Last time I dove in Gonzales Bay I swam out to Templar Rock. This time I wanted to see if there were any old anchors in the sandy part of the bay. There are a few old news reports from the 1800's mentioning ships that tried to shelter from gales by anchoring in Gonzales bay (back then it was called Foul Bay). They quickly found out that this bay doesn't offer much shelter and their anchors dragged or the cables broke. Some of the vessels were blown ashore and wrecked and some were rescued and towed out of the bay. The entrance of the bay is full of shallow rocks so the only place where a ship could anchor would be farther in along the West side of the bay. Old photos of the bay show boats clustered at anchor in this area.
This time (March 14, 2017) I swam out from the sandy beach and followed my compass towards the rocks at the entrance to the bay.
There wasn't much in the sandy bay. There was the occasional tire, small boulder and even a glass bong. Visibility was about 15'. My maximum depth was 17' in the middle of the bay.
I didn't see any anchors, just a small, upturned sunken dinghy covered with red seaweed.
I reached the rocky reefs near the entrance to the bay. This was the general area I dove before on my "Templar Rock" dive. There still wasn't much marine life here to make it worthwhile considering the swim. My maximum depth out here was 20'. I had a look around the rocky canyons to see if there were any old anchors from vessels unlucky enough to drop them in this area. I didn't see any.
I had had enough of the rocky reefs so I followed my compass back through the bay to another group of exposed rocks closer to the beach. I was looking for any bits of wreckage from vessels that might have blown onto them, but I didn't see anything man-made.
So I didn't find any anchors in what little of the bay that I explored. I don't think this place is exciting enough to make me want to dive here again for a long time.
