Vendée Globe - Gamesa approaches Cape Horn

by Emily Caroe on 9 Jan 2013 Vendée Globe 2012-13 skipper Mike Golding is sailing relatively conservatively now, some 250 miles or about 18 hours to Cape Horn, very much into the mode in which he plans to make his sixth passage of the legendary cape.

'It is squally now again and I am just being careful. It went quiet for a time and I gybed just at the 0400hrs sked. I am about 60 miles off the coast. I’d like to have been a bit closer but if you are in there and you get a windshift you can look very average very quickly. It is so changeable. So I am just keeping going and taking it a bit carefully.'

Looking forward to the predicted weather for the passage, Golding is not too worried.

'It looks like I will go around in about 25kts of wind then there is a little quiet patch in the Le Maire Straits and then my routing takes me east of the Falklands.'

And considering that he has decided this will be his last Vendée Globe, it will be his final solo passage of Cape Horn.

'It might well be, and that is fine!

'I am very aware that this will be my last solo passage of the Cape. There are many things I am doing which might be for the last time but I am fine with that. I have had such a good run, I have nothing to complain about. I would like to enjoy it this time and get the weather to do so. It would be nice for it to be special.

'It is good to have caught those miles on Jean [Le Cam]. Suddenly when you look ahead to the Atlantic you can still imagine some attrition. For me and Jean there will be the high to negotiate and the Doldrums, there should be some opportunities.

'I don’t think the race over yet, there will some attrition among those in front of me. Of course we all have our own problems but what I have is containable, I need to take care and not take risks.'