TEENAGE DREAM
Midnight in the middle of the Bristol Channel, a stretch of water renowned for sandbanks, shipping and big tides. Tonight, to make matters worse, thick fog has descended. Skipper Timothy Long, navigating a yacht solo across the channel north to south, can’t see his hand in front of his face. It’s a situation to test the nerve of any yachtsman, however experienced, but Timothy is just 15 years old. He is making the crossing from Milford Haven to Padstow as part of a solo sail around Britain, a personal challenge that somewhat to his surprise, later in the summer, will see him make headlines around the world.
Timothy doesn’t know that yet and he certainly doesn’t want to make any headlines now – he is focussed on the shipping movements he can see on his AIS.
“It was not fun and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get scared,” says Timothy today of the crossing. “You do get scared at sea and that wasn’t the first time. It was so disorienting. I literally couldn’t see my hand in my front of my face. It was that bad. When you’re put in that situation you have to get on with it. You don’t have a choice.”
In the wake of Ellen
Timothy Long first sailed a boat aged nine, when he did his RYA Levels 1 and 2 on an Optimist at Bowmoor SC near Lechlade. “It was freezing cold all week, but I just completely loved it. As soon as I got on the boat
