LONDON — Freeze-dried food. Autopilot failures. Brutal storms. Accidental dunkings.
A 17-year-old British sailor endured all those trials and more to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Thousands cheered as Mike Perham arrived Saturday in Portsmouth.
A Guinness World Records representative has certified Perham is now the youngest person to sail around the world with some assistance. He was 16 when he set off in November and turned 17 in March.
He grabbed the record Thursday after sailing 28,000 miles to cross the finish line off the coast of Cornwall, in southern England, after a mere nine months.
Perham is a few months younger than Zac Sunderland, from Thousand Oaks, Calif., who claimed the youngest solo crown in July when he completed a similar trip in 13 months.
Perham’s boat, a 50-foot racing yacht called in honor of his sponsor, finished at 9:55 a.m. Thursday. He sailed with assistance, which means he was alone, but stopped for repairs.
In a blog entry dated Thursday, Perham said the final leg of his trip “does feel a bit weird.”
“I feel like I just want it to keep going, so I can have many more adventures,” he wrote. On the other hand, he couldn’t wait to see his father again. “I’m very much looking forward to the reunion and his cheesy smile and all the rubbish jokes he brings along,” Perham wrote.
