After not being able to get a park at Blairgowrie the last time we went down to the peninsula, we decided to have another try. This time there was plenty of carparking, and there were lots of divers in the water, some of them training, and many more taking photos, looking for nudibranchs and juvenile seahorses.

We saw several different nudibranchs, but no seahorses. It turns out that we should have been looking up near the surface. We did find a Peanut Worm,  and there were quite a few Old Wives under the protective mats set along the edge of the pier, along with Bullseyes,, Leatherjackets, and female Wrasse.

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf

Poor weather on weekends meant that it's been almost a month sinbce our last dive. This time Kirsty and I did a shore entry at Rye Pier. We had tried for Blairgowrie, but the car park was well and truly overflowing, so we moved to Rye instead. The new diving platform hasn't been completed yet. The piles are in, but it looks like it might be a month or so before it is finished, so the only options were to walk in through the shallows, or do a high entry off the pier. The shallows seemed to be the more attractive option, although the Northerlies did create quite a swell to get through as we moved out past the two sandbars. Surprisingly, visibility was very good once we got out into deeper water.

We spotted several different species of Leatherjackets, some of them quite large, a Senator Wrasse, a Big Bellied Seahorse, a Short-tailed Ceratosoma nudibranch, quite a lot of Squid, and a big school of East Australian Salmon patrolling about half way along the pier. I filmed one of the Salmon pushing a smaller Leatherjacket through the water on the tip of its nose. Not sure if this was playfullness, harrassment, or working out whether it was good to eat :-)

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf

Lots of divers in the water at Flinders for Australia Day!

Viz was not as good as the last dive here, but still pretty impressive. I got some great footage of a Weedy hunting and catching food, and we also filmed a couple of Cowfish grazing on the sea grasses at the end of the pier.

Kirsty had a close encounter with a large Smooth Ray, which I thought at one point was going to swim right over the top of her!

All in all, a great dive, in sunny conditions. Two hours later there were bands of rain coming through the area, so we picked the right time of day for this dive...

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf

Kirsty and I thought that the visibility was slightly better than yesterday, but not by much. The Go Pro Hero 8 had trouble with the the muck in the water throwing off the white balance and focus. The old Hero 4 that Kirsty was using got much better footage of the school of Yellow Kingfish that circled us near the start of the dive.

We did manage to find the Port Jackson Sharks again, spotting 8 of them in a long cave. We also found a big mail Blue Throated Wrasse, a couple of Old Wives, Snapper, Dusky Morwong, Moonlighters, and some Scalyfins tending their algae patches.

I found out on this dive that the battery for the GoPro Hero 8, when set to 30 frames per second, wide, with image stability turned off, doesn't quite stretch to 100 minutes - something that the Hero 4 could do comfortably. On the other hand, the image quality of the 8 is far bettter than the 4...

{gallery}diving/Ricketts-Point-03-January-2020::::2{/gallery}

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf

Kirsty and I did our first dive for the new year at Ricketts, looking for Port Jacksons Sharks, in very murky conditions.

We didn't find the PJs, but there were lots of Scalyfins and Zebrafish to make up for it, along with a couple of Fiddler Rays and some large Yellow Leatherjackets hiding in the reef crevasses.

{gallery}diving/Ricketts-Point-02-January-2020::::2{/gallery}

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf