Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 31 May 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

31 May 2014

Time

8:59am - 10:16am

Details

It was overcast with light rain when we arrived at The Leap. The swell was also a lot bigger than the forecast suggested but it was still diveable. The ledge I normally use for entry had waves washing over it so I had to slide down the wall to get in. We descened and swam to the sand line at the amphitheatre.

We headed towards The Steps and about one third of the way to Seahorse Rock, PJ pointed out a seahorse on a rock. I had a close look at it and noticed it looked very much like "Bob". I then noticed a second seahorse on the rock not far from the first and this one looked like "Lucy". (On checking my photos at home I can confirm that the male is indeed "Bob", who I hadn't seen since 26 April, and the female was "Lucy", who was last seen on 18 May.)

I continued on to Seahorse Rock and found "Alex", the painted angler, it the same spot it has been in for the last 2 weeks. I also found "Rosie" on her usual rock. I also looked around the area for "Lucy", just in case the earlier seahorse wasn't her. Obviously, I didn't find her there because she was some 40 metres back.

By now I'd caught up to the others and we continued on to the next seahorse location, where I found "Southern Cross" and "Richie" sharing the same sponge. "Pierre" was a little more difficult to find as he was hiding in a hollow.

We continued on and I came across Daniela videoing an adult weedy seadragon. A little further on she found a juvenile giant cuttlefish.

A long swim a long the sand line took me to the area where Sheree had found the pygmy pipehorses and we bumped into Pete, George and Paula. Pete was videoing the same juvenile weedy seadragon we'd seen last weekend.

I continued along the sand line towards the basket star and found another adult weedy seadragon. After the basket star I headed for the boulders and did my safety stop near the Plesiastrea colonies, exiting at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

77 minutes

Maximum depth

21.6 m

Average depth

15.3 m

Water temperature

20.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

Low

4:06am

0.44m

High

10:05am

1.35m

Low

3:34pm

0.62m

High

10:03pm

1.79m

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.