Determined mariner Stanley Paris will be spending New Year’s Eve in the South Atlantic as the 76-year-old sailor forges ahead with his solo circling of the globe.

Aiming to break a record as the oldest man to circumnavigate the Earth, Mr Paris’ vessel was last night approaching the latitude of Rio de Janeiro.

The father of Bermudian yachtsman Alan Paris, Mr Paris last year described his mission to The Royal Gazette.

“Why do it? It’s in keeping with my life. I’ve taken on challenges all my life, and gotten tremendous satisfaction. I’m not afraid to fail, either,” he said.

The veteran sailor yesterday gave a tongue-in-cheek posting on his blog, saying he had come up with a new device to protect him from a potentially lethal weather change: squalls.

“They can be seen approaching during the day as their ominous darkness and pelting rain changes the seascape,” Mr Paris wrote. “But at night, when you are sleeping, there is no such warning.

“Suddenly they strike, the boat heels over a few degrees with the first winds, and then a few seconds later the squall hits and the boat races off, out of control, having over powered. The autopilot then squeals out of defeat and gives up. If I fail to make it to the helm and manually head the boat off downwind, all hell will break loose and serious damage can occur.

“As stated, during the day I see it coming — and if I’m not looking, I feel the first flush of fresh wind and the heeling of the boat. But at night, soundly asleep, I sense none of this. Enter my new invention.”

The life-saving device employs a microwave-safe glass dish and its lid, “purchased from Wal-Mart, and so no doubt made in China”.

“I have partially filled this with water, placed it on the cockpit table with a cloth creating the appropriate coefficient of friction,” Mr Paris said.

“There it sits, posed just above my chest and neck as I sleep in the cockpit. Now at the first puff of wind preceding the full squall, the boat heels, the dish takes off and I get a pain in the neck and upper chest, which creates a sitting up reflex and I race to battle stations to gain control of the helm before it is lost. Exciting stuff, eh?”

For those wondering how he spends his days trekking south, Mr Paris wrote: “Creative thinking time — just getting a little too much of it.”

Mr Paris has taken to the seas in a vessel powered by sun and wind rather than traditional fuel.

To track the journey of the Kiwi Spirit, follow his on-board tracker via www.stanleyparis.com.