IAN Walker and the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race skippers are preparing for the toughest part of their round the world sailing odyssey.

The Southampton-based ex-Olympian and his Abu Dhabi crew will start the delayed fifth leg of the VOR from Auckland tomorrow.

Cyclone Pam has caused a 72-hour postponement, but now Walker has to face up to what he considers the hardest leg of all – taking on the perilous Southern Ocean to round Cape Horn en route to Itajaí in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

“When we’re in that part of the world and it’s night time, you’ve got ice in the water and you’re doing 30 miles per hour blind, it’s a worry,” he has said.

The 45-year-old dodged potentially boat breaking and race ending icebergs when he took on the infamous ocean in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race.

And in the 2011/12 race he was one of several skippers that had to enquire about emergency assistance in the Southern Ocean.

“We got a message back saying that the nearest ship was 1,000 miles away. That kind of focuses the mind,” he recalled.

“If you run into trouble in the Southern Ocean, the chances are that help would come from one of the other boats in the race.

“It is a very feared and desolate part of the world.

“If you get a storm when you’re in the vicinity of Cape Horn you need your wits about you to survive.

“That’s obviously a very notorious part of the world and we’ll be down there for about two and a half weeks.”

Despite the fear-factor, Walker insists there were moments in the world’s toughest and longest professional sailing race when he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

“A third of the time you’re terrified because it’s so wet and windy and wild, and you’d rather be anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“It’s a very tough environment, particularly down below trying to live and exist in a carbon fibre shell that’s being tossed around the ocean.

“It’s anything but luxury.

“A third of the time is actually quite mundane with easy conditions.

“The other third is some of the best sailing and best racing of your life where you are neck and neck with another boat, or enjoying beautiful trade wind sailing under a starry sky, and there’s no place else you’d rather be.”