Big storms. High waves. Technical failures. Loneliness. After battling hard times and danger for over nine months, British teenager Mike Perham made history last month as the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
The 17-year-old made the record after he cleared the Panama Canal and then sailed through the Caribbean and home across the Atlantic.
Mike is only three months younger than Zac Sunderland, the 17-year-old American boy who had taken the crown as the youngest solo around-the-world sailor in July.
The two youngsters met in Cape Town in South Africa as they crossed the globe in different directions. Mike insisted they were not rival. “No. It’s two teenagers going out there, living their dream and having the adventure of a life time.” he said.
Mike may be young, but he is no stranger to sailing adventures. He picked up the hobby at age 6 when his father took him out in a small boat on a local lake. Father and son sailed separate boats across the Atlantic when Mike was 14, making him the youngest person to cross that ocean solo. That record gave him the taste for this even greater challenge.
On the recent journey, the scariest moment for Mike came when his sailboat was hit by storms in the southern Indian Ocean.
“We were picked up by what felt like a 60-foot wave and threw down on our side at 90 degrees,” he said.
“It felt like I was going right over. Stuff was flying around and I just thought ‘Oh no’.”
At other times, he had to dive into the Pacific and fix problems. He tied himself to the boat, jumped into the water and went to work with a knife in 30-second dives underneath the boat to cut a rope away.
Mike said he felt proud that he made his dream come true. “You’ve got to have confidence in yourself that you will make it,” he said.
Which canal did Mike Perham cross? （No more than 3 words）
 
What does the underlined word “taste” in the fifth paragraph mean? （1 word）
What did Mike believe in? （No more than 10 words）
What’s the main idea of the passage? （No more than 15 words）
What do you think of Mike Perham? （No more than 10 words）