Wednesday January 3 | 2018
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OF TUNBRIDGE WELLS
YOUR
FREE PAPER
HOMELESSNESS ON RISE ACCORDING TO WINTER SHELTER TEAM
MEET THE SINGER WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS WHO HAS JOINED A ‘VIRTUAL’ CHOIR
Pages 4-5
Page 12
FORMER MAYOR DAVID NEVE PUBLISHES A BOOK OF PUNS
NURSERY WORKER CONQUERS MOUNT EVEREST FOR CHARITY
Page 6
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Dramatic rescue in mid-ocean as rowers’ boat catches fire in storm ‘In ferocious conditions, with a huge oil tanker’s side to climb up on a rope, it looked impossible’ Exclusive by Andy Tong
andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk TWO courageous friends are on board an oil tanker heading for Brazil after being forced to abandon their attempt to row across the Atlantic for charity. Chris Williams and Max Thorpe, who have been friends since they were ten years old, had to be rescued in dramatic fashion after their boat capsized and caught fire while being battered by 20ft waves. Their parents endured a harrowing night of uncertainty 48 hours before Christmas Day as they waited to hear if their sons had reached safety. The Team Tenzing pair had been at sea for eight days when disaster struck their ambitious plan to row 3,000 miles across the ocean on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The 25 year olds are both former pupils of Judd in Tonbridge. Chris is the captain of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club’s 1st XI, where Max, who also attended Sevenoaks School, used to play.
Catastrophe As featured in the Times’ sports pages last week, they are trying to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young [CRY] after a university friend of Chris’s died of an undetected heart condition. They had covered more than 700 miles of the course between La Gomera in the Canary Islands and Antigua when the catastrophe occurred. Chris’s father, Mark, said: “Everything was going so well, and they were making good ground and were loving the challenge. They had found the routine and all was going to plan. “They had overcome the normal hurdles that
face the rowers in the first week, including severe seasickness, huge waves and swells and the massive change to sleep patterns.” Suddenly, just before 3pm on Friday December 22, a storm hit the crew, the waves began to climb to six metres in height and the wind changed.
Smoke They were hit by a ‘rogue’ wave and the seven-metre long craft capsized. But this is a fate that many of the competitors suffer and it forms part of their training. The pair, who trained at Bewl, were thrown into the sea, but since they were always clipped on using four-point harnesses they were able to clamber back on board. However, then they noticed smoke coming from the small cabin space where they sleep and keep the satellite phone and auto-pilot. They opened up the cabin and found it was on fire. They managed to put the blaze out with their fire extinguisher, but discovered that they had lost all power. This was provided through the solar units to fuel the battery pack which made the water purifier and auto-pilot function. The cause of the fire is unknown. The damage meant they were no longer able to continue because competitors are not allowed to benefit from outside assistance – they must be self-sufficient. So they admitted defeat and called the headquarters of race organisers Atlantic Campaigns, following the procedure they are taught. Once Chris and Max put out an emergency call, events moved rapidly. Chris’s father, Mark, who is
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HOPEFUL START Chris Williams [left] and Max Thorpe prepare to set out