Michael Perham Will Be Youngest to Cross Pond Alone

Here's a sailing story to end 2006 on a high note...according to this feature in the Daily Mail, 14-year old Michael Perham is set to become the youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Though Michael's father, Peter, 47, a chartered surveyor and experienced yachtsman, is following two miles behind his son and keeping in regular radio contact...the boy has handled everything that's come his way from fierce line squalls to the doldrums and a Christmas holiday spent floating in the open ocean alone. The teenager, from land-locked Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, set off from Gibraltar on the 3,500-mile voyage to the Caribbean on November 18 aboard the 28-ft yacht, Cheeky Monkey. He hopes to reach Antigua, and break the world record for the youngest unaided sailor across the ocean, on New Years Day.