As reported in Afloat.ie on 1st September here, fifteen-year-old solo sailor Timothy Long from Buckinghamshire is fundraising for the Ellen McArthur Cancer Trust by sailing solo around Britain, a distance of approximately 1600 miles.
In his Hunter Impala 28 'Alchemy' he called at Bangor Marina on his way south from the Clyde and left for his home port of Southampton on 4th September stopping off in Ardglass on the south Down coast before heading for Holyhead.
He arrived at Holyhead on Sunday 6th September after 15 hours at sea. Timothy said "Arriving here felt like a real milestone as crossing the Irish Sea has been something that I have had on my mind for a while! It wasn't a whole load of fun either although it started off well and we were averaging 5.5 knots, the sea state quite quickly became confused and choppy to the point where we were only doing 2.5 kts which was incredibly frustrating. However, we had a pretty cool encounter with a pod of 20 Dolphins which was absolutely brilliant and was the highlight of the day!"
Having had to delay his departure from Holyhead by about 18 hours due to adverse weather, he arrived in Pwllheli Marina in North Western Wales on Friday (11th) which he says was frustrating as it meant he had to sail through the night.
He continued "The passage to Pwllheli started off quite bumpy with big standing waves, which of course feel even bigger in the dark".
Timothy will head off tomorrow for Fishguard, then Milford Haven but he needs a weather window to cross the Bristol Channel. At this stage he has raised £4500 of the £5000 target.
