Mike Perham, the British teenager attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world, will be marking a new milestone shortly. The 17-year-old from Potters Bar, Herts, will be passing Cape Leeuwin on the south-west corner of Australia today or tomorrow, one of the five great capes he hopes to tick off in his circumnavigation. He has already passed the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and has the South West Cape of Tasmania, the South East Cape of New Zealand and Cape Horn to go.

Mike said in his blog yesterday: Last night was good fun with a strong front passing through giving me a steady 38knots of wind for quite a while, gusting into the 40’s. We were definitely in surfing mode andTotallymoney.comwas clocking up some fantastic speeds with some very, very long surfs.’

Mike will soon be halfway across the Southern Ocean. He is taking a northerly route to avoid any ice and skillfully uses the speed of his open 50 racing boat to keep out of the way of any storms that pass by.

Meanwhile rival teen circumnavigator Zac Sunderland, 17, from California, is stuck at St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. He has been on the island for more than two weeks affecting repairs to his engine and autopilot. And while his circumnavigation has for so long been a carefree cruise consisting of lengthy stopovers in exotic ports, now, suddenly time is of the essence.

Zac must sail his 36ft Islander yacht,Intrepid, more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean, then on through the Panama canal for the 3,000-mile passage back to Southern California. He must do so by June because that marks the beginning of the hurricane season in the eastern Pacific.

Read Dick Durham’s blog