Dick Durham

“The ooze had swallowed my boots. I was stuck in a quagmire of East Coast mud, 300 yards offshore” It’s an isolated spot, just a few cows grazing on marshland…

Dick Durham

“Scraping a burning surfaceinchesfrom your face while, lying on your back is a kind of torture” By the time the weather’s good enough to launch your boat, the novelty of…

Dick Durham

“As night-time storms rattled the slates, I dreamed of that one length of studding holding the boat upright” We’re very close to saying goodbye to the gales of winter. I…

Dick Durham

“Whoof! Up goes the paraffin in a stinking yellow flame” Gas. The very word is sinister, and I have body-swerved this particular state of matter in various galleys over the…

Dick Durham

“The Island Yacht Club, of Canvey Island, is like a recycled town” I’m on probation. Every Saturday morning I am obliged to join a community service work party to help…

Dick Durham

“The operating manual is smothered in oily fingerprints and smells of diesel” What were two men doing zig-zag- ging across a theatre forecourt as light summer rain began to soak…