An Australian teenager has become the youngest person ever to sail around the world nonstop and solo.
But 18-year-old David Dicks and his 10-meter sloop Seaflight had to be towed into this Western Australian port for a hero's welcome Nov. 17 because a flotilla of around 200 other boats was blocking his way.Port officials said Dicks had crossed the real finishing line, out at sea, late on Friday.
He has covered more than 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) since leaving Fremantle on Feb. 26. On his way, he also became the youngest person to sail around Cape Horn - a feat made all the more impressive because he did it in winter with a damaged sail.
Dicks, from the nearby city of Perth, had been hoping to become the youngest person to sail around the world unassisted. But he was forced to borrow a bolt from the British navy after breaking his mast near the Falklands.
The previous record for the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe single-handed was held by an American, Robert Lee Graham, who sailed from the U.S. West Coast at age 16 in 1965.
But Graham took five years to complete the trip after stopping off to get married on the way.