When the pupils of Year 10 reconvene at Chancellor’s School in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, this week, few will have had a Christmas holiday quite as adventurous as their classmate Michael Perham.

Michael, 14, is expected today to become the youngest person to sail single-handedly across the Atlantic.

He set off from Gibraltar on November 18 and, after spending 6½ weeks alone on the open sea, is hoping to arrive in Antigua today, where he will be met by a delegation from the island’s Government. Michael, who is being tailed in a separate boat by his father, Peter, has suffered a series of setbacks on the later stages of his quest which have pushed back his estimated time of arrival.

But his spokesman said last night that Michael was about 60 miles due east from the Antiguan coastline.

Kizzy Nkowcha said: “There have been so many setbacks there cannot possibly be any more. He will definitely be arriving in Antigua at around 2pm British time.”

Heather Perham, Michael’s mother, said that challenging moments on his journey had forced her son to grow up quickly. She said: “If there was a problem, he knew that he just had to get on with it and sort it out. He has proved that obviously he is mature enough to do that, and we are all incredibly proud of him.

“I did get quite scared when I found out he had to tie a rope around his waist and dive into the water to fix something, and when he was talking about sharks. But you cannot expect your kids not to go out. You don’t want them staying at home, fixed to the computer. They need to be out there, fulfilling their ambitions, otherwise life will pass them by. I just wish more kids had the opportunity to do these things.”

She added: “He gets impatient and frustrated when the weather is not right, or when there are problems with the equipment. Being a typical 14-year-old, he just wants to get on with it. And I know it has been difficult for him being alone for so long. He has missed us and he has missed his friends.

“When I spoke to him this morning he was in high spirits, and I know he is looking forward to sleeping in a bed that does not move, and eating food that does not come from a tin.”

She added that Michael had kept in touch with his friends via e-mail.

Michael started sailing at 7 and completed Royal Yachting Association courses in dinghy sailing and windsurfing. He had already clocked up several thousand miles at sea by the time he set off on this voyage.

On Christmas Day, he wrote on his weblog: “At 4 o’clock in the afternoon we put the clocks back 4 hours to be on Antigua time and that means we’ve probably had the longest Christmas Day in the world.”

On Boxing Day he wrote: “Now we’re really surfing along with the NE winds behind us, this is what we would like to do all the time.

“Having a great time rocking and rolling and surfing the crest of the wave. Dad saw some whales, they were about 12ft long with big tails, there were about 12 of them, guess it was a pod.”

His mother said that Michael would now have to concentrate on more mundane matters. “I imagine it is going to be quite strange for him going back to school,” she said. “But he has got a lot of coursework to catch up on.”

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