THE Christmas scene at Mike Golding's waterside home in Hampshire is one of tranquillity and order. Beautiful house, perfect calm, idyllic views.

Compare this with 47 degrees south, a few hundred miles off the Kerguelin Islands deep down in the turbulent Southern Ocean.

There, the Southampton yachtsman is currently dodging icebergs larger than the WestQuay shopping centre, seeking a respite from big and treacherous seas so he can climb his 90-foot mast to mend a broken shackle on his headsail furling gear.

He left his home in November to compete in a race that has become recognised as one of the most dangerous and difficult challenges available to professional yachtsmen.

The Vendee Globe. A single-handed non-stop round the world race which, historically, produces a drama for each degree of latitude passed.

In 1996 for instance, Pete Goss went to the rescue of Raphael Dinelli, while fellow Brit Tony Bullimore capsized and survived several days under his upturned hull before being picked up by the Australian navy.

The Vendee also claims lives - Canadian Gerry Roufs in 1996 and Nigel Burgess in 1992 - making it an event in which skill and success are connected only by luck.

For Golding, the Vendee has taken four years and more than a million pounds to plan. He built his Open 60 Team Group 4 in 1998 and set off on the Around Alone Race to test it out.

Until he ran aground 100 miles off New Zealand, he was going great guns, lying in first place and achieving speeds that left more experienced campaigners in awe.

He enjoyed more success in the Transat Jacques Vabre and, earlier this year, in the Europe NewMan Star. His consistency made him a favourite to win the Vendee.

But just six hours after leaving Les Sables d'Olonnes on France's Atlantic coastline, all his hopes and dreams were swept away with a storm that sent his mast crashing over the side of the boat.

He was forced back into port, his spirits in tatters, and made to wait while a new mast was fitted.

That disaster put paid to his chances of winning the race but, showing his customary determination, he revised his target and set off again a week later with the round the world monohull record in his sights, leaving the likes of Ellen MacArthur and Michel Desjoyeux ahead of him to battle it out for the coveted Vendee Globe title.