A Boy, A Sailboat, and a Transatlantic Dream

I read National Geographic Adventure while I waited in my car yesterday, in the crappy gloom that we call New England weather. I found a story about a fourteen-year-old boy from England named Michael Perham who just sailed a 28-foot sailboat called Cheeky Monkey some 3500 miles across the Atlantic. He beat the record for the youngest crossing by 434 days. Andrea Minarcek got these quotes from the youngster.

“I slept about three-and-a-half hours each day, in one-hour naps. With all the noise of water rushing past it sounds like being in a car wash. But it wasn’t hard to fall asleep. Put your head down after a day out on the water, and you’ll just drift off to sleep straightaway. It does exhaust a person.

“I ate every variation of canned food thinkable. I’m not the best cook, so I’d just put it in the pan and heat it up. It wasn’t at all nice. I was able to call my mom and sister almost every day, so that was good, but I really missed warm toast, ice-cold drinks, and crisps.

“Near the Canary islands the VHF radio and satellite tracker on my boat died on me. My dad and I lost contact entirely for three days. No one in the UK knew where I was But it didn’t really bother me to be off the radar. I knew where I was headed, so it was as simple as sticking to the course.”