BRITAIN:He braved towering waves, teeth jarring squalls and endured the loneliness of the long-distance sailor, all the while trying to keep up with his school coursework. Yesterday Michael Perham, a 14-year-old schoolboy from landlocked Hertfordshire, just north of London, became the youngest person to cross the Atlantic single-handed.
Michael was escorted into the calm waters of English Harbour in Antigua by a flotilla of small boats. Immaculately turned out in white T-shirt and white cap, he punched the air and a steel band struck up a jaunty tune as he tied up.
Setting foot on dry land for the first time in more than six weeks, he said: "It feels absolutely fantastic. Absolutely brilliant." He hugged his father, Peter, who arrived a few minutes later having shadowed his son
across the Atlantic in another yacht, always staying a mile or so away.
Michael then spoke to his mother, Heather, back in Potters Bar. He assured her he was quite well, before, in typical teenage fashion, cutting the phone call short: "I really can't talk for long - sorry." Though it was early in
the morning when he arrived in Antigua, Michael was already thinking about having a "scrumptious" lunch - he has survived on ready meals and tinned food - and later on a lovely, soft, unsoggy bed which did not rock from side to side.
He said he had missed his Play-Station and his bike. The teenager insisted he had not felt in danger. "The worst bit was being away from my family and people generally," he said. "It was really a fantastic trip. I enjoyed almost every minute of it."
The UK's deputy prime minister John Prescott, himself a former merchant seaman, was one of the first to congratulate the teenager's "remarkable" feat. "Michael has proved himself another hugely successful sailor
in the great British maritime tradition," he said.
Dame Ellen MacArthur called it a "huge achievement", adding: "He's done incredibly well to spend six weeks on his own at 14." Despite Michael's insouciance on reaching land, he suffered his fair share of trials and
tribulations, vividly recounted in a blog. "Experienced my first experience of squalls, they really do knock your teeth out," he wrote on November 25th.
Michael went on to describe how on December 15th he had to tie a rope around his waist and jump overboard to cut free his steering gear. In the blog he also expressed boyish joy at seeing dolphins skimming alongside his boat, sunbathing, blue skies and flying fish landing in his lap. "It is an amazingly good feeling when you are on the open sea and no land in sight," he wrote. He celebrated Christmas by setting off a flare.
The trip was scheduled to be completed before Christmas but had to be extended after satellite equipment on his 9m boat, Cheeky Monkey, failed and he was forced to make a diversion to Lanzarote and the Cape Verde
islands.
Throughout, Michael kept in touch with family and friends via satellite phone and the internet. He entertained himself by playing the drums and the guitar and honing his juggling skills. But he also found time to do at least a little bit of his school coursework. Stuart Phillips, the head teacher of his school, Chancellors secondary in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, said: "His parents spoke to us about the time he would be missing from school. We have provided him with a revision programme to support him." But the head admitted that the boy would have learned important non-academic lessons from the 3,500-mile trip.
"What he has achieved is an education in itself and when people achieve success in something like this it translates into success in other areas. Michael will have learnt a lot about himself and learnt resilience. It has
been a great opportunity for him to develop."
Michael, who has sailed since he was seven, has ambitions of sailing around the world. But, for the moment, he will have to once more concentrate on his school work. -