East Coast rivers are a rich cruising ground. Local sailor Dick Durham shares the best spots to explore this season
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Musto Evo GTX Paclite Plus pilot jacket: tested
Dick Durham finds the new Musto Evo GTX Paclite Plus pilot jacket surprisingly light, making it ideal to wear when hauling lines and turning winches
River Swale anchorage: South Deep
Dick Durham mulls the algorithm of a pint ashore while anchored in this River Swale creek on the East Coast
Bénéteau First 38 review: From the archive
There are Bénéteaus and Bénéteaus. Traditional sailors will cast a weather eye to the lean and hungry-looking hulls of the First series of yachts, while the comfort-seeker will be well…
Lively Lady: Sir Alec Rose’s yacht lives again
Dick Durham discovers the restored Lively Lady is still wowing the crowds 50 years after Sir Alec Rose completed his groundbreaking global circumnavigation
Swapping half ropes for halyards
Facing shipwreck on a lee shore didn’t put him off sailing, but then having only one limb of four working didn’t put this MS sufferer off climbing. Dick Durham meets…
Sailing 100 miles without a keel
In 2010 a charter yacht completed three sailing charters and over 100 miles before anyone noticed the keel fell off after she ran aground
Anchorages: Halstow Creek, River Medway
Dick Durham drops anchor in Halstow Creek, a mud-hole once used to create the bricks that built London
Dick Durham podcast January 2015
“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…
Practical seamanship: Leadlines
Why most cruisers still need a leadline – and how to use it. We’ve had echosounders for decades, but leadlining is still an essential cruising skill.