Many congratulations to John. He’s clocked up the milestone of 1,000 watches and he’s one in a million. We’d like to say a massive thank you.

Deputy Station Manager John Osborne was on watch one Tuesday evening in July at NCI Porthcawl. This was nothing unusual but it was John’s 1,000th watch since joining the crew at Porthcawl ten years ago in July 2015.

John is the first watchkeeper at Porthcawl to achieve this milestone. To put it into perspective, it’s an average of 2 watches per week over the last ten years, and around 3,500 volunteer hours!

As well as his watchkeeping and Deputy Station Manager duties, John helps to set up the second hand book stall outside the station during the summer months to raise funds for the NCI.

Phil Styles, Regional Trustee for Wales & North West England commented that “John is one of the stalwarts of the station at Porthcawl, and is an example to us all of what the NCI is all about. On behalf of the National Coastwatch Institution Board of Trustees, we offer our sincere thanks and congratulations.”