January 21 Prawn boat found without skipper

They laughed when he announced his intention to become a sailor. If you drew a pirate and then changed every detail to its opposite it would look like more or less like Walter Harkness. His skin smelt of Lenor and his stubble too sparse to form a goatee let alone a full blown beard, Walt was no Richard Dreyfus and Hemington on Sea was no Amity Island.

But he had a dream and nothing it seemed, would stop him.

The boat had looked out of place behind the Citroen C5 saloon, like seeing Neil Armstrong leaving Apollo waving a Zulu spear above his head : only much faster. As it sat outside on his block paving Walt's first worry was how it could stay afloat: there were more repairs than original timber but after three months hard work the rough edges had been sanded, the gaps plugged and the rust removed.

Over a hundred people had turned out to see him set sail on his maiden voyage. Walt already had an order with the local restaurant for all the prawns he could catch. He'd become a minor celebrity and the local newspaper had interviewed him twice. Why am I doing this? He'd been asked that question so many times.

They found the boat 19 hours later 32 miles further up the coast on the north. There was no fishing equipment, nothing except a note that was left in a bottle, it read: The sea is cold and there's land underneath it.

Walter resurfaced 12 days later.