Teenage solo yachtsman, Mike Perham, has crossed the international dateline as he draws closer to his goal of becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe at just 17 years old.

(The international dateline is an imaginary line through the Pacific Ocean roughly corresponding to 180° longitude, to the east of which the calendar date is one day earlier than to the west.)

According to his blog ( www.totallymoney.com/sailmike ) Mike from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, missed the historic occasion, as he was busy hand steering his boat through 50-foot waves and winds topping 50 knots.

He explained: “I’ve been hand steering for most of the evening to keep Totallymoney.com as happy as she can be in these incredible conditions – and what fun it’s been, even if really nerve-wracking at times!

“Every now and again, the moon shines through the clouds and lights up the great, untamed beasts, and little old me hurtling down them in my tiny boat (as safely as humanly possible!).

“The swell is just huge at the moment. I’ve never seen anything like it and it makes Totallymoney.com feel very tiny. I’ve had to keep the power on so that we don’t get caught under any breaking waves – our boat speed has been seriously fast over the last six hours. To say that it’s like being on a giant log flume right now wouldn’t be far off.”

His father, Peter Perham, added: “We recorded 28 knots on Mike’s tracker at just about the time he was crossing the dateline. I spoke with him earlier and he seemed very pleased with the way the boat was handling the massive seas.”

Mike hopes to be home in around 55 days.