Vestas 11th Hour Racing

crew Charlie Enright, Chris Nicholson, Damian Foxall, Hannah Diamond, Jena Mai Hansen, Mark Towill, Nick Dana, Phil Harmer, Roberto 'Chuny' Bermúdez de Castro, Simon Fisher, Stacey Jackson, Tom Johnson and Tony Mutter
Charlie, on the starboard rail, looks forward: "We think we see Dongfeng, having won the Volvo Ocean Race. Nick (I think), jokes: I don't wanna talk about it! Charlie: Apparently we don't wanna talk about it. SiFi is smiling with a tablet at the back of the boat. Jeremie: You don't want to talk about it? Charlie: They certainly deserve it. They've been the most consistent, they saved the best for last, always bounce back, a strong team, big risk. Looking good. TJ, by the helm with binoculars, is talking to SiFi about what he's seeing: Dongers. A bunch of other sailboats.Drone shot of Vestas gybing, wind farm, close up of a windmill.Charlie and SiFi look at the chart. SiFi: Right now if I was a betting man I'd say that Dongfeng is pretty good. They're 7 miles behind the leading boat, which is MAPFRE. And they're laying in doing 14 knots. Three other boats to weather.Drone shot of Vestas triple-heading on starboard gybe. Drone shot of peeling to the MH0, furling the J0. SiFi, below: Last night was important tactically. Explains taking the offshore option. Made the choice we made because we thought we might get ahead of MAPFRE and Dongfeng that way. As it turns out, MAPFRE joined us. Now the overall of the race is resting on who made the right choice on which lane. We've seen one boat pick one, one pick the other, and one sort of waver between the two. Roy Disney, Jr. on deck. Charlie on the helm. Stacey grinding. Tony fiddles with the clew of a sail. Drones shot of lowering the J0, pulling the tack of the J0 off the bowsprit.Tony, below: As Nick just said, could be ever. Nick: Not ever. Tony: Who knows? [he laughs] Good and bad. The race has been a blast. Full on. Windiest race ever. As a team we had our ups and downs, had to battle on, come through it... It's my sixth race. Finishing my sixth lap of the planet over 20 years. Nick's just sniggering away up here. He knows I'll be back. Nick: I'm still going back to sleep. This could be my last watch on this boat. Which will have just completed two laps around the planet on, because this was Alvimedica on the last race. The old girl. Tony: I think Nick's gonna buy it. He's gonna put it on a vacant lot somewhere in Newport, and he's gonna live on it. Because he won't know how to live in a house. Stacey: Can put a sprinkler system on it... We joke about it, but I'm a bit like Tony. Hopefully this is my last time. I think I said this last race as well. Who knows what the future will bring I guess. On deck, Phil takes off his neoprene hood and rubs his hair: Last watch. Not gonna lie I'm pretty excited. I really want to get home. Time to start being a dad again, I guess. A few more hours, try to catch these guys, and then get home and start planning the next Volvo Ocean Race. Jena laughs. Tony: She's just dreaming of racing again, next time. Jena: Next time. I will enjoy it, have a little meal with Phil, a romantic breakfast. And then a little lie down in the bunk. You'll probably see me in 5 minutes setting a different sail. SiFi: We are enjoying our last day of offshore sailing. Beautiful sunny day in the North Sea. Not too sunny; if it gets too sunny it will get lighter. Below, Phil looks at a food pack. Eats at the nav station next to Jena. Phil sneezes, says to the camera: Brian [Brian Carlin, head of the OBRs mayabe?], Jena says there's never any mail for her. Charlie, on a pedestal on deck: Miss the most? Waking up every day with one goal. When it's over you wake up and don't know what to do with yourself. The direction is nice. What am I going to miss the least? Water pressure. Stacey: Probably, the challenge every day. And soon enough you don't have that, and you have to figure out what your next challenge is. SiFi: Miss the most? Other than the entertaining conversation with the OBRs? Hanging out with all of these guys I reckon. Working with some good people, learning something new every day. Don't know what I'm going to miss the least. Looking forward to my newfound freedom. Tony: Some of the stopovers were great. I'm going to miss that. Looking forward to going sailing again without getting blasted with water. TJ, on the helm: Miss the most? Like SiFi said, the people of course. Fast flat water VMG sailing. Miss the least? Probably that forward upper bunk. I'm looking forward to never having to climb that one again.TJ suits up and goes forward wth a GOPro (Garmin) on him. Working at the base of the mast to put in a reef.. He takes spray in the pit. Crash cam from the stern shows him taking spray; SiFi talks on the PA about an upcoming exlcusion zone. He clips in the reefed tack, comes back to the pit. Spreader cam view of them pulling the main back in. TJ, below, talks about putting the reef in. Charlie comes down: When you have to go up for two seconds sometimes you don't put your gear on. Which is stupid. TJ: We reduced the sail, and then we were like, let's go faster. And put it back up again. Charlie, spraying water on his face: And we were the victims. Us.Drone shot of Vestas tacking with the J1 and land in the background. Charlie in the cockpit: Little bit of a situation when we passed the virtual mark and the breeze died, and we ended up on the wrong side of the TSS. A little disappointing. But it's going to make some fun racing on the last night of the race. Drone shots: stacking, sailing upwind. Mark and Charlie sailing in the cockpit. Phil grinding. Drone shot from overhead.Nicolai gets out of his bunk: "That was 20 minutes. That was good." Martine: I don't count time anymore. I don't count hours and minutes. Nicolai, agreeing: No. Grinding on deck. Jules calling course changes while looking at his tablet. Nicho talks about winds ahead. They talk about which way to take the exclusion zone. Nicho talks about rounding the virtual mark. Now we can see the guys in front of us. Need another compression and parkup. Have a reasonable lead over Scallywag and Turn the Tide, but need to get into the guys in front. Another boat in the distance ahead of them (Vestas?).Blair preps a sail patch below. "Too many sail changes, and the [something] which attaches the sheet to the sail, went through the J1's... So a quick repair before the next sail change. Endless... He and Neti apply the patch on the sail near the bow. Willy, on the foredeck, talks in Spanish. Repeats in English: If there's another team besides us in this race that deserves to win it's them. We've been stuck behind them for the last 2 days. We had our chances to pass them. We did pass them, but they always come back strong. They're just under half a mile. We're just catching them up now in the next half hour. Compression and transition. Plenty of chances. Blair below tells Tamara, "Two hours". Then says "Nahh..." Maybe he was joking? Rounding the virtual mark, with Dongfeng heading south and dthen them following them. Chasing Dongfeng south with Vestas (I think) approaching them.Dongfeng and MAPFRE sailing south from the virtual turning mark. Jena: MAPFRE! SiFi talks about the approach, passenger ferry. Jena slaps at someting. SiFi checks his tablet. They all seem exhausted. Charlie on the helm. Simon calls it, and they tack to round the virtual mark. TJ: Are we around it? SiFi: Yeah. We were a bit in tight, out wide. Charlie, on the helm, hoists his cup: This is for you Bill. This is for you.Drifting in light conditions. SiFi talks about wind. Stacey: The standard Volvo Ocean Race compression has happeend. We busted our butts to get somewhere and then (hits her hands together) we all end up together. Mark and SiFi looking around. MAPFRE and Dongfeng 3 miles away. TJ talks about a spectator boat motoring out to see them. Nick puts on an abdominal wrap. "I got this from an even older, and more damaged bowman; Neti, right there (pointing). He puts on his foulie pants over it. "Kind of feels like a diaper though." Charlie calls from the bow: Dongfeng looks like they're getting the better of... Nick: High pressure clouds... It's gonna be a good day. Stacy grinds. Tony on the helm points out MAPFRE sailing with strong wind. TJ: They're heeled over. So we compress and now we're expanding. Bungee. SiFi and Charlie talking at the nav station. They all sound loopy as hell.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.Rob, in the midnight sun: In and out of Aarhus today. It was hard. It's been nonstop all day. In fact this whole leg's been nonstop. Got out of phase, a bit shifty. Was pretty good to see all the people on shore. Just been fighting, fighting, fighting. Waiting for a chance to get by. Be patient. Wait for them to make a mistake. Keep nibbling away. Pablo: Talks in Spanish about being tired, Dongfeng. Repeats in English: We're tired, like eveyrone I guess. The important thing is to keep the boat fast. Couple of hours of sleep. We are with Dongfeng; they are very close. Have been fighting all day. Meter by meter. Hopefully we can take them over tonight. More discussion in Spanish. Pablo: We have been doing a lot of maneuvers. And in my case I have been on the wheel. Good fun; with Dongfeng we have been fighting. Slomo of RIB alongside. Willy. Joan with his tablet, looking at Dongfeng. Spectator boats following them. Tack. (Oh, this is their Aarhus footage.) Crowd cheering. Xabi in the pit. Vestas crossing their bow. Tamara talks in Spanish while trimming. Slomo of Dongfeng ahead of them. Blair on the foredeck looking SO punchy. Xabi looks through binoculars. Lowering the J1. Slomo of Xabi in the sunset.Tony on the helm with sunset as they sail toward Norway (again). Helm controls. Tony: Closed up, which is good. Quite a bit of racing this leg. Lot of mark roundings; very little sleep. Everyone's running on nothing at the moment. Everyone's hoping to get an hour or two of sleep. Sailing the midnight sun. Never really dark. SiFi just said we're 3.7 away from MAPFRE, and 4.2 away from Dongfeng. Mark makes dual shaka signs. Expecting a header. 85 miles from the mark. Two boats ahead on the horizon.Sailing into Aarhus (I think). Crew work in the cockpit. Jena. Windsurfer. TJ makes a peace sign at a foiling kitesurfer. Charlie on the helm. Jena: We're here in Aarhus. I'm so excited. So many people are here, and we're not even in the harbor yet. My mom and dad, sister, friends. Close to the new sailing center. Dongfeng exiting as they keep going in. Jena is doing her live interview on the headset. Nick: Anyone want to see MAPFRE? They wave at MAPFRE as they go by. Spectator fleet. Jena grinding with Roy Disney, Jr. SiFi with his tablet: Anyone see the mark yet? Jena waves. Jena: I'm so close to home. Right there! (she points). She waves both arms to the crowd on the quay. Tacking around the buoy. Jena: I'm so happy, so proud to be Danish right now. This is the largest amount of people we've seen at any stopover or flyby or anything. I think it's so spectacular. I'm so moved and so touched. I saw my family and friends. Thank you so much, all of Denmark. It was amazing. Thank you. Mark: Pretty cool, leaving Aarhus. You can tell this country loves sailing, and a lot of support for Jena. Jena wipes away tears on the stern. AkzoNobel and Brunel coming in. TJ coils on the foredeck as they sail past them. "Gotta keep pushing hard. There has been no sleep on this leg."Dongfeng sails with two RIBs alongside; MAPFRE beyond. Approach to Aarhus, maybe? Carolijn can be heard discussing their sail configuration. Daryl. Carolijn: And then back to Norway. MAPFRE astern fo them. MAPFRE sailing to leeward. Coming into the harbor with helicopter sound Stu asks Pascal if his waypoint is close to the marina. Carolijn shouts a conversation with someone in a RIB alongside. Tack. Sailing into the harbor with cheers. Tacking around the harbor buoy. Passing MAPFRE, who's still coming in. More cheering crouds. Passing Vestas. Daryl makes some comment: "...was MAPFRE and now it's Brunel." Stu: They banged the left corner. That's certainly a challenge when racing 24 hours and we're further away from the finish than when we started. There's something not quite right about that. Pascal: Less wind here guys. Stu: Wait a bit for puff to roll through here, and loose cover MAPFRE? He points out pressure. Daryl: Still a couple of big opportunities for a big parkup. Above Denmark, getting up to the next mark. And then the finish depending on the timing. Can only cover so much; have to keep doing what we're doing for the first part of this leg.Drone shots of Vestas sailing upwind with a lot of heel. Jena in the cockpit. SiFi with his tablet. More of Jena grinding. SiFi: We've had our final course. We'll be sailing into the marina at Aarhus. And then a virtual mark off Norway. Which is going to put us through a transition line on the way up, and again on the way back. They're making the course longer. Drone shot. J0, with J3 hoisted but furled. Foredeck work. Jena in the cockpit again. Stacking aft. Birds flying (geese?). Mark (I think?) coiling in the pit.Drone shot of Vestas sailing fast. Wind farm. Charlie: Sailing to Aarhus in Denmark, home of Vestas wind systems. Drone shot of the wind farm. Jena: Almost home; woo hoo!Mark explains the current situation. Trying to enjoy the moment, only have about 48 hours more sailing together. Stacking to leeward. Charlie calls and initiates the gybe. Phil rummaging in gear below (or maybe stacking below?). Someone (TJ?) talks with SiFi at the nav station about what other boats have done. Shot out the cabin at the helm while we hear a stack chant.Jena trims as they sail upwind toward the Norway turning mark. Hoisting the A3 in preparation for the rounding. Other boats already having rounded. Stacey: Arriving at the first mark on the coast of Norway. It's midnight and the sun's coming up. The cherry red boats have just rounded, and Akzo is just behind us. SiFi points out the buoy. Stacking to leeward in preparation for the rounding. SiFi calls the time to the tack: 1:10. Charlie calls the tack from the helm. Buoy wiht the moon behind it. Charlie calls the deploy. Sailing downwind with the sunrise behind them. TTToP on their weather quarter tacking for the mark. Tony fiddling with the outrigger. SiFi laughs about the midsummer night, relates the events of the beat up. Happy to have got out in third, and slightly faster than the boats ahead at the moment, so it's all good.Night shots of Dongfeng near the Norway turning mark. Powerboat alongside. They round the mark and unfurl the A3 (I assume). MAPFRE rounds just behind them. Daryl explains that things are going well. "We had a wobbly patch where we thought we were caught between the two breezes. But in the end it's worked out really well. Sailed well against MAPFRE in the last little section coming up. Glad they're behind us here, and let's hope it can stay like that. It's going to be a battle, that's for sure. Charles, on the helm, looks at other boats. Akzo, Vestas, Brunel.Sailing into the twilight. Peter says something about the stack. Hoisting a sail on the bow. Vestas passing them with the moon behind them. Ooh; this is the mark rounding off Norway. A motorboat cruises alongside. TTToP passes them still going upwind. Bouwe: Just passed the mark at Norway. Not the position we wanted to be in, but still a lot of the leg to go. I think the sun is coming up again, even though it's 1:30 or 2:00 at night. It's just one of these things that we remember, how fortunate we are that we can sail in these kinds of conditions.Drone shot of Vestas furling the J0 (I think) with the J1 set under it. Rain clouds and sunset on the horizon beyond. Crew on the weather rail looking at the other boats in a line to weather. Clouds. Gull flying overhead. Tony on the helm. Rain coming toward them. Charlie: Should we dump some water here? Nick talks about sailing really lifted, and now it's a bit tougher. Boats to weather doing well against them. Big rain cloud coming here. Drone shot of them sailing toward rain under J1. Rain comes down toward them. SiFi as the rain hits. SiFi checks his tablet.TJ, on the cabin, recaps: Beating upwind in 17 knots quite nicely. Always knew there would be this big transition, didn't expect it to be this abrupt. Wasn't ideal for us. A lot lighter than we expected. On the masthead zero. Nice peel. Norway's close. Might be an interesting tricky night. Lot of clouds around. Stacking. SiFi: Craziness. Big wind shifts. Helicopter noise. Other boat with sunset and helicopter. Charlie talks with SiFi about their position. SiFi gives speeds of other boats. "Probably wouldn't hurt to set it up." TJ puts way binoculars. Hoisting the MH0 with the J1 up.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.Charlie on deck in what looks like fog (maybe just a foggy lens). On track into the last 100 miles into Gothenburg. Conditions lightening up. Land. Jena: Very happy to see the coast of Norway. We nearly can see Denmark as well. Means we're close to the finish. Probably could have used a few more miles to gain the fleet back, but always hapy to see land. Big waves on deck. New sail going up. TJ on the helm: A lot of back and forth right now. We're within two miles, back to three. Just hope we can get a good gain on them somewhere along the line. Reefing the main. Nick: I'm not saying anything. We're in fifth place right now.Stern cam shots of washing machine. Shot from inside the cabin of the cockpit. Mast cam view of the stern. SiFi at nav station: It's a little bumpy at the moment. 35, 36 knots, 80 true. So it's not the comfiest wind angle downstairs, and pretty heinous for the guys on deck. Sailing fast but into the waves. Need to find a little pace to get past the boats around us. [Laughing] I'd much rather be involved in the fight for the podium, although I guess it's nice not to have the stress. You can just watch it unfold. Dongfeng have been struggling a bit. Brunel has really found some wheels and has caught MAPFRE up. It's going to be some fairly nervous hours on those three boats. Spreader cam view of the bow; cabin view of the cockpit. Jena comes below, takes off her foulie jacket, pulls up her headband. Phil comes down below, takes off his gloves. "Best way to deal with (something) is just count down the hours. It's pretty wet and nasty out there. It's not too long to go. Counting down. I thought this was going to be an easy leg. It's not easy. It's shit out. Stern cam/crash cam of a wave slapping off the side of the boat.Slomo of high-wind washing machine forward and in the cockpit. SiFi at nav station: Blasting along doing 24 knots, which is good. Things are going to get trickier in a few hours in the wind shadow of Scotland. Doing poorly in the last 24 hours. Looking forward to slightly less wind at the top of Scotland, chance to catch up, bit of a respite on the way over to the Orkney Islands. Then a kicking in the North Sea. Slomo washing machine shots.Sailing under gray skies with more wind. Spray over the bow. Stacey: We've gybed and we're heading toward the (something). Last time with water over the deck. Washing machine. Mark and Nick talk in the cockpit. SiFi comes up from below talking about MAPFRE. Other boat: I think it's TTToP. Nick: hashtag huge gains. Tony steering. Mark: As slow as the first couple days have been, it's been nice to be dry and warm. Next bit is going to be wet. We've had a lot of that... another leg of contrasts. Should make for a quick run into Gothenburg.They sail in flat water with TTToP a quarter mile ahead, and two other boats a mile away. Triple heading on port gybe. Phil: Right now it seems like we're 4 knots quicker. So for a bowman, Nick, you're doing a good job. They pass TTToP. TTToP behind them. Jena dances. Charlie gets a jacket on, jokes about watching Netflix. Charlie and SiFi talk about the upcoming strategy. Phil does a pirouette on the helm. Charlie talks about the upcoming wind. Two competitors ahead of them several miles away.Tacking with MAPFRE behind them. Three boats inshore of them. Bouwe on the helm. Stacking aft. Capey at the nav station: MAPFRE's planning to go between the two [islands]. Peter, from his bunk: Gonna be quite close with us. Capey studies the screen. You can feel Sam wanting to talk to him, but not doing it because Capey is visibly thinking. Capey keeps glancing up at one screen, then down at the other. He blinks in surprise at something. Peter gets out of his bunk. Capey: Fuck. He gets up. Sam follows him. Capey talks to Bouwe in the cockpit. Peter gets his foulies on, goes up. MAPFRE crosses them on starboard just ahead. Dongfeng and another boat is visible beyond them. Peter is confused: Akzo appears to be goose-winging the jib. Or maybe he's on the other tack; can't really tell. Vestas is parked up here. (We see Vestas.) Alberto: Tricky situation; there's a couple of big islands. We just lost a couple of dozens of meters to MAPFRE and Dongfeng, but I think we have a good opportunity to gain again. Capey and Peter look to port. Peter: Should we go here? Capey goes to the nav station. Capey agrees. Peter: Go now! He starts shifting the stack. Bouwe seems to be letting them make the call. Tack. Abby and Louis grinding in the pit. Nina talks about there being a fishing farm that's not on our maps, so it adds a little stress to the afternoon. Fish farm nets as they sail past. Three boats ahead of them in the afternoon light. Waves on a headland to starboard. Bouwe's face on the helm. Slomo shots of islands, another boat as they sail upwind with the J1. Slomo of Alberto trimming. Sunset. Kyle explains. They had a parkup, then Turn the Tide took off. We didn't do the best job in the islands; kind of got spat out the back. Akzo, MAPFRE, Dongfeng, and Vestas are all ahead of us now; Turn the tide is behind us. We were in a good position, but now our position isn't too good. But going upwind, with some good opportunities, some good splits.Three other boats to weather. TJ points, and makes a happy dance. Charlie talks about the different winds between the two boats. TJ: When we hit that (ridge) there's going to be a big parkup. Hopefully we get into that all right, and get out of it all right, and we're in first place. Jena to Tom: Can you count from 1 to 15 in Danish? Tom does it. Jena: Nice. Last leg we spent 10 days trying to learn to say (something in Danish). Up the hill. That's what this is right now. She has Phil on the helm say something in Danish. She laughs. She gets a licorice from him.Willy talks in Spanish on the bow as they sail in light conditions. He repeats in English: 24 hours after the start, pretty much in the same spot they were at the start. Together with Dongfeng and Brunel. Three or four days to go. Forecast is to start going upwind. Probably the Volvo decided in the next 10 hours. Because after that the wind comes and it's harder to pass people. Drone shots: stacking aft, sailing with competitors in the background, rounding Irish headland, Blair aloft with Ireland behind him. Other boats all around them. Slomo of Xabi. Brunel and Dongfeng. AkzoNobel, TTToP, Vestas. Rob on the bow talks to Joan about strategy. Joan reads off his tablet about Dongfeng's status. Three other boats and Fastnet Rock. Dongfeng and Vestas behind them. Sophie calls to Rob: There's seaweed everywhere. Rob: Tricky race so far. Gave Dongfeng a 5-mile lead at Fastnet. Tricky transition. Akzo and Vestas coming from behind.... I don't know what we did wrong, but it was all very difficult. Now beating up west side of Ireland, around islands. Evening's been good so far, but it's going to be a long night. Last tacking exhange overtook Brunel; they're about 3/4 of a mile behind them, Dongfeng 3/4 of a mile ahead, and then Vestas ahead of them. Busy night with lots of tacks. Got some sleep on the first night. No one's resting today or tonight. Going to have to keep pushing hard. Keep the coffee coming and we'll see how we feel in two days time. Slomo of Xabi grinding. Stacking. Slomo spray on the bow. Tack. Irish coast. Xabi looking through binoculars: Yes, he has tacked. Drone shot of them sailing upwind with Dongfeng a quarter mile ahead. Beautiful drone shots with clouds and land, other boats.Drifting conditions near the Irish coast. Jack: I don't think we're making too much headway on the land. Other boats visible behind them, including Brunel. Drifting. J1 flopping. Fabien: I don't know if we are lucky, but we are ahead of the fleet since the beginning. But now we are in the light spot, with Brunel and MAPFRE behind... We are very close to the shore, with no wind. Expect northeast wind at the corner, which is one mile. But we have no wind with current. It's not easy. Charles looks under the sail at Brunel and mutters. Shore is just a few hundred yards away. Tacking the MH0. Pascal talks with Charles in French. Charles on the helm. Intensity. Sailing with more wind, tacking the J1. Brunel and MAPFRE to starboard. Another tack. Sailing toward land in the sunset. Charles and Pascal. Jack on the helm. Charles talks with Pascal in French. Charles: Okay we tack. Pascal: Tacking guys! They tack. Black on the rail. Vestas crossing them. Crossing MAPFRE. Another tack next to the shore. Carolijn trims, moves to pedestal: Someone come with me please? Later, Carolijn: Vestas is coming upright. Much less breeze. Coming back into the breeze now. Sunset. Black comes up from below. Daryl on the helm. AkzoNobel crosses behind them. Another boat ahead of them.Slomo of rocks with sea birds flying around them. Sunset. Simeon looking at sunset. Nicolai: South tip of Ireland, beautiful... Bit of a chess game. Can choose to go around, or go between. Talk about wind shadow, tide. Flopping. Dongfeng in sunset light to starboard. Nicolai: We just went outside a small group of islands while the rest of the fleet went inside. Shot of Vestas emerging from behond the islands. Jules talks about wind. Sunset with a competitor ahead of them.SiFi, with his tablet, calls the course through the upcoming islands. Land. Sunset. Phil: What we're doing? We're interrupting my sleep is what we're doing. A tiny little gap between two islands, we've decided to go through that gap. Nick: We've got this shit. Nick: We're playing it very hard corner, to basically shoot this gap through these islands. If the breeze manages to hold we'll squirt right through, but it's a big call. We see them going through the island. Nick: Jurassic Park. MAPFRE looks like they're a little low; Dongers is short-tacking through. So could potentially be a big gain for us. Then they're sailing in less wind. Nick: Basically Gitane's the only boat that's got us at this point. They sail in lighter conditions. Nick: It's just gone light, and now there's some doubts. Charlie: Little gust here to the right. Lauhs and smiles. Mark: One little puff in 10. Dongfeng on their stern. Mark: Any time you get close to land it's always a little scary. We'll see; Akzo went on the other side of this island. Tony: There's a little gain. Akso's over there. (He points.) Wait and see how Brunel comes out. SiFi, at the nav station: We saved some distance. Brunel went all the way around, Akzo had a light spot. A pretty good move; put us in the lead I guess.Annalise points out the west Cork coastline. Apart from Brazil, this is the closest they've done to sailing along the coast of a country. Bianca: But what country is that? Annalise: Ireland! Fishing boats, land, islands. Vestas behind them. Frederico, forward: We passed Fastnet a few hours ago. He points out other boats. All very close, very nice, every puff makes a difference. Vestas passes them to weather with Fastnet Rock in the background. AkzoNobel a boatlength behind them. Brian: It's unexpected, but we are with all the other boats. We've been looking at them, judging what the wind is. I think we've managed to make some gains today. We're a lot closer to Dongfeng than we were a few hours ago. Getting the waves from the northerly breeze. That northerly is going to kick in sometime tonight. So a transition for that. Fascinating day so far, and more to come tonight.Shifting a sail on the bow. Three competitors to port. Coiling in the pit. Bird (gannet?). Working on the foredeck. Charlie on the helm: Pretty puffy. A competitor a quarter mile away. Stacey: I was asleep for four hours and I wake up and we're in the lead. Pretty happy. Tony: We came off the start line in first, then went to last all in one day. And now we could be back in first. We'll find out when we tack over. Hero to zero and back again. SiFi and Charlie talk about when to tack with the island coming up. Jena smiles on the rail, talks about how beautiful Ireland is. Sunset. Charlie steers through the tack. Stacking in preparation for the next tack.Martine holds the J1 clew as they flop in glassy conditions. Vestas and another boat are visible behind her. Martine: I think the first one that gets the wind is going to be the leader. Everyone's in the same situation; pretty slow. Luke on the helm: If we get the breeze first we can extend a bit. Eventually someone will be the first to get the northerly wind... Good for sleeping, though. Jules talks about wind. "Yeah, there goes Dongfeng. I reckon we'll go pretty soon." "Do they have the masthead?" "No; it's in the air though." They start moving, with other boats on their port quarter. They tack onto starboard. Furling the J1 forward. Drone shot of them triple heading and working on the foredeck.Drone shot alongside as AkzoNobel sails in 15 knots of wind. Looks like they have a J0 and J3 up; MH0 and J2 (maybe?) are up but furled. Maybe shifting gears in expectation of falling wind? Brad goes out to the MH0 clew to take the lazy sheet off. Nicho talks about them expecting lighter winds as they approach the Irish coast. Beautiful drone shot with grassy hillside in the foreground and AkzoNobel and two other competitors (TTToP and Vestas, I think, from the tracker) behind them approaching the coast. Jules talks strategy in the cockpit. Jules: It's pretty rugged, and the water's pretty fresh and clean, and there's lots of granite that's been weathered by lots of storms, so there's lots of caves and arches. Drone shot flying through a sea cave (!) with AkzoNobel visible beyond. Then another shot of a small opening in the rock with a red-sailed boat (MAPFRE?) beyond. Jules: Pretty green because it rains a lot. And there's lots of good pubs. That's why I like it. He talks about the fleet, and compression; first 6 boats all within 3-5 miles of each other. Emily: Quite cool to see the geography of Ireland. Usually the wather's bad so you don't see it that much. Justin on the bow with Fastnet rock behind him. Drone shot with ridge and AkzoNobel beyone. Nicho: third or fourth at the moment; same as we are overall. Way forward for us to score as high up as possible, but certainly conditions ahead could have boats doing damage. We need a little of that to help us get on the podium overall. Just keep pushing the boat and sailing as quick as we can.TTToP sails a quarter mile above them and abeam. Mark talks about it from the helm. TJ on the helm. Tony: I've been around Fastnet Rock at least 10 times, and around Ireland twice already. When it's nice around here it's really nice. Pretty mild day for Ireland. Once we get to the top of Scotland we're gonna get our ass kicked again. One last time in the Volvo. I can see soem sun over there on the land. Charlie in the slot rubs his eyes. MAPFRE to starboard. A bird flying (a gannet?). TTToP and two other competitors to leeward. Stacey trimming. Sailing along astern of TTToP. Mark: Here we are in the second to last leg in the Volvo. Talks about Fastnet Rock. Just about a year ago we did the Fastnet Race... Toward the back of the fleet... Dongfeng in the lead but they're only a few miles ahead of us. More opportunities to pass. SiFi in the cockpit laughs about it being cold yesterday. A fishing boat. Ireland in the gloaming. A group of alcids on the water. Flopping conditions with two competitors. Nick: Brunel seems like they're going all right. Fastnet Rock.There's a glitch with the video; it's listed as 3:44 in length, but stops at 1:40. Not sure what's up with that. (Ah. it's a duplicate of the subsequent, corrected video.)Sailing faster with Vestas behind them. Liz on the helm, getting headed. Bianca on the grinder explains what's going on with the other boats around them. Mentioned that Gitana sailed past them this morning. Shot of Gitana sailing past them. Oil rig. Vestas on their hip.TJ reports the sched (or AIS?) from the cabin. Jena grinds. Jena: Had a good start, not too much wind, but then it was a bit of shake the bag and see who comes out first. Right now we can see everybody; they're just right there. Need to give that little extra and then we've got them. Nick rigs the outrigger for the J2 lead. Hoists the J3 (I think). Other boat (MAPFRE?) in front of them. Jena bops her head and smiles at the person next to her in the cockpit.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.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.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.Sophie explains there is no wind, and plenty of current. And they have the anchor built just in case. Postponement. No triangle, sausage; just go straight out. Pablo, on the helm, talks in Spanish. Blair, sitting on deck, talks about the low wind and big current. Helicopter noises. Race committee boat with 2:05 to star. Rob and Blair calling tactics in the cockpit at the start. In the prestart, they come toward Brunel on starboard, then tack while waving a protest flag. Committee boat green-flags it; Pablo throws the protest flag down in frustration. After the start they are ahead and to leeward of Brunel and Dongfeng. Rob calls for weight forward; trying to accelerate. Brunel, AkzoNobel and Vestas to weather. Drifting conditions. Willy on the bow. Brunel crossing behind them. Vestas sailing to leeward. Blair: "Here they go. Nice, nice, nice." Blair and Joan talk strategy and wind on the bow. Xabi trimming. Vestas on their weather quarter, then crossing behind them.SiFi at the nav station. Reads out the latest sched. Gains on the boats ahead. Had a good transition into the northerly. Got ahead of the schedule on the routing. The guys in front are still a decent chunk ahead. But have made some gains, which is encouraging. So we're optimistic for what lies ahead. Things will get lighter and more complicated, more tidal, in the Bristol Channel.Stacey: 2 days left. it's been a tough leg. forecast didn't work out. and took a bit of a beating. and a lot of drifting and tide. Not many miles but a lot of hours on the race track. Phil drives. Instruments on the mast. TJ eases the runner. "Straightening her up. Creating a bit more power, hopefully. Or the wind might come back and I'll put it back on... Small gains." TJ: Two days. Looking for a first place. Interesting weather coming up, some games to play. The bungee cord will pull everyone back in, and play some jungleball at the end. Stacey: We did the physically tough bit; now we have the mentally tough bit. Potential passing lane. Which is what we need, because we're sat back in fourth place now. Kind of hoping for a lottery, to be honest. We're pretty good in the light. Proved that crossing the doldrums in leg 4. Build the anchor early.Sophie, on the bow in light conditions, talks about the compression that's happening. Knew it was coming, but it's super good to see the other boats. She points out Vestas and Dongfeng in front of them. Xabi, on the bow, talks in Spanish. He talks about Dongfeng ahead of them, and points out Vestas on the port beam. He repeats in English. 600 miles to go to Cardiff. He talks more in Spanish, repeats in English. After this leg hasn't gone well for them, this light spot is important to try to make a change. Hopefully they will be close and have more options south of Ireland. Making numbers all the time and they don't look very good for us right now. Dongfeng ahead, and have a boat between us. Going to be a big fight all the way to The Hague. Neti trims and talks in Spanish. Slomo shots of crew in the cockpit. Rob throws a coiled line. Sophie on the bow. Blair looks through binoculars for another boat. Xabi trimming. Vestas on the horizon. Dongfeng on the horizon. Crew on the bow.Horace, bailing, talks about how awesome it is to sail fast. That's why he came to this race. I hate the life on board, but I love fast. Kevin looks through the endoscope and sees something below. He gets the swim gear on and dives in from the bow. Big piece of seagrass on the keel that he gets off. That loooked cold! Drone shot circling the boat in light conditions. Horace interviews Pascal on the bow: We're going to arrive the day we arrive. Marie: Maybe three more days, eh? Stu: Both are stressful. I find the heavy weather more stressful, especially when you're driving at night. Pascal on how difficult light conditions are. Stu: I'm going to right about how hard it is to have a shit on the toilet when the boat is sailing 30 knots. Carolijn below, brushing her hair, comments how the person on the boat who doesn't have any hair made a comment about her appearance. On deck, she gives some of the hair she pulled out on Kevin's head. Daryl, on the helm, talks about sailing into the high pressure ridge. Big line of clear blue sky ahead, where there will be zero wind. Pascal and Charles talking on the bow in French. Glassy conditions. Kevin to Pascal: We don't see them on AIS? Pascal shakes his head. Bird flies over. High drone shot. Other boat (I think Vestas from the tracker) on the horizon behind them as Stu steers in light wind. They tack the MH0 onto port. Low drone shot approaching from far away.Crew sits forward. Nick: The change is so welcome right no. I've never been so happy to be in three knots of wind. Mark, on the helm: How quickly things change. Yesterday I got blown off the wheel, my life jacket exploded (crash cam footage of the life jacket deploying), and now we've got 5 knots of wind and we're drifting; well, not drifting, but it's dry. And I think everyone's enjoying the ligher conditions. Shot of socks and gloves drying on the cabin top. Nick: It's warm, and a bit sunny. And we're coming into Dongfeng, and MAPFRE's coming into us. And the whole fleet's going to pile up and restart. Shot of Dongfeng, 5 miles distant on their starboard bow (I think?). TJ and Jena in the cockpit talk about something having to do with food. Jena: I would put raisins in, to have the sweetness. TJ scoffs. Charlie, below on the PA, says something about [something] tasting really good. Charlie: "156 at 6 knots." He and SiFi discuss tacking. He points out Dongfeng on their starboard beam; have done a good job closing in on them from 11 miles to 2 miles. Waiting for a shift to make a tack. Phil steers.Slomo washing machine on deck. TJ on the stern. "Thirty knots of breeze! Trying to go fast!" Jena below, at the galley: "It's tricky. The race? Or holding on? Everything's a little tricky now. We keep trying. And we're still in the game. We need a little more speed... Trying to hold on, and make food." She climbs into her bunk. "See you in three hours." TJ, in the galley, sprays water on his face. Stirs up his food. "Plenty of hot sauce." Plenty of wind, fast sailing. Unfortunately not as fast as we would like. Had the wrong sail combinations up. Ripping now... It's going to get lighter and lighter... Charlie absolutely nailed the meal. Charlie, at the nav station, talks about not wasting propane. TJ: Sleeping is hard. Launching off waves, you can hear the foils cavitating. Nav screen: Sifi talks about the ridge coming up. SiFi: Pretty fast sailing over the past 24 hours. Wind's just starting to moderate now. First time in a few days when the wind has been under 30. Pretty wet, pretty cold, everyone's been getting firehosed on the deck. Charlie looks at the nav screen. SiFi: Looks like at least one boat will do a new Volvo 65 record. Unfortunately it's not going to be us. But we're optimistic; we get to the ridge and can make opportunities. TJ on the stern: Challenge is moving around, eating, trying to sail fast all the time. That's what I enjoy: the challenge.Stern cam, spreader cam shots of sailing fast with massive washing machine. Nick on the face plate: It was pretty fogged up. But I think he needs it. I think we all need it. Slomo washing machine. Nick: We are totally miserable out here. He points out other crewmembers. Not sure where they are right now; picked up a meander in the Gulf Stream, probably. Sea state worsened. Tony on the helm. He gets off the helm, faces aft. Takes off his face shield: "Here you are. Good for nothing." Talks about it being 45, 46 knots of wind. Tony comes below, talks about how his life preserver inflated. "Well, the automatic part works." SiFi at the nav station talks about playing with the Gulf Stream. Helps push them, but also messes up the sea state a little. Pretty cool phenomenon, the Gulf Stream. Apart from saving Europe from being a frozen icy tundra. Also gives us a lot of current to play with when we're racing. Charlie: Because sea surface temperatures all over the world are rising, there's less of a gradient, and the Gulf Stream is flowing slower. Which means it is pulling less water out of places like Chesapeake Bay. Will contribute to sea level rise there over the next 100 years. Slomo of crew falling down in the cockpit. Nick, in the cockpit: We stand here, basically 2 hours at a time, getting the [blee] beat out of us, all for a freeze-dried meal.Charlie and Mark get geared up for going on watch. Mark talks about it getting colder, bumpy, and windy. Broad reaching in 25/30 knots. Converging with the other group they had the big split with. Trying to maximize this wind while they have it, before they hit the high-pressure ridge.Charlie on a sheet. Nick talks about nicknames. "Chaz? Chunkle?" Phil: Like Captain America. BeChazzled is probably a good one for Charlie. Chaz Michael Michael. Mark: Peking Duck. Peeking out. Phil: Is Charlie good at sitting still? No. Mark: On a scale of 1 to chill, Charlie is more toward the 1 side of the scale. Nick: Charlie can't sit still. Stacey: Charlie doesn't sit still. He doesn't know the meaning of sitting still. Phil: The nice way to say is he's got ants in his pants. Tony: Flutters around like a bee. Mark: Too much coffee sometimes. Nick: Doesn't know what to do with his hands most of the time... Pirouetting, going back and forth. Charlie: If we all wore pedometers I might have the most. Which is unusual given that I'm at the back of the boat. but most of my steps from from the nav station back to the helm... Some of it's probably fidgety. Why?SiFi mixing a coffee in the galley. "Morning coffee to charge up. Actually afternoon coffee now." He talks about the two groups of boats; it's getting interesting now. Big area of high pressure in front of us. The new low pressure is coming in from the west. Going to be a question of whether we can get across their bow before the front catches up with them... In the next 24 hours the wind will build; 30, 35 knots. Likes his coffee black. "With a decent amount of cold water in it so I can drink it straight away."Jules at the nav station talks with Simeon about stragy. They tack in the dark. I think we actually see the tack from a nighttime drone shot. High drone shot of them sailing. Brad, in the morning: Busy night last night, lot of tacks. They're neck and neck with Vestas. We're on J0, they're on J1. We see Vestas to port. Brad: Always good to have a boat next to you. Sunrise. Drone shots. Brad: Next 12 hours we should get a lift. Should get another sail in and start triple-heading. Drone shot showing both boats.SiFi at the nav station says they've finally punched through the front. And as expected on the other side things are more complicated. Doing tacking, having a bit of a battle with Akzo, and Brunel on the horizon. Hopefully we can get going north properly now.Tony cleans a dish in the galley. He explains that it's the lasagna dish, which is the messiest because of the cheese that sticks in the bottom. He mentions that he owns the 24-hour monohull record and the transatlantic monohull record from sailing Comanche. Charlie puts his boots on. SiFi at the nav station. Charlie and he look at how they're doing against AkzoNobel, which makes them happy. Charlie talks about doing a fair amount of trans-Atlantic racing in the past few years. In the cockpit, we hear SiFi read the latest sched. He starts with the most exciting news: Dongfeng, MAPFRE, and Dee are all in 5-7 knots. Nick: That's so disappointing; I feel so terrible for them. Mark talks about having done two previous transatlantic crossings with this team. He points out AkzoNobel about a mile to leeward. Is actually the 6th transatlantic this boat has done; he's done all of them with Charlie and Nick. Tony, he says, has done 17 transatlantics. Tony, below: I reckon I've done the transatlantic this way 16 times. Every time is different. I'm still looking for the perfect crossing, but I think I've already had it on Comanche. We see him finishing his dishwashing.SiFi at the nav station: A day and a half, and still on the front that we expected to drop off the first night. If you gybe north too soon you lose wind, if you gybe too late you sail too much extra distance. Got Akzo a couple of miles behind. 50 miles inside us we've got Brunel. And about 40 miles behind is Scallywag. A couple of hundred miles to the northwest we've got MAPFRE, Dongfeng, and Turn the Tide. At the moment it looks pretty good (down here), but we'll have to see.Phil: Atlantic is important to us. It's been good at times, bloody difficult at times. Drone shot. Stacking aft. Slomo washing machine. Phil: If we can get into Cardiff we'll be in good shape. Points are irrelevant to us. Showing that we were always here, always a contender. That's more important to us. Drone shot, slomo spray of Phil on the helm. Phil: Just to show to our sponsors and ourselves that we belong in the top few in the fleet. It's gonna be a busy 8 days for us. Drone shot.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.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.Black and white footage at night. Heavy winds. Washing machine.TJ looks for Bermuda. 60 miles away, but it's low, so won't be able to see it. He talks about the upcoming gybe. Then big wind, Gulf Stream, then finish with burgers and lobster rolls. Charlie, Nick talk about where they're going to eat when they get in. Charlie: If everything goes according to plan maybe I'll have the team over to my house to barbecue on my new grill. Nick and Charlie talk about the difference between Bristol and Newport. Charlie talks about Bristol's maritime tradition. Herreshoff museum. Boatbuilding. Nick talks about how he bought a house while he was at sea on the race. Looking forward to spending time there. And catching up with friends and family. Charlie: A home stopover is both a blessing and a curse. Have to try to see people, carve out time for family. Best opportunity for rest might be the transatlantic. Charlie: My wife [will be at the dock]. His folks, maybe, depending on the hour. Nick and Charlie talk about the arrival last time in Newport. Welcome was over the top. Shooing boats out of the way to do light-wind gybes. Took about 2 hours to cover the last few miles. Hopefully we'll have pressure all the way in, and a good position. Nick: This team's pretty hungry at this point. Have been on this board for about 5 days now; a lot of sleep. Everyone's pretty fired up. Stacking. Tony drills something on the mainsail tack. He explains that they had a rip in the tack webbing, so he's sewing that back on. With the front coming, want to be sure it's good.Charlie steering. Washing machine. Sunrise. Mark and Nick talk about breakfast food. Martin asks questions about Newport. "Which state is it in?" Nickname of the state? "The Ocean State." Jena didn't know that. Tony: "You're asking the wrong person." The name of the bay in Rhode Island. (Narragansett.) How many times did Newport host the America's Cup? Tony: "Must have been a lot." Phil: "I'm gonna say, three." Haha; Aussie's clearly weren't raised to know that one the way U.S. sailors were. Jena: That's a good question. Tony: I don't know. They had it for 100 years, did they? SiFi: 1851 to 1983. Stacey: I know who they lost it to. Australia. :-) Charlie comes up to give the latest sched. Wasn't horrible. Charlie on the best place in Newport to get breakfast. Bell's Cafe seems to be a popular choice. Nick: Black Perl for sunset cocktail. Charlie: New York Yacht Club. Nick: Inside Irish pub would be Fastnet... (some others). Other restaurant recommendations. (Sorry; I can't care.) Jena grinding. Foredeck.Cockpit, Slomo washing machine. Below, Charlie and Mark talk about how they went to Brown U., but they only slightly overlapped (Charlie was older). We lived in the same house, but not at the same time. Mark: We were both far too big to be sailing small boats. Charlie talks about doing poorly at nationals. Mark talks about going to the unveiling of a new sailing center. Mark talks about pollution in the Providence River. "I would never eat shellfish from the Providence River... That's all the questions." SiFi on the helm. SiFi below: In our third day of sailing through the tradewinds. And then all the action in this leg is going to happen at the end. Going to get lifted and have to pick our moment to gybe out of the high pressure. Main competition is further west. They have better pressure, but we might get the shift first. Can hopefully come out ahead of Dongfeng and maybe Brunel. He shows the computer screen with the competitors on it, and follows the routing north to where they're going to need to gybe near Bermuda. Slomo shot of the weather rudder, the stern with the US flag and horizon.Awesome slomo drone footage of Vestas surfing. Charlie on the helm. Drone shots. Charlie, below: Really excited to get to Newport, and Bristol, R.I., where I'm from. They earned and deserve this stopover. Hopefully can improve our position a bit... I learned to sail growing up on Narragansett Bay. It's a place that's gotten a lot cleaner over the years. When I was a young whippersnapper wasn't a great place to go swimming or eat shellfish from. But they've made progress in recent years. He talks about the Ocean Summit that he'll be speaking at. When people come together actions can be taken that improve our waterways. Another reason he's really excited to get home is to see his family. It will have been over a month. He has two little kids, one 2 1/2 and the other 1. He'll be walking... Talks about the family's support. Drone shots of them surfing fast triple-heading. Tony on the helm. Mark grinding. He explains that they got important news from Hawaii, that the local legislature banned sunscreen that's harmful to coral reefs. Drone shot. S-curve to clear weed from the leeward rudder. Drone shots.Drone shot at night of Vestas with flashlight shining on sail. Drone shot looking forward as the drone goes *through the shrouds*. Shot of the position on the mast readout showing them crossing the equator. Dee: We can see Vestas, we can see Brunel. Shot of Vestas to weather. Henry, on the helm: Happy to be in the northern hemisphere heading home. Lucas: I felt a little lost this morning; got up on the wrong side... Everything feels a little backwards. Drone shot. Dee: When you're at the front of the fleet it's harder than being the hunter. She talks about frustrating clouds. A bit of a game of cat and mouse. It's the nature of the beast. Lucas: We knew this was going to happen. The breeze shut down from the front. Annalise talks about the latest position update: Vestas pulling ahead of them slowly. Dee: rest of the fleet bearing down on us. Hopefully we'll be in the trades in a day. Drone shot.Moonlight overhead. A small bird (a swallow?) on the deck in the semi-darkness. Instruments. Tony on the helm. Talks about having reached the north Atlantic. 1 degree south. Getting into shifty breeze. Hopefully 30 hours from now we'll be in the trades. Looking pretty good at the moment. Got a lot of boats close; "at the pointy end of the fleet, which is a good place to be." Talks about the doldrums.Drone shot with competitor in the background. Charlie talks with crew in the cockpit. TJ steers. SiFi: It's a little different than forecast. He talks about the clouds, the convergence line. Big header coming into Brazil. Squashed hte fleet up a bit. Made good gains on Dee, but Brunel has closed up a bit... Have to see what happens during the day. Land breeze now; sea breeze later. TTToP to port with a rainbow. Drone shots. TTToP approaches on starboard; they gybe ahead to cover. SiFi talks about tomorrow. Crew stacks to weather. TTToP on their starboard quarter. A small fishing boat; Mark waves. TTToP astern in rain. Crew shirtless in the cockpit. Phil showers under the boom. SiFi looks at a tablet to explain the latest sched. Stacey: It's been a busy day; rain clouds and shifts. Gybing. But a good result for us. We're all in a line, going out to sea, bow forward and leeward boat. And we had a shower. It was overdue; it is day 8. First shower of the race. Drone shot of Vestas triple-heading.Nicolas looks concerned. Maneuver in twilight. Stacking forward. Nicolas: Because the wind is a bit different than expected, we are going to see Vestas. Vestas has just gybed, probably because they can see Dongfeng and Dongfeng has gybed. So now we've gybed. Nicolas looks through binoculars. Nicolas, below, talks about the achievement, racing big boats around the world. Enjoying the moment. Sailing at night. Moon above the mast. Drone shot of TTToP gybing from port to starboard with Vestas ahead of them. Drone shot of them sailing on starboard with Vestas to leeward. Liz rubs her face: A really annoying blue boat catching up. And a really annoying red boat [Dongfeng] catching up. And a really annoying yellow boat [Brunel]. Liz talks about Nicolas being a one-design racer, and his French humor. Nicolas: We had quite a hard night... Lost a lot to Vestas, Dongfeng, and Brunel. But now everyone is within a few miles. It's a bit of a mess with the wind; there are clouds everywhere. Wind very different than expected. I try to understand what's happening now, and what's going to happen in the next hours. Nicolas at nav station. Nicolas talks a below about French sailing culture versus the rest of the world.Stacey at the mast. Rain squall behind them. TJ bagging up the J1. Stacking forward. "Ready, two, six!" Deploying the MH0. Stacey working in the pit. She laughs: I was just thinking how different this evening is from any evening on the last leg. Sun hats and tee shirts, no one is complaining about anything weather-related. Even when it does rain it's short-lived. Quite warm inside the boat. In the Southern Ocean it's constant condensation dripping down below. Nick and Tony in the galley. TJ grinds. Wake. TJ on the helm. "Where'd the hat come from? Australia. I asked my dad what's the best hat to buy. Akubra." He talks about the hat, about sun protection.[No description yet]Stronger wind. Nick coming back from the bow. Stacey grinding. Jena, below, talks about being back on the boat. Team still seems strong, and fighting, and she's happy to be back and excited. A completely different challenge; while she was away she did her 49er campaign. Happy to be surrounded by these guys, because they know a lot, even if I don't tell them. Charlie, in the cockpit, talks about going to the J0. Jena, below: Last time I was in Brazil was in Rio for the 2016 Olympic games. She talks about Brazilian people being helpful and nice. But hot, which she isn't used to. Was glad to see a different part of Brazil than Rio. Jena in the cockpit. Charlie on the helm. Tom grinding. Jena talks about seeing pollution in Rio. But Itajai was completely different. Very clean. People are gathering together to do something about their beaches. "Thank you, Brazil. You're like my second home. I hope to be back soon." Crew gathers the J1 on the foredeck after going to the J0. Charlie on the helm: "I think it's J1 on the other tack." Grinding.Bowsprit. Helm with sunset in light air. Crew on bow with SiFi laughing with sunset behind them. Mark trimming. All the other boats to leeward.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).Vestas closes on Cape Horn. Stacey, below: Now we're in the Atalantic, you can see how much calmer it is. Her second time around Cape Horn; definitely will be her last time. Shots of Cape Horn. Tom, on deck: I don't know how many more times I'm going to do it. Maybe one's enough for me. He talks about the cigar. About how his gloves are off. Crewmembers on stern share a cigar: "You're fucking up the rotation." "Amazing how good that shit tastes right now." Hannah: I think if I knew how hard it was going to be, I would not have done it. It really tested me in every way. The amazing team got me through. Someone (Nick?) drinks from a bottle of liquour. Charlie, below: I wish we had the point, but it was good nonetheless. Cape Horn and its associated waters threw everything it had at us... It's an achievement. Someone on the helm with Cape Horn over his shoulder. SiFi looks at Cape Horn.Spreader cam view as Vestas surfs. Washing machine shots, slomo washing machine. Phil, below: Cape Horn's a big day in any sailor's life. This is going to be the fourth time I'm around it. Last time with Abu Dhabi, Chuy Bermudez was on the radio with the lighthouse keeper, and apparenlty it's voluntary thing for 12 months. He'd been there with his wife and kids for nearly a year. Slomo in the cockpit. Hannah, below, talks about Cape Horn. She had no idea how tough it was going to be. So windy, waves like nothing she's ever seen before, non-stop. Surfing shots on deck, grinding. SiFi, below: One of the toughest Southern Ocean legs I've ever done. Relentlessness of it, constant high winds, cold, snow. People have been doing a great job to battle on. Reaching the Horn will be a good moment to celebrate and reflect on the leg so far. Slomo washing machine in the cockpit.Slomo sunrise washing machine shots. Surfing in rough conditions. SiFi at the nav station. Rain/hail? Prep for a gybe, with lots of crew on deck and the outrigger on the new side already. Squall.Nick, eating below with his shirt off (which, huh? I thought it was freezing?) says he's one of the original bailers. Started it in the 2011-12 race. "There are three principles to bailing on a Volvo 65. 1: never chase the water. Let it come to you." He demonstrates. "Rule #2: Embrace the hate." "Rule #3 about bailing these damn boats: Employ a bilge hose. It's way easier." He demonstrates. "That's it. That's all." Get random bits of debris; need to remove those. Charlie comes below, dripping; they joke about how he's a non-bailer. More bailing shots. Favoriting this one, too. Jeremie actually found something new to talk about, and did it well.[No description yet]Sailing fast in sunny conditions. Washing machine. Wake, with another boat directly astern. Carolijn (I think) points and waves to them. From the tracker I suspect it's Vestas. Marie and Jeremie, below, get geared up. Kevin eats. Horace looks at something on the computer. He explains: Looking for other competitors' boatspeed, and next 24 hours what we're going to do. Looks like in 4 - 6 hours we'll be gybing, and after that will be a busy night. Arriving at Cape Horn on the 29th. Bow cam looking aft as they surf. Stern cam as they stuff the bow. Washing machine. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Crewmember going forward grabs on to avoid being washed back by a wave. Pascal and Kevin at the nav area.Sailing fast in sunny conditions. Washing machine. Wake, with another boat directly astern. Carolijn (I think) points and waves to them. From the tracker I suspect it's Vestas. Marie and Jeremie, below, get geared up. Kevin eats. Horace looks at something on the computer. He explains: Looking for other competitors' boatspeed, and next 24 hours what we're going to do. Looks like in 4 - 6 hours we'll be gybing, and after that will be a busy night. Arriving at Cape Horn on the 29th. Bow cam looking aft as they surf. Stern cam as they stuff the bow. Washing machine. Spreader cam view of the cockpit. Crewmember going forward grabs on to avoid being washed back by a wave. Pascal and Kevin at the nav area.SiFi and Charlie at the nav station. SiFi explains about the ice gates. Whether they're getting better at measuring them, or the ice is further north, they seem to have less room to race in each time. Charlie discusses the question of whether the ice limit being farther north means it's warmer or colder. Charlie mentions the Truman Show; they can sail under the wall. SiFi: A lot more navigation to be done, and a lot more physical with all the gybes. But also creates more tactical opportunities. Can be both good and bad. Shots of someone steering (Tony?). Washing machine. Someone (Charlie?) kisses the camera lens. Tony on the helm. SiFi at the nav station; computer screen with ice limit and wind model shown.Rob, below, explains everyone trying to maintain a southerly position. Other boats nearby. 20-25 knots right now, then they'll come down to the ice barrier and gybe. Neti: Second in the fleet right now. Exciting; they passed Vestas. Pablo (something) on the wheel. Fighting with Dongfeng. After 4 or 5 days in the ocean, are 3 boats fighting within a mile. Found a bit of a fast mode today compared to Vestas. We'll see how it goes. Shot of two boats in teh sunset on their weather quarter. Slomo shots of the sunset, other boats. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about the other boats.[No description yet]Drone shot of Vestas sailing upwind in 15-knot conditions. Double-heading with J0 and J3, it looks like. Charlie in the cockpit: Good to get back on the water. A little on the back foot, but they'll grind it out. Shot looking forward as the VOR-hired helicopter hovers at low altitude, shooting back toward them. Mark: Lots of anticipation, repair. But the day's finally here. Charlie: All or nothing until the next leg. Vestas sails toward shore with Phil on the helm. Mark: Just gonna have to out work all these other guys. SiFi at the nav station. It's father's day today in Spain, so I have a few little pictures from my boys. Leopard, dragon, dolphin, hippo. Made my day at least. It's the thing I miss the most when I'm away. They're beginning to understand that I'll be away for a few weeks. Nick in the hold swapping a spare electrical panel for the engine; got some water into it. "This isn't a tough thing to solve; it's just annoying." High drone shot with a competitor behind them in the distance.Drone shot of Vestas sailing upwind in 15-knot conditions. Double-heading with J0 and J3, it looks like. Charlie in the cockpit: Good to get back on the water. A little on the back foot, but they'll grind it out. Shot looking forward as the VOR-hired helicopter hovers at low altitude, shooting back toward them. Mark: Lots of anticipation, repair. But the day's finally here. Charlie: All or nothing until the next leg. Vestas sails toward shore with Phil on the helm. Mark: Just gonna have to out work all these other guys. SiFi at the nav station. It's father's day today in Spain, so I have a few little pictures from my boys. Leopard, dragon, dolphin, hippo. Made my day at least. It's the thing I miss the most when I'm away. They're beginning to understand that I'll be away for a few weeks. Nick in the hold swapping a spare electrical panel for the engine; got some water into it. "This isn't a tough thing to solve; it's just annoying." High drone shot with a competitor behind them in the distance.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.Drone shots of vestas. Mark and SiFi looking at the chart at the nav station, talking about strategy vis-a-vis the competitors. SiFi explaisn that they just got a sched, and are working out where to go through the Phillippines. Based on a big righthand shift they're going to go south. Looks like it will help them with Dongfeng. Shot of the sails on deck. Gybe at night from the cabin, looing at the cockpit. Closeup of chart showing their course zigzagging though islands. Red-light shots of stacking on deck. Another night gybe. Mark, on the helm, talks about how they're gybing through the Straits of Luzon and have made a good gain on Dongfeng.Vestas gybes from starboard to port. SiFi at the shrouds, looking forward. Back in the cockpit he talks about how it's different leaning the other way. Everyone starting to look for their opportunities. Drone shot from astern as Vestas gybes from port back to starboard. Crash cam/stern cam view at dusk as camera shifts from color to black-and-white mode. Night-vision shot from the cabin of crew working in the cockpit during another gybe. Night-vision shot of the J3 unrolling after the gybe. Spreader cam view looking down at night as a crewmember shines a flashlight upward. SiFi at the nav station. Zoom in on nav software (nice, well-focused screenshot). SiFi and Mark talk about strategy, Dongfeng. SiFi says into a PA microphone, "Okay; we're setting up." [For a gybe, presumably.] Stacking below. Stacking on deck. Spreader cam view at night as they gybe from port to starboard. Mark and SiFi look at other boats on AIS (I think). Another gybe, this one during the early morning light, from starboard to port. TJ, trimming on the stern. "Busy night; couple of gybes. Dongers is back out [from sealth]." Talks about hot showers and hamburgers. Sunrise.Mark, in the cockpit, explians that they're going through a current line south of Guam, and there's an "unbelievable" amount of floating debris. Shots of them bouncing along. Shot of the mainsail bouncing as they hit chop. Below, Phil talks from his bunk, eyeshades pushed up on his forehead. "Not ideal for sleeping. It's bloody uncomfortable. Feels like we're doing about 5 knots and just slamming up and down." He calls to SiFi and Mark, who are looking at the latest sched. "How'd we go?" SiFi: "Reasonably quick but very high." Nick, on deck: "Sea state is very confused right now... Pretty scary looking at the rig sometimes." Mark, by the wheel, reports on the latest sched to Nick, Tony, and Stacey. "We were higher and slower than Dongers, and higher and faster than Akzo." SiFi, below: "Sea states's been pretty horrendous." He talks about some lighter winds ahead, and trying to figure it all out. Shots of the weather models on the computer.Hannah comes below, sprays fresh water on her face. "Before this the longest I'd been on a boat was 9 days, on a Trans-Atlantic. This is day 14, a little bit longer, and we've got 5 days to go." She talks about liking routine, not having too many off-watch maneuvers to do. Misses washing her hair; a proper shower. Enjoying the experience of seeing this part of the world. On deck, mark, on the mainsheet, talks about being midway in the race, and the points are starting to separate. Trying to podium, put some points on MAPFRE and Dongfeng. "Definitely mindful of where the two red boats are." A 1500-mile drag race to the Phillippines. Phil talks about how nice it is sailing fast with the wind aft. "If the whole race was like this it'd be the best race in the world." He thinks Mark and SiFi have put the boat in a good spot. Scallywag has done well; still have time to mow them down. And beat the two red boats. Drone shots of Vestas sailing toward the sunset, surfing in 20 knots of wind. Drone shots as the boat's doing the washing-machine thing, which is unusual: I wonder where Amory is with the drone controls.Mark, in the cockpit, talks about how there are a bunch of little Micronesian atolls in front of them, and they're just not laying it so they're going to gybe onto port for a bit. "Should see Dongfeng." Shifting the stack with the island visible ahead of them. We see the gybe from the pit area. TJ points out where the island is, talks about spearfishing. We see the computer chart showing the atoll. Shifting the nav station to port. SiFi points things out on the chart. Stacking back to starboard. Another gybe. Drone shots of them sailing past an atoll, then circling them to show the sunset. Tony, on the helm, talks about how nice it is to get past the doldrums, and see the land, and a reef. Site of a sunken Japanese fleet. Heading toward the north end of the Phillippines. Talks about Scallywag coming through from nowhere. Drone shot from close ahead, cricling behind them with audio pulled down to mimic diegetic drone audio; island visible behind them.SiFi and Mark at the nav station talk about their course, routing, sched. Mark: "It's such a bummer because we did such great work on those guys for days. Had them in our pocket." They talk about how they can't crack off to the west too far. SiFi: "But when we've got the pressure to go down we take it down." Mark, on deck, talks to Nick: "They just completely cut the corner." Mark talks to Amory about how it's been a challenge, and he's learned a lot from SiFi. Keeping in touch with Charlie, who's trying to learn what he can from the information you get on land. His family is doing better, which is great. He's going to be on the dock in Hong Kong when they arrive. He's emailed them a few times with encouraging words. Patriot scores. "We haven't missed Charlie's hair, that's for sure. [Laughs] ... We've had a good thing going for a long time. It'll be really good to have him back for the next leg." Shot of them sailing on starboard gybe; sunset to port.Sunrise. Vestas sails toward a raincloud. Nick, trimming the headsail: "We are coming into a cloud line; the morning rollcall of clouds." He points back to where AkzoNobel and Dongfeng have been closing in on them. Radar screen showing clouds, and with what I assume are the AIS positions of two boats to their southwest, 2 and 4 miles away, respectively. Shot of AkzoNobel and Dongfeng a few miles away. Nick and someone (Tom?) in the cockpit in the rain. At the nav station, Mark talks about how they're stuck in a cloud with no wind, while AkzoNobel, a mile away, is doing 11 knots. "Pretty annoying. Build up a nice lead on them overnight, and it's evaporating very quickly... Let's go." Shot of Akzo in the rain. Shot of routing software. Drone shot of Vestas bouncing with no wind in leftover chop. Someone on the foredeck. Shot of the mainsail looking up, with Stacey standing next to it. SiFi at the nav station, looking at what I think must be the 2018.01.12 01:00 UTC sched, in which MAPFRE had surged north well to the west of them. "Wow." He eats. Amory: "Brutal." SiFi, as he eats: "They probably got in the western edge of this. But they're only in 3 knots [of wind]. So they've gotta deal with the wake [?] as well. The hope is that we break out of this first." SiFi comes up on deck: "Yeah. As scary as we thought it would be." Tony: "Those guys sailed around?" SiFi: "They're due west of us, about 26 miles. They're only in 3 knots, but they are in an easterly." They peel to the MH0. Hannah sits on the lowered J1, tying it with sail ties. "Just put themasthead back up, and got breeze from closer to the direction we're looking for." SiFi: "Pretty painful morning. A cloud moved through last night and decimated the wind field... Filling in now. Got 8 knots of breeze from 060. And it's northeasternly, which is the future. And actually it's gonna continue lifting." As the wind builds we see them unfurling the J3 to double-head with the MH0. Wake shot with them moving at 10 knots.Darkness and the sound of flopping sails. On deck at night, Jules is in the foreground, his face illuminated by the light from a tablet. Behind him the railing by the helm is lit by red light. Jules: "The only problem at the moment this way is that no one's actually moving." Nicho: "We can still do our five minutes heading north." Jules: "On starboard." Nicho: "Before running into where MAPFRE is." They discuss that MAPFRE and Dongfeng have stopped. [Guys: I've seen the future. There's a huge windless cloud ahead.] Nicho: "But at least we'll be heading north until we stop." Simeon and Cécile grind on the pedestal. Stars overhead; the main pops over as they tack to starboard. Below, at the nav station, Nicho points out the changed positions on the chart: They've pulled ahead of Dongfeng and MAPFRE, while Vestas further west has made up ground. "Just from one cloud." Another 500, 600 miles of this, he says. Low-altitude drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting on a glassy sea. Martine throws something small down the forward hatch. Crew sits on sails on the bow. Below, Brad says to Nicolai: "Nicolai, you still awake?" Nicolai: "Yeah. Too warm to sleep. Just watching a bit of Netflix." They have a little scripted chitchat. Jules calls down the hatch that they want to do a peel to the J1, and they need some big strong muscle-y men. Shot of the instruments on the mast: Boatspeed: 0.93. High-altitude time-lapse drone shot of AkzoNobel drifting along. Nicho talks about the "good guys" generally doing okay in the doldrums. Nicolai pulls the main. Very-high-altitude drone shot showing them parked. Pretty slomo shot of their branding reflected in the water. Luke, on the helm, talks about the mood: concerned. Need to come out of the doldrums okay so the front bunch gets a jump. Low-altitude drone shot at sunset with another boat beyond them. I think it's probably Vestas.Opens with a shot of the boat moving, yay! Shot of the keel. Mark talks about their "totally crazy" night last night. Splits in the fleet, reconvergence. Shots at night of Dongfeng super closer to them. Dongfeng's running lights, sail tapes, silhouetted by a lightning flash. Crew in the cockpit working in red light, illuminated by lightning. Best thing, he says, is they came out ahead, and now they're moving at 12 knots. Looking forward to the NE tradewinds. Stacey talks about how they got showers in the rain last night, and now it's super hot again. In the midst of it, Tony, on the helm, asks her to traveller down; she does it as she continues talking. Interesting that they're trimming the main via traveller from the starboard forward cockpit winch; mainsheet appears to be cleated off. Then we see Nick trimming the headsail; Tony on the helm says, "Stand by for puff. 3, 2, 1, [something]." Nick eases the sheet. "Good puff." (Or maybe "Good pop"? Not sure.) Below, at the nav station, SiFi says they're at 3 degrees south. Slowly making their way through the doldrums. Now in a much more stable breeze of 6-8 knots. Probably another 24 hours of slow going; another night of looking out for clouds. "Wanna make sure we're on our toes." They came out on the good side of it last night, but want to make sure they don't do the opposite tonight. In the cockpit at sunset SiFi gives an update. Phil comes through the hatch, shirtless to show his tattoos, including a full left-arm sleeve and some writing I can't make out on his left side. "News is not good." [Joking? Then he continues to the stern to use the head, I'm assuming.] Mark: "We've got one more night." Phil sings, "One more night!... What song is that?" Martin (I think?) answers: "Phil Collins."High drone shot showing Dongfeng in the foreground and AkzoNobel in the background. It's a pretty distant shot, and makes me wonder: The OBRs haven't been using this opportunity to get drone closeups of their competitors (which they did, a little, in Leg 2). I bet there was some kind of agreement to limit that, presumably for competitive reasons (i.e., an extension of the "OBR shall not contribute to the racing" concept, such that they shouldn't be potentially helping their crew steal info about setup on the other boats). Anyway, Sam's voice is lapped over the shot: "Nicho, tell me about the art of sailing through the doldrums." We see Nicho, who tells a story about meeting with a meterologist who talked about clouds all day, and he asked him how to tell a good cloud from a bad one. "There is an element of luck... I"m lucky I enjoy it." Luke talks about being stuck in the doldrums, playing cat-and-mouse with Dongfeng. Overlapped with a time-laps of the drone shot of the two boats - which I realize now shows a third boat, Vestas, ahead of them both. Simeon, on the helm, talks about trying to sail from puff to puff. Shot of Dongfeng ahead of them and to leeward. Luke talks about how he thinks Dongfeng is probably tense on board, with their close competitor MAPFRE close by. Shot of a rain cloud. Drone shot from astern as the sun is setting to port with a competitor on the horizon while Brad is hoisted up the mast. Drone shots circling him at the masthead showing rain clouds and the other boats around them. Nicolai talks about them sending Brad up to look for the beeze, having 5 boats in the same area. Simeon, shirtless with the low sun on him, talks about being pretty happy with the situation. "Fighting, you know, every single watch and hour." A shot of them approaching a competitor (I think; unless it's a low-altitude drone shot of their own boat) with the sunset sky behind them. We see the other boat just a few boatlenghts away. Someone says, "There's somebody standing on the prod." [?] Brad (I think) calls out to them: "Who's the monkey on the bowsprit?" We hear the response. Something like, "Go back to Kerikeri, mate", which makes Brad chuckle. [Brad and Blair Tuke are both from Kerikeri, NZ.] I think this must be the super-close approach they had with MAPFRE around 2018.01.10 08:20:10 UTC, so that would make it either Blair or Louis who's answering. Brad, invisible in the dark: "It's nice to talk to somebody from another boat for a change. As much as I love these guys, it's nice to hear a different voice for once. Especially one from Kerikeri." Awesome drone shot passing AkzoNobel at low altitude, flying toward MAPFRE. Lightning-flash illuminated shots of them sailing in the squall that night.Standing in the galley, Joan talks in Spanish. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. I'm picking up "hot" and "tired". Louis, below, shirtless and sweating: "It's really hot at the moment. It's very difficult to sleep." He shows the spritzer and spritzes himself with water. Támara, lying down in the bow, talks in Spanish and laughs. Sophie looks down through the hatch, talks about shade being important. Blaire, trimming, talks about heat and sun protection. Below, in the galley, he talks about the fresh water being warm, and the fact that the watermaker is getting much more of a workout than in the Southern Ocean. On the foredeck, Támara talks in Spanish, I think about her drinking water being hot. She and Blair construct a sun shade from the stack and an outrigger. On the helm, Pablo talks in Spanish. Blair puts on sunscreen. Below, Louis spritzes himself. Late in the afternoon, they get some wind and start moving. Everyone is looking to starboard. The view shifts in that direction, and we see why: AkzoNobel, less than a mile away to leeward and slightly ahead; behind them, two more boats: I think Vestas to the left and Dongfeng to the right. Night shot with AkzoNobel just a boatlength or two behind them.Frank on the helm at sunrise. Justine trims. Doldrums. Franck, on the bow, talks about how the doldrums is a very large area compared to the Atlantic, and the course is set requiring them to go through it. Now there's a weird wind from the southwest, which is impossible according to the model. Just have to push the boat and use the wind you have and be very concentrated on tuning. Remember is it's a game, and the finish line is very far away. We were in front of the fleet a long time, but the important part of the race is now. And the first boat to catch the wind, and then 1,000 miles to race. The goal is to stay with the fleet, not take too much risk, and we have the good speed to be in the front when the wind is stable. Don't be stressed. Shot of AkzoNobel ahead of them, then next to them. A whale surfaces near them. Has a small dorsal - sei whale? Horace talks on the bow about the heat, and having patience when trimming. Talks about having passed AkzoNobel. "Next target: Vestas. Let's go. There. Not too far." We see Vestas ahead and to port. They sail faster in a bit of a puff. Concentrating. Looks like all hands on deck. Then: drifting again. From below, Horace calls out the latest sched. Jack, the sunset behind him: "Day of snakes and ladders... This afternoon was quite nice. Had a big cloud come. Had more than 10 knots of wind for the first time in 3 days, which was a real pleasure. Made a bit forward, but it wasn't very long. So there's still a lot of work to do." Amazing low-altitude drone shot, overtaking them from astern with the sunset and AkzoNobel (left) and MAPFRE (right) to port of them. Then another drone shot from the opposite angle showing Vestas closer to them, to starboard. Favorting this one, too, mostly (again) for the drone work. Nice job by Martin.Glassy conditions as sails slat back and forth. TJ points out the sights: "Little puff over here; little puff over there. Kinda caught in the middle." Chuy steers. Tony on the bow: "Do you want the jib back on the other side?" We see three boats on the horizon behind them: two relatively close and one, in the middle, further away. I'm guessing that's, left to right, AkzoNobel, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng. On the bow, Tony and SiFi chat about neighbors, where they'd live if they lived in town. SiFi reminisces about the 2008 Volvo. This one is pretty up there for light conditions. Tony talks about how the boats behind have closed up. "Everyone's sailing the boats pretty similar now, based on what we can see with the binoculars." Talks about the weather, sunshine. "Might be trapped here forever." Shot of a distant funnel cloud. Tom: "That one's moving towards us. And we're not moving." Drone shot of them ghosting along about 1.5 knots.High drone shot of Vestas on a blue ocean with very little wind. AkzoNobel is visible a few miles away to windward. Mark, on the wheel, points to three boats to weather. We see a shot of them; left to right: AkzoNobel, Dongfeng, MAPFRE. Phil and Hannah lie in the shade of the main. Phil: "It's probably a really nice comfortable 50 degrees downstairs, and about 47.8 out on deck. Sea temperature of 32 degrees, so it's just a pleasure." Nick and Mark in the cockpit look to weather, talk about the other boats getting the wind first. Sam, to Nick: "What do you know, chief?" (On the helm, Mark bangs the wheel.) Nick: "Um. Mark's scaring me." Below, TJ talks about how hot it is and points out blisters forming behind the paint/surface coating (?) on the starboard side due to the sun. Talks about needing to drink another bottle of water. We see a shot of a pad in the foreward sail locker where someone has been sleeping, drenched in sweat. On deck, Stacey sits near the mast in an eerie silence. "We're barely moving and we've got four other boats all within eyeshot of each other." TJ looks through binoculars at AkzoNobel, describing what sails they have up: "They're not furled because their zigzags are lining up with the jib. So it's the J1 or the Code 0." They joke about the routing, it taking 3,000 years to reach their destination. Tony, from the wheel, calls out, "If we're out here for 3,000 years we'll have a few typhoons to deal with." SiFi walks forward, talks about the GPS mark time being 1,360 days. Nick: "That's Instagrammable."Spectacular drone shot of a whale feeding in a school of fish, turning on its side and opening its mouth wide as it charges through the school. More shots with Vestas approaching in the background with the late-afternoon light and clouds behind them. Stacey talks about sailing past the whale feeding. "It's pretty spectacular, and something you don't get to see every day." Nick talks about seeing it. Tony, on the helm. "I've never seen anything like it. I can't wait to see the footage." SiFi at the nav station talks about sailing along in light air, trying to gain some bearing on the guys to weather. "One of those really nice moments when you're reminded how lucky we are... A nice reminder as well of how important it is that we're spreading our message of sustainability and keeping the oceans clean and preserving nature... Hopefully... maybe when my kids are my age they can see the same thing and we aren't dealing with a sitaution where there's more plastic in the ocean than there are fish." Ends with more drone shots of Vesas sailing past the feeding whale, and then sailing away from the drone.Shot looking forward from over Phil's shoulder as he drives. TJ, shirtless in the cockpit, points out the land to port, the Solomons (Ghupuna, off the east coast of Makira/San Cristobal). "And we've got Dee just above us, she's burned up all her gauge, working down. Akzo's just ahead of us, a couple of miles away, MAPFRE a couple of miles ahead of them, Dongfeng a couple of miles ahead of them." Talks about how close the boats are. Weird on-screen title appears, white letters on blue: "Analyzing in background (step 1 of 2)". Assume that's an editing glitch by Amory. We see the chart plotter screen below, which zooms in to show them rounding San Cristobal. Mark, at nav station, recounts the leg. Got off to a good start, fell back by playing the inside, but now they're back in touch with a couple of thousand miles to go. "Plenty of opportunity." Drone shots of Vestas sailing on starboard. Stacey, trimming, talks about being in touch with the others. "It feels like a long time, when you're right there and you can't pass them." On the foredeck, someone unzips a new sail. Camera zooms in to show AkzoNobel and MAPFRE ahead of them. Drone shot with San Cristobal in the background.Xabi, at the nav station, talks in Spanish about squalls, competition, Solomon Islands. On deck, Rob talks about the wind and the squall; future conditions. Pablo talks on the deck in Spanish about the competition. Closeup of nav computer screen showing the four lead boats all lined up. Shots on deck of fast sailing in a rain squall. Crash cam stern cam footage of Xabi getting washed off hte aft end of the cabin and ending up on the cockpit sole next to the middle pedestal. Hope he's okay. Slomo shots of competitors: AkzoNobel and Dongfeng to port, and Vestas to starboard. Slomo faces in the rain. Low-altitutde drone shots of MAPFRE sailing under full main and MH0.Night shots: looking up from the stern at the full moon behind clouds. Wake. Jérémie's hands on the wheel; him steering. Charles, standing forward of the wheel, talks in French. Looking up the mast at stars. Then, in the daytime, we see rain falling to weather. Franck and Jérémie look that way. Horace looks through binoculars. To weather we see three competitors. From left to right: AkzoNobel, MAPFRE, and Vestas. Justine explains: They were leading, hit a squall, the boats to weather stayed in more pressure and now they're all in a line again. "It's a bit disappointing but it happens sometimes." Jérémie jokes about how he was on watch and lost 10 miles. Daryl jokes with him; Charles steers. Crew works in the cockpit (sail change?). Charles: Not sure they're already in the doldrums. But for sure is a new start. And after leading the race most of the time from the start of the leg, all the boats are in the same line now: Akzo, MAPFRE. Now they'll have two or three days in light winds, and maybe will determine the race who escapes from it first and gets the new wind. Shot of AkzoNobel close to leeward. Horace: "Not easy, not what we want, but this is the Volvo Ocean Race. No one knows what will happen at the end." Talks about how it's too hot, and he wants to take off his "everything."Drone shot of Vestas reaching in 10 knots of breeze with MAPFRE visible several miles away, ahead of them and to leeward. More drone shots.Drenched in rain, Stacey works the pit during a squall. Reefed main visible behind her. She takes a washing machine wave over her head; smiles. Stacey: "Bad hair day." TJ takes spray by the mast as he works on the main. SiFi talks about the increase in "convective activity", how this is probably the "gateway to the doldrums"; they've had a big cloud system come through, some pretty big thunderstorms. "We're now reaching along in 28 knots." Stacey clears a line by the boom as they rehoist the full main.Time-lapse of from cabin looking aft of sunset, night. Below in red light, Nick explains that a cloud headed them, but they don't want to give up their weather gauge so they're switching to the J0 to stay high. View of the nighttime sail change from the cabin area looking forward; stars visible ahead of them. Crew in the cockpit, foredeck work. Tony: "Nice one! That was awesome!" Later, Mark steers while SiFi sits next to him talking about it being a nice opportunity to get some experience with that sail. In the dark, Nick talks about how the peel went well. "Damn; it's a beautiful night." View up the mast of Taurus, with the Pleides and Hyades.Bleddyn trims. Beyond him, Vestas is a few miles to leeward and slightly ahead. Bleddyn: "Earlier, MAPFRE sailed past us as if we were anchored, which was a bit frustrating." Now Vestas is doing well against them too. Trying to match speeds with them, which will drag them to Hong Kong with the leaders. "That's the aim. It's frustrating, but it's good. We're pushing ourselves hard." Closeup of Bleddyn's hands. "I'm like a snake; I'm just peeling my skin." Closeup of the eye lead of the J3 (I think?) as crew shifts stack forward in the background. Dee talks to a crewmember about a competitor: "The header we're expecting, they've just sailed loads of extra miles for no reason." Dee calls the chant as they shift the stack forward. Closeup of tightening the stack ratchet. Slomo of someone (Francesca?) looking through a hand-bearing compass at a competitor. Martin, on the helm in his max foulies, talks about a squall with a twister that they just managed to avoid. "The waterspout was to leeward and we had the top of it to weather. We went straight under it."At the nav station, SiFi talks to Mark about the latest sched. "MAPFRE did the biggest run, and then we were next. The other guys were similar." Mark walks out to the cockpit to explain the situation. Tony's driving; Stacey's trimming, and Nick (I think?) is on the grinder in an unbranded (!) sleeveless teeshirt. Mark: "Got some good news. Gained on everyone except for MAPFRE. MAPFRE had the longest run; they're also the lowest." At the nav station, SiFi talks about how this leg is different from the last one, "not just because the sea temperature is 20 degrees warmer!" Last time the strategic options were more limited; just stay as close as possible to the ice gate. This leg there are more options. "It is enjoyable when there's a little more subtlety involved."Pablo, sitting ahead of the wheel as MAPFRE reaches on starboard, talks in Spanish about the competition. Rob, on the wheel: There's a split in the fleet, and you had to decide inshore or offshore. A bit of current offshore, but also better breeze. "We lost out bigtime, actually. The two leaders are far ahead." Talks about moving past Vestas and TTToP, and gaining some miles on the leaders. Willy, on the middle pedestal, talks about how of course it's good to gain miles on the leaders, but it's a long race, and you need to realize that the bungee stretches and comes back. "Winning more than losing. Still a long time to go." Pablo talks in Spanish. Shots at night: moonlight, full moon past clew of the sail, ratcheting the stack. In the sunrise, Blair and Xabi laugh about something on the aft pedestal. Wake shot of sunrise. Closeups: The wheel, Támara's face, Willy grinding. Slomo shots of Vestas to port and behind, and then astern of them. Louis works the outrigger, then gets hoisted out to the clew of the A3 to do something with the sheets.Hannah grinds. Hannah: "It's really good to be back. It's been pretty good few days, lots of gybing, not the most amoutn of sleep, but it's warm, good breeze, and can still see two boats, so, pretty good to be back racing. Was a bit nervous about how I would slot back in after such a long time off the boat... It's been good." We see a gybe of the A3 from port to starboard, filmed from the J3 tack. Mark, on the middle pedestal, describes where the boats are near them. Are three groups of boats: Dongfeng and AkzoNobel ahead, the three of them in the middle, and Brunel and Scallywag a little bit behind. Have been gybing, now going to be a bit of a drag race on starboard. Shot of TTToP to a mile away to starboard (upwind of them, abeam) and MAPFRE a few miles to leeward and slightly ahead.Spreader cam shot of the deck as Vestas triple-heads under A3/J2/J3. Mark on the helm; Stacey trimming. Tony, on deck: "We had a pretty good period over the night racing our friends here on MAPFRE." Talks about how they were sailing faster, and then they saw a bunch of "torches" (flashlights) on them in the night as they (presumably) did a sail change, which helped as well. Happy to be hanging with the top boat in the fleet in terms of speed. Talks about being inshore of the other boats in the fleet. Shot of MAPFRE astern. Mark summarizes the busy race so far. Then talks to Nick (I think) on the stern about strategy.Jules, at the nav station, talks to Sam. "How would I describe myself? Tired?... I think I'm pretty easy-going, most of the time, except when I'm tired." Sam: "How do you think the crew would describe you?" Jules: "Miserable. Quiet." On deck, Luke answers the question: "Uncomplicated, I would say. [laughs] No; he's a good rooster. Very rarely gets it wrong. It's only us getting it wrong that makes him look bad." Looks like this was shot as they were beating out of Port Phillip Bay on the first afternoon. Closeup of Jules at the nav station, rubbing his head. Shot of the computer showing weather. On deck, Brad points out Green Cape. "Everyone knows it's one of the most southeastern capes of Australia." Shot of the cape with its lighthouse. To the left is another boat, barely visible; I'm guessing it's Vestas. On deck, Simeon talks about needing to choose whether to play the coast or go offshore. Shot from the cabin of Jules (below) talking to Nicho (on deck). Simeon crouches down as water splashes over him. Simeon: "[something] stay in touch with the other guys. Otherwise you'll lose them." Jules discusses how the fleet is splitting. Also there are three different tidal models that disagree as to where the eddy is. More discussion by Simeon: gybe or not? Conversation with the three of them continues below at the nav station. Nicho: "If you gybe back, you're pretty much committed to playing the shore." Sam talks to Jules: "How would you describe the decision-making process on this boat?" Jules: "Not very clear. Because not everyone knows the full implications of everything they're talking about. You often get into situations like this where it's a tossup, you gotta trust one weather model or the other. Or you just do the conservative thing and stay with the fleet." Nicho, below, eating: "You've gotta kick it around. Kick it to death. And then make a gut call, usually. There's a fair bit of science involved... I think in the end for this situation, we're on a good heading with great pressure. More breeze than inshore." Sam: "How would you describe the decision-making process on this boat?" Nicho: "Plenty of input from everybody. At times this is Simeon's boat. I certainly from my side I feel like I can make the decision and live with it perhaps a bit easier. It's not a difficulty, it's just how it is. I guess we've kind of struggled and grappled with that sitaution a little. But no; the actual process I think is quite good. No one's angry or frustrated or anyting like that. It's just trying to weigh up all the pros and cons, come up with a decision."Slomo spray, washing machine. Clear sky with low sun behind them. Shot of MAPFRE crossing ahead of them under cloudy skies. Dongfeng gybes from port to starboard. Justine grimaces as she grinds on the pedestal. Shots of MAPFRE ahead of them on port gybe; Vestas farther ahead of them on (I think) starboard gybe. Sunny washing machine shot of cockpit. Closeup of compass. Sunset spray. Charles at nav station, talks about the last 26 hours. "A bit fight against all the opponents. Speed, clouds, very interesting, very complicated. Lots of shifts. I think we are all exhausted. Now there is a big split." Three boats going offshore, rest going inshore. Sunset wake shot.MAPFRE is sailing fast on starboard gybe, triple-heading. On the aft pedestal, Támara talks in Spanish. Willy talks in Spanish. Támara talks more in Spanish. Blair talks with the coastline visible behind him: "VMG'd all night. All day today. Quite a few gybes actually. Very reminiscent of the ice gate, but slightly warmer here. Right by the coast." He talks about how the fleet has compressed. AkzoNobel caught up and passed everyone. They just passed Vestas. Shot of Vestas (I think?) inside them. Shot of AzkoNobel behind and to weather of them. Vestas crossing in front of them on starboard gybe, land visible behind them, while MAPFRE sails on port gybe. Shot from the cockpit as they gybe from starboard to port. Another gybe from the cockpit, this time from port to starboard. Closeups of grinding, winches. Pretty drone shot with MAPFRE on starboard gybe in the foreground, competitor (Vestas?) silhouetted by the low sun ahead of them.AkzoNobel is sailing upwind inside Port Phillip Bay on starboard. Nicho, on the stern, talks about how they couldn't hold their lane on port tack after the start. "Don't know. Not sure what happened. We were slow on port for a long time." Shot of their stern with a Bravo (protest) flag flying; other boats in the distance. Simeon below: "Yeah, we had a bit of a speed issue, yeah." Shots of crew moving the stack. Nicho: "It's not where you want to be... back of the pack... No use grumbling about it." Below, Nicolai and Simeon are looking through the window in the hull, talking about the prop. Maybe it wasn't folding properly? Brad looks through an inspection tool: "It's closed but it's got weed in it... Looks like I'm going over the side. Get a lot of heel on, and rip it off." Sam: "Would this explain the speed?" Brad: "Hopefully." On deck, Brad gets lowered over the weather side in his foulies with lines forward and aft; he goes down near the waterline to inspect. Cécile's back is in the foreground as she relays Brad's words, then helps him back on deck. Brad: "A bit of weed. Not as big as it looked. But it's closed. Nothing underwater slowing us down. So get into it." Later, on the stern, Sam asks Brad: "How's it feel to be in last place coming out of Australia?" Brad: "I hate to say, but we're used to it." Luke: "New Year's resolution? Probably just to win a few legs here." Martine: "I dunno. Just keep positive." Brad: "Not be last out of the next start. And start getting in front of the fleet." Rainbow in the boat's spray to leeward. Luke talks about the frustration of starting off in last or close to last. "People say you're unlucky, but you create your own luck." Talks about teamwork, they're a great group of sailors. Real rainbow to leeward; a competitor below and behind them. Simeon talks about them doing well in the last sched. "Zero to hero." First in the position reports. At the nav station, Jules talks about their performance. Sam: "How'd you manage to check back in with the fleet?" Jules: "Bit of luck, really. Guys have been sailing pretty hard all night. Everyone's been up pretty much most of the night. Gybed on a couple of shifts. Got a nice header for a while..." Talks about disappointment at the start, needing to hang in there. "If we go fast we'll be all right." Rainbow with Vestas, Dongfeng to leeward.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.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.Dongfeng sailing upwind on port tack with the J1 inside Port Phillip. Looks like this is the final tack toward the exit from Port Phillip, so the boats ahead of them are (right to left, that is, near to far) Brunel, MAPFRE, and Vestas. Crew shifts the stack to leeward, meaning they're coming up on their tack to starboard. Outrigger is rigged forward, so presumably it will be a reach after they tack. Next they're on starboard reaching. Spray. Someone's hat blows off. Slomo spray. Brunel close ahead to leeward. Then they appear to be abeam. Slomo with sunset.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.Simon, at the nav station, looks at routing software and a sched (I think?). He talks about hopefully making gains, or at least holding even. "I"m just hoping we gained, or at least held them. Were getting lifted now, so it'd be nice for them to get lifted as well." He looks at the sched. "One longer, two higher." Charlie looks over his shoulder. They discuss the update. Charlie: "And relative to the last sched they must have been fucking 10 higher." Charlie: "C'mon. Difference in distance to finish 2 miles?" SiFi: "Good for the fans at home." They talk about getting lifted compared to the model; when to gybe. Charlie: "Nice to know we're a bit longer, a little faster... We'll run out of pressure before them. It's nice to be so close to Dongfeng, but that's a little inflated... Still fighting to the end, especially with double points." SiFi explains that they were talking about Brunel. "Next 24 hours is all about keeping the yellow boat behind us, and catching the red one."Vestas sails fast on starboard gybe with a reefed main (I think?). Slomo washing machine shot from behind the helm. TJ, below, is eating. On screen title: Tom Johnson presents / A Christmas Story. Tom: "Hello Sam, said TJ. There once was a boy trying to make it home for Christmas." Stacey, eating below, talks about how they're 2 days away from Christmas. Stacey explains that she's not from that part of Australia, but a family is coming to see her. TJ talks about the big, cold low-pressure system that prevented them from gybing to get north. Shot on deck shows helmsman NOT standing on the helm platform, but instead on a stacked sail. Below, Sam asks Stacey, "Motivation to go faster?" Stacey: "Yeah. We've been down in the cold too long, and we're pretty keen to get out of there... Any minute now it's gonna be balmy and warm." Below, Tony eats, and explains that real Christmas for him is getting away with the family for a summer holiday. Stacey jokes that this isn't warm. Tony exhales so you can see his breath. TJ keeps telling his Christmas story, trying to get there to see his family on Christmas. Father and mother; his sister he hasn't seen for 3 years. And his niece Lucille that he's never even met. Talks about that being a hard thing about his job: Always moving. Charlie talks with Simon (off camera) about how they should do stealth mode now, becaue once MAPFRE is within 200 miles of the finish it will end. TJ talks about stealth mode. Charlie talks about how they've decided when to gybe, strategic consideration with Brunel. TJ: "TJ's storytelling voice... You'll find out how the story ends in a couple of days. Hopefully it's a happy story." Tony on the helm. TJ: "He's bringing his sled. A big sled, Vestas Wind."Charlie, below, talks about how they've cleared the ice gate. "We're in an ocean race. Now we have the whole ocean to sail around in." Mark, in the pit, talks about no more gybing. "Well, no more gybing every hour." He trims something in in the pit. The crew shifts the stack from forward aft using the traditional heave chant: "Two, Six!"Jena, grinding in the cockpit on the middle pedestal, talks about making gains on every sched. Still hope with more than 1,000 miles to go that they can catch them. Mark, in the cockpit: "The two most competititve boats that we're racing are currently ahead of us in this leg. So yes, of course it matters to me. I want to beat them. I want to be first. I want to win." [Sounds a little annoyed with Sam's question.] Sam asks Jena to do a "weather dance". She dances at the pedestal. Jena: "What do you think about that?" Charlie, at the helm: "Well, we haven't seen any results yet. So." Jena: "Don't worry. I'll show my magic. Dancing magic." Crew kidding in the cockpit; TJ says something about going to Outback Steakhouse. Nick laughs. Charlie hands the wheel off to Chuy. Sam, to Charlie: "How was the watch, Chaz?" Charlie: "Transitional. It went from windy to not so windy. Drag all the sails forward... Little frustrated with the boatspeed... Kind of tough sailing right now with the leftover slop."At nav station, Charlie explains to Sam that there aren't a lot of decisions to make right now; they're just pushing the boat for boatspeed as they parallel the ice limit. Decisions to be made shortly about where to go later. Risk/reward analysis changes based on waht happens at the back of the fleet behind them. On deck, Jena steers on port gybe in about 15 knots of wind under a cloudy sky. Then TJ (invisible in balacava; thank goodness for accents) steers and talks about Jena, about getting her time on the helm when conditions aren't too technical. By the end, he says, she'll be driving as much as anyone else. Nick, on the stern, says he wants Chuy to start a men's fashion line. Has him model his baseball cap stitched onto a neoprene balaclava (as described by Tony). Some discussion of Tron that I didn't really understand. Then SiFi talks about trying to catch the two red boats ahead (though unfortunately Vestas has less wind), and about Brunel about 20 miles behind them. Future wind prospects. Nick and SiFi, in the companionway. Nick: "This boat is a prison." SiFi: "There's no escape."Condensation dripping inside from a grab rail. Firehose shot of the foredeck while Vestas is triple-heading. SiFi, unrecognizable in his balaclava except by voice, talks about how they're now drag-racing, not gybing. "We're starting to pin our ears back and sail fast." On the stern, Tony talks about the current conditions. He asks the termperature; Stacey answers "Nine and nine." Tony explains: 9 degrees C air, 9 degrees water. He talks about how even with all the layers you get cold, but if you move you get hot and then sweat, and then you get wet and cold again. Tony talks about his 3-day-old protein bar he's found in his pocket and is going to eat. Stacey says she can do better: Pulls out a bar. "Tropical holiday."Tony and Simon are sitting on the weather rail. Tony is in the middle of a story about seeing an iceberg. "It was right there, hundreds of meters long, 25, 30 meters high, or whatever they are. And that was the one you can see in the middle of the day... And then nighttime comes and radar's got targets everywhere. And those are only the big ones. Can't see the bus or car-sized ones." Simon, at the nav station, talks about being near the exclusion zone. Simon explains about how the trailing boats have had an easier time, while the lead boats have had to stair-step along the edge of the exclusion zone. Shot of the computer screen showing the exclusion zone. Tony points out the "wall". "Must have painted it gray; it blends right in." Nick is getting dressed; he tells a bedtime story to Jena, in her bunk. "Once upon a time there were 7 lonely sailboats in the Southern Ocean, on their way to Melbourne." He explains to Sam: "I'm telling the Swiss Miss girl." "On their way to Melbourne to have a very hot Southern Hemisphere Christmas. And then, the wild and scary Race Committee decided to put a liquid Himalaya ice gate that we had to climb atop, so we wouldn't be there for Christmas Day." Jena: "Did they steal our Christmas?" Nick and Tom are internal-stacking onto the port side; Tom mimes being attacked by killer bees. "They're eating my eyes!" On the helm, Chuy says there's a rule, like on a bus: Don't speak to the driver. Jena, sitting in the cockpit in a balaclava: "I actually got a little sad, because I feel Santa will never find us out here." SiFi: "It's true. I didn't even bring my stocking." Tom: "No Christmas for you. We're gonna keep you at sea. Make you sail around waypoints forever!" Jena jokes about a broken candycane being in 3 pieces so they can share. Tony and SiFi talk about icebergs. Tony doesn't need to see any more of them. SiFi: "They make the ice gates on a good scientific basis." Tony: "I've passed south of one that was 30 miles long, and it was no fun... I've dodged them, and been just about able to touch them from the wheel. That's how close we were... If they've got the information, as SiFi says, it'd be negligent not to act on it... Safety. Safety first." Sunset.Nick, in his bunk: "We have crossed that point where people have started losing it. And some of those people have also found the caffeine chewing gum. So things are getting quite loose on board." On the stern with the setting sun behind them, Tony shouts, "Cue the rainbow!" We see a rainbow ahead of them. "All we need now is a couple of icebergs to complete the set." Below, Nick continues: "Big Tones [Tony]; coincidently, he was talking about being in the Truman Show yesterday. So I'd say he's feeling the sleep deprivation pretty nicely at this point." Tony: "I thought we'd just sail round and round in circles, around the wall. That sounds just fine to me." SiFi, standing next to him: "By the top corner in the ice gate, we might be able to get through that little door and escape... It's good we're playing Truman Show and not Hunger Games. Hunger Games the consequences are way worse than this." Tony: "The Kracken would be climbing over the side to get us." Tom on the helm joins in. "Hunger Games and Truman Show [something I can't catch]. Becuase they can control the weather, they can control the... Remember they make that fire?" Nick below: "TJ is also probably feeling a bit loopy, but I guess that's pretty much on par with TJ, so shouldn't be too worried about him." Jena, below: "As hard as it is physical, it's also a mental game, this thing. There's a lot of time where you have time to make your thoughts, and wonder. Maybe the most reasonable person to talk to is yourself." SiFi sits at the computer. "Holy shit. That sched is about as bad as it can get. Had a pretty slow 6 hours, pretty light winds and pretty unstable breeze. and as expected everyone is else moving along pretty nicely... It's funny to see how people change when things get a bit lighter. There's a chance to relax a bit, have a joke. But I think we're all a little bit crazy." Shot of them surfing toward the rainbow. Tony: "I don't know who was in the technical department. They deserve a pay raise." Nick, in his bunk: "I would never ask TJ to make a big decision. It would stress me out." On deck, at sunset on the stern, Stacey asks a series of questios of Tom. "Would you rather be itchy or sticky." Tom: "Sticky". "Blind or deaf?" Tom: "Tough one. A sad one. I dunno. I can't answer that one." "Would you rather be in the Truman Show or the Hunger Games?" "Truman Show. Nah, Hunger Games. Changed my mind. You get some action." Sam: "Are you feeling the mental effects of being offshoe?" Tom: "Most likely, yeah. Every day, man. One hour at a time, Sammy, out here. One minute at a time." Stacey: "I've got a real good last question. What's the first thing you're gonna eat when you get to Melbourne?" Tom: "I want an avocado... and a coffee." He and Tony seque into a beer commercial. "And the best cold beer is Vic."Southern Ocean waves. Slomo waves. Crew on stern as Vestas sails downwind in large seas. SiFi, below, describes what an ice gate is. Shot of the computer screen showing routing software and their track bumping up to the ice gate. Charlie, below: "It would be nice to have a little bit more freedom. And we wouldn't actually have to do this. But because we do we've gotten pretty good at." Explains that it takes about 40 minutes to gybe due to stacking. Talks about how many times they have to do it. SiFi talks about sailing along the edge of the exclusion zone with all the gybing. SiFi getting dressed. "It's quite nice on deck. Gearing up's a little inconvenient." Shots of crew on deck. Grinding, Stacking. Charlie steering. Jena, below: "I hope we don't see any icebergs." Chuny, below: "Safety first." On the stern (trimming the mainsheet, I think), Tony points out where the ice gates are, 60 miles away. Sam: "Who builds these gates?" Tony: "I don't know. Maybe they've got a deal with Trump. An imaginary fencing company. I wonder how high it is. Twenty-one feet?" Tom (I think?) says it could be like The Truman Show. The clouds coult be painted. Stacey and Tom join in. Jena: "We're actually in a big pool of water, and they're just moving the water underneath us. And we're not going anywhere." Tony: "We're actually in a room with a green screen behind us, and they're throwing buckets of water on us." Epic surfing shot from astern. Slomo washing machine.SiFi sits at the nav station looking at a routing screen on the computer. His breath is visibly fogging due to the cold. "It looks like we're walking the line between speed and safety reasonably well." Slomo of his breath fogging. With low sun behind them as they stand on the stern, Charlie and SiFi talk about a problem with the main. "There's so much friction on it on the spreaders and shit it's probably not going anywhere." Nick talks about a couple of squall lines came through, up to 45 knots. And going onto the third reef the headboard of the mainsail isn't going onto lock. Mark: "Well, we've got 44 knots, and if you look this way there's a massive cloud, and the water's more white than blue." Charlie jokes about not saying "white squall". Slomo. Sam to Mark: "How is it being down here?" Mark: "It's everything you'd expect. Windy, cold, we've got 48 knots right now. Look upwind. It's crazy. Doing 30 knots of boatspeed. It's pretty crazy, but somehow everything's still in control." Slomo wake.Opens with a drone shot from behind of Vestas sailing on starboard gybe. A dark seabird (a shearwater, maybe?) is visible trailing the boat; the bird turns and flies RIGHT PAST THE DRONE. Overlapping audio of Sam asking SiFi, at the wheel, "Any second thoughts about sailing into this low?" We see Simon on the helm. "What's that Sam?" Stacey sits in the foreground chuckling. SiFi: "Second, third, fourth, fifth... Lots of thoughts... About how to get through it safely, and hopefully ahead." Below, Nick's face is mostly shadowed as he eats. "I guess I keep coming down here because this is where you're pushed the hardest, mentally and physically. And so far we're seeing the beignning of that with definitely the mental side pushing us hard, and the physical side is just about to start. Latest routing shows us doing about 1 million gybes between here and Melbourne. So we're going to try to figure out how we're going to make those as smooth as possible." On deck, Tom leans on the middle pedestal. "When it gets hard; hard, wet, and tired; it's hard, wet, and tired for all your mates on the other boats as well. Like Kyle Langford, the big seagull. He's gonna be tired. Pete Burling, Blair Tuke, Willy, Louis... everyoe's in the same boat. It's hard for everyone." Another shot of the shearwater buzzing the drone. Kyle: "It's hard for everyone. Sail fast. We're going to Australia. Heading home." He grins. "Heading home." Sifi is at the wheel as the boat barely moves in light wind. "Calm before the storm... Not really in the forecast, this light stuff." Below, Charlie tosses something round and blue in one hand, and says something I can't catch. "It's hever going to be easier than right now." (?) Wake as they sail fast under scary clouds. On deck, Charlie: "So far, so good." He grinds, gets a slap of water in the face. Mark talks about how they just put the second reef in, and have some water in the folds of the main, so they're trying to get it out. We see someone doing that with a boathook, getting hit by spray. Charlie talks about where the other boats are, geometry of trying to figure out where to aim to come out ahead of the other boats. "We've got more options up here. Whether they sneak around our bow remains to be seen." He talks about "separation anxiety", I assume because they're north of the other boats. "We'll know more in 12 hours I guess." Slomo washing machine, wake.Charlie and Simon at the nav station looking at routing (I think?). Charlie is eating. Charlie jokes about how when the wind gets high enough there's no sail in the sail chart. Charlie: "It's just like, good luck. Bare poles?" Simon chuckles, jokes about how you don't bother with some data points: "100 true, 1,000 knots." They talk about apparent wind angle. Simon: "You can reach down; this is where you end up on the ice gate... Then it passes over and you're back to running again." Charlie: "Realistically is the J1 getting hanked on? Probably not." Simon: "No." Simon says J2, probably. "A bit like the Trans-atlantic, probably." Charlie: "It would be pretty tough. 25 knots is when the J2 becomes a realistic outrigger sail." Charlie: "So how are we going to get the A3... We could to the J0 for a little bit. J0/J2, something like that?" Tony, from his bunk: "How much wind you got in that low?" Charlie: "In the center of it?" Tony: "No, in the route." Charlie: "The part that affects us? 37 in the listed result." Tony: "So that's a good chunk into the 40s." Simon: "Yeah." Charlie, lookng at Sam: "We've gone higher." Tony: something I can't understand, like: So when you (something about being on the A3?) you get the (something) down there quick." (?) Simon: No, exactly. Tony: "Actually faster at 25, 23, 20 boat knots of breeze." Simon: "Yeah." That's a lot of experience talking there.Drone shot of Vestas with the sun low behind them reaching in 15 knots of wind on starboard tack. (Think this is from late in the day on 2017-12-11.) Charlie, below, talks about the race so far. The plan they had when they left was not the best one, which put them on the back foot. "We've hit the reset button in the ridge." Simon, at the nav station, says they've just had the 0700 sched, and they look pretty good. He points out their position vs. the other boats: Scallywag, TTToP, then the other pack of boats about 20 miles south. Good to be further north. In 24, 48 hours it's good to be further north. "Certainly a more seamanlike [i.e., safety-conscious] way to go about it." Charlie, below, talks about "the weather, Friday, looks pretty fresh with nowhere to run." Setting yourself to be in the right place in three days' time in 50 knots of wind is more important. Simon shows the scary low on the computer forecast. Have to be careful to not get into a position where the wind and sea state are so bad you're pushed against the ice gate and have to slow down. Charlie: "Have to watch the weather pretty closely to make sure we don't find ourselves in a bad spot." Drone shot from ahead with the sunset behind them.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."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.Bleddyn is on the helm under gray skies and what appear to be light winds. He talks about the hype about what's going to happen in 2 days time. Light and tricky at the moment, with a bit of sea state. More breeze and big waves in 2 days. Martin talks about mixed feelings about being in the Southern Ocean. "Good and bad memories. Very tough, cold, and wet... The best advice is to stay dry and warm." Drone shots of TTToP sailing upwind on port tack with the J1 and full main. Onboard shot as they sail upwind of Vestas ahead and to leeward a few miles away. Shots of crew in the cockpit; Martin on the grinder, Bleddyn on the helm.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.Vestas sails in 20 knots of wind on starboard tack. Spray. Crew on the foredeck; only one I can identify is Tony. Looks like they're getting ready for a headsail change; J1 is up, so maybe they're going to the J0 or FR0? Or maybe going down to the J2? Wind appeared to be building for them over the morning of 2017-11-24, so maybe they're switching down? SiFi at the nav station talks about how they have maybe 8 hours to go, and expect the wind to build from the 22 knots they have now up to 30 knots due to the "Cape Doctor". SiFi: "It's gonna be tough on the boat, tough on the people. But it's the last day, so we can push." SiFi makes a model with a small box to illustrate the effect of Table Mountain on the wind. Shot of hoisting the new sail (J2?), then lowering the J1 with the J2 not yet unfurled. So maybe they switch down to J3-only in the foretriangle during the sail change, rather than unfurling the J2 outside the J1, then lowering the J1?Mark on the helm. Mark, by the wheel, talks about how it's Thanksgiving, and there are three Americans on the boat. "Lots to be thankful for." Charlie talks about his favorite food for Thanksgiving: stuffing. Srsly, Charlie? "If I could have stuffing right now I'd stay out here for an extra 24 hours." Mark, on the helm, talks about kahlua turkey. And the family stuffing (!) recipe. "Maybe I'd give up having a shower for another 12 hours."In the cockpit, Tony trims the main and talks about how the winds are lightening, that they got up to 32 knots of boatspeed in the strongest winds. Now down to 20s, and 18 at the moment. Now the wind is expected to lighten further and lift them, then they'll gybe, and with luck get to Cape Town Friday night or Saturday morning. Shifting the stack forward. Washing machine.View forward from stern as Vestas surfs in southern ocean conditions on port gybe. Washing machine. Below, at nav station, SiFi talks about the competition and strategy. Wind is lifting, and they're going to point further north. Talks about Dongfeng and MAPFRE. High pressure looks a little better (i.e., more wind). Re: MAPFRE and Dongfeng: "Not really a surpirse to see the two most experienced boats going well in these conditions. We're learning all the time, we're pushing hard. We'll keep pushing until the weather eases off, and hopefully that way have a go at them in the last few days." Loud, scary sound mix as we see mast cam shots of the cockpit, bow cam looking aft, fisheye mast cam looking down.Below, Stacey puts on multiple layers of cold-weather foulies. She talks about how it's a long process getting dressed. Stacey: "Like Charlie said it's Monday; we've got one week of work and then we're on vacation." Shots of the crew in the cockpit as Vestas sails fast on port gybe. Wake. Washing machine. Tony on the helm. Tony goes below, takes off his cowl. "Wow. Another wet one." Tony talks about their performance being good, good scheds, 24-hour longest run possibility. Says there's a sched coming in now. Tony takes off his foulies and layers. Jena talks about how it's cold, but fast, and that a sched is coming in. "Hopefully still fast." Charlie, in his bunk, looks at SiFi at the nav station. SiFi: "Yeah; we're longest run again." Later he talks to Martin: "We're going well in this windy stuff which is nice. It's a race to the east, to stay in front of the front." Talks about it being tricky, needing to try to avoid the high pressure above and behind. "A couple of days of fast sailing, then it's going to get tricky."On-board footage as Vestas gybes from starboard to port after sunset. Looks like the gybe that happened around 2017.11.18 21:13:48 UTC. SiFi talks about how they're now heading back east, and trying to pick up a cold front. Timing of the gybe is quite critical. Saw Brunel on the AIS, which encouraged them to gybe when they did. Nick with a headlamp checks the outrigger. Below, closeup shot of the AIS showing them after their gybe.Nick, in mirror-shades, talks about looking at the rig to make sure it looks good. Gopro footage of him going aloft and inspecting the rig. Back on deck he debriefs: everything looks good. Less salty.POV shot of someone in the galley examining an empty bottle of chili sauce. Tony, on the middle pedestal in the cockpit in the mornnig as Vestas sails on starboard gybe: "We think we have a sauce thief." Jena: "The sauce is gone, and the theory is that our camera guy secretly at night will go and take the sauce." Mark, on the helm: "The barbecue sauce is the best. It goes on everything. And there's none of it."At the nav station with Charlie, SiFi talks about the 1300 sched, and where the other boats are. Akzo moved well on the inside (to the east), even though they appeared to be in an area of less wind. Now Vestas is on the outside (west), and hopefully will be able to gain ground.Drone shot of Vestas doing an inside gybe of the MH0 from starboard to port. Drone shots of Vestas and Brunel, including a shot of Vestas crossing ahead of Brunel on port gybe, with Brunel on starboard gybe, triple-heading, in the foreground of the shot. That is, it's another shot (like Konrad's of TTToP from Scallywag) in which the OBR flew the drone beyond their competitor, then got a shot of both the competitor and their own boat with the competitor in the foreground. That is some kick-ass drone work.Sunrise. Kyle coils a line while silhouetted against the sunrise. Below, Bouwe tells the crew they're gybing. On deck, we see the gybe from port to starboard. On the helm, Bouwe says it will be interesting to see if Vestas continues on the old gybe. Maciel points out Vestas. Telephoto shot of Vestas. Capey and Annie looking through binoculars. Stacking below. Abby, on deck: "We're on opposite gybes; looks like Vestas is just crossing in front." We see Vestas, on port gybe, cross a few hundred meters ahead of Brunel. Per the tracker, this cross was at 2017-11-17 1118 UTC. Slomo of cross. Peter on the helm with Vestas in the background. Carlo, in the cockpit: "I've never been racing so long, and still within a couple of minutes of each other." Capey at the nav station. Slomo of Carlo.Jena, below, gets dressed and explains that they are going to gybe. Brunel has gybed, and now they will. On deck, we see the gybe from the cockpit looking forward. Per the tracker, the gybe happened around 0853 UTC on 2017-11-17. On the helm, Charlie explains the strategy involved: "If we weren't here I doubt they would have gybed." Stacking on deck. Tom stacks below.SiFi, in the cockpit, jokes with Nick, in the cabin, about esspresso. Nick, in the galley, fiddles with some small black objects: "This was a present from a friend of the team, Juan K., who gave it to Tony before we left in Alicante. We've gone through several versions of an esspresso maker so far on board..." He packs the coffee grounds into the espresso maker and squeezes out the espresso. In the cockpit, SiFi sips it. SiFi: "That is a good coffee."Jena, trimming the main, talks about microplastics. Tom talks about how it's so small, and it's all through the ocean. Mark on the aft pedestal, talks about the problem of microplastics in the environment. Jena talks about making changes in indivdual behavior to avoid single-use plastics. Mark: "Our entire First World is addicted to plastic." Charlie talks about a sponsor of theirs that makes a device to capture microplastics.Time lapse, from the port stern, showing several hours (?) of Vestas sailing on port as dusk settles.Vestas reaches fast on port. Tony grinds the aft pedestal. Charlie steers. Mark, on the rail, talks about how they've been racing close to Brunel, but now they (Vestas) are going a little more west. (Actually, looking at the tracker, the other leading boats are on the same line with Vestas; it's Brunel who's diverging east.) SiFi, in the hatch: Talks about the cmpetition with Brunel, how they've been a little faster in these conditions. But they think they'll be faster when the angles change. Slowly diverging courses. SiFi: "We're getting to a place where we're sailing around the South Atlantic High." More downwind eventually. Tom, on the mainsheet, talks to Tony, on the helm. Slomo of Tom grinding.Bouwe, on deck, talks about passing the equator and heading south in the tradewinds. Below, at the nav station, Capey talks about strategy for the south Atlantic portion of the leg: Getting south as quick as they can now, then hooking into a front. Capey: "Last couple of hundred miles will be the decider. So that's what you've got to get in position for." Closeup of instruments. Hands holding a sheet. Slomo shot of Vestas a mile or two ahead of them. Slomo shot of Alberto on the low side, squinting up into the slot. Carlo working on the foredeck. Spray on the clew of a headsail. Closeup of winch turning, easing. Kyle talks about speed gains of 0.1 knot being quite significant. Artsy slomo closeups: Winch, Alberto. Below, Richard asks Capey about Vestas: "Do we follow or do we do our own thing?" Capey: "We do our own thing." Sunset.Pretty morning drone shots circling Vestas.Tony plays King Neptune. Jena gets her hair spray-painted pink; Martin gets a reverse mohawk.We see a chart plotter showing the equator crossing. Nick, below: "I've crossed the equator 7 or 8 times now." In the cockpit, Tony counts up how many times he's crossed the equator while Jena laughs. 15 times. Tony: "There's plenty around who've done it more than me." Tom, in his bunk below: "Only once. This will be my second time." Jena, on the aft pedestal: "This is my first time." Mark says this is his fifth. Discussion in the cockpit of how many times they'll cross in this race. Nick and Tom razz Martin about his upcoming initiation.We see Charlie on the weather rail grinding a winch, shirtless. Brunel behind them and to leeward. Charlie looks through binoculars at Brunel. Charlie: "They have a staysail." Nick, looking forward: "J0 or J1 on Dongers... J0 on MAPFRE." Below, SiFi talks about wind, competition at the nav station.Tony helms. MAPFRE is visible close ahead of them. Tom makes a diagram on the floor of the cockpit using sheets and Jena's foot and shoe to represent directions and boats and the tradewinds and the doldrums and the various routing decisions. He points out a nearby cloud. "This guy looks pretty scary right now, and he might get us." Closeup of a compass. Tony: "We are max keel. Momentarily." SiFi talks about the clouds and potential for squall. Shot of an approaching raincloud in the dusk. Mark: "This is a big cloud. And it's coming quickly." We see the wind increase and the sudden scramble to react: Calls for a furl, flogging the main, furling the headsail (maybe the J0? or the FR0?), Stacey on the aft pedestal in her bra, prepping the J1 to hoist. Sailing under the J1 and J3 as it gets dark and SiFi says something about wet pajamas.Peter sits to leeward and calls sail trim. Beyond him we see AkzoNobel to leeward. Kyle, on the helm, talks about boats visible ahead of them. Kyle: "Two of them. Must be MAPFRE and Vestas." We see a distant shot of the two boats ahead of them, the boat to starboard (which I think is Vestas) more visible than the one to port (which I think is MAPFRE). Maciel stands in the forward hatch talking about the nearby competitors. Carlo, on the bow, talks about how they have the best sailor in the world (Peter) on the helm to try to catch them. Shot of Peter on the helm. Clouds ahead of them.Wake shot. Shot from behind of Tom at the helm as Vestas sails reaches on port in 20 knots of wind. In the cocpit, SiFi talks about the conditions and their position entering the region normally associated with the doldrums. Behind him, Tony steers. Close up of the rudder as they sail fast. Nick goes forward to the mast as they reef the main; a wave knocks over the Martin (or at least the camera). Nick, leaning against the stack and wiping water from his face: "Right now we're moving right along. We're coming into a cloud line and we're stuck on MAPFRE, so we're making sure we're getting every inch out of the boat." Shot from the cabin of the pit area. Mark: "(something) the tack down?" Stacey works a winch. Wake shot with rain. Dark clouds behind them, with Charlie on the mainsheet and Tony on the helm. Shot looking forward from the stern as a rain squall blows over Vestas, under reefed main and J3. SiFi smiles into the camera. SiFi: "I told you it would get harder." Jena grinds. Jena, below, describes dealing wth the squall, with sail changes and lack of sleep.Joan, at the nav station looking at a display of a chart showing the leg, talks in Spanish. Closeup of the chart as he zooms in on the Cape Verde Islands. Xabi, below, talks in Spanish about strategy and the other boats. He repeats it in English. Xabi: "Everyone's happy. We just overtook two boats last night. We just hope to catch Dongfeng. We will fight very hard with these two guys, with Vestas, and with Dongfeng of course." On deck in the dawn, Ñeti sits, Tamara grinds the aft pedestal, and Pablo steers. Shot aft, through the wheel, of Vestas a few miles behind them. Slomo shot looking up at Xabi on the helm. Slomo shot of Sophie during a sail change taking spray on the bow.On the foredeck, Nick and Tom wrestle a new sail into place as they do a sail change (maybe peeling MH0 to FR0?). Charlie at the wheel; grinding in the cockpit. Below at the nav station, SiFi explains the current strategy. Out of the lighter winds, into stronger reaching conditions, fairly far west for how south they are. Maybe the doldrums won't be too bad. Talks about the competition.Shot of Stacey's hat drying on a winch in the cockpit. Stacy talks in the cockpit about how it was wet for the first few days, and now they're able to dry stuff out. Shot below of a damaged sail being dried out, and an inflated PFD. Nick, shirtless in the bow, talks about the PFD: "We were doing a peel the other day, and Tom decided he didn't want to be part of the bow team any more, so he automatically inflated, and became part of the back of the boat... So basically we hang this up to remind Tom of his weak moment. Tom: "I believe I completed the peel." Shots of Tom, Stacey, and Nick patching the sail in the bow. Stacey, back in the cockpit, talks about getting better rest and food now that conditions have improved. POV shot of Martin preparing food in the galley. Shot of someone sleeping below with sea boots hanging next to them. Tom, at the wheel, talks about airing his boots out, and giving his feet "some aeration". Shot of Tom's bare feet. Shot of Tom adjusting keel (for less heel?); you can hear the engine running to power the hydraulics. Stacey moves some socks while joking about "maybe you and he can have a competition." Martin: "Are those yours, Stacey?" Stacey: "No; I think they might be Tony's. I'm not breathing, though." Shot of Tony (I think) below, watching a video on a tablet on the bottom of the bunk above him. In the cockpit, SiFi explains to Nick how some bit of dental-repair filling has come out of his mouth where a wisdom tooth was recently extracted and the hole filled in. He shows Martin the bit of stuff from his pocket. SiFi: "A replacement part of my face."Tony, in early morning as Vestas sails on port gybe in 7 knots of wind, explains their strategic situation: trying to avoid the cone of light wind extending from Africa, and whether to try to get south before it extends too far west, or going west to get around it. He explains where the other boats around them are: Dongfeng ahead of them going south, and Akzo and MAPFRE on their starboard quarter going west. Per the tracker, I think this must have been shot around 2017-11-09 09:35 UTC. Tony: "It's really hard. The router says go south; the weather that we have sailing right now says go south. So that's all we can do."Really pretty drone shot, approaching from high altitude as Vestas sails in about 15 knotes of wind, triple-heading with the Masthead 0 on port gybe. In the cockpit at sunset, Mark and SiFi talk with Mark (off camera) about strategy; staying to the east to get further south vs. gybing west. They know (from the 1900 sched, which presumably just came through shortly before) that Dongfeng has gybed to the west. Charlie: "But you don't want to be soaking in 10 knots." Mark talks to Tony Mutter, on the helm, about whether a cloud they've been watching has dissipated. Charlie, gesturing to starboard: "I mean; we can cross MAPFRE by fucking 8 miles right now." Discussion of the current wind direction. They decide to gybe. Includes discussion of whether to peel to the A3 as part of it; Charlie decides to wait until after the gybe. Martin asks Simon to explain; he gives a summary. They're feeling exposed being to the east of everyone; are going to gybe over to give up some lead but get further from the eventual wind shadow of the Cape Verde Islands. Below, SiFi explains to Chuy, who's getting his boots on, why the maneuver is happening. Stacey shifts her bunk to starboard. On deck, as it's getting dark, they gybe, then sail on starboard toward the sunset.Below, Chuny talks in Spanish. Behind him, Stacey puts mustard on a flour tortilla (I swear). Jena, below, talks in Danish.Vestas sails fast in early morning on port gybe. Mark, on the stern: "The night was tricky. We had a good sched in the middle of the night, we gained a bit on Dongfeng and MAPFRE and Akzo. And then the last few hours have been really tough. We've been a bit unlucky with these clouds. And MAPFRE's just behind us, they're probably less than a mile away. We were 10 miles ahead of them a few hours ago. Hasn't been the best morning for us; hopefullly we can make up for it." Shot of MAPFRE on their port quarter. Charlie, below: "The cloud giveth, and the could taketh away. We did a really good job last night... riding some pressure down over the top of Dongfeng. It's been pretty random... We had a 10-mile lead on MAPFRE that we watched disintegrate in front of our eyes... It's a long leg, with a lot of ups and downs." Talks about "mini doldrums" coming up. Shots of crew in the cockpit.Night-vision shot looking aft from the bow cam as Vestas sails on starboard gybe. Looks like they're triple-heading, with the J2 in the foreground and the J3 in the background; presumably there's a Code 0 or A3 set on the bowsprit. We hear cockpit audio; a voice (Nick's?) says, "Yeah; I'm gonna go to the rig. Wait 'till everybody's ready." Then we see a night-vision shot of the stern camera looking forward with four grinders on the handles; maybe the beginning of a sail change or gybe? Then we get an artsy shot out the cabin looking aft with the crew at the back of the boat silhouetted by the rising moon. Waning-gibbous moonrise would be in the early evening, so I'm guessing this shot is around 2000-2100. There's a light visible low, near the horizon; it might be on Madeira, but at their closest after gybing they were 22 nm from Madeira, which seems like a long way. The other possibility is that it's Brunel's starboard masthead running light, which was in the right place about 10 nm behind them. Slomo shots of the crew silhouetted against the moon; washing machine. Below, we see crew stacking gear on the starboard side. SiFi, at the nav station, talks about how they're west of Madeira looking for wind acceleration, and about the nearby competitors. Slomo shot from the cabin of someone securing one of the two cabin hatches in place.Low-angle wake shot as Vestas surfs. Jena holds the mainsheet. Charlie hangs onto the backstay, looking a little green. Charlie: "I am... okay. Okay. Still recovering from a bad case of the Tagus River. But now we're going. I think we've got the right sail up, there's plenty of wind. Next position report will be pretty key. Waiting on that, we'll pick the right side of Madeira, and away we go." Jena: "Right now I feel good. Last night I didn't feel so good. It's been a while since I've been with the guys in these big waves, so I was pretty sick. But I right now I feel awesome. Nice breeze and big waves; this is what it's all about." She talks about the competition. Jena: "MAPFRE and the Dongers are little bit to windward of us and a little bit forward." Shot forward as Vestas sails under A3 on port gybe and MAPFRE crosses them on starboard. From the tracker, this is the cross that happened around 11:00 UTC on November 6. Tom: "We're doing quite well... It's good to see another boat, good to be close to the red boats." Washing machine, wake shot.Below, with a headlamp, Tom pulls out the A3. He shows a leech tear. Tom: "It's alright; we've just gotta fix it." Tony and Stacey assist. They cut patches. Jena watches. Jena: "I actually was not up when it happened. We had a little tear in the leech, 4 meters... We changed the sail, and we're doing quite good. We've got Chuny on the helm, and he's making sure we don't lose anything." Patching, gluing. Stacey explains the process. Tom narrates the glue drying. They re-apply a leech tape. SiFi: "They've done an awesome job... Now we just have to re-hoist it when the time is right." They move the sail back out onto deck: "Two, six! Two, six!" Stacey: "Yeah. That was two hours of... sewing. [laughs]. Sail was quite wet, so the challenge was to get the repair to stick to it."Major washing machine as Vestas sails fast on starboard gybe toward the sunset (think this may have been from the first afternoon; this is the first video to come off the boat on Leg 2). Nick, on deck, talks about taking a break for 40 minutes. Chuny and Jena on the aft pedestal. Charlie takes spray in the face while holding the mainsheet. Someone (I think Charlie?) talks to Mark: "Nick's working on the rudder." Closeup of Mark taking spray on the stern. Jena, on the mainsheet, wipes spray from her eyes. Below, Charlie (in foulies) talks to SiFi (in his bunk) about the competition. SiFi, at the nav station, talks about strategy. It's 0100, and they've been highest and fastest, but now they want to get south to avoid ending up with less wind. "We're gonna see if we can find a faster route to the south. We've got good downwind conditions for the next 24, 48 hours and beyond... Gybing is hard work in this weather because we've got so much internal stack at the start of a leg. But that's life I guess." On deck in the dusk, crew shifts the stack. "Two, six! (shift) Two, six! (shift)"[No description yet][No description yet][No description yet][No description yet]