27/09/2026
Blue sharks, whales, dolphins… What an incredible trip we have had with Pembrokeshire Boat Charters this weekend!🦈🐋🐬
We travelled across the Severn on Thursday evening for a three day dive trip which was to include a day with the blue sharks in the Celtic Deep. We all had our fingers crossed for calm weather and flat seas and on Friday morning our prayers were answered🙏
We set off for the Celtic Deep aboard Celtic Discovery through a heavy swell, but we were assured by ‘Sharkman Dan’ our guide and Skipper Luke that the seas would flatten out further offshore. They were absolutely right🤩🤩
For long periods of the steam out, we were es**rted by dolphins… So many dolphins and as we passed the island of Grassholm, the hugely impressive gannets joined the es**rt🤩
30 Miles offshore we stopped and preparations were made. The first shark was spotted within half an hour and it was time for group one to leave the boat🤿🦈
As soon as they had entered the water, it was clear that the sharks were with us, shouts of amazement were heard through their snorkels as the sharks investigated the group at very close quarters🦈🤩
The sharks were obviously enjoying themselves as they stayed with us for the entire time we spent drifting across the Celtic Deep and all groups had incredible encounters. For long periods we had six blue sharks choosing to spend time underwater with us🦈🦈🦈
We finally decided to say goodbye to our new friends and make our way back towards Milford Haven.
Mother nature, however, had other ideas and decided to throw a number of whales into the mix🐋🐋
Whilst steaming towards Milford with literally hundreds of dolphins around us, we saw the blow of a large whale. We also saw other blows and estimate there were two or three whales in the area, the suspicion was that they were Fin Whales, the second largest animal on the planet🐋
But the best was still to come. By now we were heading for Ireland, whale blows being spotted every couple of minutes.
By this time the dolphins had become a sideshow… so many of them alongside the boat jumping and showing off, trying to get our attention… but by this point, we only had eyes for the whales 🐋
It got even better…bait balls started forming with dolphins and bluefin tuna attack attacking from the water and dozens of gannets dive bombing from above. The whales, we were told by Dan, were tracking the bait ball to attempt to attack from beneath.
One particular whale got closer and closer to us and finally surfaced around 20m from the boat before descending… Sharkman Dan nearly died of excitement as it turned out to be a humpback whale🐋😮🤯
Sadly, we didn’t get to see the whale attempting to swallow the bait ball, but what a treat to see this creature at such close contact!😊😊😊
Once we had all recovered from the experience, we finally we turned back towards Wales with our dolphin es**rt and made the long steam back to Milford… days like this do not happen often, we will all remember this for a long long time🙏🙏🙏🙏
Yesterday, we travelled into St Brides Bay and dived just off the beautiful village of Solva before heading back towards Jack Sound and diving Junko‘s rock.
The first dive at Black Scar was a great dive but visibility was limited… This would be a fabulous site with better viz, but still lovely to put in the logbook with lots of life😊
Dive 2 at Junko’s rock provided much better visibility and was packed with life… Congers, lobsters, crayfish, jewel anemones and at the end of the Dive, we were very lucky to have a rare sighting of a grey trigger fish.
💨Sadly, today’s Diving was cancelled due to high wind which made us realise how lucky we were to have got our shark day completed and also a great day Diving yesterday.
What an incredible trip, thank you so much to Pembrokeshire Boat charters for providing us with memories that will last a lifetime!🥰🤿💦
