Dive Details
Location
Date
27 December, 2013
Time
11:44am - 12:51pm
Details
Conditions at The Leap were only slightly rougher than they'd been the previous day so we were optimistic when we jumped in. It wasn't until we descended to the sand line that the visibility got really bad. In places it was only around 2 metres.
It was difficult to navigate but we managed to found our way to Seahorse Rock. We found "Bob", the male pot-bellied seahorse, on the rock behind Seahorse Rock but he was hiding and I couldn't get a half decent photograph. We found "Rosie", the female pot-bellied seahorse, on the next low rock where we've found her before. "Kel" was still missing.
We made slow progress to the next rock with seahorses where we found "Southern Cross", "Richie" and "Pierre".
We made our way along the sand line struggling to make out the landmarks. I managed to find the rock with the sea tulips and looked for "Dana", the red painted angler. Surprisingly enough, I found "Dana" on an adjacent rock. That was pleasing at it had been a few weeks since I'd seen "Dana".
We continued on slowly, and stopped at Big Rock too look for pygmy pipehorses but the conditions were not conducive for finding them. We swam on past the basket star and at Little Big Rock I found the Okenia mellita nudibranch.
Graeme was down to 50 bar at this point so we just had time for a quick stop at "Big John", the orange form undescribed angler, before making our way to the boulders for a safety stop and exit at The Steps. This was not a wonderful dive, but still enjoyable considering all we saw despite the poor visibility.
Buddy
Graeme Heard
Seas
Surgy
Visibility
2-5 metres
Duration
66 minutes
Maximum depth
20.9 m
Average depth
13.6 m
Water temperature
19.5°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
4:17am
1.42m
Low
10:30am
0.65m
High
4:23pm
1.29m
Low
10:36pm
0.48m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D7000
Lens
Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D
Housing
Ikelite 6801.70
Lens port
Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41
Strobe
2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161
Photographs
Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 20.2 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Richie"). 16.9 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 17.8 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 16.8 m.
Painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Dana") 14 m.
Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.8 m.
Nudibranch, Okenia mellita. 12.6 m.
Undescribed angler ("Big John"). 11.1 m.