Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 11 October 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 11 October 2014

Time

9:04am - 10:13am

Details

The tide was too high to use the platform so I slid down the wall next to the platform. I then swam along the surface parallel to the shore around 30 metres to the south east before descending. I swam to the wall at around 60° and hit the top of the wall a fair way down. I descended the wall and then headed north west towards The Steps. The water was quite warm (~17.5°) but the visibility was only around 10 metres.

I came to the end of the wall and swam a little further to the rock where Sheree found the pygmy pipehorse last week. It was in the same spot and I was able to take a few photos even though there was a weird surge going on.

I continued on towards The Steps looking for weedy seadragons and was very surprised not to see a single one before I reached Seahorse Rock. I found "Rosie", the pot-bellied seahorse, on her usual rock behind Seahorse Rock.

Just after Seahorse Rock I hit a thermocline and the water was much colder but a lot clearer with the visibility opening up to nearly 15 metres.

I kept on my way and at the next seahorse location took a while to find "Pierre" and "Southern Cross". In fact, it took me quite some time to find "Southern Cross" and when I found her she was on the move. She was moving against the current but didn't seem to have too much trouble.

After leaving the seahorses I was on the lookout for weedy seadragons. Last week we saw 9 and the week before I saw 8. On this dive I only saw the one. After reviewing my photos I see it is one I have seen a number of times from as long ago as March (if not earlier) and one that I had seen last week and the week before.

I followed the sand line all the way to the basket star hoping to see more weedy seadragons but there were either none about or I was blind. After the basket star I headed up over the reef and the sponge covered rocks and hit the boulders at around the Plesiastrea colonies. I did my safety stop and exied at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

69 minutes

Maximum depth

22.2 m

Average depth

15.9 m

Water temperature

15.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides

Low

4:42am

0.32m

High

11:03am

1.78m

Low

5:31pm

0.27m

High

11:34pm

1.43m

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.