Ocean racing legend Mike Golding has rounded Cape Horn in his Vendee Globe Open 60 Gamesa becoming the only person to have raced around Cape Stiff three times each way: west to east and east to west.

His passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic today is his third time solo in a Vendée Globe, rounding west to east in 2001, 2005 and now 2013. And this time – which will probably be his last solo racing passage – the relief has been considerable.

After taking something of a beating in the east Pacific Ocean over recent days, with stormy gusts to 45 knots and very big and confused seas and with the proliferation of ice, which has drifted north on to the race track, made this, his most stressful rounding yet.

‘I think there has probably been ice before, but we just did not know about it and went around blissfully unaware in years gone by. But now with the ice-tracking technology available to the race, we are all the more aware and it is much more stressful,’ Golding explained.

Golding first rounded 20 years ago during the 1992-1993 British Steel Challenge. He rounded again when he set a new record in his solo east to west circumnavigation in 1993-1994 backed by Group 4. He returned again in 1996-1997 en route to winning the BT Global Challenge. Now with his third Vendée Globe rounding solo, he extends his existing record.

His focus will be on the Atlantic ahead and catching Le Cam if he can. Last night, Jean Le Cam, sailing SynerCiel was making slow headway downwind and in very light conditions. Over the last 24 hours, the skipper of SynerCiel covered only 180 miles on the direct route, and since the last ranking, has a speed of 3.9 knots.