Mike Perham, the teenager hoping to sail into the record books at the end of the month to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the Globe alone, has covered more than 1,000 miles during his first week and is now off the Florida coast.

Mike, who left Panama last Tuesday ( read previous story here ) has not been able to sleep for more than two hours a day, sometimes down to one and never longer than 15 minutes at a time. This is because he must stay alert for fear of being run down by one of the many ships that are following the same route between Panama and the East Coast of the US.

Mike explained: “The main thing is to be safe. The traffic has picked up a lot this evening – in the last hour I’ve had three ships pass within a few miles.”

Mike has also found the extreme heat particularly uncomfortable, adding: “It’s so, so hot inside that the last thing I want to do at the moment is sit at the chart table. It’s over forty degrees Celsius day and night.”

Another concern are pirates which are known to operate in this area. Mike is on an increased state of alert and his web tracker, showing anyone who visits his website Totallymoney.co’s course, has been suspended until he is clear of the region.

Weather (wind) permitting, the 17-year-old now expects to cross the Ushant/Lizard finish line off Falmouth in 3 weeks, and hopes to return to Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth around 25 August.

Dateline:0800 UTC 04/08/09
Position:23′ 41’N 81′ 58’W – 50 miles South of Key West, Florida
Speed:9-knots.

To find out more, visit www.totallymoney.com/sailmike .