YOUNGEST CHALLENGER

Teen sailor to reach Panama

07-04-2009 | FATIMA ASVAT

Seventeen-year-old Mike, battling to become the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, will transit the Panama Canal Monday

Panama Star PANAMA. Michael Perham, the 17-year-old British yachtsman who is on course to become the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world, will be arriving in Panama next week.

Michael, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, set sail last November on his epic 26,000 mile solo world voyage. His boat, Totallymoney.com, will be arriving at the Flamenco Marina at the entrance to the Panama Canal, Pacific side on Monday, July 6.

His latest blog entry describes an easy sail towards Panama so far: “This is pretty perfect sailing, there’s hardly any pressure on Totallymoney.com in these conditions, and everything’s running smoothly, the kind of conditions sailors dream of - being able to lounge about and just take a back seat while the boat sails itself in glorious conditions.

“There’s seventeen knots on the beam, the genneker’s flying and Totallymoney.com is gracefully gliding over the water, cruising towards Panama at nine knots, even though there’s a two-knot current against us.”

Earlier this week, Perham blogged on his Panama transit, saying he was “really excited” about it. Perham wrote: “Mike Broughton (my weather router) and I have been studying the last 400 miles into Panama and it certainly looks like it’s going to be an interesting last two days (Saturday and Sunday).”

“Panama is situated bang on the doldrums and the bay can be notoriously fickle with no wind at all at one moment and loads of squalls of up to 40 knots the next - which I’d really make the most of, should the opportunity present itself.”

“Everything in Panama has now been arranged for my arrival and transit so it should be a pretty quick passage through, hopefully. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the familiar waters of the North Atlantic,” he said.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Zac Sunderland, who made a quick stop in Panama earlier this year, is on the verge of completing his 24,568-mile voyage at sea. According to his blog, Mike was 590 miles from hsi final destination, Marina del Rey (California), last Tuesday.

For the past year, Zac and Mike have been battling to become the youngest person to sail around the globe – solo. Although Sunderland is set to finish his voyage by mid-July, because Perham is younger, he only has to make it back home by November to win the title.