'Had my first experience of squalls ... I've also had a chance to do some homework'

He is not old enough drive a car or buy a drink in a pub. It will be two years before he can get married and four before he can vote. Michael Perham, however, is on the verge of making history: at 14, he is within days of becoming the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic single handed.

The teenager, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, set off from Gibraltar on the 3,500-mile voyage to the Caribbean on November 18. With 670 miles remaining until he reaches his destination on the island of Antigua, he expects to break the world record for the youngest unaided sailor across the ocean, possibly as early as New Year's Day.



Speaking by satellite phone on his yacht, Cheeky Monkey, he said yesterday that he was "cruising along quite nicely".

With sponsorship from local companies, Michael has taken three weeks off school to complete the voyage, during which he used the trade winds that have carried sailors from Europe to the Americas for centuries.

The trip was scheduled to be completed before Christmas but had to be extended after satellite equipment on his 28ft (nine metre) boat failed and he was forced to make a diversion to Lanzarote and the Cape Verde islands. He said that he was missing warm toast, cold drinks and crisps, but his diet of "mainly Tesco tinned food" was reliable. "You empty the tin and five minutes later - voila!"

Michael's father, Peter, a chartered surveyor and experienced yachtsman, is following two miles behind his son and keeps regular radio contact with him.