Sailing schoolboy Mike Perham, 17, hoping to become the youngest solo circumnavigator, will be facing the hurricane season – from 1 June to 30 November, in the Atlantic – when he leaves the Panama Canal to sail through the Caribbean.

Gear failures on Totallymoney.com his chartered Open 50 have caused him to make lengthy, unplanned stopovers.

He was originally hoping to be back in Portsmouth in March, this then became July and now August.

American sailor Zac Sunderland, 17, is the current holder of the record, but as Mike is several months younger the title will go to him assuming he gets back before he is 18!