British teenager Michael Perham has spent the last few days thoroughly testing all the systems on his Open 50, totallymoney.com, before he heads south to restart his attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate solo and non stop.

He was forced to stop in Las Palmas with a faulty autopilot. He and his shore team have spent the last week mending the pilot and sorting out other problems which have plagued the boat. In his blog, Mike seemed excited about his upcoming voyage. “Now everything seems to be shipshape, I’m taking Totallymoney.com for a 24 hour test sail, starting this afternoon and then I’ll be off again tomorrow – then it’s really going to get exciting, I just can’t wait to get further south!”

Meanwhile, Japanese sailing legend Minoru Saito has set off on his 8th circumnavigation, in which he hopes to become the oldest to circle the globe. He’s heading round the ‘hard way’ – westwards and against the prevailing winds and currents.

He is currently taking a slow but helpful current up the Australian coast. “It’s not much but it’s ALWAYS there, and I have used it before going to Freemantle,” he said.

Follow Mike Perham’s progress 
Follow Minoru Saito’s progress