Tomorrow Mike Perham sets off
Sailing schoolboy Mike Perham, the 16-year-old from Potters Bar whose erratic progress down the Atlantic will leave him facing the Southern Ocean late in the season, is planning to leave Cape Town tomorrow.
His latest blog reveals he has had more hiccoughs with his Open 50 racing yacht.
‘I’m writing this from onboard Totallymoney.com, hurrah! Thanks to a tonne of help from some truly wonderful people, she’s shipshape once more. Zac left yesterday at around about lunchtime – I really wish him all the best on his adventure. I got a good look around his boat, Intrepid, which was great. What comes across most about Zac and his family is that they’re all so warm, friendly and down to earth. Good luck to them!
‘Yesterday was spent on prepping Totallymoney.com, doing all sorts of odd jobs here and there, such as fitting a new iridium antennae and re-lashing all the jackstays. Also, our sticker guys dropped down and patched the bowsprit where the green was peeling off. She now looks really fantastic, not a single mark on her.
‘One niggle we had to sort was the Deckman software on the laptop, as it had seemingly got into a strop with the instrument panels and decided not to talk to them anymore. However, thanks to BandG (the very helpful guys who provided us with this terrific piece of software), we’ve finally managed to get them to kiss and make up, and it’s all running perfectly once more.
‘So that’s it! We’re now pretty much ready for the off. The plan is to set sail on Saturday, when the weather picks up. I’ll be doing some test sailing tomorrow when I’ll do a final check of everything. Fingers crossed!’