Pembrokeshire

As a club we had decided to give the coastline at Pembrokeshire a weekend's diving,

We all travelled down Thursday afternoon-evening, ready for Friday mornings 1st dive. This turned into a long drive as part of the M4 @ Port Talbot was closed and put about 1.5 Hrs on our journey, but to get some good dives in and see places we don’t go to very often we have to put ourselves out.

We arrived about 11 pm after a stop in Carmarthen for a pizza and the rest of the party was there.

We had arranged the Weekend with Celtic Diving, Staying in there dive centre with bunkrooms and lounge area , which was also, breakfast area,shop ,training and television area, which was fine, plenty of rooms nice warm showers and we had the place to ourselves.

H M S Whirlwind Twin 40mm Bofors Guns

After a 3Hr steam to the wreck we were all eager to get in the water, we realised our skipper mark had a different side to him than most, he liked his classical music but not just in his wheelhouse, he has two speakers mounted to the front off the wheel house and immediately we left the quay side he would put these on and at very high volume, you would of been able to hear them all around Goodwick harbour until we were well out to sea.

We were a bit worried with the bad weather the previous week that viz was going to be bad. I buddied up with Jaymes, after a brief from mark in we went, the decent was fine and once on the wreck the viz was about 5m, not the best but I’ve had a lot worse. The shot was onto the bows and once Jaymes and I had got ourselves checked and sorted we made our way through the section of the bows that had broken away from the rest of the wreck and round to the deck area. We found a large caging and the two 40mm Bofors and workings as the picture above; we spent a lot of time around that area before moving around the bows and back to our start. Checking our air and deco we still had time to explore a bit more off the starboard side which has collapsed into the deck area, we had a good rummage around probably the 1st quarter of the wreck before our time was up. Would love to go back and do this wreck a few more times, as the reports from the others said there was plenty more to see.

After a long cruise, surface interval and more classical music we arrived at the 2nd dive site, Gramsbergen. Wreck. 52 00`31"N 04 56`18"W Max 11m.

A cargo vessel of 498 tons. She sank in 1954 after breaking her anchor chain, and before she could restart the engines she hit the rocks. All 11 crew were rescued, but the RNLI Lifeboat had to be rescued when she fouled her prop with some rope. Lies off the cliffs at Penrhyn around the corner past Abergwaun out of Fishguard harbour. She lies in 11 metres of water.

2nd Day Saturday. Sunny and calm

1st Dive. Calburga. Wreck 52 01`04"N 05 05`35"W

The Calburga sank in 1915 off Penbrush Point. A sailing vessel of 1,406 tons. 210 feet long and 39 feet wide. She was the last of the square rigged sailing ship to be lost in this area. She was hit by a hurricane which blew out her sails and downed three of her masts, and was at the mercy of the sea. She finally hit the cliffs and sank in deep waters. She was carrying a cargo of timber which the locals collected from the seas for many weeks.

She lies at 43m, but her anchor lies in only 12m alongside Penbrush Island. Slack water is at 1.5 to 2 hours after low and high water at Milford Haven. A deep sided wall descends to the bottom from around 10m. The wreckage covers quite a large area. Strong westerlies would make this a difficult area to dive.

I buddied Jaymes again for this dive. We were dropped onto a ledge at about 10m and had to make our way to the drop off which was a fair distance and through quite a bad swell,but once over the edge the viz cleared, everything was pitch black but clear, with torches on it was great, we found the anchor dug into the rock face, plenty off winches and gear, going deeper to 35m we found all sorts strewn down the rock face, plenty of fish life including large dog fish, bloody good dive.

Chris, William and Tony taking 5 mins, and Jaymes surveying.

2nd dive. Pen Anglas. This was just a bimble along the cliff face at 18-19m; I went in with big Chris and even bigger William, a diver from Diss in Norfolk whom had joined us for this trip. William enjoyed this with plenty of edible crabs etc and being a camera man he was well away.Once back at the centre we all chilled, got showered and yes went back to the same pub as the food was good and only a short walk.

Velvet Swimming Crab

3rd Day Sunday. Overcast and windy.

1st Dive. Vendome 33m max. 480 Ton Steamer, 155 ft long, 22 ft Beam. She hit the rocks at strumble Head 4th December 1888.

Jaymes and I buddied again for this, Down the shot to the prop at 31m, from here we covered most of the wreck in what was about 5m viz,we found the boilers plenty of winches and had a good dive and rummage over the whole wreck.

2nd Dive. Salus.

This was an 11m drift along the coast, plenty to see, crabs, lobsters and fish life, viz about 3m, after 25mins my torch decided it had done about 3Hrs + so needed a charge, this was telling me it was time for home after a good weekend. Thanks to all.

Feeding Octopus Mr. C. O’Dell