DECEMBER
Celtic Diving featured in December issue of Diver Magazine
We took John Liddiard out last summer to another selection of our dive sites, he publishes photos and writes about two of them. For more info click to read John's article: At Ease With Plan B's
OCTOBER
Wandrin' Star back in Milford Haven Marina from 01/10/07 until 30/03/08
We will be operating charter from Milford Haven Marina all winter - this will give us pontoon access and the opportunity to dive sites in the Milford Haven Waterway as well as around the islands Skomer and Skokholm including the famous Pembrokeshire shipwreck The Lucy.
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SEPTEMBER
Celtic Diving annual diving trip to Ireland...
Well as you probably know the weather in Ireland is notorious - so we were blown out and unable to reach the Blasket Islands as planned, in fact we were unable to dive for the full ten days we were there - nevertheless we kept ourselves occupied...
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AUGUST
Celtic Diving gets dealership for AP Valves equipment
We now supply the full range of Buddy BCD's at competitive prices with full after sales back up service, please click the link: AP Valves BCD's
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JULY
NARC in Action - Underwater clean up on the North Pembrokeshire Coast
This year Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners targeted some well known angling spots in our area to collect lost tackle, including the Northern Breakwater at Fishguard Harbour.
The group also recovered lost lobster and shrimp pots from the shipwrecks Vendome and Gramsbergen.
Celtic Diving supported the operation by allowing NARC the exclusive use of both JanHazel and Wandrin' Star.
NARC is a registered charity and volunteers are welcome, for more information or to get involved please refer to: www.narc-cc.org.uk |
Pictured on the deck of Wandrin' Star with their haul including; lead weights, fishing line, netting, ropes, pots and other miscellaneous items to be either returned to the fishermen it belongs to or recycled.
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2007 Cystic Fibrosis Trust Round UK Kayak
Noel Webb who is making his way around the UK in a kayak to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust stopped off in Goodwick for a well earned rest.
Noel was invited to stay at Celtic Diving Base on the Parrog overnight on his way from Solva to Newport.
The total journey distance is 4,200km, Noel has given himself 120 days to complete this.
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JUNE
We had John Liddiard from Diver Magazine stay with us once again and have taken him to a number of new shipwreck sites we have started diving, including; The Graffoe, The Whiteplain, The Albany, The Langton Grange and our favourite above all else HMS Whirlwind at Aberporth.
HMS Whirlwind - Aberporth
Second World War Royal Navy hunter class, site at 36 mts, on the Aberporth range, so a bit of a trek. She lies on her port side, fairly intact and identifiable about 100 mts long - covered in Dead Mans Fingers, lots of life, a fantastic wreck dive. There are places to penetrate; the forward section and battle bridge.
Built in 1943 by Hawthorne Leslie as a "W" Class Destroyer. HMS Whirlwind (R87) served in the Home Fleet until 1945 when she was transferred to the Pacific. In 1953 she was converted to a type 15 Frigate (fast anti-submarine) and given the new pennant number F187
Date of Sinking 01/11/1974 whilst being used as target after severe weather and probably due to damage previously inflicted by missiles.
 
 
This site is on our itinerary, but as tides have to be correct we can only dive here on certain dates, please discuss with us prior to booking.
Divers interested in visiting this site must have proof of recent deep diving experience and qualifications.
MAY
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Wandrin' Star now back in Fishguard !
After her prolonged refit she is back in Fishguard Harbour and fully operational - with lots of new features:
Anchor bracket, non slip decks, ladder to wheelhouse roof, sea toilet, new bottle racks with convenient sitting/ dressing arrangement, winch, bow rails, davits for chase boat, microwave and kettles !
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Wandrin' Star takes a little longer to refit than planned, but well worth waiting for !
Nearly ready, just the finishing touches... |
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Back in Fishguard Sunday the 20th May
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We exhibited at the Welsh Boat Show, Camarthen Showground 5th, 6th & 7th
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APRIL
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Wandrin' Star goes into dry dock at Mustang Marine for blasting and repainting...
We hope she will be ready end of April - Optimistic ? |
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Blissfully unaware of what we are getting into ! |
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OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO THE WHEELHOUSE !!! |
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Nice hull ! |
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Well and truly blasted - "Battleship Potemkin"
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The new cow catcher bars go on ! |
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Wreck my deck !
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Red antifoul, white water line and night blue topsides... |
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Very pretty with an orange bonnet on... |
Back in the basin - ready for deck spraying !!
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Fishguard Coastguard make history !
The Chief Coastguard offered the voluntary Coastguard Search & Rescue Officers an insurance package that has been accepted.
Fishguard Coastguard made history in instigating this action for fair compensation to be awarded to coastguards in the event of injury or death while on duty.
Coastguards are back on duty and responding to emergencies - 20/04/07.
The Background...
Four years ago one of the Fishguard team of voluntary search and rescue officers Brian Macfarlane was injured while on duty, as a result became 25% disabled. Because of his disability he has lost his full time job and income/ livelihood.
The MCA did not award him a pension or any permanent disability benefit as they did not appear to have an insurance policy fit for purpose.
The Fishguard team, as all other teams around the country, (willing to risk their own lives responding to emergencies 24 hours a day 7 days a week year round), believed themselves to be covered by insurance so that in the event they are killed or injured saving others that their families will not bear hardships.
The case was not unique; there were a large number of other SAR officers around the country that had faced similiar treatment. This was discovered after the Fishguard team contacted every station in the country to explain why they were going to make a stand.
The story made national news as many other stations went non operational in support of both the Fishguad team and their own welfare.
Top brass MCA officials eventually conceeded to meet with Fishguard Coastguard (19/04/07), but this came after a ten day deadline was breached and the teams had to make the very difficult decision to carry out the threat and turn off their pagers.
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The media circus hits Goodwick Parrog ! |
Yet another TV interview... |
Station Officer Davies shows his teeth !!! |
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Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour sails into Goodwick & Fishguard on Saturday 21 April 2007
All were invited to a presentation on low carbon lifestyles by Mukti Mitchell at Celtic Diving, Goodwick Parrog at 7.30pm
Never has there been a more pressing global challenge than climate change – and we can do something about it! That’s the message that the Low Carbon Lifestyle tour will be taking around the coast of Britain in the spring and summer of 2007.
Endorsed by all the great and good of the environmental movement from Jonathan Porritt and Zac Goldsmith to Prince Charles, the Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour will see environmental designer Mukti Mitchell sail in to more than 40 British ports with the simple message that low carbon living is fun and easy.
In each destination Mukti, who will be sailing his own zero emissions microyacht, “Chance”, will be greeted by local and national celebrities as well as famous environmentalists.
As a pioneer of low carbon living Mukti designed one of the first and best on line carbon calculators – now, Mukti is writing a small booklet that shows people easy ways to slash their carbon footprint which he will be distributing during the tour.
“My message is that a lot of the best things in life are low carbon by their very nature – taking exercise and socializing are good examples – and the really good bit is that low carbon activities tend to save money and make you feel good” - says Mukti.
Mukti will also be urging people to take some bigger steps – taking the bike, bus, train or a friend to work, buying British, quality, lasting and local, and holidaying closer to home.
Mukti will set sail from Clovelly, his home town in North Devon during Easter 2007. The tour will take in major ports around Britain, sailing up the Thames to London for meetings with political figures and ending up at the Hadley Centre in Exeter at the end of summer 2007.
Today we sit on the brink of potentially devastating ecological changes. We can still avoid the worst impacts of climatic shifts - but only if we act now. We have the technologies, we have the policies. What we lack is sufficient inspiration, vision and leadership. The Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour will help to fill this critical gap." - Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth
To join the tour by boat, bicycle or on foot, to sponsor the tour, or meet the tour at a port near you, visit the website at www.lowcarbonlifestyle.org
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MARCH
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United Nations and the Dolphin Slaughter!
Our full support as always to Cliff Benson and SeaTrust.
(material taken from - http://blog.seatrust.org.uk)
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Some of you will have seen shocking pictures on TV and in Newspapers of the horrific slaughter of Dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Some of you will not be aware of the fact that some were not slaughtered but ended up being sent to captive dolphin exhibits in places like the Dominican Republic. Why has this been ignored by the United Nations on its Year of the Dolphin Website, www.YoD2007.org
Perhaps its because the sponsors of the website TUI, (Thompsons in the UK) send their clients to captive dolphin exhibits. If their clients and other tourists knew the truth would they go to these exhibits? If the tourists stopped going would the exhibitors pay $50,000 for each dolphin to the Japanese fishermen that carry out the slaughter?
Are not Tui and the United Nations in some way responsible for this annual slaughter? So much for the UN Year of the Dolphin.
We put a lot of time and some of our slim resources becoming “Official Supporters” of the YoD
We starred on their website and felt we were really helping them. That was until we complained about the sponsorship by TUI when we found out what was happening. It took them a week or two but now we have been completely cleared off the site.There is now a gap where our logo used to be on their “Join in” Page.
This is what it says there now
The Year of the Dolphin campaign focuses on raising awareness of dolphins in the wild, the threats they face to their survival and actions that could help their wild conservation. The Year of the Dolphin founding Partners welcomes the support of institutions and individuals that will focus their proposed activities on wild dolphins and natural habitats.
Although we understand that institutions dealing with dolphins in captivity may be genuinely interested in contributing to the success of the campaign, the Year of the Dolphin cannot endorse or include any campaign or project, which does not have a focus on the conservation of dolphins in the wild.
We hope you wish to join us in the Year of the Dolphin! Please fill in the form and submit it.
Guidelines for Applications
The Year of the Dolphin campaign focuses on raising awareness of dolphins in the wild. We seek proposals that raise awareness about:
1. the importance of dolphins in the wild;
2. the threats that wild dolphins face to their survival; and
3. actions that could help their wild conservation.
I suppose one thing would be to drop TUI as sponsors and defending the undefendable. Come clean about wild dolphins being ripped from the bloody ocean whilst their friends and family and calves are stabbed to death and then being sold into captivity to amuse tourists!!!
allthingsgood, cliff
For more information on SeaTrust please visit www.seatrust.org.uk or http://blog.seatrust.org.uk
We at Celtic Diving have sent our own letter of complaint to the partners of "Year of the Dolphin" and urge our buddies that feel the same way to do similiar:
No difference between a wild dolphin and a captive one !
Well done to Cliff Benson and SeaTrust !
Standing up to the United Nations, who have now chosen TUI over SeaTrust as a "partner" - what does this say about their so-called “Year of the Dolphin”?
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Diver Magazine publish John Liddiard's feature on the shipwrecks of North Pembrokeshire -"Legends in their own Lunchbox"
Not to be missed UK diving adventure ! This was the second occasion we had the pleasure to show John around our diverse dive sites, this time; Baron Carnegie, Musgrave, Nimrod, Empire Panther and the reef at Bola Bleiddyn.
At least one wreck tour will be published as well to follow up this feature.
"The Carnegie is a wreck to rival the best of anything in the English Channel, yet hardly anyone dives it."
Click Here to read the Article |
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JANUARY
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We exhibited on the Watersports Wales stand at the London Boat Show, Excel from 5th of January until the 12th.
We screened the full version of the BBC 1 Wales production of Iolo Williams' Wildlife - "Diving" episode that we helped make.
Please click one of the links below to see the trailer: |
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Broadband
Narrowband |
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Celtic Diving Christmas bash 2007 goes with a bang - Pictures speak louder than words here we think ! 
