Brad: "Good breeze here." Other boats behind them. TTToP crossing astern at mark rounding. (Think that's the port-starboard between Vestas and TTToP behind them.) leeward mark rounding. Vestas astern. Nicolai on the helm going downwind under the bridge with MAPFRE and Dongfeng (and Brunel, invisible) ahead of them. Vestas 3 boatlengths to starboard. Simeon: Thinks they did well, except at the top mark. Felt my heart beating in my throat there. Now out of the bay into the fog. MAPFRE behind them. Jules: third place at the moment. Just trynig to wriggle our way around the exclusion zone. Discussion of J0 vs. J1.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."Dockout with the fans on the dock singing Happy Birthday (to Daryl?). Stu, below, talks about how it's the last double-points leg. Only around 9 days. Everyone's going to push really hard. Start with Dongfeng ducking the fleet on port. Then they tack onto starboard. Shot of them watching Brunel continue on port. Vestas on their weather hip. Vestas and Akzonobel tacking behind them on layline. Rounding the mark with lots of boats behind them. MAPFRE ahead. Dropping the J1. Pascal tailing. Daryl trimming. Approaching the leeard mark with Brunel in the lead, then MAPFRE, then Dongfeng. Lowering the J1 after another weather mark rounding. Running toward the bridge. Gybing the A3. Hoisting the J1 on MAPFRE's stern. Kevin, below, talks in French. Sailing upwind with Vestas behind them. Passing the committee boat; well wishers should "have a great trip!" Carolijn talks about taking to Pascal about the heading. Spray dousing the crew as they sail upwind. Sailing in fog. Daryl on the helm talks about it being hard to leave on his birthday. Hope they can do well and take the lead.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.Parko sees Bermuda: "Land ho!" We see Bermuda as they pass to weather of it. Libby uses a sextant: "Plan B." Stacking below. Libby: Yeah; FR0's the next sail. Gybing. Ben: Lost 20 miles to a couple of boats because they gybed earlier. Still gotta stay positive. We all have the same reason to do the race. It's an awesome team to be a part of. Just like going yachting with your mates, really.Drone shots of Scallywag triple heading. Antonio on the helm in the sunrise. Parko tidying lines. Wake. Peter: About 75 miles south of Bermuda. A few more hours on this gybe. Last few days have been pretty hard. Now we've got the same shift as everyone else. You gotta keep believing you can get into that leading pack. Have to keep sailing as if we're leading, sailing 100%. Witty: 48 hours ago were 235 miles behind. Now 130 miles behind. As we say on Scallywag, never surrender, never give up. Alex: What time is it? Talks witih Ben about how they've been on starboard for 8 days.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.Blast reaching with a reefed main. Washing machine shots from the stern. Peter, trimming the main on the stern, talks about it. We do that for 4 hour lots in the day, and at night - here we go, here is a crack (as a wave washes over) - we only do 3 hours at night. Witty, at the nav station, reads a sched over the PA: We are consistent. We lost 12 miles to everybody... Keep up the good work. Peter scowling in his bunk. Libby explains that they were faster, but weren't in the lifted pressure. Starting with the next sched should start gaining on the fleet.Libby continues explaining how she conveys sched info. There are people who want to know, so you can't not tell them. And it kind of breaks the day up. It's kind of the "news of the day". Peter: Happy birthday, we're the fastest boat in the fleet now. Computer screen. Libby and Bessie at the nav station.Libby at the nav station, reads the sched over the PA. Something about asking them to do fewer "wind checks"? Computer screen. Weather software. Libby explains the every-six-hours sched. Managing expectations, and how you share the information. I'm looking at the routings, so I always know what's coming. But the rest of the crew doesn't know that, and so if they take a loss they wonder have we been sailing badly?Peter jokes that the leg is for his 39th birthday. Bessie figures out that yesterday was his birthday. He laughs. Bessie on the pedestal. Sailing fast. Washing machine. Parko on the helm. Weed on the lifelines. Bessie getting her gear on (or off?) below. Outrigger. Libby, at the nav station, wishes Pete a happy birthday. About 7 days from the finish. About 210 miles behind the fleet, which is quite a lot. To be honest I think it's going to be hard to get another boat. It doesn't stop you pushing and trying to find those miles.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.Sargasso weed. Someone checks the keel with the endoscope. Keel, rudder shots. Sailing fast through weed. Slomo. Closeup of weed. Alex, below, explains about weed on the foils. Nipper and Trystan can look to see what's on the foils. Tricky when it's dark. The boat hook is handy as well. You can half wipe out, and it will get the weed off. At the moment it's all over the bow. It smells a bit downstairs. Not sure if it's Nipper or the weed. Nipper asks a riddle: Why do starfish cry? Because of the seaweed. (blank emoji)Doldurms. Libby: Tomorrow we'll definitely be on the (something). Less than 24 hours of this rubbish. Instruments: 0.8 knots. Libby explains that the leaders will get into the new wind earlier, and will get away, but wait until May 7, and the bungee will come into action. They cross the equator, announced by Libby over the PA. Sunset. Trimming. Alex in the dusk: We crossed the equator just after lunchtime. Not that much has changed. Should be around 150 miles until we get into the tradewinds, and then we should be making pretty good speed to the finish line.Trystan jury rigs a freshwater pump. Talks about needing to fix things. Parko looks throgh binoculars. Stack forward. J3 clew (think theyr'e triple-heading). Alex working in the pit. Alex, on the bow, talks about how even if you're down you don't want to let it affect the others in the crew. Important to keep pushing along, and be positive. Antonio smiles. Trystan on the helm: This sucks; I hate it. It's slow and hot... I'm just over it.Evening drone shots of them drifting in light winds with rain on the horizon. Parko, on the helm: This part of the world is known for a relatively easy crossing. The land breeze helps. Clouds. Peter brushes his teeth. Ben mixes up something in the galley. Bird on ddeck (black tern?) Ben looks at clouds. Trystan says Libby has a good point that looking at the scheds for the next few days will be pretty depressing. But there will be a compression coming into Newport, and that will make or break the leg.Drone shot with container ship in the horizon ahead of them as they sail in light winds. More drone shots of them sailing under the MH0. Pole shots. Trystan, below, explains that they're coming to the northeastern point of Brazil. Obviously not overly pleased with where we're lying. But opportunity ahead with the doldrums and the equator to cross. Guys ahead are easing up, so a chance to catch up. Shifting the stack forward. Stacking below. Peter explains forward stacking below. Bessie stacking below.Libby explains that pushing north early was a bad call; punishing them now. David and her as the decision-makers can make a mistake and it's a big loss. The crew can make a mistake with a bad peel, and lose a few miles, but this is more frustrating. Struggling to find the answers to get back in the race. Nav station. Flopping mainsail. Libby explains her idea: tactical motoring. Everyone has a fixed amount of fuel, and they can choose when to motor. Trystan and Ben talk about how non-fun it is to have no wind. Stacking forward.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.Ben explains that they broke the stopper on the daggerboard, so they thought they'd have some afts and crafts in the afternoon and fix it. Witty reads the sched: We were 70 miles behind the leader; now we're 24. Peter: It's been light overall. J0 to the MH0. Frustrating really. Started the day badly, got hit by a lot of squalls. Hard for everyone last night. Stemmed the daage, but frustratingly light. Witty explains the situation. We don't want to go left, because left pressure left, more pressure right. Flopping. Night shots of them working the foredeck and cockpit.Wrestling the J0 on the foredeck; stacking it. Pole shots: outboard, rudder, bow, keel. Crewmembers tired, sleeping. Parko: So, over the last two scheds we've been the most western boat. The other boats are pushing down over the top. Clouds... Tough night, quite a few sail changes. It's been a rough one. We've lost quite a few miles. Lost the strong position we were in. Fighting to work east a little bit, to get back in a position where we can tack again. Witty reads a sched from below. Repairs to the top of the daggerboard (I think). Mixing epoxy, applying it.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.Drone shots: High overhead, overtaking to weather, circling the bow. Another boat (MAPFRE?) astern and to weather, and another boat astern and to leeward. Shot of a red boat (MAPFRE?) crossing their bow. Witty, on the helm, points out the other boats all around them. Witty: "Let's get the sails over guys." (In preparation for tacking.) We see the tack onto port. Trystan explains the Brazil exclusion zone. Dongfeng ahead, MAPFRE to leeward. Our position with the fleet is quite good. Stacking.Martine explains that no one has slept much because they've had a vew opportunities with clouds. Night shots of them sailing. Scallywag is behind her. Shots of the crew with Scallywag in the distance. Brad talks about having Brunel, Dongfeng, Scallywag, and MAPFRE next to them. Timelapse of the cabin, and then of the cockpit, then the nav station. Nicho: The benefit is lack of sleep. If you enjoy lack of sleep there's a high benefit to being this close to other boats. Drone shot of AkzoNobel and Brunel sailing a hundred yards apart. Shot from the deck of three boats on the horizon. Nicho explains that you can try out mode variations vs. the other boats. In this upwind stuff they haven't been consistently strong, so they need to work that out. "Yeah, we do need to get that sorted."Hoisting the J1 in the sunrise. Antonio at the nav station talks about going through the oil rigs, and need someone at all times watching the AIS. He eats at the nav station. Shot of the burning oil drilling ship. Trystan talks about how they're in last place in the latest sched. Libby talks about picking where to tack onto starboard for the drag race to the equator. Rain on the horizon. Rain astern. Crew working in the cockpit in rain.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.Grinding. Trystan on the foredeck hauling down the J1. Witty on the helm: I can't see how they're lifted and we're not. Peter, below, talks about the clouds. Shot of the cloud ahead of them on deck. Stacking below in prep for a tack. They tack onto starboard. Stacking aft. Witty on the helm. "Well, at least we're going to where Newport is." Trystan talks about how the gauge they've gained has not really helped out. So now we're the first to tack to starboard. Witty at the nav station. Talks about how MAPFRE must have tacked. Sunset, rain clouds.Sunrise. Alex on the helm. Clouds. Alex: Massive header. Ben sleeping against the stack. Witty at the nav station: Not very good. Brunel got a bit of speed and got through to leeward of us. Decision on where to tack today. Computer screen with routing software. Parko looking through binoculars. Annemieke: We have our moments when we do well; other times we struggle. Difficult conditions. Very choppy sea state, and the windspeed is up and down. You see it in the whole fleet. Rain showers to windward. Peter on the helm. Witty talks to Parko about what the boats to leeward are doing. "We might not get over all of them but we'll get at least some." Ben wrestles the MH0 (I asssume) aloft on the bow.Witty: If the support we got is any indication we should win by a week. It's a little strange for me; this is the first time in 12 years I've sailed a yacht race without Fish. Libby: It's been a bit of an emotional thing for me; I've struggled quite a lot. Pretty hard.Pre start. Libby calls time. Brunel close astern. Witty: We're gonna go under Vestas. They tack right after the start, head to the right side. Trystan calls wind. Close tack under Brunel. Close duck of AkzoNobel. Lowering the J1 with four boats ahead of them. Ben: Always a bit of a frenzy the first lap before going offshore. It's a bit lighter out here than what it was inshore. Just peeled from the J1 to the MH0. Next stop: Newport. Stacking forward. Light conditions.Parade. Witty kisses his wife (girlfriend?) goodbye. Dockout to Beautiful Day. Trystan, in full-face sunscreen, talks about how emotional the turnaround and departure has been. "Forever Fish" arm band. Alex says this is the first time they'll be hoisting the main and all the sails; just going to try to finish as best they can. Closeup of the Forever Fish logo as the main goes up. Libby has a tablet on her waist.Parade follows Simeon and Nicolai, intercut with starting line shots. Martine kisses her dad good bye. Dockout. Starting line, with Vestas, Dongfeng, and TTToP. Brunel behind them. Scallywag right behind. Scallywag ducks them at a mark rounding. Jumper jumps off. Simeon: I think we had a good plan on the start. But just a few seconds after the start it's such a critical position. Fell back. But recovered well. Middle fleet. Nicolai helmed well. We're rolling Turn the Tide now; we'll keep close to the top to guys so uh- (And then the video cuts off. Um, Brian?)Parade. Goodbyes at the dock. Carolijn's son being bummed. :-( Dockout with Charles on the helm. Jumper talks in Portuguese on the stern. He does a cool jump off the stern pulpit with his one leg. Caolijn talks about how she enjoyed being in Brazil. Charles, on the helm (seems like still before the start) talking about leaving Italjai. Start with countdown. Post start interaction with TTToP. Stu: Horace? We hoist after the tack. They tack ahead of the oncoming starboard tackers. Sailing downwind with MAPFRE just ahead. Gybing with TTToP, Scallywag, and Vestas behind them. More close action.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.SiFi at dockout with kid. Parade. Stacey waves from on board as they pull out. Nick on the foredeck. Nick on the bow calling the start. Mark on the helm. Nick on the rail: So pumped to go home. Dongfeng visible behind them. Stacey: Now we're heading up to Newport, RI, home port of Vestas/11th Hour Racing... Hope we get an awesome welcome. Shots of other boats during the windward/leeward. Foredeck. Jumpers going over (two of them).[No description yet]Annemieke, trimming the main on the stern, and Ben, steering, shout, "Point Nemo!" as waves wash over them. Below, Annemieke explains about Point Nemo: Farthest point from land on earth. Fish, below: "Not many people come to such remote spots on the planet. So, you know, it is a weird thing, but it's not something we dwell too much on to be honest." Washing machine shots on deck. Fish: "The cold is one thing that affects people in different ways. Some people struggle and go crazy with it. Others battle through. I think Bessie's used to the harsh winters of Holland. She seems to always be with a smile on her face. Which is quite infectious. But others are struggling, to say the least. The Antipodeans, they don't like it." Witty, below: When I grew up my mother had three brass monkeys on the windowsill in the kitchen. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. "And it's that cold, it's frozen the balls off a brass monkey." Alex talks about how it was 3°. "Bloody cold." Talks about spending short little stints down below, 15 minutes, to have a breather and warm up while on watch. Washing machine shots of grinding in the pit.[No description yet][No description yet][No description yet]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. Conch-blowing. Witty blows a kiss as they dockout to "Beautiful Day." Witty on the helm: Good turnout, isn't it? People are finally starting to realize they can do it. Prestart. Tacking. Alex calls the angle on Vestas and TTToP to leeward. Ducking AkzoNobel. Annemieke trimming.Parade. Conch-blowing. Witty blows a kiss as they dockout to "Beautiful Day." Witty on the helm: Good turnout, isn't it? People are finally starting to realize they can do it. Prestart. Tacking. Alex calls the angle on Vestas and TTToP to leeward. Ducking AkzoNobel. Annemieke trimming.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.Charlie, on the helm: "Let's have a good 7,000 miles, all right?" Stacey cranks a winch in the pit. Behind them are Brunel, TTToP, and Scallywag. We see the start, with someone counting down the last few seconds and AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Charlie: "Geometry's working out." Below, SiFi: talks about having had some trouble clearing the Code 0, but they're getting back into it now. We see the problem: They're sailing downwind under the J1 as they lower the MH0. After, Nick explains what went wrong. "Didn't have enough tack line so it swung back into the tracer line and got wrapped up." Hannah grinding.Charlie, on the helm: "Let's have a good 7,000 miles, all right?" Stacey cranks a winch in the pit. Behind them are Brunel, TTToP, and Scallywag. We see the start, with someone counting down the last few seconds and AkzoNobel ducking the fleet on port. Charlie: "Geometry's working out." Below, SiFi: talks about having had some trouble clearing the Code 0, but they're getting back into it now. We see the problem: They're sailing downwind under the J1 as they lower the MH0. After, Nick explains what went wrong. "Didn't have enough tack line so it swung back into the tracer line and got wrapped up." Hannah grinding.Dongfeng departs as "Uptown Funk" plays. Jérémie waves to the crowd on the dock. Jack talks about it being good to get away. Thinking too much in preparation; butterflies. But after the start they'll just sail. Marie talks about being ready; "let's go." Carolijn talks about the very nice goodbye before heading off into the Southern Ocean. Toughest leg, but the best leg in the whole race. Looking forward to digging south and doing some fast sailing. Also, arriving in Brazil is special. Shot of the start, Charles: "Good start." Close views of other boats alongside. Pascal calls wind. Carolijn asks if it's a bearaway or a gybe set. Shots of crosses as they sail downwind, then tacking upwind. Their jumper does a faceplant; they laugh. Ducking MAPFRE, then trailing MAPFRE on the long starboard tack. Lowering the J1 on the foredeck. Brunel close behind them; TTToP pounding behind them.Dongfeng departs as "Uptown Funk" plays. Jérémie waves to the crowd on the dock. Jack talks about it being good to get away. Thinking too much in preparation; butterflies. But after the start they'll just sail. Marie talks about being ready; "let's go." Carolijn talks about the very nice goodbye before heading off into the Southern Ocean. Toughest leg, but the best leg in the whole race. Looking forward to digging south and doing some fast sailing. Also, arriving in Brazil is special. Shot of the start, Charles: "Good start." Close views of other boats alongside. Pascal calls wind. Carolijn asks if it's a bearaway or a gybe set. Shots of crosses as they sail downwind, then tacking upwind. Their jumper does a faceplant; they laugh. Ducking MAPFRE, then trailing MAPFRE on the long starboard tack. Lowering the J1 on the foredeck. Brunel close behind them; TTToP pounding behind them.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.Tacking out of Auckland harbor after the start. Bouwe is on the aft pedestal; Peter is on the helm. MAPFRE tacks ahead of the; they tack short. Then they converge on port with oncoming fleet on starboard: Scallywag, Vestas, TTToP, and then AkzoNobel still on port. Peter, steering from the leeaward wheel, calls: "A little dip here." We see them ducking Vestas and TTToP; MAPFRE and Dongfeng are visible ahead of them on port tack. Carlo calls the duck on the foredeck, then walks aft. Then we see Dongfeng crossing behind them under their A3 going downwind, then TTToP crossing behind them going upwind as Liz goes onto the foredeck. Carlo talks about how the start has been good. Then we see their jumper jump. Capey calling 5 minutes to the mark. Coiling lines in the pit. Bashing to weather on the foredeck.Tacking out of Auckland harbor after the start. Bouwe is on the aft pedestal; Peter is on the helm. MAPFRE tacks ahead of the; they tack short. Then they converge on port with oncoming fleet on starboard: Scallywag, Vestas, TTToP, and then AkzoNobel still on port. Peter, steering from the leeaward wheel, calls: "A little dip here." We see them ducking Vestas and TTToP; MAPFRE and Dongfeng are visible ahead of them on port tack. Carlo calls the duck on the foredeck, then walks aft. Then we see Dongfeng crossing behind them under their A3 going downwind, then TTToP crossing behind them going upwind as Liz goes onto the foredeck. Carlo talks about how the start has been good. Then we see their jumper jump. Capey calling 5 minutes to the mark. Coiling lines in the pit. Bashing to weather on the foredeck.Antonio: Finally, with the sunset the wind is here. Last 70 miles will be fast. A bit afraid because Dongfeng and MAPFRE are catching up very fast. They're now 6 miles behind. Stacking aft below. Crew in the moonlight. Lights on shore. Marcus: If we can keep this up, a few more hours of downwind sailing. Maybe slide past the guys in front. Got a jump on the guys behind us. Still gunning for that top spot at the moment. Witty on the helm in the moonlight. Near broach. "Ease, ease, ease! Mainsheet! Mainsheet!" Sailing fast. Fish recaps: Cloud line came through earlier; Akzo got it first and extended a little. They've managed to hold off TTToP, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng. Just trying to challenge Akzo for the win. Libby at the nav station. "It's all action here. 30 miles to the finish. It's all on in the last miles."They sail in light wind very close to some rocks. Alex, trimming: "I think we should get closer to these rocks." Talks about how the whole fleet is right here. Trying to eke out any advanage. Marcus, on the helm, points out possible new breeze line. Witty from the foredeck: "085, mate; 085!" Marcus jokes about needing to avoid having the rock named after them. Witty: "Can't believe Donfeng and MAPFRE are here. No justice in that." Libby and Trystan talk about 5 boats being within a few miles of each other. Great shots of the land. Trystan talks about the boats around them: TTToP, Brunel, MAPFRE, Dongfeng. Witty does play-by-play commentary. "Got some breeze back." 1 mile behind Akzo, 100 miles to go. It's been a tough day. "More than happy to take a second and then run away and hide." Ben on the helm; Witty on the PA: "We have gained one tenth of a mile." Ben talks about how intense it is.Antonio looks through binoculars at AkzoNobel, sailing in light air a quarter-mile ahead of them. AkzoNobel a quarter-mile to leeward. Witty calls for crew to get out of the forepeak and right on the bow. At the nav station: Witty says "238 miles of this rubbish... Wait for the right opportunity. Patience..." Sailing alongsisde Akzo. Alex trimming. Witty: "Just press in the puff." Trystan: "Full on, isn't it? We'll keep changing watch; keep the fresh people going... They just got nudged ahead." Libby, looking at her tablet, calls the angle on the other tack. Tacking the MH0; AkzoNobel three-quarters of a mile ahead of them. Antonio: Tight to the end. Libby looking through binoculars: "Pretty patchy out where Dee is." Libby explains that they got too focused on Akzo, maybe, and didn't pay enough attention to TTToP. Marcus discusses whether they'll be able to stay ahead of TTToP. 100 miles to go. "Not having a meltdown just yet." Shot of TTToP on the horizon.Sailing in light air in the moonlight. Witty at the nav station talks about how anything could happen. "It is entertaining and it keeps us all awake." Sunrise: We see AkzoNobel on the horizon. Crew talks about how it's insane that they're a mile away. "We've been further away in in-port races." Trystan on the helm talks about the competition. "It's all on." Shot of the land as they sail quietly past. Marcus: Almost there. "Cool sunrise." Annemieke on the foredeck points out AkzoNobel. "21 days of sailing, and you're in a match-race battle... Can't be more beautiful." Shots of AkzoNobel drifting a mile away. Witty trimming witih New Zealand shore behind him. Quiet, intense sailing.Sunset. Stacking aft in lighter wind. Moon. Witty, at the nav station, explains the details of why Akzo will not show up on the next sched. He sounds frustrated. "How did I round up some of the dumbest human beings on the planet?" They get the sched. Dee's only 9[ miles behind us. Antonio and Ben look astern and argue over whether they're seeing a container ship or Dee. Witty: That means Akzo's somewhere between 10 and 25 miles. Antonio looks, doesn't see them. Witty uses the binoculars in the last light to look for them.Marcus, on the helm, talks about going into stealth mode. Hasn't really paid off. Libby at the nav station: Akzo's always been in better pressure, so they've been okay. Marcus: Next passing lane's the top of Auckland. Akzo is arriving an hour before them, tide against them and lighter wind. So a chance to catch them there. Antonio: All well-rested. A lot of peeling, sail changes, at the end of the leg. Alex will be full-on. Alex: We'll have Akzo on our bow and Turn the Tide on our stern. Trystan: It's gonna be carnage, I think. Witty: Seriously, I don't really care any more. I just want to get in. Horrible... Boring... leg. Wonder what they're doing on Brunel. Measuring their fingernails. Let's just get to the finish. Hopefully we can pull a rabbit out of our hat, a lizard out of the drain, a dolphin out of the sea, and get ahead of AkzoNobel. Annamieke, trimming, waves to the camera as Witty grinds the runner.Libby grinds the runner. Crew working on the foredeck. Alex on the bowsprit. Ben: Got a Hobart to go. Final push. Nav software. Annemieke grinding - still in those goggles. Alex talks about pressure, how you just race the race you're in. Always expect it to be tight at the end. Witty, below: Next to Akzo since Taiwan. Roll the dice. (He sounds exhausted.) Sail change. Coiling. Wake. Alex: Everyone's keen to get in. Sail change will hopefully help. Witty annouces a sched on the PA. Trystan talks about how they're ahead by a mile in the latest sched. Witty and Libby at the nav station talk about stealth mode. Witty: "We're still in front." Fish, on the helm in the sunset, talks about stealth mode. Witty talks about the benefits of them going into stealth mode.Sunrise. Crew talks about Akzo being 6 miles north of us. Foredeck. Crew smiling. Morale seems good. Fish on the helm. Just a lot of cool shots without a lot of dialog; just the crew being happy, moving well. Relaxed.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.Red light shots at night. Light conditions. Fish talks about how they were heading round the reef at the top end of New Caledonia. Only a few miles from Akzo, and a cloud came between us. Witty: good thing is that they're out of AIS range. For the last 20 minutes literally going nowhere. They're going 13 knots. That whole distance is just one cloud. Fish: Just one of those very frustrating hours. Want to pull your hair out. Witty talks about how they almost had them. Bird (I think a Blue-footed Booby? Something like that.) Witty announces the latest sched on the PA. 7.8 miles behind Akzo. Annemieke talks about how they're all in one lane now. Sunset. Birds. A booby on the bow pulpit.Glassy conditions. Sunrise. Ben cranks the runner. Annemieke on the helm. Flopping. Sailing in rain. Marcus on the bow talks about a bad sched, and TTToP slipped through. And Brunel had a breeze from the east. Still in touch with everyone. A long way to go; can't get too hung up in the emotions of one sched. Pole shots. Trystan stands on the boom looking ahead. Libby and Witty talk about "dot to dot." Witty: I'm going to the bow; I've heard enough. On the bow, he talks about the luck of the draw. Sounds discouraged. Pole shot of the keel underwater. Instruments.Scallywag sails a half mile away to leeward (port) of them in the sunrise. Simeon jokes about it. Nicolai eats: Next 48 hours really important. Whoever gets through the best will do best. Each time they've been next to Scallywag in this leg they've beaten them. Nicho: It's good to have a boat next to you. Easy to lose from here; will be difficult to win. But have a good chance at it. Which is more than you can ask for in this race. Shot of Scallywag astern. Jules talks strategy below. Nicho: Had good breeze throughout the sched. But the disadvantage of two boats side by side is you stick together. Crew drinking. Nicho: "I'm from Australia, it's not a problem. The guy from Denmark, he really struggles." He wakes up Nicolai. Nicolai talks about the sun and heat. Simeon, below. Jules: "We're not doing anything at the moment. We're not in the wind, we're losing to him, we're not sailing to our plan, and we're sailing slowly." Hoisting the J1; lowering the MH0. Cecile talks about losing the lead to Scallywag. Simeon in the red light of the sunset: Very expensive. Nothing you can do about it now. Knew west was best in both models. Try to keep west... Try to put yourself in a good position... Should have been more aggressive. Learned a lesson today. Sunset.Shot of Alex up the rig. Gybing the MH0. Sunset. Talking to him about the wind. Ben jokes about leaving him up there. About the only space on the boat you get personal space. Alex talks about the sunset. Rain on the horizon. Trystan talks about having a tough day trying to gain on AkzoNobel. One bad cloud and back to square one. Keep on pushing. Witty talks about getting around a cloud. At the nav station, Witty talks about it being tough. Snakes and ladders. Not much sleep.AkzoNobel a mile away to weather and slightly ahead. Marcus, on the helm, talks about 6 or 7 days of light conditions and a "dingdong battle with Nicho". Good to have another boat next to them. (Interesting that he refers to it as a battle with Nicho. Do they have history, maybe?) Alex looks at AkzoNobel through binoculars. Talks about being enemies. Antonio talks about seeing them every day - hopefully seeing them every day. More shots of AkzoiNobel.Wake shot looking down, then panning up to show light conditions. Trystan on the helm. Talks about AkzoNobel behind them. "400 miles of this" (doldrums). Shot of AkzoNobel a few miles away. Pole shots (I think?) or maybe very small-movement drone shots. Annemieke talks about the stress of having a competitor so close. Witty kids her. Antonio talks about how hard it is to work in the sun. So can only be on the helm for short periods. Headaches. Not healthy. Shot of Alex going up the mast, then on deck he talks about AkzoNobel.Witty, at the nav station, points to his rubber bracelets. Not the kind of guy who normally does this, but he's wearing this one (the pink one) for a family in Capetown, SA, who's sun Rowan is battling leukemia. It means never give up. Shots of other crewmembers wearing the wristbands. One on the bulkhead they're taking around the world. The other is for autism awareness. His nephew has been diagnosed with autism. Still photo of a little boy (Witty's nephew?) in Scallywag team gear.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.They sail on starboard toward a rainstorm in light conditions. Drone shot circling them with the MH0 up. Trystan explains what the doldrums are with rainstorms on the horizon behind them. Alex: "It's a shitshow." Rain. Witty: "Roll the dice time." Cloud management. Can't really worry too much about what the other guys are doing. Rain on the horizon. Sped up drone shot circling the boat. Light conditions. Fisheye lens. Libby on the helm; Annemieke wearing goggles (why the goggles?).WItty and Libby at the nav station look at a sched (I think?). Witty: "When was the last time we had this much separation in a Volvo race?" He annouces the update via the PA. "Akzo did pretty well." Night shot on deck. Antonio doing something near the clew in the red light. Instruments show them going 11.4 knots.Witty and 3 other sailors (Ben, Fish, and I think Marcus?) wish happy Chinese New Year to their supporters in Hong Kong: "Gung Hay Fat Choi!"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.Fish, on the helm, to Witty: "Happy Valentine's Day, David." To the camera: "Happy Valentine's Day to Kirsten, the woman that makes me the man I am, for supporting me with everything I do." Other Valentine's wishes: Witty: his mum, his daughters Piper and Summer, to Abby, and to Lenny. Ben: I don't have one. Next. Marcus: The love of my life, Suzie. Thanks for being amazing, for being awesome, and when I called you up and said can I do the next leg of Volvo in a couple of hours, you just said go for it. So thanks for being awesome. Happy Valentine's Day.Trystan on the helm (might have been mixing him up with Marcus; would be nice if the Volvo site team page had photos for either of them). Drone shot of Scallywag sailing toward the sunrise on port gybe. Witty and Libby laughing at the nav station. Witty: "You're starting to come around!" They seem happy about how they're doing on the other boats. Witty talks to Ben about how it's a balance; they've got "fugazi" (pointing to Libby) and "non-fugazi" (himself) and it works out pretty good. Witty: "We have just absolutely smashed them." He laughs. "All these other guys do the fugazi, and listen to the computer, and we sort of point where we want to go, and it seems to be working quite nicely." In the background, Libby is rocking back and forth, laughing silently. Witty: "It's only yachting mate, it's not science, it's not that hard... Libby Greenhalgh, she's done it again! We should have shares in Libby Greenhalgh!" Libby reads the sched on the intercom: MAPFRE doing 6 knots. (Meanwhile, they're sailing at 20.) Alex, on deck: "I heard a little rumor going round that we've actually done well. Apparently we're in front. We've got a better line down here... Long way to go. Fingers crossed we can keep on gaining... Still gotta go through the doldrums." Shot of sunrise. Drone shot of them shifting the stack on the bow. Sunrise drone shots.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.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.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?Fish sends a happy 21st birthday message to George Booth (?) in Adelaide.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.Crew comes back from the foredeck as they flop in light wind and chop (maybe they just hoisted the MH0, and had to be on the foredeck to lower the J1?). Or maybe they were forward for weight, but are now having to come back for a maneuver. A container ship is visible behind them. We see them tacking (gybing?) the MH0 onto starboard tack. Alex talks about how they've split to the north. Drone shot from high overhead as they flop with no wind. Instruments on mast showing boatspeed of 4, windspeed of 5. Rain. Antonio talks about how for the last two hours their max speed is 7 knots. Drone shot circlnig them with the partially rolled-up MH0 as a windseeker. Drone shot of Scallywag in the distance with a dolphin (I think? or small whale?) surfaces in the foreground. Shot of chart software. Libby at the nav station talks about their having split to the north. Shot of chart software showing them and another boat (AkzoNobel) having diverged to the north after passing Taiwan. Libby looks at an Expedition screen. Crew in the cockpit in the rain; light winds. Trystan on the helm: "It's good now... Good to have some breeze again." AkzoNobel is sneaking up on them. Shot of the bow showing clouds, light winds, with swell behind them.Drone shots of Scallywag sailing upwind on port tack under cloudy skies. Someone on the helm; think that must be Marcus. Antonio, below, talks about being almost in second place. Lost some gauge when clouds passed. But still in the fight. Ben at the mast during a reef. Marcus on the helm. Witty on the helm. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty talks about how they're doing fairly well. Libby is talking in the headset (to the cockpit, I assume) giving real-time updates on how they're doing vs. a competitor on AIS (I think). Drone shot circling them with a competitor in the distance. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag from astern with MAPFRE and Dongfeng a half mile ahead and only a few boatlenghts apart. Shot from on deck of Dongfeng and MAPFRE dueling ahead of them. Trystan, sitting on the stack forward in light, sloppy conditions, talks about the wind changes and trying to use the boats ahead of them to figure out what to do to gain in the transition. Shot of instruments as they sail in stronger wind. Shot of John Fisher grinding with Brunel to leeward of them. Circling drone shot showing MAPFRE to leeward of them.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.Libby at the nav station. She talks about winning the start, and heading toward Taiwan. On the wind for the next 24 hours. After Taiwan, bizarrely, turning north, for expected frontal system in four days' time. Shot of crew in the cockpit: Annemieke, Witty steering.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.Blair, on deck, talks about the start. Not the best start for them. Fourth now. Start not a huge priority in these conditions. Rough stuff in the next couple of hours. "Feels like back home now; back on the boat. So it's all good." Támara talks on deck in Spanish as they sail to weather under the J1. Looks like Scallywag is a quarter mile haed of them; I'm guessing that's Brunel beyond them. Then we go back in time and see the prestart, and the immediate start aftermath. Grinding, tacking out of Victoria Harbor. Close cross of Brunel behind them. Big duck of them to go astern of Dongfeng. Xabi trimming. Pablo on the helm. Rob calls for the hoist of the J1; we see it going up, then the furled MH0 coming down. Scallywag and Brunel sailing ahead of them and below, to starboard.Dockout. Brad clasps hands with people on the dock as they pull out. Simeon waves from the wheel. Prestart as they unfurl the MH0. Unzipping the J1 bag. Jules calling time to the start. "Racing with a header." Nicolai, on the wheel: "Racing." Dongfeng astern of them, Brunel (with Scallywag unfurling their MH0 visible beyond) sails down from above and behind them; TTToP and MAPFRE visible beyond them. Brad, looking to weather, calls wind: "Max pressure in 10." Pinching up to lee-bow Scallywag. Furling the MH0 to tack. Simeon in the pit, grinding with Cécille. Cécille with her Kiwi-accented English: "Light patch in 2. Building again in 5." She recaps their good start. Martine bagging the MH0 on the foredeck. Simeon, on the rail, talks about the building wind they'll likely see. He's happy to be leading, but points out they have 6,200 miles to go. Clip cuts off in mid-sentence.Dongfeng docking out at the start of Leg 6. Black waves goodbye to the people on the dock. We see the MH0 being unfurled as Charles steers on the approach to the starting line. AkzoNobel is visible ahead of them and to leeward, the rest of the fleet to weather. Pascal with a tablet in his hand. Jérémie, after the start, looking forward at AkzoNobel and Brunel ahead of them. We see them furling the MH0 for a tack from port to starboard, then unfurling during a tack back to port. Charles: "Nice one." Pascal navigating. Their jumper going over. Kevin standing on the lifelines to do something to the clew of the MH0. Passing the leaving buoy. Later, they prepare to peel to the J1. Daryl: "Put the sheet around the winch." Bagging the lowered MH0 on the foredeck. Charles on the helm, talks about the start. Not so great in terms of their start, but good to have wind in exiting Hong Hong. Now at the back of the fleet. Daryl: "Looking forward to sailing into Auckland. Probably 20 days away. Don't want to get too excited yet." Jack, stacking on the foredeck, says pretty much the same thing. "Long way to go though."David Witt talks to the crew in the cockpit. He sounds like the caffeine is really kicking in. "We're gonna have to just take this on, right? I don't know what's gonna happen. We're just gonna have to take this on all night." Alex talks about the routing being different than reality; some big choices on how to route through the Phillippines. Witty talks about Parko saying a smart thing before, you have to think about what SiFi will do on Vestas. He doesn't know where we are, he doesn't know we're still leading. He'll want to say in front of "the Feng". I think he'll want to put himself between them and the finish. Witty: "And I just completely confused myself again." Discussion in the cockpit. Fish-eye shot from the bowsprit looking aft. Witty below at the nav station obsesses over the chart, current, strategy. "About 20 minutes from our final gybe into Hong Kong. Getting close." Stacking below. Witty: "It'll be the greatest yacht race I've ever won if we can pull this off. For a whole bunch of reasons... A smart man told me once that the way you win yacht races is you eliminate the ways to lose them. And we kept coming up with ways to lose it and then fighting back. That's probably what will make it the most special if we can pull it off." Witty on the helm; washing machine. Witty and Libby at the nav station. Witty announces the sched over the PA. Dongfeng is farther back in the latest sched, so he thinks it's a fair bet Vestas (who is in Stealth Mode) is further back, too. Witty: "Our rate of improvement is pretty amazing, really." Talks about the amount of hard work. "You've gotta believe in yourself first if anything's gonna happen."Drone shot of Scallywag bouncing while triple-heading on starboard. Nav station shot of nav software with clouds. Libby talks about the wind dropping to 7 knots, but they know there is a line of wind ahead. High drone shot of Scallywag running in lighter conditions under cloudy skies; possible rain in the distance. Libby: "It's all good, because we were getting a little bit twitched about no breeze; there was a little bit of drama. [She mimes: 'Aaaaahhhh!'] But... it's here." View from the stern of spray, washing machine. Witty, below, talks about if they can do 3 more scheds today without a loss... Talks about the bad seaway, pushing hard with up to 35 knots. "One sched down, got three to go. If we can get through the next three scheds without a loss, there won't be enough runway left for them to catch us." Talks about sending it - but not breaking it. Drone shot of bad seaway. Luke: "You pick your times to push, and we pushed pretty hard last night." Annemieke: "It's so nice to have four people on deck, because we can really send it now." Compares it to the Southern Ocean, with only three people on deck. "The retrieval of Alex was one of the highlights. I'm so proud of how quickly we got him back." Morale is really high. "I think we're a pretty happy team at the moment."Sunrise shot of the stern. Below, Witty and Libby are at the nav station. Libby: "As much as we had the cloud of doom three or four days ago, in hindsight it probably turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Because it gave us a more westerly approach to the following clouds; it gave us this lane." Grant sits next to her, holds up three fingers: "Only three Sidney-Hobart races to go to the finish." On deck, Luke steers with the sunrise behind him. "Every sched that they don't gain it makes it harder for them to catch us... It's all up to everyone on board now to execute as a group." Below, Trystan eats with Luke behind him also eating. Trystan talks about how they can't relax, because everyone is so quick behind, still a lot of choices to be made. Grant, on the helm: "Cha-ching!" He explains that Witty (standing behind him) has a deal where when they can hit 20 knots of boatspeed on course, they get a payout, $100. "Problem is the steering's a little too accurate lately, it's gonna cost him a fortune." Witty talks about how they've had emails from supporters and sponsors, and expectations are super high. Talks about the level of stress with 1,400 miles to go. Not wanting to let down the people who put them there.Wraparound VR views: Stern, with Witty (I think) on the helm. Low-angle shot of the stern with three crew: driver, trimmer, and grinder. Shot from the pit looking aft. They have a reef in the main. Washing machine.John talks about their comeback. "It is more positive not being off the back, for sure. But it can change." "Hong Kong is hometown for the skipper. It's also the hometown for a major backer... So for us to get a good result... it would be everything." Drong shot. Shot of routing software on the computer. Grant says the leaderboard shows them dropping back from first into second, but it's only by .6 mile, and the guys they're looking at are 70 miles north of them. "So they're only ahead on paper." Shot of Libby and Witty looking at the computer. Grant: "Thing that helped us a bit more is the model wasn't quite reality." Being north was not as big an advantage as it was supposed to. Couple of islands they have to miss, but in pretty good shape. "Pretty happy to be here. Better this end of the fleet than the other."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.Drone shot of Scallywag against the late afternoon sun shimmer. Ben sits on the foredeck. "We've lost contact with all the boats we found the other night. And we're a fair few miles behind, which is a bit shit." Still in the doldrums, though, so there's always a possibility, he says. Talks about working hard and getting close, and then you "have a bit of a whoopsie"... Below, Alex eats and talks about the competition. Shot of the wind map. Alex talks about Libby's predictions, chances of making gains in the approach to Hong Kong harbor. "It's not bad, Thai green curry." Drone shot. On the helm, Ben talks about how King Neptune was a bit ill during the equator crossing in the Atlantic, so he's had a bit of a holiday, and is going to make an appearance here. Grant emerges from the cabin as Neptune. (Not gonna win any Best Costume Design Oscar for this one. It's a... sheet wrapped around him? And an unadorned boathook as a trident?) Looks like the victims are Annemieke, John, Alex, and Trystan. "Where are the children of the South?" Neptune sprinkles water on people. "Do you wanna be welcomed to the North?" They mumble "yes" in reply. Witty walks by with spray-on hair color and sprays them. Then he throws a disgusting bucket of something on them. Annemieke explains that Neptune has made sure they are safe in the Northern Hemisphere. Shot of the bow-tie pasta in the green slime on the cockpit sole. Alex, covered in goo, says, "No more bad juju. It's done. We're good... We're gonna clear every cloud now and win the race." Below, Grant and Witty at the chart table pull up the sched. Grant does musical accompaniment. Witty: "Sun Hung Kai leading." Grant: "Hey!" Alex, on deck: "Hopefully we can hold our position here. But it's still only 6 knots of wind, so... still some clouds around." Shot of the sunset. Alex: "...and you can go from a rooster to a feather duster in the space of a sched." Alex says there's 7 days to Hong Kong, and they're back in the fight again, so that's good. Sunset with John on the helm.In the morning light, Ben stands on the boom to look through binoculars ahead of them. Ben: "We've seen a sailing boat with a square-topped mainsail and a masthead sail, so we think it might be one of the other Volvos." Have been following them in the sched, and now have seen them in real life. Below, Libby calls out the latest sched. Sounds pretty happy. "Spotted Brunel about 40 minutes ago off our windward bow." Crew eats breakfast on the bow, talking about it. Witty: "One or two days ago we were a hundred miles behind the leaders." Ben: "We had to fucking work pretty hard the last two days." John talks about how they've worked hard, so to get where they can actually see and identify a yacht is cool. Witty talks about not giving up, keeping trying. "It's a really important leg for us. It would be catastrophic to come in last." Night shots of lightning. Witty on a PA tells the crew about Brunel being 9 miles away on AIS. "We're winning the sched for the first time, so well done lads." Talks about a rain cloud. "We've got this rain cloud which looks [BLEEP] horrendous." Beautiful shot of the waning gibbous moon rising through clouds behind the helmsman, silhouetting him. Next day, Witty talks on deck sounding despondent about getting stuck in the rain cloud with no wind. We see Libby at the nav station with Grant looking at Expedition's "Strip Chart" display. Libby: "True wind angle's at 120 here." Grant [pointing]: "So all this is starboard gybe..." Witty talks about losing 50 miles when they got stuck in the cloud and the other boats didn't. "probably lost 10 of the 30 miles there, and then we lost 20 of the 30 miles sailing 170 degrees off course... "We just did one of the stupidest things ever and now we're 30 miles behind running last again... We're the ones letting ourselves down. It's not bad luck; we're just being idiots. And we deserve to be here at the moment. And I'm just concerned that you don't get too many chances in this quality fleet to go from 30 miles behind or 100 miles behind to back in the lead. Somehow we've got 3,000 miles to figure out how we're going to do it. Again." He and Grant sit on the bow discussing it.Mostly dark sky. Drone shots of Scallywag sailing in the doldrums. Alex below. Libby and Witty below at the nav station, checking a sched. Libby: "Made gains on the fleet. Fastest boat; going a whole 4 knots." Drone shot of sunrise. Witty: "We're worried about finding a passing lane between here and Hong Kong. Because we can't finish here into Hong Kong." Libby talks about another 250 miles of light stuff. Annemieke in the bow: "Boring!" Annemieke in the bow. Alex talks about his messy roommate, Bessie. Talks about the heat, difficulty sleeping. Shot of crew sleeping on the bow. Annemieke talks about the difference when they're moving vs. when they're not. She feels like they're doing well.High drone shot with distant island and clouds. Low-altitude drone shot with sunset. Shot of the wheel at sunrise. Grant, on the bow, talks quietly about having 2 knots of windspeed at sunrise, and battling at 2 knots of boatspeed themselves. Sunrise shot beyond someone (not sure who) silhouetted on the helm. Grant talks about it being a battle with the heat, trying to maintain boatspeed. Ben, on the bow, talks about the light winds and boatspeed. A little shifty for now, but when they get out it's a fast shot to Hong Kong. It's refreshing to not be cold and wet, but it's frustrating. Drone shots. Grant: 17 years since the first one he was involved in. Similarities, but the boats get pushed far beyond what anyone would have imagined. He talks about Ben, who went in 3 years' time from asking for a job sweeping out the boatyard to racing in this event. "That's just great to see." Ben talks about having sailed before with Grant on Ragamuffin. He's a knowledgeable guy. He and Witty have sailed together for many years. And [John] Fisher. They're Australians; a little arrogant. Trying to learn from them. Grant: Witty's got a great team of guys here. And girls. I think they all get on really well. I think it's a great squad and an exciting team to be involved in." Drone shot.Grant, on the helm, makes the shaka sign. "Beautiful day. Tasman Sea at its finest." Drone shot of Scallywag from high overhead. Libby sits at the nav station looking at routing. "Pretty good sched for us." She talks about how for the next few days they should see a gain (due to compression). Shot of Parko on the helm with the sunset behind him. Liz at the nav station talks about letting the crew know what to expect, so they know when to expect a lot of effort and gybes, vs. when to expect straight-line sailing. Annemieke grinds on the pedestal. Pretty sunset shot. Witty at the nav station waits for the sched. Pretty drone shots of Scallywag with a squall in the distance. Drone shot. Witty: "We've gained, but not a lot." On the helm, Grant takes his hands off the wheel and lets the boat sail itself for a few seconds. Sunrise drone shot wth rain.Drone shots of Scallywag triple-heading with the sun behind them on port, then on starboard. Annemieke, on deck, explains that they did a few gybes to stay in pressure. Says their gybes are getting better, sailing with 9 crewmembers. "It's way easier for us now than in the previous leg." More drone shots. Trystan, on deck, talks about getting into the swing of things, stacking and gybing. Shot of the foredeck. Witty: A thousand miles to the doldrums, set up on this lane, just off the Queensland border, looking forward to dim sum. "Very much looking forward to getting out of the position we're in at the moment..." He talks about how much easier it is with 9 crew. "I'm quite happy to be one of those people who puts his hand up to say I was completely wrong about sailing with less numbers... We're going to sail with maximum crew for the rest." Talks about having made a few more changes than he wanted, but that was due to the grueling previous leg. Hopes the new guys work out. Cool low-altitude drone shot tracking behind Scallywag as they sail on starboard in 12 knots of wind.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.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.Scallywag reaches on starboard tack with J1 and J3 in fairly flat water. TTToP is 1/4 miles away, ahead and to windward. I think this is probably from the afternoon of the first day of the race, around 2018.01.02 08:48:50 UTC, when they had exited Port Phillip Bay and were heading SE along the coast. Witty steers and wipes spray from his face; the low coastline is visible to leeward. Witty talks about what's coming up. "Scallywag's in reasonable shape." Points out the other boats around them. Washing machine shots in the cockpit. Shot of the stern with the sunset. Witty talks about strategy, not reacting to the other boats. But seeing the other boats around them is reassuring. "Pretty sure we're going the right way then." Shot of Libby with a tablet. Grant, panting: "I'm slightly out of breath from grinding. I've been pushing electric winch buttons for the last 15 years. It's much easier. But this does keep you warm." Witty: "Should have had full crew numbers from day one I think. Certainly makes it a lot easier. Trystan's a big strnog guy, which helps. Warry's been doing a good job driving, Libby seems to be a bit of a class act so far, so it's all good. Talk to you tomorrow. See where we are tomorrow. MIght change my mind!" Gybe in the cockpit. Shot of MAPFRE to leeward with the sunset behind them.Dockout as "Beautiful Day" plays. Witty on the helm. As they motor out Witty explains that Antonio broke his arm, so they got Trystan Seal to come in. Worked for the boatyard as part of the refit. Young UK guuy. We see him grinding a winch. Then he talks about how excited he is to be on the boat. He looks about 17. "You never know if you're going to like it or hate it until you do it. It should be good." In the background Libby is talking to Witty. Witty explains that Tom Clout "got quite sick", so he had to "call on an old mate, Grant Wharington, a bit of a yachting legend." We see Grant steering. Grant: "I'm really happy to have got a call up from David. He's an old mate of mine." We see Grant on the helm. Witty explains that Libby will help them be at full strength rather than being a person short. Shots of start with Witty on the helm and Libby talking to him. After the start, Witty talks about it. There was a 20-degree pin bias and they tried to do a port-tack start, which was tough. But it's all good. He jokes about getting rid of the jumper, who we then see jump off.Night shot of the cockpit. Crew on the pedestal grinding with red headlamps on while the full moon illuminates clouds and the ocean behind them. Another boat can be seen a hundred yards away on their port side; TTToP gybes. Looks like the gybe they made around 1445 on 2018-01-02, which would mean that's Scallywag next to them. We see Scallywag sailing in the moonlight on their port side. On their starboard quarter we see what I think is South West Island with a light on it (FL 4 sec?).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.Dee, motoring out on the helm, talks about how their problem is they start well, then lose out, then maintain. So they just need to eliminate that part where they lose out. Brian [Thompson, navigator], referring to handwritten notes, talks to the crew in the cockpit about the start of the leg. Sailing past other boats in the prestart. Sailing upwind after the start. On the rail, Annalise recaps the start: at the committee boat, a little conservative, but other boats messed up, so pretty nice. "So far so good! [makes a thumbs up] A long way to go, though." Elodie, with a scopolamine patch behind her ear, talks about the start, their current situation. Dongfeng sailing close to them. Francesca trims, talks about Brunel.Departure parade past sparse Melbourne crowd. They pull out to "Uptown Funk." Horace waves a Chinese flag. He talks about starting the leg on which his is going home. Says something in Chinese and makes a "Number One" gesture. Jack talks about how quickly the stopover went; only had a week in Melbourne. They talk with the jumper on the stern. Has an Aussie accent? Talks about meeting the team in person. A bit bigger than the 470 he's used to. Shot of them sailing upwind. Frank, ahead of Charles on the wheel, checks a tablet and talks to Charles in French. Footage of the start from onboard. Frank and Charles talking. Shot of them doing their 270 penalty turn (for a port-starboard infraction of AkzoNobel, per Dongfeng's website). Horace on the rail talks about the penalty. Tacking through the fleet.Ben, on the aft pedestal, takes a washing machine wave in the face in slomo. He turns to the camera and says "Merry Christmas."Drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard under MH0 in about 10 knots of wind. Shot from on deck as a whale (Minke whale, maybe?) surfaces close aboard. Tom, below, explains that the whales were in a rush, going 17 knots. "It's not every day you're sailing through the Southern Ocean with 8 of your mates and an OBR." (laughs) "And seeing tha tthing going on around you is pretty cool. Something you're gonna remember for the rest of your life, I think." Drone shot circling the boat.Ben does a radio [?] voice: "...Scallywag, 5483, bound for Melbourne." Tom sits at the nav station with António behind him looking at routing software. Tom: "My life consists of 3 hours on, 3 hours off. 3 hours on. 3 hours off. I don't even know what time it is. I don't even know if it's morning or night. It all looks the same down here. [To António] What time is it?" António: "8:30... In the morning." Tom: "We've been in sunlight now for 9 hours. It's 8:30 in the morning. Go figure." Parko sits on the gally, picking through a bag of some sort of food, picking out his favorite bits and eating them. Talks to Alex, who's getting his foulies on. Parko: "Mom must be angry." Alex: "Mom, don't tell me what to do!" Parko: "But mom, I'm in the middle of the ocean." Parko: "I'm going on watch. A bit delirious. I probably should have slept, but I didn't. So I've got a lot of sugar and some coffee and I'll be good. We need to turn left. [laughs] We're going across Free-o [Freemantle?] and the Australian Bight. But there's two big ridges in the way. Once we're across them we'll be all right. But there's a big stop sign in the middle. Highway 1 is about to shut down." Alex reads the label of his protein bars. "Times two. Lunch." Parko: "I think morale's starting to pick up a bit. Everyone's dried out. Fresh pair of [something], fresh pair of socks; everyone's starting to smell a bit better too... We just don't want to have to gybe around the finish and start again. Want time for a little snooze." Alex, with talcum powder [?] on his hands, jokes with Annemieke. Alex: "Hey, Bessie. High five!" They slap hands and a cloud of powder fills the air. They laugh. Fish talks about how they're halfway, forecast is quite nice, sun's out and it's a bit drier, and everyone's happier. "And the kettle's just boiled; perfect." Ben puts food cubes in the mug in preparation for the hot-water treatment. Annemieke: "We're just enjoying what we're doing. It's not always ideal; we're all wet. But we're all happy. And we just found out that we're getting pretty late into Melbourne; the forecast has lightened down. So not that much time for preparation for Hong Kong."Drone shot of Scallywag reaching on starboard with the MH0 and J2 in 12 knots of wind. Witty, on the rail: "I think MAPFRE and Dongfeng and Brunel got in they're own little fight there. Gotta worry about AkzoNobel [?] and we did our 'buffalo girl around the outside'. So just all trying to zoom south at the moment. But Scallywags are in a pretty good position here. Long way to go though. Quite nice, really, We're just sorta sailing our own [something], making our own decisions. Got a couple right. We'll get a couple wrong soon... We're actually further south than them now [looking at tracker, not sure what he's talking about], so we gotta defend our psition for a bit. Tomorrow night we've got 50 knots. Gotta get through all that unscathed and see what happens. But I think this is the last time we'll be sitting in the sun on the deck and talking." High drone shot of Scallywag with sun behind them.Drone shot of Scallywag triple-heading on port in light wind with a blue sky. Just a pleasant day at sea. Pretty drone shot with sunset behind them.Spreader cam view of foredeck with Scallywag sailing way off the wind. Witty at nav station, talks about having "grannied" (tacked around, presumably) twice instead of gybing, because of having heard that AkzoNobel broke their mast track while gybing. Wants to keep the boat together here and finish fast. Jokes about the ice limit as a fence the Volvo people built in the ocean. Talks about having a week along the ice gate. Spreader cam shot of the boat surfing. Witty: "I told Parko to sail at 95%, not 100. He's doing 29 knots, so he must have taken a knot off. He si a full-blown lunatic." Crash-cam view of Parko being blown off the wheel by a wave while surfing; jumping back on the wheel. Parko below: "Yeah, I drove for a little bit with no hands there. Didn't Chinese and we didn't tack, so it's okay." Bow cam of spray. Alex, below, talks about steering. "Yeah, it's pretty difficult. I probably only do a half an hour at a time... It's tricky now, because the waves are so big that you don't want to go down some of them. But sometimes you kind of have to go down them... It's a bit of an art to go fast, but not go down the wrong waves and break the boat." Parko talks about it taking energy, having just done a gybe, it saps up all the energy from your little naps, it's gone after you have one maneuver. Time to eat some food and recharge, and be ready for the next one when it comes.VR 360-degree views as Scallywag surfs fast under a sunny sky.Looking forward, we see J3 unfurl in the foredeck cam. Spreader cam looking down as Scallywag triple-heads. Bow cam looking aft, stern cam looking forward as they surf in rough conditions.Witty, on the helm, gives a thumbs up and points forward as Scallywag sails fast on port gybe in windy conditions. Washing machine. Witty talks about the Southern Ocean. "Why do we all come down here?... I'm over the Southen Ocean." Witty, on the mainsheet: "Main on!" He takes spray in the face, turns to Konrad. "Beautiful Southern Ocean."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.Dockout. Simon crouches on the rail, saying goodbye to a young boy holding a Wisdom plushie; behind a younger child with a pacifier is held by a woman. Simon: "Be good!" As Vestas pulls away from the dock they all wave to each other. Below as they motor out to the start, Simon has put on his foulies and talks to Sam about the crew, how they combine youth, experience, lots of races, people in for the first time. "For the next leg the experience is good." Threading the line between sailing fast and breaking the boat. Sam: "Do you get nervous before these legs?" (I bet Sam is nervous.) Simon: "The hanging around the dock's the most stressful part for me. Saying goodbye to the family. But once you're out here there's not much time for nerves to be honest." In the cockpit as they sail before the start under main, Stacey talks about how yeah, a little nervous, going into the Southern Ocean with the forecast. Tony says it's his tenth time going down there. Shot of just after the start as the fleet sails on starboard tack. On the foredeck, Nick wrestles with a furled sail; it appears to be hung up in the rig above him. Nick, to the back of the boat: "Keep easing!... Are you easing?" He struggles to free the sail. Nick (under his breath): "Fuck it." To the cockpit: "Somebody come up and help me." Tom runs forward to help pull on the sail. Sam is right in the action as they wrestle with the sail. Nick: "Okay! It's good! Start hoisting!" Shot of Scallywag right on their stern, diving below them, TTToP and AkzoNobel further to leeward. Chuny is steering. Scallywag comes in beneath them. Shouting back and forth between the boats. Sam is RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ACTION, leaning out to leeward, practically touching Scallywag. We see the OBR on Scallywag (Konrad Frost) filming Sam as Sam films him. Protests. Shouts from Vestas about the overtaking leeward vessel not having rights to luff above proper course. Later, they sail in less wind, the shore visible to port. TTToP and Scallywag are visible to leeward. Chuny, on the helm, appears to still be talking about the Scallywag incident. Chuny: "I saw him (gestures) luffing against US." Slomo shot of crew reefing the main. Sam: "Hey, Chuny. What happened at the start with Scallywag?" Chuny explains the rule, that Scallywag came in from behind and started luffing, and how it's not safe, it could have broken both boats, at the start of a leg like this. "I was angry... Because it's not safe." We see them putting in a second reef. Charlie, on the aft pedestal, grinding and talking to Sam. Subtitles (added by Sam), because he's barely understandable. "Ah you know everyone puts a lot of stock in the start. But it's kind of more how you finish."Slomo shot of Carlo working the foredeck, going to weather in windy conditions on port tack. Other boats astern as they're leaving Cape Town. Bouwe, the next day, talks about the spectacle of leaving Cape Town. Talks about other boats, points them out. Abby, below, does something with a rod. Sunset shot from the first day of the boat sailing on starboard with reefed main on starboard tack. Below, Annie, below on the next morning, talks about everyone being pretty tired, it's been upwind, nearly 40 knots. Now it's dropping. She talks about the other boats. Hard, shifty conditions. Capey grinding in the pit. Carlo and Annie on the foredeck. Louis on the helm. Dongfeng sailing to leeward and abeam on port tack, about a quarter mile away. Shot of Dongfeng behind them, on their starboard quarter. Shot of MAPFRE dead ahead of them, a half mile away. Abby studying Dongfeng through binoculars. Bouwe, sitting in the cockpit, talks about how they've been sailing the boat better and better, and it's good that they're now keeping up with MAPFRE and Dongfeng. "Because they've showed some heels to us in previous legs." Drone shots of Brunel sailing in light winds, including a low-altitude shot and a shot with Dongfeng a half mile away to leeward of Brunel.Nipper grinds while Annemieke calls trim. Witty explains that there was a problem with the water; too much chlorine caused a few crew to throw up. (Presumably he's kidding about seasickness.) He gestures at Tom, on the helm. "Clouty's just come on deck for the the first time since the start." Shot of another boat (Vestas?) on port on their weather quarter. Witty talks about hanging onto the leaders, should gain when the wind goes right. Two competitors ahead of them and to weather: Brunel and Dongfeng? Witty talks about how only one thing happens when you go in this direction: It goes nuclear. Below, Antonio eats while looking at the computer. He says to Konrad: "I managed to eat something properly. Gaining my sea legs. It's good." He puts on his foulies. Talks about the big transition coming in three hours' time. Grinding on deck. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Parko talks about their preparation on shore. Witty, with AkzoNobel continuing on port behind them while they stay on starboard, talks about the good prep from their shore team for the current wind condition. Witty: "Being a little more proactive witih our decisions rather than reactive. I'm sure we'll get it wrong soon, but it seems to be working at the moment."Shooting through the cockpit railing under gray skies, we see a bunch of competitors on AzkoNobel's weather quarter. Left to right I think they might be Brunel, Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and more distant maybe Vestas? Then we see a shot of Simeon working on the pit winch with Scallywag ahead of and to leeward of them. Simeon looks up at the slot to check sailtrim. He talks to James about not doing too well at the start: "We need to practice those ones." Talks about being close to the fleet, the wind being up/down/left/right. Justin, on the helm, talks about wind pressure. We see Scallywag, on starboard under the MH0, crossing them while Brad goes to go out on the bowsprit. Nicho, in the cockpit, talks about the contrast during the night of being in almost 40 knots, then getting flat sees and "almost nice sailing again." He talks about the 40 knot conditions being uncomfortable; slamming and worrying about breakage. Martine talks about getting stuck in a hole and passed. Nicolai talks about the first 24 hours being pretty good, intense, hunting and almost back where they want to be. Nicho talks about getting to the new wind and tacking, and then waiting for the front to get there. We see the feet of someone on the helm putting on their boots.Dongfeng slats in light winds. Carolijn calls as someone else pulls in a line: "3, 2, 1, okay; hold furl." Charles, sitting at a winch, says something about using the "masthead upwind" (MH0?). The crew trims the MH0 in light winds. Charles, holding the main steady by hanging onto a thin cable under the boom, talks about having to cross a ridge, a position in high pressure between two winds. Trying to catch the low pressure in the south. Always difficult. "The wind is very shifty, very light, but we are lucky because the system is moving in the right direction." Drone shot of Dongfeng sailing upwind on starboard under the MH0 with another boat (I think Brunel around 2017.12.11 09:55:35 UTC) behind and to weather of them. As the drone circles htem another boat is barely visible further away behind and to leeward of them; I think that's Scallywag. As the shot continues we see Jack going up the mast. He reaches the masthead and the camera circles him, showing the two boats shown before and then showing another boat ahead of them (MAPFRE, then the lead boat). On deck, Jack explains that in the big winds the day before part of the wind sensor unit at the masthead blew off, so he was up there replacing it. "There's not much wind but we're right into the swell. On deck it feels really flat but when you get up there it's exaggerated by a lot. Feels like you're gonna get thrown off every three seconds. Bear-hugging it the whole time. It's really not fun. Nearly got it done."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.Docking out. Liz on the helm. "Lot's of people." Footage of the start, other boats, with no audio. They race the inshore course, again with no audio. Dee steering; Francesca trimming the main. Bleddyn, on the rail, grimaces and then hikes out. Bianca works the pit. "Yeah; I'm on the lock!" Martin takes spray in the face. Liz, on the pedestal, makes a shaka sign and high-fives Dee on the helm. Martin grinds; shades his eyes to look up at the slot.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.Onboard before the start, Louis talks about being excited to be back in the race and looking forward to the Southern Ocean. Abby talks about how they've already got 30 knots, and they're all geared up for a night of slamming, banging in a big breeze. Footage of the start, racing around the buoys in close proximity to the other boats. Video has a glitch, with the video freezing at 1:00 while the sound continues, then sound drops out and we just see the frozen video frame for the last 48 seconds of the video.On-board footage of the start of Leg 3 from onboard Dongfeng. Epic footage of close-quarters racing with the other boats in a building wind.Dee, below, explains that they're stacking below in anticipation of gybing. They want to do that, and then gybe and then stack on deck only after the gybe. That way Scallywag wont know they're gybing until after they've done it. "It's the little things." Nicolas moves gear from port to starboard. Dee is below with Martin, Francesca, and Bianca (I think?). Dee explains that they aren't going on deck because "they're watching our every move", and even for the extra crew to arrive on deck would let the Scallywags know they're about to gybe. From the drone close above their weather quarter, with Scallywag visible ahead and to leeward, we see the crew pile out of the cabin. Drone shot of J3 furling (with J2 already furled), and then we see TTToP gybe to starboard with Scallywag in the distance. Dee comes below: "We did our stealth gybe, but they were waiting for us. And as we gybed, they gybed." Drone shot of Scallywag gybing to starboard. Henry, in his bunk, talks about the stealth gybe. "They managed to match us quite quickly, so I think they saw it coming." Prison-sentence tick marks are visible on the hull behind him. Drone shot of Scallywag's crew stacking sails to starboard after their gybe.Drone shots of Scallywag in the foreground, sailing slowly on port tack, with TTToP a few hundred yards ahead of them. Ben, on the weather rail: "Trying to chase down these guys, getting 0.1 of a mile when we can. It's been very close." Shot of TTToP ahead of them. Annemieke, in the cockpit: "We're gonna take over that boat. And [she glances ahead and to leeward] the other boat? And then we're gonna be number... what is it? Five. Fifth. That's the plan. And we're getting closer. We're 0.4 miles from Turn the Tide on Plastic. So it's gonna be a battle today. Twenty-one days of racing, and it comes down to the last day." Drone shot looking down on Scallywag passing below. Ben: "We're all on the exact same playing field, all one-design boats. All have the same speed, so it's easier said than done." Drone shot from ahead of TTToP looking back to show them in the foreground, Scallywag in the background.Drone shot of two boats a few miles away to weather sailing on port tack: TTToP on the right and Scallywag a few hundred yards behind them. Drone pulls back to show AkzoNobel below, ahead and to leeward of the other boats. Shot from amidships on the weather rail showing Akzo's crew with the other two boats behind them and to weather. Jules sits on the weather rail with his arms crossed. Jules: "Got a pretty close race on at the moment with the last 270 miles to Cape Town." He talks about how they have a ridge of high pressure ahead of them that they keep banging into, which brings them back to the other boats. Nicolai steers. Brad talks about the tricky conditions, constant adjustments. Simeon scowls at the boats astern of them. Emily, in the companionway: "It's 6 a.m., just finished a 4-hour watch, 2 to 6. It's one of the longest 4 hours I've had on this trip. We're pretty close to both Turn the Tide and Scallywag, and less then a day from Cape Town, so it's pretty tense." Very low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel sailing to weather in light conditions. Jules talks about how they'll probably finish in the middle of the night. "There'll probably be a massive park-up close to the finish line." Last place will probably be decided 300 meters from the finish. "We'll have to get our rabbits' feet, 4-leaf clover, dice, and other such paraphernalia out and give them a shake." Shot of Scallywag and TTToP to weather and behind them.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.Drone shot of TTToP sailing on port under the MH0 with low clouds behind. On the horizon behind them and to weather we can see Scallywag. Off-camera, we hear Sam: "Hey Dee." "Yeah?" "Twenty days, how many thousand miles, you've got a race for 5th place. What's going on?" Dee: "It's cool..." We see Dee talking in the cockpit. "There actually hasn't been a day in the southern ocean when we haven't had a boat in sight or on AIS. It's awesome racing." Liz, on the helm, talks about how long they've been fighting with Scallywag and now fighting with AkzoNobel. High drone shot of TTToP sailing away. Henry, below and looking out the hatch, smiles as the crew in the cockpit cheers. Henry: "That is the level of excitement we get every single time we get a good half-hour average." He talks about the tight group of three boats and how the whole leg will come down to this for them. High drone shot. Henry: "Boatspeed. Boatspeed, boatspeed, boatspeed." Liz, on the helm: "Nobody wants to come in last." Dee, pointing ahead: "I want to take them [she points aft] and leave them behind." Shot of the cockpit. Drone shot of the top of the rig, flying in close. Someone (Annalise?) standing in the hatch waves to the drone, then points forward. The drone pulls back and climbs.Drone shot passing close over Scallywag's mast as they sail on port gybe in 10 knots of wind with the MH0 (?). Alex, in the cockpit, says they should finish around midnight tomorrow. Expecting light winds coming into Cape Town. Drone shot from the weather bow showing Scallywag triple-heading. At the nav station, Steve talks about how close it's going to be, and what great racing it's going to be. And hoping they're not last. Witty, on the stern, pointing to the leeward bow: "Turn the Tide's 2 miles; Akzo's another 2 in front of them; 4 miles between three boats. We're at the wrong end of the three boats. Hope we're at the right end by the time we get there." Witty quotes Churchill: "Remember this: We will fight them on the beaches. We will fight them in the sand. We will never surrender, and we will never give up." He points ahead. "We are coming for you two, right now."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."Drone shost of Scallywag sailing close-hauled on port tack with the MH0 in 8 knots of wind. Steve, at the nav station, talks about making mistakes, taking your losses early. Shot aft from the cabin with crew silhouetted after sunset. Closeup of Alex on the helm with the waxing crescent (southern hemisphere) moon above him. Wake after sunset. Witty, at the nav station: "The Plastics are 2 miles directly on our bow." We see a shot in the morning with TTToP ahead of them. Witty talks about AkzoNobel being close as well. "So basically it's 3 miles between 3 boats... with 570 miles to go." Shot of TTToP ahead and to weather. Witty on the helm. Witty: "It will probably come down to a bit of luck more than a bit of management. And we don't seem to have any of that these days. We'll see what happens." Parko on the helm with TTToP ahead of them. Parko: "Less than a hoedown to go, gentleman." (?) Witty, below: "We haven't had much go our way this leg, so we might get a bit (something) when we need it." Talks about getting ahead of Akzo, then losing it. Crew trimming and steering in the cockpit.Steve, at the nav station, talks about the strategic situation with Witty. Witty, to Konrad: "It's an extremely difficult situation which looks like a lose-lose for us either way." Shot of computer screen with routing visible. Steve, to Konrad: "It's obviously the most complicated thing I think I've seen. I'm not shitting you." Witty, looking tired, talk about how they've fought to get ahead, and now it looks like it's actually going to hurt them. "This leg is getting more and more... We've worked so hard to get from nowhere to where we've got to, and now we're acutally being handicapped... It's like beating my head against a brick wall." Steve talks with Witty about the decision [to gybe south?]. In the dark, we hear a maneuver happening. Shot of routing software. On deck, we see the cockpit with two crew grinding in morning (?) twilight. In the morning, Witty, on the weather rail as they sail again on port gybe, talks about the decision to gybe south. Says the other boats went earlier, while they went later, and that it gave them (Scallywag) a little jump on the competition. Annemieke: "And we are again on the same tack, as if nothing had happend in the last 24 hours." Witty talks about how they have two more scheds of stealth, and when they come back online they'll have made a jump on the other boats, which will give them a psychological advantage.At the nav station we see an AIS screen (I think?). Steve talks about how they did a good job overnight holding onto the "big sail", and have stayed in the front, making a 7-mile gain on TTToP. Also, AkzoNobel has been farther to the south and has made a big loss. Steve: "We've just made an 18-mile gain on them." Shot out the cabin of Alex and Parko (steering) in the cockpit. Below, Witty talks about how they've done well, looking forward to finding out if it's continued in a few minutes. After getting the sched, Steve announces that they're ahead of AkzoNobel. Witty: "Yes!" In the pit, Ben says he's happy about it.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.Spray over the bow. Closeup of routing software at the nav station. Steve and Witty are talking as Steve looks at what looks like a wind forecast map. Steve explains that they're at risk of dropping off the front at the back of the fleet and falling into a hole. Steve; "So we could end up with an enormous split forced on us..." Talks about the risk/reward decision: go all out for a big gain, or try stay in front of TTToP. Witty makes a meal, talks about the conservative call of just trying to stay ahead of TTToP. Witty: "It's the most effort I've ever seen go into a sixth place in my life... Let's just get this leg over and done with. And start again." Witty goes on deck.Slomo shots of spray as Scallywag sails on port gybe under gray skies.TTToP, sailing on starboard gybe, is silhouetted against the dawn as they approach Scallywag, on port. Scallywag gybes in front of TTToP. (Same gybe we saw from TTToP's perspective in their video from 08:40:01 today.) Steve, with TTToP visible a few boatlengths behind them: "Sort of can't shake them off at the moment; they keep coming at us. But that's all right. It's good two-boat testing." Witty, on the helm, looks over his shoulder at TTToP even closer behind them. Steve talks about how when they were reaching toward Cape Town it was easier. Now, running, the strategy is more difficult. He explains that they're both sailing away from Cape Town at the moment, and TTToP is technically closer to the finish than they are. Steve: "Technically they're ahead of us. Which seems a bit bizarre." Awesome first-light drone shot from astern of TTToP looking forward to see both boats. Steve: "There's a very clichéd saying in sailing, boatspeed makes you a tactical genius. And it does. If I can sail away from these guys it's not that hard. If we were a little bit quicker, my job becomes quite easy." More awesome two-boat sunrise drone shots.Holy crap, what a drone sequence. Sam gets drone footage of TTToP and Scallywag sailing neck and neck a few boatlenghts apart with a crossing tanker/container ship *in the foreground*. What must they have thought on that ship? Footage in deep dusk aboard TTToP, sailing on starboard gybe, with Scallywag visible to starboard with their port red (or maybe stern white?) masthead light visible. Woman's voice on TTToP: "They're gybing, woo!" We see Scallywag gybe onto starboard. Then we get drone footage from ahead of Scallywag, passing back past them with TTToP a few boatlenghts behind them. Footage from TTToP with Scallywag even closer, ahead and to weather of them. High-altitude drone shot with both boats visible below and the sunrise behind them. Liz, on the helm, in the morning light. Sam asks her what's happening. She explains that Scallywag gybed to windward of them, trying to get through them, can't get through and waiting for a lift. Liz: "We're just trying to stay as close to transom of them as possible so they don't get away. Every time they've come within distance we've let them get away, so we're determined to keep them this time."Liz, below, explains that they're actually closer to Cape Horn than to Capetown by a few hundred miles, and (on starboard) they're actually on layline [for Cape Horn]. "So I gave Dee the option, in case she wants to go around the world the wrong way again." Sterncam view looking forward. Below, Liz talks about seeing more rubbish in the water, and being curious what they're microplastic filter picks up. Liz: "It's pretty sad." Henry, stacking from starboard to port below, explains that they're going to gybe. On deck, we see the gybe. Dee jokes about the being closer to Cape Horn and her reputation for going the wrong way round. Nicolas jokes about how he's out of the cabin. Dee, with the sunset behind her, talks about how people are happier now that they're actually heading for their destination rather than away from it. Lucas: "Well, wind's dying; we're fucked. What else do you want me to say?" Sam, to Henry: "We just made really good miles to Capetown, right?" Henry (snorts): "For 10 minutes." Lucas, as they're back on starboard sailing towad the sunset: "Gybe, gybe, gybe, no sleep, french alarm clock, loss, loss, gybe, think we're winning, going to Cape Town, gybe, no wind, loss, Scallywag, bye. That way." (pointing ahead). Shots of Scallywag in the dusk, crossing them on port, then to leeward and ahead of them after gybing back to starboard. Lucas, in the last light of day: "Add a little tag on the end. Gybe, gybe, gybe, choke - no. Not choke. They choked. [coughs] Scallway, coughing. Here they are, right there. We're gonna roll them, right now. Let's go."High drone shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard gybe in the afternoon. Witty on the helm with TTToP behind them. Witty, on the helm: "I just feel like this is ridiculous, because all we're doing is getting further and further behind the rest of the fleet. But no one wants to be last, do they?" Drone shot of Scallywag with TTToP behind them. Steve and Witty talk at the nav station. In the cockpit, Steve explains they want to split and get south and west [of TTToP]. How even though it's a terrible heading, it's setting themselves up for 12 hours' time. Sunset. Stacking in the sunset. Dusk. Ben, in the cockpit at dusk with TTToP visible on the starboard quarter behind him, talks about how it's been a busy day, "gybing back and forth with the Plastics, who are behind us... Yeah; been a pretty enthusiastic day." Shot of Witty on the helm with TTToP visible next to him with their red masthead running light.At the nav station on port gybe, Steve talks strategy with Witty. Steve explains the strategic situation to Konrad: The boats ahead are going to be doing well against them, but they're focused on beating TTToP to the gybe. There's a call from the deck: "They've gybed behind us guys" and Witty and Steve immediately jump up and head on deck to gybe. We see the gybe to starboard happen from the port cabin hatch. Looks like it's fairly early in the day; I think this is the gybe that happened around 2017.11.18 07:28:10 UTC. On deck, Witty talks about strategy, and how he thinks they need to split to the west to set up for more wind later, and have a chance of catching one of the boats ahead vs. settling to just keep battling TTToP. But then he second-guesses himself, saying they've spent all this time clawing their way ahead of TTToP; it would be foolish to throw it away now with a rash decision. Shot of TTToP on port gybe behind them. Parko, standing at the forward pedestal, relaying information from below: "Halesy really thinks we should gybe." Witty: "Okay; let's gybe." Parko: "Yeah. [turning below] Okay, we're gonna gybe Halesy!"Crew on the foredeck with TTToP on port gybe. Scallywag is ahead and to windward. High drone shot showing TTToP in the foreground, Scallywag in the background. Dee, on the helm: "I'm pissed. They're still there. I want to get rid of them. Bloody Scallies." Closeup drone shot of Scallywag; Witty (I think) on the stern waves to the drone. (I love that I was just talking about wanting to see that on the SA forums, where The Main Man told me it had already happened in this video.) Lucas (?) on the rail, as Martin takes a bearing on Scallywag to weather: "Hanging around like a bad smell. It's like a pimple on your back that you can't get rid of, that's what that is. Gotta squeeze 'em out." Drone shot of TTToP with Scallywag visible in the background. Dee, at the nav station, reads emails she's been trading with Steve Hayles and Witty on Scallywag. "Everyone's in good form, feeling happy, and we have left them behind. Yes!"By the mast, Alex explains that there are a lot of clouds, and they're close to TTToP, and there's a lot of fate involved; it's not really in their hands. Alex stands on the boom, looking forward where TTToP is visible ahead of them. Shot looking forward with Witty on the helm as they sail in stronger wind and unfurl a new headsail. Steve looks through binoculars. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag, triple-heading and sailing fast on port. As the drone passes Scallywag we see TTToP basically even with them a half mile to leeward. Steve, in the cockpit, talks about how the clouds can make a difference even in a few hundred meters. Behind them, on the starboard quarter, is TTToP. He explains that Scallywag went high as both boats went through a cloud, and the wind filled in from their side first, and they rolled TTToP. Drone shot on the far side of TTToP, looking back toward Scallywag. That was cool - Konrad actually flew the drone beyond TTToP (their competitor), then got a shot looking back toward Scallywag, with TTToP in the foreground. I bet the crew on TTToP waved.Drone shot approaching Scallywag from leeward. Witty gets up and is happy to see that "the boys" have gained half a mile on TTToP in three hours. Witty: "So good to wake up and not get hammered." Witty slaps people in congratulations. Witty: "It's the little improvements that will fix this... That's a big little improvement." Drone shot.Twilight shots of Scallywag sailing on a close reach on port. Spray. Parko, calling from the cabin about the latest sched: "Turn the Tide: 3.7 miles." Voice in the cockpit: "Where?" Luke: "At 155." Maybe the 2017-11-16 1300 sched? If so that's not twilight as much as a dark cloud cover. Witty, on the helm, talks about the competition with TTToP, the clouds. Shot of TTToP to port. Ben talks about TTToP, about how seeing them has kept the crew's energy going. Drone shot overtaking Scallywag at an altitude of about 90 feet. Appears to be under J0 and J3? Steve, at the nav station, talks to Witty in his bunk: Steve: "Honestly, with the FR0 I think we'd be dog-slow as well. I don't know that... I just think they're a bit quicker." Witty, from his bunk: "Guess I'll get up and see what I can see." Jules: "Parko wanted to have a chat." Drone shot at altidude of 30 feet as Scallywag appraoches and passes underneath. Parko talks with Witty that he thinks TTToP is faster because they have more people/gear/stack, hence more righting moment. Witty points out that they're gaining on everyone else as well. Witty: "This is their time to shine and our time to hang on." He and Parko joke about how he sounded quite sensible. High drone shot looking down on Scallywag. Parko: "That's a keeper, that one."In the cockpit, Wisdom (voiced by Liz) talks about the competition. Wisdom: "Nico told me that Scallywag's only two and a half miles over there, and Akzonobel's only 42 miles away over there. I'm gonna go have a fly and check them out." We then see a very high drone shot looking at Scallywag, which then zooms out to show TTToP far below. Wisdom (Liz) in voiceover: "I'm really really high right now. Can you see Scallywag? They're 2.5 miles away. And look at our boat. That's my boat, Turn the Tide on Plastic. And the other boats, they're over 50 miles away. They're over the curve of the earth, so we're gonna have to sail really fast to catch them."Sunrise (wonder how many more OBRs are going to open their video with that shot?) Witty on the helm, John on the mainsheet. They seem kind of glum. Below, at the nav station, Steve talks about the sched with someone off-camera. Steve: "We were one mile further on Akzo but they were five degrees higher, but other than that we had the equal/worse run. The Plastics have the best run again of the whole fleet." Steve, to Konrad: "We had pretty good vision on them yesterday, and then they started moving really quickly. And we've just been bleeding miles to them ever since." Steve talks about TTToP having more people, making them heavier and that might be helpful in current reaching conditions. Witty, below, looking tired: "We don't have enough time in the boat, sailing at certain angles. Costly lessons." Witty pours hot water into his insulated bowl. Witty: "It's a new place for our team to be in, getting our head kicked in sched after sched and not really knowing how to fix it, not knowing what's wrong. Just gotta keep trying, mate. Becoming a little bit embarrassing. Hopefully the next sched will be better. Just gotta keep looking forward. Stop the bleeding, and then think about how we're going to gain. It's quite hard. Bloody hard, this race. And the opposition are bloody good." Oh, Witty. Don't make me have feelings for you. Witty sits at the nav station and puts on his reading glasses.Slomo shot, with spray, looking up the slot at sunset.Drone shot of Scallywag close reaching on port. Cockpit shot looking forward. Annemieke, at the nav station, talks about sending an email. Annemieke: "I think it's day eight? Nine?.. This is the first I've sent. They must have been waiting for a message. I have to be honest [laughs] I didn't know exactly how it worked."Sunrise. Alex steers. Then Witty steers, and Alex sits forward of the wheel and looks to port. Alex: "We've woken up, and we can just now see Turn the Tide on our windward side. Which is awesome. We were going really well last night." Steve, looking at them in binoculars: "They're on a MH0. Certainly it's a masthead sail." Drone shot of Scallywag reaching on port. Witty, on the helm: "We'd rather see the boats 1 to 5, not 6 to 7." Drone shot of sea bird (shearwater?) riding the pressure wave in front of Scallywag's headsail. Witty: "We've gained in the last 24 hours, which is a positive thing. Scallywags could do with a few positive things at the moment."Below, Annemieke talks about Neptune. Alex talks about getting a "visit from a special person." Fish, in the cockpit: "I'm not too sure, but there might be a bit of brightness coming into our lives." Tom, below: "Anything's possible as far as I can see. And on this boat, anything really is possible." Ben, below: "Time will tell what punishment is in store for me, and for the other guys who haven't crossed the equator."Afternoon drone shots of Scallywag gonig upwind on port with full main and J1 (I think).Steve, at nav station, talks about the clouds and rain. Shot of crew grinding in the cockpit in the range. Luke, grinding: "Almost got caught with our pants down on that one." Luke talks about rapid and large windspeed and direction changes. Alex: "This is like reverse doldrums. There's been wind, but we're getting screwed by clouds all the time." Steve talks about the weather systems, clouds, winds, how every time is different.John, at the nav station, wishes a happy birthday to a loved one: "Hi Ames. Just wanted to say happy 16th birthday to you, there in australia. Hope you have a fabulous day, look forward to seeing you soon. Have a gerat time, miss you loads, love you lots, take care. Bye."Bow cam shot looking aft, with spray, as Scallywag reaches on port in 20 knots of wind. Below, Luke Parkinson, in his bunk, talks about trying to talk to "Halesy", in the nav station, and how just climbing in and out of his bunk is quite a task. Steve, at the nav station, talks about how hard it is to stand without holding onto anything. He talks about how hard it is to function with the boat's motion. We see Tom in the galley, Ben eating. Luke, Ben talk about the effort of living when the boat is heeled, moving, dressing, stacking.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.On deck, Annemieke talks about her sailing career, sailing Optimist dinghies, then international classes and Olympic classes, sailing in two Olympics, and now here. Drone shots of Scallywag sailing on port gybe under A3, J2, J3. Shot of Annemieke on the helm at dawn. Annemieke: "I think the highlight of this trip so far was this morning, sailing on the helm." Slomo shot of Scallywag sailing on starboard tack into the setting sun in windy conditions with a competitor visible ahead and to weather; I think that's probably Dongfeng on the first afternoon of Leg 2. Shot of Annemieke (I think) on the grinder in the spray coming over the boat with a reefed main. Back on the boat today, she talks about getting her boots wet the first hour of the race. Annemieke: "I think it's great to be here. There's no other place I'd rather be. Look around. It's champagne sailing." Drone shot of Scallywag sailing with the sunrise behind.Pretty drone shot: Scallywag reaches south on port in 10 knots of wind while silhouetted against the sunrise. Annemieke on the helm. Witty, in the cockpit, asks deadpan: "What is stealth? Stealth bomber? Is Dee all right? Are they okay?" Below, at the nav station, Steve explains stealth mode, and that TTToP have engaged it. Witty, below, explains the he thinks it's not a good time to have used it, since all the boats are pretty much sailing directly south in steady wind. More drone shots. Witty: "It's a bit like poker... You need to know when to bluff and when not to bluff."Pretty clouds before dawn. Witty, on the foredeck, coordinates with the cockpit on sail trim. In the cockpit, Witty jokes about having ADHD: "I'm like a cat chasing its tail. Like a little baby cat chasing its tail." Annemieke checks sail trim. From the pit, she talks to Konrad about sailtrim. Shot of her trimming before dawn. Annemieke: "You have to really adapt quickly. If you hang around too long on a certain setting, you can lose a few miles on the rest of the fleet." Witty: "Clearly, I actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just lucky the ropes are different colors." On the foredeck, Witty helps stack the sails forward.Witty, below, stages a mock cooking show by Humphry B. Bear. Stirs in water, closes up the container, then opens another one to show the final result.People asleep below. Ben works on the water maker. He explains that it has stopped making water, so he's inspecting, looking for leaks. "It's a bit of an unexpected thing to happen. There was water this morning, and now it's stopped." Shot of a spigot with water coming out. Ben: "There we go. We've got water." Fish: "Nipper's been working pretty hard, and he's pretty resourceful." Alex, getting dressed below: "It's surprising, how even though you think you're going quick, someone's still quicker than you. You think that you're pushing, but someone else is pushing harder than you. That's probably a reality check for everyone."Drone shot of Scallywag sailing on port gybe with A3, J2, and J3. Looks like it's near sunrise, with pretty clouds. Audio is Steve and Witty talking at the nav station. Witty: "Crossing us?" Steve: "Not crossing us... We're probably 20 miles ahead of him?" Steve, talking to Konrad at the nav station: "We're being as proactive as we can, trying to be smart abou where we put the boat, but... the doldrums can create an awful lot of mixup, and for sure these leaders are going to start losing miles. So what we're losing right now, we'll definitely get back a chunk of that if not more. Basically it's two days of really keeping the faith here now. A day from now I think we'll really have a different feeling on board in that we'll be gaining rather than losing. This sort of slow, steady loss is hard for everyone on board to swallow... At the moment we're not happy with where we are, but we will make gains. There's a very long way to go in this race." Shot of pre-dawn sky with crew silhouetted on the stern. Another drone shot like the opening shot. Witty, in cockpit: "Every time Steven Hayles comes on deck on another sched and says we've lost they have to put their trusty Leatherman away so they don't slash their wrists. It's quite depressing for 6 to 8 hours and find out that you've lost." Shot of Alex on the helm. Witty: "It's not all over. There's still a bloody long way to go. As they say, 'Keep plugging away.'" Drone shot from above.Sunrise shot of the helm as Scallywag surfs on starboard gybe. Shot of the foredeck as they hoist a sail. They have three headsails up already (Fractional or Masthead 0, J2, and J3, maybe?); this looks like they're hoisting the A3 to replace the Code 0, maybe. Washing machine shot of the helm. Witty, in the cabin, talks to the crew in the cockpit. Witty: "I just said, do you want me to find something else to put up? You're triple-headed, are you?" Witty, below, talks to Konrad: "We've got every piece of sail up you could get up here in over 30. Problem is they've just been a little bit lower than us, so we thought we'd fix the problem and put everything up. We are now definitely sailing the lowest." Washing machine shot of cockpit. Witty: "It does sound quite horrific, doesn't it? [Laughs; adopts mock-gravity voice.] Man your battle stations, lads. Get ready for disaster."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.Cockpit looking aft as Scallywag surfs. Looks a little less hectic than yesterday. Below, Witty sits, looking tired, as Ben walks forward past him toward the galley. Witty: "Good. Nipper's about to cook me some dinner. And I have a couple of favorite words in the dictionary. One is 'ointment'. That means it's too serious for cream and it needs ointment. And that is gonna be my bum in the next few days if it doesn't dry out. And the second one is 'moist'. That's all I can do to describe the last 24 hours is very moist. Fast, and moist." Washing machine shot of cockpit. Witty: "Dongfeng and MAPFRE are a little west of us, but we're a little detached from everyone else... We're all heading west at the moment. Doesn't really mean a hell of a lot... Twenty-four hours into a marathon. Nobody wins it in the first 24 hours... Either I sleep soon or I die. Pretty simple. I can't do 19 days of this; no one can. But the forecast is we only have a couple more days of this. Just tough it out for a couple of more days and see how we go."Slomo washing machine shot of Tom (I think) getting doused on the aft pedestal.Crash cam footage of Scallywag surfing on starboard gybe toward the setting sun, then broaching to windward as the boat heels and the headsail flaps.They recover quickly.Mast cam shot of the cockpit as Scallywag surfs on port gybe. Washing machine. Witty, at the helm with big reflective bug-eye goggles, sticks his tongue out at the camera.Steve at the nav station below at night. Steve: "Few issues on board. We've got a big leak at the nav station, and we've wiped out the main navigation computer. Which is pretty annoying 7 hours into a 21-day leg. A fair bit of work, trying to swap things around and make it work off our other computer, and I'm feeling a little fragile in terms of not having a lot of backup."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.MAPFRE during the departure from Lisbon, running fast on starboard gybe. Xabi, in the cockpit, eases a sheet. Shot of Scallywag behind them. Washing machine as they head into the setting sun. Crew huddled aft. Lots of waves over the deck.Cockpit looking forward into sunset with the boat sailing fast off the wind. Washing machine. Ben rigs a sheet on the foredeck with the sun setting ahead of them. Witty, mugging into the camera in the cockpit: "Sending it. Away from Lisbon. And straight at Madeira. Cape Town here we come." Waves coming over the bow.Liz, at sunset, talks about the competition around them: "We've got Brunel about 150 meters to weather of us, Scallywag about a mile and a half over there, and Dongfeng about a mile to leeward of us." Shots of the other nearby boats.Red-light shots at night: stacking, sails. Joan (in Spanish): talks about rounding Cabo de Gata, wind. Sunrise drone shot, circling MAPFRE. Early morning light shot of Scallywag ahead of them with A3 and J2 flying. Shot of Sophie on MAPFRE on port watching Scallywag pass behind them on starboard and Brunel passing in front of them. (This was the big gybe in toward the Spanish coast where Vestas went before the other boats and took the lead.) Shot of Joan with MAPFRE now on the starboard gybe talking (in Spanish) about strategy. In the background, Xabi and Rob talk strategy (in English), mentioning Akzo, Vestas, and Brunel.