Intro:

All 13 Vendee Globe skippers were racing in the same ocean on New Year's Day after Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique) passed into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday morning (1 January).

Script:

For most January 1st is about sleeping in until midday, then spending the rest of the day recovering from the over priced and over indulgent night before.

Not for the hardcore sailors out at sea in the Vendee Globe however. For them it was facing up to the choppy waters and fierce winds.

Oh alright, a little bubbly won't hurt.

Leaders Francois Gabart (Macif) and Armel Le Cleac'h (Banque Populaire) were expected to pass Cape Horn to start their long ascent up the Atlantic towards the finish.

After 52 days at sea the passage of Cape Horn will be doubly stressful.

The duo seem set to suspend their rivalry temporarily and put prudence ahead of speed and competition.

Gabart held a 26-mile (41.84-kilometre) lead on Tuesday morning over Le Cleac'h and almost inevitably will play the pathfinder role.

But the reward for youngest skipper still on the race course seems set to be to lead on his first passage of Cape Horn.

When Alessandro Di Benedetto passed into the Pacific in the west, more than 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometres) behind Gabart, it meant that all 13 skippers were back racing in the same ocean.