I heard a rumour that the wreck of the landing craft used in the movie "Commandos Strike at Dawn" (a 1940's WW2 movie shot in Saanich Inlet) was sunk near Goldstream marina near the rockslide on the West side of the inlet North of the boat ramp. I asked at the marina office if I could use their ramp to enter the water and was told it was fine. I paid the boat-launch fee so I wouldn't have any problems with parking. I walked into the water at the ramp and snorkeled out on the surface for about 200 meters until I reached the rockslide area. Visibility was around 20-30 feet so I could see the bottom for the entire swim. The water was full of millions of ctenophores (comb jellies). They were so transparent, I could barely see them except for their two "tentacles". There were also a few hooded nudibranchs and some "sea butterfly" nudibranchs that swam through the water by flapping their "wings". Just before I reached the rubble-slope area, I could see a boat hull sunk on the bottom around 15 feet deep. It was obviously not the landing craft, but a 20-foot or so average type of boat. I swam past it to where the rockslide went into the water. There was a slope of boulders (some of them huge) that met a silty bottom at around 30-40 feet. The piles of boulders formed small "caverns" between them. There were a few rockfish (brown, copper, juvenile black), territorial white-spotted greenlings and the usual schools of perch. I swam around this whole area from near the surface to out over the flat, silty base of the slope and I didn't see anything like a landing craft. I did see a large, steel drum-type thing and the rusted remains of a boat keel (again, too small to be the landing craft). I swam for maybe 100 meters past the rockslide area (there was a more gentle slope here with several large, dead, spooky-looking trees on the bottom) before turning around and swimming back. I swam back over the flat, silt bottom a bit deeper (45 feet) to make sure I didn't miss anything. Closer to the marina, I did see another rusting boat hull on the bottom (again, maybe 20 feet long). I surfaced and snorkeled back next to the cliff to the boat ramp. I climbed out of the water in time to be treated to a lengthy lecture on the shocking evils of diving without a buddy (apparently it's highly illegal) and my (also illegal) habit of diving without a float. The person in the office who said it was ok to dive was going to be "taken care of". I hope that's not as sinister as it sounds. Anyway, I drove off sobbing with remorse. It was kind of difficult negotiating the Malahat through my tears of guilt, but I survived, and probably had a better experience than staying home and watching TV (if I had one).
