A dream, a life, an adventure

Captain Diane Berol

Ahoy sailors and welcome to our website and Celtic Song, a Pacific Seacraft 40.

I’m Diane Berol, and I have been sailing and training people how to sail for the past 35 years.  

My first offshore sail was from Nadi, Fiji to Sydney, Australia about 40 years ago.  It was 21 days at sea and altered the course of my life.  Despite other career attempts, I have ALWAYS come back to sailing and cruising. I hold a 100T USCG license, advanced teaching certifications with ASA and US Sailing. I have been a professional delivery skipper throughout parts of the world:  Alaska to Mexico; England to Africa; Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand; and across the Pacific to Hawaii.

In 2005  my husband placed the order to build Celtic Song, our Pacific Seacraft 40.  From 2005 to 2009 we outfitted her for offshore cruising with the latest electronics, water maker, hurricane heater, chart plotter, radar, single side band radio, satellite phone, safety equipment, Automatic Information System, diesel generator, life raft, dinghy and outboard.

We set sail and tested ourselves and the boat by cruising local Southern California Islands.  In 2009 we participated in the Baja Ha Ha and won 3rd place. From there, we cruised the Sea of Cortez with our daughter, Leah, for a year. 

In 2010 we shipped Celtic Song to British Columbia and sailed the Gulf and San Juan Islands and continued up the inside passage to Alaska, returning to San Diego in September 2011. Upon our return, my husband decided to stay on land, and I decided  to continue passage making. In my opinion, Celtic Song is the perfect offshore cruising boat. She is maintained to a high level of excellence

To continue cruising the oceans, a small band of enthusiastic sailors has banded together. We are assembling and training 30 to 50 other interested sailors to take part in offshore expeditions aboard our boat. You could be part of the adventure.

Our plan is to assemble the crew, train and familiarize them with the boat. We’ll depart October 2018 for Mexico to explore the Sea of Cortez. In May 2020 we will cross the Pacific to explore some the South Pacific Islands and Australia.

The intent of our blog is to provide an ongoing narrative about the progress of our goals. We’ll announce upcoming training sessions, reports of local excursions, introduce new crew members and explain further enhancements to Celtic Song.

You’ll find lots of useful information throughout the site. Please take the opportunity of make comments or offer suggestions.

Welcome aboard.

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Off Los Coronados Island, Mexico