There’s nothing like planning, and of course, it had all been planned a year in advance. Application forms filled in, a berth allocated, pilot book purchased. Documents of competence, proof…
Dick Durham’s Sailing Blog
Is Britain really a maritime nation?
Many years ago, I was on a family motoring holiday driving towards Brittany when, in a small town, we passed under a banner proclaiming a regatta. I was baffled: we…
‘Everyone will miss Don, but few will miss his copy’ – Remembering a sailing writing legend
There’s a scene in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where outlaws Paul Newman and Robert Redford watch from a crag as the distant posse chases them. To…
Don’t let Thames sewage kill off this ancient oyster fishing boat
Samuel Pepys mentions oysters in his diaries 68 times, but that was when they were as common as winkles along the banks of the Thames and when they were a…
‘The best thing about a concrete boat? The worst ones are at the bottom of the sea’
Circumnavigator, Rob Hart, poked the glowing embers of his coal stove, set a cup of tea in front of me and said: ‘You know the best thing about a concrete…
Remembering the Great Tide 70 years on
Hundreds of laid-up yachts were holed, crushed or simply dashed to kindling in the Great Tide which flooded both sides of the North Sea 70 years ago this year, drowning…
‘The sea could hardly be seen for ships’
The ebb tide poured out of the River Tyne as a small potting boat struggled against it, crawling in past a broken plateau of rock and up towards a few…
RNLI now promoting selfies
Narcissism gone mad ?
Whether forecast
Variable conditions
Cross the Thames Estuary
Alerting all pilots