An Australian teenager stepped ashore for the first time in nearly nine months Sunday, claiming the record for being the youngest solo sailor to circle the globe nonstop.
David Dicks, 18, left Perth on the 32-foot sloop Seaflight on Feb. 26. He returned to a rollicking hero's welcome, cheered by thousands ashore and greeted by about 200 other boats."I'm going to spend some time with my girlfriend and my family, then I'm going to go out and party with my mates," David declared by radio as he approached the western Australia port.
Age 17 when he started out, the teenager's voyage gave him his first glimpse ever of snow when he rounded Cape Horn. Strong winds in the Pacific fractured his mast in May, but he kept going until he could borrow a bolt from the British Royal Navy to fix it.
David had dreamed of a round-the-world sail since he was five, inspired by a family friend who did it three times, his mother, Patricia Dicks, said.
"Once he started making plans to do it, I never doubted that he would," she said.
The last sailor to claim the record as youngest solo circumnavigator was American Robert Lee Graham, who set out in 1965 at age 16. Graham took five years to complete the trip, stopping off along the way to get married.