[tense music]
[Ant Middleton] There's an old saying,
when ships were made of wood, men were made of steel.
Come on boys!
[unknown male] Come on!
[narrator] Two hundred and thirty years ago,
the crew of a British navy ship
rose up and overthrew its captain.
He and a few loyal men were bundled into a tiny boat
and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific.
They should have died.
Instead they managed to navigate 4,000 miles to safety.
[unknown male] Wave! Wave!
[narrator] It remains one of the greatest survival feats
of all time.
[Ant] Start moving now, I'm serious.
[tense music]
[narrator] Now, for the first time,
nine men are following the same route
in an identical boat, facing the same conditions...
[vomiting]
to measure themselves against history.
Back then, those guys were hard as nails.
Can the modern day man endure such hardships?
[Rishi] Can't see shit.
When I'm on my deathbed,
I wanna look back and say I did something amazing.
There's nothing normal about being here.
Nothing.
Your trouble is, you don't like the truth.
There should be a bit more to life than working really hard
and then getting smashed.
[yelling]
[Rishi] Chris! Stop jumping off of there!
It's dangerous.
[Chris] Don't tell me what to do!
[unknown male] Oh!
[Sam] Ah.
[Sam] Come on lads, bail.
[Ant] If we make it through I think it's a huge triumph.
Oh my god!
[Dan] It's a shark!
[Rishi] We return, victors.
If we make one mistake...
[Ant] Look, look, look, look! [everyone] Whoa!
It's utter, utter disaster.
[Ant] If we end up in the water, it's not a game,
it's not a joke.
[climactic crescendo]
[tense music]
[Rishi] The Pacific is just a beast.
[ocean roaring]
It's vast.
You don't have a clue,
don't have a clue what is down there
and that's scary.
[Chris] It's a surreal place.
It's as close as we can ever get on this planet
to being out in space.
It's the hardest environment
to survive in.
[Ant] This task is immense, it's huge.
The length of the journey, you imagine,
4000 miles on a rowing boat.
Just saying it should put the fear of god into you.
[tense music]
[narrator] In April 1789, HMS Bounty
was sailing from Tahiti to the West Indies.
A poisonous rift
had been brewing between the crew
and its tough young captain, William Bligh.
Sixteen months into the voyage, rebellion broke out.
[William Bligh] I am now to relate
one of the most atrocious acts of piracy ever committed.
At dawn of day, several men came into my cabin
and while I was asleep,
seized and tied my hands behind my back
and took the Bounty from me.
[military drums]
[narrator] It would go down in History
as the mutiny on the Bounty.
Captain Bligh and a handful of loyal crew
were cast adrift in an open boat
in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
The nearest friendly port was 4000 miles away
across some of the world's most unforgiving seas.
How they got there is the stuff of legend.
[music ends dramatically]
[narrator] Now these men are being abandoned
in the same place as Bligh and his crew
in the middle of nowhere.
[ominous music]
[music fades]
Alright guys, start switching on now.
We're by ourselves.
[Ant] This is it. Look around you.
[Ant] This is us for the next 60 days.
[Chris] When Captain Bligh was tossed off the Bounty,
they had no charts.
They basically had one week's worth of food,
week's worth of water.
I'm pretty sure most of the guys on that boat knew that was it,
they were dead.
[Ant] This is real now guys, let's go.
[Conrad] Prepare to hoist the sails.
[pulleys rattling]
We've been left for dead.
Crew of nine strangers.
And now we all have to survive basically.
Ready to raise the jib?
[sails flapping]
[Ant] Lee ho!
[narrator] Stepping into Captain Bligh's shoes
is Ant Middleton,
a veteran of the Special Boat Service,
who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The journey's gonna be tougher for me than it was for Bligh.
You know, Bligh's men were hardened sailors.
So for me as a leader,
can I take the modern day man and recreate Bligh's voyage?
Can I do it? In my head I can do it
but it's gonna push me to my limits.
[tranquil music]
Are we port or starboard?
[Luke] Starboard. [Rishi] Starboard, yeah.
[Sam] Inside?
[Sam] Wait, hang one second boys.
[Rishi] I think the logistics of all the ropes and stuff,
you sort of get... there's a lot of ropes essentially.
[Rishi] Ben, watch yourself. Ben!
[Ant] Ben, you just fucked everything up there, didn't you?
[Ben] Yep. [Rishi] Ben, your end goes up.
[Ben] This end goes up? [Rishi] Yeah.
Fuck.
[narrator] The men bring skills
that mirror those of Bligh's crew.
Being earmarked as the carpenter of the boat is quite a weird one
because I've got oddly quite a lot in common
with the original carpenter of the boat.
He's named William Purcell,
he's 27, he's from South London as well.
Eerily like we were born within two miles of each other and,
and I've definitely been walking down the same roads as him.
I wanna grow up kind of thing.
I want to not just be that guy that
drank 20 pints and did a load of shots
and was a legend for one night.
I wanna be a bit more and be a better story for my family.
[waves lapping]
This is all pretty much ancient 18th century style tools
that I've been given to repair the ship.
If there's a real serious issue with the boat
I'm gonna be up shit creek.
Ben, we need the other med kit.
[Luke] Should be a black bag with a cross on it.
I am a doctor.
I'm not a sailor at all.
I'm quite scared of sharks.
I'm scared of getting sun burnt.
But by all accounts Bligh's doctor
was a sort of overweight alcoholic
so hopefully I can bring a lot more than he did.
[sails flapping]
[narrator] Their boat is an exact replica of Bligh's,
built for this voyage.
They'll be filming themselves
and carrying the same rations Bligh's crew were left with.
They have no toilets, no shelter
and in such a tiny boat, no privacy.
[Rishi] I'm trying to find out whether this is sleepable.
Mate, this is...
uh... I don't know.
I have to sleep here.
[adventure music]
[narrator] Bligh's first act was to make for the nearest land,
the tiny island of Tofua,
35 miles away,
to try and supplement his meagre rations.
The crew set a course northwest hoping to do the same.
Their constant companion during the coming weeks
will be Captain Bligh himself.
He kept a detailed journal
that remarkably survived the voyage.
[Bligh] We bore away across a sea
where the navigation is but little known,
in a small boat, 23ft long from stem to stern,
deep laden with men.
[crescendo]
[Conrad] I can see land,
or am I imagining it? Yeah.
[various crew members] Hurray! Hey!
[narrator] After a day's sailing
Tofua's craggy outline appears on the horizon.
Just thinking about
how hard the challenge is gonna be.
It's all good and well at the moment in,
you know, first day, everyone's morale is boosted,
but let's see what it's like by day 20.
That was really when Bligh said
his men really started to suffer.
[Chris] Okay, so I'm just gonna read
a little bit of Bligh's journal.
[Chris] "My first determination
[Chris and Bligh] was to seek supply of breadfruit and water
from Tofua
[Bligh] where I expected to land.
[tense music]
[Bligh] But the shore proved to be so steep and rocky
that I was obliged to give up all thoughts of it
and keep the boat under the lee of the island
for there was no anchorage.
[Chris] It's kind of strange after you read that, you know,
you can see the steepness of the cliffs
exactly how he described them.
[sails flapping]
[seagulls squawking]
[Chris] I am from the great maritime city of Liverpool
and this is my yacht, Roma, where I live.
When I was 25, I really screwed up my life
and I ended up going to prison.
I'm not proud of that fact at all,
I'm actually quite ashamed about it.
But I do believe now that it was meant to happen
because it's put me on this path now.
From the day I got out of prison,
if my life was a graph it's just done that since.
It's just gone up and up and up.
[narrator] Chris left prison
gripped by a life changing ambition-
to sail around the world single handed.
[seagulls squawking]
[Chris] A light bulb lit up and I knew
this was what I'm meant to be doing with my life.
This is who I am and who I should be.
So I quit everything I was doing.
It's time to sell the house, sell everything that I own
and that's how I got my boat.
[narrator] Tofua's rocky coast will make getting ashore
a major challenge.
Ant decides not to attempt it until morning.
[Ant] As you can see the sun's setting,
it's the end of the first day
and I've got to remember
that these guys aren't military personnel.
They're trying their hardest.
[Sam] Still no joy, Dan?
Mate... mate, I was just about to go.
Fuck off.
I was just about to go.
As you can hear, a lot of the lads
are finding it hard to wee.
[Rishi] Is it working, Dan?
[Dan] Oh, mate! I was just about to piss
but it's gone right back in now.
[crew laughs]
I didn't think it would be so hard to pee!
It's because your muscles are so tensed
because you're trying to balance.
I had like abdominal pains 'cause I couldn't pee.
[sails flapping violently]
[narrator] Four a.m.
Big wave.
[various crew members] Whoa!
[narrator] A fierce squall blows up out of nowhere.
[waves crashing]
[Ant] Make sure you're clipped in, guys.
Quite big movements.
[Dan grunting]
It's not gusting mate, this is hurricane,
cyclone.
[Ant] Conrad's on the helm.
Getting pretty bad now.
[narrator] Strong winds are driving the boat
towards Tofua's jagged shoreline.
[Conrad] Standby for the jibe.
[Ant] Standing by. [Conrad] Okay, go.
[Luke] Inside or outside?
[Chris] Outside.
[narrator] The crew fight to keep their tiny boat
off the rocks.
[suspenseful music]
[Conrad] The sea state's quite rough,
it's a sailor's nightmare.
[heavy wind] [sails flapping]
I think I'm gonna throw up.
[Freddy heaving]
[narrator] First to feel the effects
is the crew's youngest member, 23 year old Freddy.
Freddy's being sick.
[heaving]
He alright, Dan?
[groaning]
[Dan] Are you okay, mate?
Better out than in. [laughs]
[music ends abruptly]
[narrator] It's just a taste of what the Pacific Ocean
has in store for them.
[adventure music] [waves crashing]
They just got a fucking reality check, basically
and it's fucking hit 'em smack in the face.
[unknown male] Wave! Wave! Wave.
It's only gonna get worse and worse and worse.
[waves crashing]
[wind howling]
[music ends]
[Chris] ♪ Oh what a beautiful morning ♪
♪ Oh what a beautiful day
[Rishi] I've never been happier to see the sun.
Last night was one hell of a night.
Like all good nights, I threw up.
[narrator] The men are just 35 miles
into Captain Bligh's 4000 mile voyage
and have spent their first night battling wild seas.
I'm like so hungry.
Probably the most hungry I've ever been in my entire life.
[narrator] Breakfast is a single ship's biscuit
made from flour, salt and water.
Exactly what Bligh and his men survived on.
[crew laughing]
Urgh!
It's like joke food, isn't it. [all laugh]
[narrator] The men's basic ration
will be biscuits and some dried beef.
A daily intake of just over 400 calories.
Very 18th century.
These are all different sizes but the same weight, okay?
Mate, that's not good.
[Rishi] Mate, you've got one of those every eight hours.
Oh,
does taste like shit, though.
[narrator] Rishi is in charge of rationing
and is ready to cook anything they catch or forage en route.
[Rishi] I'm quite a chef.
I ran a chalet in the Alps for six months,
three course meals for 18 people every day.
So I can cook but I don't really cook sea food.
Sea food isn't my go to dish.
If we get a fish,
I will do my best to gut it and skin it
and do whatever it takes. I'll get stuck in definitely.
[tense music]
[narrator] The volcanic island of Tofua
is the best chance of finding food and water for 400 miles.
But daylight reveals just how dangerous
getting ashore will be.
If you just look at the waves
crashing against the, the rock there.
It is pretty daunting right now actually.
I was just wondering what Bligh must have thought
if he saw this and he thought
well how am I gonna get ashore here?
[pulleys rattling]
[wind howling]
You can hear the winds coming off, shhh.
[Chris] Don't do the jib yet.
[Chris] Let the jib... [Freddy] I know, I know. I know.
[Ant] Guys, one voice. Conrad's voice.
[Conrad] Can we have a bit more tension on that...
[narrator] They need to find a sheltered spot
where they can drop anchor.
But strong currents are driving them onto the rocks.
[Conrad] Let's get the oars out.
Quick as we can, guys.
[narrator] The only way to control the boat
is sheer muscle power.
Oars back.
[Conrad] And one...
Got the winds against us,
tide against us
but Bligh's men were here so we're gonna be there.
[unknown male] One. [Conrad] Guys I can see
a hut there, just round the corner.
[narrator] Ant's number two, Conrad
has spotted a promising bay.
[Rishi] Two, one! Come on, boys!
We've got 200m past these jagged rocks here.
We've gotta give it all otherwise this journey's over,
the boat is finished.
[Rishi] This is fucking shit.
Just rowing hard.
[Conrad] In or out, in or out, in or out, quickly!
[sails flapping]
[Chris] Can't get it out.
[narrator] Fearing Chris might lose his oar,
Ant steps in.
[Ant] Come on.
[unknown male] Alright boys?
- Can't get it in with the gusts. [Ant] Let's go, let's go.
[Ant] Keep the noise down, let's get this done!
[Chris] I can't get them out with the gusts on this side.
[Ant] Keep the noise down. Let's get this done!
Two, one! Keep rowing, row, row, row, row!
[Ant] Let's go, boys! Come on! [Conrad] Row, row! One, two.
[Conrad] Come on, Chris, put your back into it mate. One.
[Conrad] Come on, get it in please lads.
Big row, big row everyone.
[Conrad] Okay. Ant, I'm gonna jump in.
Jump out, jump out, jump out.
[narrator] Conrad takes over for Chris.
One.
[Conrad] Two. Come on!
Hundred metres, guys, let's go.
[Rishi] Big push now, come on!
Two, one.
[Conrad] Fuck. Two.
[unknown male] We have to anchor here?
Yeah, I think we should anchor here now.
[Conrad] Okay, yeah, let's do it.
[Rishi] Boys, a sterling effort that. [applause]
[Ant] Well done everyone, that was amazing.
[Rishi] Well done boys,
you should be proud of yourselves there
[unknown male] Yeah.
This is it. First bit of land.
[Ant] See what's on there. [Sam] Good luck.
[upbeat music]
[Ant] Hey watch out, that's very slippery, watch out.
Whoo hoo!
[Ant] Good luck!
[narrator] Most of the men stay on board
to keep the boat off the rocks.
They're not impressed by Chris' rowing.
[Rishi] You know what,
I don't mean to be a bitch, right,
but Chris didn't wanna row, he didn't put an oar in.
You've cottoned on to his attitude though,
haven't you? I don't...
[Conrad] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Conrad] He certainly got my back up,
particularly when he sat there going...
[deep rumble] [tropical birds chirping]
[Ant] Right, what I want you to do, mate,
[Chris] Yeah. [Ant] I need you to collect
fire wood and we're gonna go off and forage about
- see what we can get, mate. [Chris] Okay.
[Ant] Happy? [Chris] Yeah.
[Ant] Let's get this done. [Chris] Let's do this.
[Ant] Remember, mate,
this is not two separate teams here, we're still one team here.
- Yeah. - So anything that you're doing
just think about the lads, alright?
[Chris] Okay. [Ant] If they get into the shit
mate, you're their point of call, okay?
Alright.
[Ant] Chris, at no point do I want you to get in and out
[Ant] of that water by yourself, [Chris] I won't mate, no.
[Ant] okay, you stay here. [Chris] I will.
[Chris] I'll just do exactly what I've been tod.
[leaves rustling]
[birds chirping] [waves crashing]
Told to wait here to collect firewood.
Really, really not happy.
Didn't realise I was doing this just to be treated
like a ten year old kid.
[Chris] Ant's just tricked me
into fucking staying there like a ten year old kid
with a knife collecting firewood.
[Luke] He is not pleased.
[Rishi] It's a real shame that that was Jacks' attitude there.
We're all part of a team, you know,
we've all got a job to do.
And if that's the job he's been assigned to do,
he should take some pride in it.
[Rishi shouting] Have you got much firewood?
Fuck him!
He can collect his own firewood, mate!
The only one thing I'd say, mate, is he's Captain Bligh.
Just remember, he's our captain.
It's just bollocks.
[birds chirping]
[narrator] The men are relying on Ant to find food and water.
[panting] If you look here,
this looks more like an animal [panting] track.
It's big.
Could be a pig.
[whispering] They're hard, hard things to catch.
But when you catch 'em, oh.
[narrator] Ant is climbing the same volcano
Bligh scaled in 1789.
[eerie music]
[Bligh] We went off into the country.
We advanced within two miles of the foot of the volcano
which is almost constantly burning,
but nothing eatable could be found.
We returned extremely fatigued.
When I came to the precipice, I felt dizzy and faint.
Upon the whole,
we considered ourselves on as miserable a spot of land
as could well be imagined.
[Ant panting] There's nothing on this island.
[narrator] Ant has spent six hours
looking for food in Tofua's steamy interior.
[pants]
Am I gonna let Tofua break me?
Definitely not.
[inspiring music]
[Ant] Coconuts.
[Ant] I can see 'em.
[soft thud]
Way-ah!
[Dan] How many have you got so far?
Probably got about 20.
I want to average about 30
so that we've all got sort of three coconuts each
for our next leg.
If I have to fucking die to get those I will.
[waves crashing] [wind blowing]
[narrator] All Ant has to show for his efforts on Tofua
is a handful of coconuts
and a crew member having mutinous thoughts.
I got myself in a real bad state this afternoon.
[Chris] Quite angry at Ant at the time.
But I'm finding it kind of hard
being stuck on a boat with nine guys, you know,
it's only gonna be a matter of time
before people really start to snap
and start getting pissed off for real.
Oh my god, looks like the Teletubbies sun.
[Ben] Looks like a pyramid.
[Rishi] Mate, it rises so quickly.
[soft instrumental music]
[narrator] The volcanic island of Tofua
has left the men hungry
and Chris suffering.
[Chris] I've been bitten bad last night.
That's not just one mosquito,
that's a swarm of them, isn't it?
[fire crackling softly]
[narrator] Captain Ant is also feeling the pressure.
Last night I sort of felt a bit that I'd let the team down
'cause I'd got nothing for them apart from coconuts.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
the crew are getting used to life on a small boat.
[Sam] Day three and we've already been reduced
to that of beasts.
[chuckles] Oh my god.
[Sam] Literally shitting over the side.
[Freddy] Getting to know each other very well.
[chuckles]
[Sam] I'm definitely not going in the water now.
[Sam laughs]
[Rishi] What the fuck is he doing?
Chris!
We're here as a team, yeah?
If he gets injured, he's our responsibility.
He's not thinking about us.
[Freddy] It's completely selfish, what he's doing.
He's just showing off.
I don't know who he's showing off to
'cause he's not impressing anyone.
[Rishi] Stop jumping off of there!
[Rishi] Stop it!
[Rishi] Stop doing that!
[Chris] Why? [Rishi] Stop it! It's dangerous!
[Chris] It's fine.
[Rishi] There's six people over here that have said
- we don't want you doing it! [Chris] What?
[Rishi] You're putting yourself at risk, mate!
There's no way Ant will have said to him,
go down and jump off the rocks.
He's got absolutely no discipline whatsoever.
[Freddy] Jesus Christ, come on!
[Freddy] Chris,
go up and around!
Don't go down the cliff!
[Chris] Cliff?
[Rishi] Do not go down there!
[Chris] It's a fucking rock!
Shut the fuck up for once and go up that way.
[Chris] No, how about you shut the fuck up!
[Chris] Don't speak to me like I'm a fucking kid!
[Chris] And I'm not your child
so don't fucking tell me what to do!
Fucking dickhead!
[Rishi] He just doesn't care.
This isn't a fucking holiday.
Amazing. We've been at, we've been at sea for two days
and there's already conflict.
Two days
and people are already sort of getting
a bit antsy with each other.
If you say to me, "don't do it, stop it,"
I'm gonna fucking do it, do you know what I mean?
[Chris] I'm an adventurer, that's what I am
and he's going, "you're risking your life" and all this.
Yeah!
[Chris] Don't fucking tell me not to be me.
My job title is sailor adventurer.
That's exactly what my job title is.
[tense music]
[Ant] Chris needs to listen a bit more.
You can tell he's got a problem with authority.
I'm telling him about four times to do stuff
and he's just not doing it.
He just needs to...
he's gonna make a lot of enemies otherwise.
[narrator] Ant is leaving Tofua with a bag of coconuts
and one man isolated from the rest of the crew.
But when Captain Bligh left in 1789
he had much worse to deal with.
After making contact with the native islanders,
he traded buttons for food
but when he tried to leave, the mood darkened.
[ominous crashing]
[Bligh] The beach was lined with natives
and we heard nothing but the knocking of stones together.
I knew very well this was the sign of an attack.
[narrator] As the crew raced to the boat,
the islanders bombarded them with rocks,
killing one of Bligh's men.
[music fades]
[Conrad] Bye bye, Tofua.
[Ben] Good fucking riddance. [Ant] Good riddance.
[laughs]
[narrator] With a 4000 mile voyage still ahead of them,
Captain Ant needs to pull his crew together.
Guys, let's not fucking fall apart
and let's always, always please think about the team.
Chris, I'm sorry mate but your attitude sucked.
The six people on the boat here
who have concern for your welfare...
- I'm fine, trust me. [Conrad] Alright?
Listen. I don't want you dicking around on the rocks.
I wasn't dicking around.
The attitude needs to fucking stop.
We tell you to do something, from now on just do it, okay?
[Ant] Everyone happy?
[Conrad] Alright, let's get the sails up.
[pulleys rattling]
As far as I'm concerned, one big happy family, mate.
Oooh. Shit. [crew laughs]
[eerie music]
[whale exhaling]
[narrator] The next stage of the journey
is 500 miles of open ocean.
Like Bligh, Ant is relying on the trade winds
to carry them towards Fiji
where he hopes he'll have more luck
finding food and water.
I'm one of them sort of people, me, I get myself in a real mood
and then 20 minutes later I'm, you know...
- Fine. - Yeah. Sorry, apologising...
let's move on.
[Rishi] Chris, sorry I yelled at you earlier, mate.
I was just fucking worried about you, alright?
- Oh no, it's alright. [Rishi] If you slipped
and fucking fell on your head...
- I know. [Rishi] We'd have all been
pissed off, right?
Yeah, forget it mate. Cheers dude.
Good lad.
[sails flapping]
[adventure music]
[narrator] They make good progress,
travelling 100 miles in 24 hours.
[music fades]
[narrator] But then suddenly the wind drops.
[Conrad] Come on, wind.
[boat creaking]
[sails flapping] The sun is baking.
It's so hot.
[eerie music]
[narrator] Every 18th century crew
feared the doldrums.
Marooned at sea they faced extreme thirst
and the spectre of madness.
[sails flapping]
This is the hardest bit for me, mate, this is.
[Ant] Don't like sitting around like this. I get agitated.
I was talking to Conrad about it earlier and he said
it can be one of the most dangerous things
about a journey, this.
- Why? - Because it's when men give up.
We're basically trotting along at a snail's pace
and the abnormal stench that is now emanating across the boat,
it's disgusting and at times it can be overwhelming.
[Ant] I was asleep.
I was lying there and I was thinking... I must stink.
I thought to myself, yeah, I need to go and have a wash.
Then I turned my head.
My head was here
and I had a little tickle on my nose and it was that.
[Ant grunts]
[Sam] On this boat your face is only ever,
I'd say two feet max from another man's bottom.
[drums]
[silence]
[gentle music] [sails flapping]
[narrator] Carpenter, Ben, takes advantage of the lull
to make his first repair.
He's not only a carpenter,
he's a seamstress, he's a tailor,
he's multi-talented.
Sewing captain's trousers back together
'cause he's been a bit too active.
Probably didn't like my ball bag hanging out too much.
[Ben] I did get bored of looking at little Ant all the time
and you just got these things jangling at you.
But no, very kind of him.
Looking after each other as we should be doing.
[music fades]
[lively string music]
[sails flapping]
[music intensifies]
[narrator] After 36 hours with barely a breath of wind
the sails finally fill.
[Ant] We're smashing through the waters
at the moment.
[pulleys rattling]
[Conrad] Yeah, I reckon we're doing
five plus knots here.
[string music]
[Dan] Just feels like we've got a little bit under our belt now.
- Yeah, it feels wicked. Yeah [Dan] Does, doesn't it?
[music intensifies]
The wind has picked up, the waves have picked up,
the swell, the spray,
it's all gotten quite sort of big
in the last hour or so
which creates that nasty sort of atmosphere
of like foreboding.
[music fades]
[narrator] These are dangerous waters.
[low rumble]
The men must thread their way through a scatter of islands
fringed by treacherous underwater reefs.
Striking a reef could rip their boat apart.
So we're gonna hit this area at nightfall
which is not good.
[narrator] It's up to second in command, Conrad,
to chart a safe passage.
[Conrad] This island here, it's not lit.
You know, it's four miles wide between this reef here
and this island.
It's gonna be dark, you know,
the last thing I wanna do is put the boat on a reef.
[narrator] Conrad has raced round the world single handed
but he's used to having GPS,
online charts and weather reports.
[Ant] Listen in, guys.
Okay, we're gonna pass through this tonight.
I need everyone to say vigilant.
If we say all hands on deck, everyone's up, okay?
Because when we go through it,
it's gonna be fucking serious times ahead.
[deep rumble] [tense music]
[ocean roaring]
[Ant] This is definitely the biggest challenge so far.
Once we get through here we're happy sailing but
we've hit it at a bad time.
[Chris] Is that imagination or was that a lump of land?
[Freddy] There's an island
and a smaller blobby bit on the end of it.
Right over there.
It's the first time that it's hit me
that this is pretty serious shit.
Just gotta be cautious of these little ones here.
[tense music intensifies]
[narrator] In daylight it's easy to see the surf
breaking over the reef.
[ocean roaring]
But at night they'll be hard to spot.
[Luke] You can think of us crashing into a reef
and the boat disintegrating
and all of us going AWOL in the water would be
the number one worst scenario.
[Conrad] Rish? [Rishi] Yep.
Can you be my ears and eyes?
[Rishi] I was just waiting for the call.
You're sort of looking
trying to sort of pick up some breaking waves.
[heavy wind]
[sails flapping]
[Rishi] I can't see anything yet.
[Dan] Luke looks like he's praying.
[Ben] He is. He's praying for both of us.
[rattling]
[Rishi] Can you hear something?
[heavy wind]
[Rishi] Sounds like a bit of a roar.
[Conrad] I've got a very strong gust here, guys.
[pulleys rattling]
[Conrad] Try and get that sail in a bit.
Tell me when, Conrad.
[Conrad] That's good!
[narrator] Half way through the reefs
they're hit by a sudden storm.
[wind howling]
[Conrad] Wave!
[unknown male] Woo hoo!
At least the water's warm. [laughs]
Guys, it's not a game, it's not a joke.
If we end up in the water
we have to fucking wipe this out.
We've hit some pretty big swell.
Big waves. Big, big waves.
[crew] Wave! Wave!
[narrator] It's the first serious test
of Ant as a captain.
Big wave!
[narrator] And of Conrad's sailing skills.
[wind howling]
The wind's shifted 180 degrees
and it's blowing about 30 knots.
[wind howling]
I am clinging on for dear life right now.
[unknown male] Big wave! Whoa!
[ocean roaring]
[Conrad] Is everyone in the boat?
[Dan] Yep.
This is fucking scary.
The boat feels really unstable.
[Conrad] Put that one back in a bit.
[pulleys rattling]
[ominous music]
[wind howling]
This is pretty shit.
I've never ever experienced anything like this before.
[unknown male] Wave!
The heart is going, mate. The heart is going.
[wind howling]
[Ant] Is everyone okay?
[Dan] Yeah, we're all good!
[pulleys rattling]
[narrator] It's 7:00 a.m.
The men have made it safely through the reef system
and survived their first major pacific storm.
It was horrible.
I think it really shows you how vulnerable we are
and how sort of extreme this journey is.
Everybody knows here that this is for real
and this isn't a game.
That storm we got caught in was a matter of life or death
and they know it now.
[waves roaring]
When people like Conrad and Ant kick in,
they are iron men really.
I pre-judged Ant before I got on the boat
and I thought he was like a hard man bullshitter.
But after seeing him in the storm with Conrad,
I think he's 100%.
Sorry Ant.
Sorry mate.
[Ant] What was that?
[Ant] Oy, oy, I'm not your mate, I'm your captain.
[Ant laughs]
I was fucking wrong, right?
I'm not sorry for that. Fuck him!
He's a wanker. [Dan laughs]
[Ben] After last night are we classed as sailors or what?
I think you are. [various crew members] Hey hey!
You can put sailor on your CV now. [crew laughs]
[wind howling]
[Dan] Jesus Christ.
[Dan] Fucking hell! Look at the fucking size of that.
[Conrad] Wave! [everyone] Whoa!
[Conrad] Be ready on the sheets.
Big squall coming in here guys.
[narrator] The high seas aren't letting up.
[crew] Wave!
[narrator] Conditions Bligh and his men
faced at exactly the same point in their voyage.
[Chris] "Monday the 4th of May. this day the weather
[Bligh] was very severe.
It blew a violent storm.
[Bligh] The sea ran very high.
We were now in very imminent danger.
The sea curling over the stern of the boat
obliged us to bail with all our might.
[ominous music]
[unknown male] Whoa! Oh no.
[Chris] Come on lads, bail.
[wind howling]
[Chris] We're stuck on this open top boat.
We've already gone through hell.
Heaven is yet to arise.
[wind fades]
[narrator] It's a new day
and for Chris, there's a new problem.
[Ant] Whoa ho ho. Luke.
[Sam] Oh Jesus!
[Chris groans]
That's fucking in pain!
[Chris] We're in this situation
where you're cold and you're wet.
When you've got fucking a big blister
under your arm pit that's swelling
and you've got that infection on my leg.
Luke, that's getting worse.
[narrator] Chris cut his leg in Tofua five days ago
and now the wound is infected.
It is really challenging because if I were in South London
where I normally work,
I would know what to do and I'd know that they, you know,
maybe needed to go to hospital
whereas here,
I know what the solution is but I'm powerless,
there's nothing I can do.
[tense music]
[narrator] Two days and nights of rain follow.
[music crescendo]
[Bligh] Among the hardships we were to undergo,
that of being constantly wet was not the least.
Our limbs were so benumbed
that we could scarce find the use of them.
[Sam] Ah!
The problem now is that everyone's hands
have started to become really sore.
It's almost like the skin is like slopping off.
[pulleys rattling] [Sam] Ah!
[Sam gasps in pain]
[Sam] Thirst I was prepared for,
sleep deprivation, hunger,
all that, yes, but trench hand, no.
You know, you can't really...
picking up ropes, you know, you got to be really careful
'cause the skin'll just come off in chunks.
The story of the mutiny of the Bounty
I've known since I was a little boy.
I mean I was weaned on that kind of stuff, you know?
I've gone through hardships before
and I think I can tolerate more discomfort
than your average person.
If I failed this for whatever reason
I would be devastated.
I mean, call that stubbornness, call that pride,
call it whatever you want.
I want to be there till the end.
[heavy wind]
I feel absolutely useless at the moment.
My hands are a mess
and I can't even grip stuff properly.
I'm no use as a camera man
and I'm no use around the boat.
I'm just getting in the way.
Literally, I don't think there is anything
I can do with these
Until they've had..
[Dan] They're not even bending, are they?
No.
[Dan] Mate.
[Rishi] We'll get there, guys.
Yeah, I know.
[soft piano music]
[narrator] They're just one week into Bligh's journey
with at least five more to go.
But the cracks are already starting to show.
[heavy rain]
That rain is like water torture.
It's tick-tick-tick tick-tick-tick-tick.
Like this is enough to break anyone.
[water dripping]
[Rishi] It keeps pouring in, mate.
Pretty serious stuff now this really.
[groaning]
[Dan] Everyone's shivering very violently.
Rain is just relentless, just relentless.
It won't, isn't stopping, it's not letting up.
[narrator] Finally, after three days of non-stop rain.
[Chris] You can see odd bits of sun and that.
And a little island.
[Ant] Look, look, look. See that on the horizon?
[Rishi] Oh, that looks absolutely amazing!
[Dan] A little bit of blue sky. How good does that look?
[laughs]
Under that tarpaulin, I think I had the lowest moment
of my whole life, no joke.
But there's hope again, you know?
To think that we might actually make it to landfall
which cannot come too soon.
[Conrad] Guys?
I think we might be in Bligh water.
[Dan] Ah.
[imitates gunshot]
[narrator] This stretch of water
takes its name from Bligh's epic voyage.
[Bligh] As I advanced towards the land in the west
it appeared in a variety of forms.
Extraordinary high rocks,
agreeably interspersed with high and low land.
I imagined these to be the islands called Fiji.
[Ben] Dolphins. [Chris] Dolphins!
[various crew members] Whay!
Hurray! Wow! Yes! Oh my god!
[crew laughs and cheers]
[Ben] Hey, look! Look how close they are!
You could reach out and touch them. It's so cool.
[Ben] They're just riding the waves like us.
Amazing, mate. Absolutely amazing.
[various crew members] Whay! Yay!
Mate, this is insane.
It's beautiful. Look at them go!
[various crew members] Whay! Whoa!
Let's just get to Fiji now, mate.
[music fades]
[narrator] Next time... [unknown male] Yes!
[Luke] Home sweet home.
[narrator] The crew make it onto dry land.
It's been a long time coming, this island.
[narrator] Get to grips with their food.
[Ant] If they try and spear it.
[Rishi] We return, victors!
[narrator] But there's trouble in paradise.
[Freddy] If he was gonna be on that boat
for the rest of the trip,
I don't think I'd do it to be honest.
I'm gonna have a mutiny on my hands.
[adventure music]
[music ends]