The Leap looked beautiful. There was almost no wind and very little swell. The low shelf was exposed and made a great entry point. After jumping in I descended keeping my eye out for the seal I'd seen last week. I swam to the sand line at around 60° but must have drifted south a bit as I ended up at the wall. The visibility here was around 8 metres.
I swam along the wall until it ended and then swam to the white male pygmy pipehorse. It was in it's usual spot. I initially couldn't find any others and then spotted a reddish one. I believe this is the same one I saw last week and also on New Year's Day.
I headed to Seahorse Rock and didn't see any weedy seadragons along the way. The visibility dropped to around 5 metres and there was almost no current so it felt like I was swimming into current. I found "Rosie" on her usual rock but could not find "Lucky" at all. I hope he's still around.
I continued on to the next seahorses. I found "Pierre" hiding on his usual sponge but I could not find "Southern Cross" at all even after searching for 10 minutes or so. I do hope she was just hiding.
I swam on to Seadragon Alley where I only saw 2 weedy seadragons. The first one I have seen numerous times over the last 12 months and perhaps even longer. The second one was a male with eggs who I have seen a number of times since September. He's had eggs on every occasion except one.
At the end of Seadragon Alley I headed up the slope to the top of the reef and then to the boulders to do my safety stop as I was swimming to the exit. I reached the Plesiastrea colonies at 5 minutes and swam to the exit. With the tide still low it was an easy exit. |