Ozone anchor search.

Dive Number:112
Location: Ozone/Dominion
Date:27/11/10
Max Depth:4.3m
Dive Time:70mins
Temp:17C
Visibility:6-8m
Time In:14:36
Tide:Low 13:03 0.5m
Thermal: Drysuit
Weight: 27lbs

The original plan was to dive Point Lonsdale again, the timing for slack water was good, swell wasn't too bad but the wind was a strong Southwesterly. Conditions were quite messy on Lonsdale reef but under the pier they looked diveable albeit with a bit of wave action and moderate surface wind.

We decided to give it a go. Entering over the rocky entry with the waves was tricky but not the most challenging entry I've had. Once in the surface swim was difficult and Phil got quite a way ahead of me. I decided to drop to the bottom as I find it much easier to swim under water than on top. Viz wasn't very good at all, no more than a few metres and I must have swum right underneath Phil without seeing him and upon arriving at the end of the pier realised we were separated. Wind had swung around to the south now and the wave height had increased noticeably, it was difficult not to get blown away from the end of the pier. When we finally found each other we decided to call the dive. Used 70 Bar and got 6 mins dive time!

We decided to try somewhere else but didn't hold out much hope with all the rain we had been having over the past few days. St Leonards was blown out but, surprisingly, the Ozone wreck looked quite good. The tide was on the way back in and the surface was flat, viz looked pretty good considering.

The dive plan was to try and re-discover the 2nd of the Ozone's anchors which I had stumbled across one other time. We swam out past the wreck into the grassy areas to where I thought the anchor was but alas we couldn't locate it. With 6-8 metres viz, we could have been quite close and swam straight past it.

The incoming tide was noticeable out beyond the wrecks but not uncomfortable. We finished the dive by swimming around the wrecks, there's always so much colour there and the fish have re-emerged now the water is warming up. We both used the same tanks we had done for a first (attempted) dive and after 70 mins we had pretty much sucked them dry! Really good dive.