17 year-old British sailor Mike Perham is on the verge of becoming the world’s youngest solo circumnavigator, as his 50ft yacht Totallymoney.com is fast approaching the finish line.

In his latest blog , Mike writes:

“Well, there was some fun surfing last night, that’s for sure! This ‘Bad Boy Low’, as it’s now been christened, certainly did what it said on the tin. Totallymoney.com was really zipping along at times, surfing down some totally huge swells, the biggest of which were over 45 feet!

But this morning I did something I’ve never done this trip yet. I actually put on the ‘brakes’. I reduced sail considerably and slowed from 11knots to nine. We’ve decided that it’d be better if I’m not too close to the shore when Hurricane Bill hits. I’m much happier out here with lots of sea room, so I can just let Bill pass overhead; it’s much better to be in a ding-dong away from the coast. The other reason for my slowing is that I’ve made such good progress across the North Atlantic, that I’m almost a day ahead of my scheduled arrival!

Having said that, despite the reduced sail, Totallymoney.com is still surfing along quite merrily with only a handkerchief up. The downside of not being so powered up is that the boat’s movement has significantly changed, I’m rocking and rolling about a lot more. To help deal with this, and to keep a reasonable distance from Bill, I’m intentionally sailing into a ridge of high pressure, so the wind is going to drop off much more, which will be nice as I haven’t had a day of light-ish conditions for quite a long time.

As I’ve drawn closer to home, much of the my day has been taken up with interviews. I was even emailed a complete schedule of interviews with one straight after the other at one point. The funniest point of the whole day though was being told over the phone that the BBC had done their own special forecast on TV just for me, telling everyone how the rapidly-approaching Hurricane Bill is going to affect little old me. Seems like things are certainly hotting up for crossing the finish line on Thursday and then arriving in Portsmouth on Saturday, which I’m just so excited about! See you there!”

Mike fixes a problem at the top of TotallyMoney.com’s mast

You can wave in Mike at Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth, on Saturday 29 August. Read more at www.totallymoney.com/sailmike .

And don’t forget to readYachting World’s November issueto find out more about Mike’s incredible journey.