Notes:

I was so sure I had my last dive of the year last week. Instead we snuck one in just before the year ends. This time, we hit up the Ozone and Dominion wrecks. The Ozone and Dominion are wrecks that sit out the beach at Indented Head, serving as a breakwater. Sitting in about 2-4 metres of water, these wrecks apparently serve as a popular spot for dive training. You don't realise how shallow that is until you start walking to the wreck. That's right. You can theoretically WALK to the wreck it's that shallow. The Ozone was a paddle steamer that served in the late 1880s until it was withdrawn from service in 1918. It was scuttled in 1925 and bits of it remain visible from the shore due to just how shallow the water it sits in is. The Dominion was a wooden barque built in 1875 and converted into a lighter (a barge to transport goods) in 1902. Somewhere along the way it was purchased in 1925 and with the Ozone, was to be used as a breakwater. Apparently vandals set fire to the Dominion before it was scuttled, presumably speeding the process along to having it turn into a breakwater. Let me tell you about the conditions of the day. We had ourselves two days of Westerly wind blowing at anywhere from 20 to 25 knots which roughly translates to 37-45km/h winds. It was a little strong to say the least, and occasional streaks of rain not helping the case. I agreed to doing the dive as I thought with the location of the wrecks, the Bellarine Peninsula would protect us from the effects of a W-SW wind. So in theory, the water should not be choppy, though the rain might have dropped vis a notch or two. Upon entering the water, we discovered two things. Firstly, I was right about what the water would be like. Secondly, if we are going to dive on a day with heavy winds and rain preceding it, don't bother taking the camera out. But I did, so I had to salvage what I could and instead took pictures of seaweed. Fun. Visibility in the water was shocking at about 2-3 metres, making any attempts to actually take photos of the wrecks underwater absolutely futile with sediment everywhere. So I just screwed on my macro lens and went to town on things that would not be affected too much by the poor visibility. I imagine if the visibility wasn't so rubbish, this would be a very good wreck to take photos of, but it was not to be today. Otherwise water was a balmy 18°C. So warm good ol' Chris didn't even bother donning his wetsuit (not by choice, actually forgot to bring it). Things spotted: Old wives, one juvenile smooth ray within the wreck, pilotfish, some whiting, several smooth toadfish, a goatfish, and what I can only assume was a decent sized groper. No pictures of ANY of these because guess what, visibility was rubbish. I slowly grow jealous of people who can take pictures of fish, and people who get to dive warm tropical waters.