Jun 162015
 
Draughtboard Shark at Phillip Island

I’m renovating my kitchen at the moment. Keen observation of other divers’ experiences of renovation tells me that renovating means not getting underwater for months at a time. I’m determined not to let my project about the house stop me from having fun. So after a productive day of pulling up tiles and with a forecast for Bass Strait of “light and variable winds”, Dad and I headed out of Phillip Island on Sunday. The light winds were a blessing and there was no surface chop. Unfortunately this also meant an absence of the northerly breezes which normally flatten out the swell. Despite a run of calm days a persistent one to two metre swell was showing no signs of [read more…]

Jun 132011
 
Wreck of the George Kermode

About the wreck The George Kermode was a bucket dredge of 1,380 tonnes, known as the Sit William Matthew when she was built in 1914 for the Ceylon Government, Colombo. After being acquired by the Australian Government in 1917 and then the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1941, she was scuttled on April Fool’s Day 1976, off the southern coast of Phillip Island. She lies upside-down in about 20m of water, coming up off the bottom to nearly 12m in some places. Being so shallow compared to most of the wrecks accessible out of Port Phillip Bay you get plenty of time to explore. The Kermode is broken up in the middle, with big buckets lying out on the sand in [read more…]