Young sailor deep in Southern Ocean

Teenaged sailor Mike Perham is now halfway to Australia as he attempts to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe singlehanded in his Open 50.

He was forced to stop in Cape Town for repairs to his rudder bearings, but has made good progress ever since as he heads towards Cape Horn.

From the Southern Ocean, he writes: ‘I’ve had a brilliant 24hours on board with some of the best sailing conditions this trip so far rocketing northeast. I’ve come up this way to dodge a high-pressure ridge coming off the tail of the front that rushed through earlier today. This fast and explosive low pressure has now swept under me at the pretty spectacular speed of about 50-60knots, giving me winds up to 35knots which makes for very good boat speeds.

Early last night I had the genneker up and it was really great to see Totallymoney.com absolutely loving it. We both feel so much more at ease if we’re trucking along in double figures (10knots plus). The whole boat feels so much more relaxed as we gracefully slide along, the only indication of our speed being the hum of the water rushing past the hull.

We’re now closer to Australia than South Africa and it’s a really good feeling seeing us edge ever closer to Down Under, now the days are ticking by really fast!’

Mike Perham’s website