Ellen faces biggest challenge

Solo sailor Ellen MacArthur today faces the greatest single challenge in her round-the-world epic - battling against mountainous seas as she rounds Cape Horn.

If she manages to find a safe passage through the notoriously treacherous waters, the 28-year-old will be on course to become the fastest person to sail single-handed and non-stop around the globe.

But MacArthur told the Standard she was preparing for a rough day. Today, as she enters a turbulent weather system with 50-knot winds, she will be facing waves up to 30 feet high.

As MacArthur approached Drake Passage, the stretch of water between the Antarctic and the tip of South America yesterday she said via satellite phone: "Rounding Cape Horn is a huge weight off anyone's shoulders, but it's not going to be an easy 24 hours, that's for sure - it's all over the shop.

"It's going to get rough. You just have to see the size of the waves around me now to realise the magnitude of this place. It's incredible, very powerful... You just know that you are so, so vulnerable.

"I think the chances of actually completing the trip once you go round Cape Horn go up considerably, there is no doubt about it."

Should she make it around Cape Horn she will crack open a mini bottle of champagne to celebrate - one of the few luxuries she was able to bring with her on her journey. MacArthur, sailing in 75-foot trimaran B&Q, is battling to beat a 72-day record for the journey, set last year by Frenchman Francis Joyon.

She is five days ahead of schedule. But even if she copes with Cape Horn there are plenty of challenges ahead, including the unstable winds of the Southern Ocean and the notorious Doldrums around the Equator.

She must cross the finish line off the French coast no later than 9 February if she is to beat Joyon's record.

MacArthur spends nearly three quarters of her time below deck in the central hull. Her living area is barely two metres wide and 1.5 metres high.

The space is divided into two storeys, with MacArthur living in the warmer upper cabin, above the water line, where there is just room for a heater, bunk, chart table, single-burner stove and sink.

She must eat 5,000 calories a day - twice her normal intake, and survives on a diet of freeze-dried food, which she boils, and energyboosting snacks such as muesli bars, nuts, c r acke r s, crisps, and toffees. To save weight, she drinks sea water purified by the boat's desalinator.