fourth round-the-world boat trip.

For the 75-year-old is due to sail home to Florida in time for his mom's 99th birthday.

Intrepid sailor Mr. White, whose solo adventures on the world's seas and oceans have seen him cover more than 100,000 miles, is waiting for calmer weather before leaving St. George's on the final leg of his journey.

And it is more than two years since he last saw his mother Katie, who turns 99 in July. Mr. White, a New Yorker, arrived in Bermuda last week after a ten-day trip from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Now he is preparing for a seven-day voyage to Newport, Rhode Island, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world's first circumnavigation, by Joshua Slocum.

"It will be very special for me to be there,'' said Mr. White, who had to cut short his last trip around the world when his boat became wrecked on reefs off Papua New Guinea.

Sailor set to make a splash for mom! "At least I'll have plenty of stories to tell by then.'' He bought his new boat, a 29-foot Cascade called Valkyrie , five years ago to plot his next sea-going adventure.

Mr. White was no stranger to round-the-world travel even when he began his sailing missions in 1983 -- because he took advantage of discounted flights when he worked as a crane driver for Pan Am in Cape Canaveral.

"Travel must be in my blood,'' he said. "I used to sail boats as a kid in Staten Island, New York.

"And that's one of the stops I'll be making before I return home to Cocoa, Florida.

"I'll be in Bermuda for about another two weeks, then hopefully the weather will be fair for me to travel to Newport.

"From there, I'll head to New York and then back home to see my mom and sister.'' Mr. White, whose journeys are sponsored by the US-based Lucky Leo Fan Club, set sail on his latest global voyage from Florida on March 5, 1996.

His adventure has seen him dodging cyclones in New Zealand, steering clear of cruise liners in Mauritius and island-hopping around the Pacific and Caribbean.

His longest stint at sea was a 49-day journey from Ascension Island in the South Atlantic to St. Thomas.

STILL AFLOAT -- Seventy-six-year-old sailor Leo White, in his seven-foot dinghy, prepares for the final stretch of his fourth round-the-world boat trip. Mr. White is travelling solo in a 29-foot Cascade.