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Youngest Person to Sail Atlantic

by Dave Luna (RSS feed) on Jan 3rd 2007 at 10:05PM

Earlier today at 14:00 GMT, 14-year-old Michael Perham navigated into Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua where he became the youngest person to sail the Atlantic Ocean single-handedly. He began the challenging six-week, 3,500 mile voyage in Gibraltar and ended up in the record books.

Though, he didn't sail away without any backup. His father, Peter, tailed Michael's yacht -- named Cheeky Monkey -- to keep an eye on the lad. The two Perhams kept in touch via VHF radio between their boats, and kept in close contact with land via satellite phone.

The trip may be over, but you can still follow the odyssey. Michael kept a travel blog in which he detailed life at sea, technical difficulties, and animal encounters. (And I know how much you like blogs, dear reader.)

I have a lot of respect for Michael's Atlantic accomplishment. When I was 14, I don't think I'd even crossed my own street by myself. Well, that was probably just because I was locked in my room transfixed by Jenny McCarthy on MTV's Singled Out.

Filed under: Blogs, Stories, United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

World Traveler Jan 4th 2007 7:41AM

WOW!!! It is a amazing achievement of 14-year-old Michael Perham. Keep it up!!!

DaveW Jan 5th 2007 2:51PM

Great news! Good to see that we're good at something! Crickets useless. Footballs useless. So lets concentrate on sailing!! Congrats. to Michael for a great achievement - how about the Olympics next ;-)