Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Thursday 26 March 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Thursday 26 March 2015

Time

11:08am - 12:36pm

Details

It was relatively calm at The Leap but as it was midway between low and high tide water was lapping over the platform so I slid down the rocks. The visibility straight out from the entry point was at least 5 metres as I could clearly see the bottom.

I descended and headed to the sand line at around 60°. I hit the sand line at the amphitheatre and swam straight to pygmy rock. The visibility here was over 10 metres. I searched pygmy rock for nearly 20 minutes but could not find a single pygmy pipehorse. This was the first time over 5 months that I had not seen at least one pygmy pipehorse on pygmy rock. I searched some of the surrounding rocks and still could not find any pygmies.

I swam slowly towards Seahorse Rock looking at the occasional rock for pygmies but found none. I saw a weedy seadragon on the sand. It was one I'd seen before but last time was on 1st January.

I found "Rosie" and "Pierre" on their rock behind seahorse rock. "Pierre" looks pregnant.

I continued on and found a juvenile giant cuttlefish in a small crevice at the sand line before reaching the rock where "Southern Cross" used to live.

I swam through Seadragon Alley but only found one weedy, the one with the wavy body that has been around for over a year.

I followed the sand line until Big Rock. I looked at Big Rock for pygmies and then stayed on top of the reef until I reached The Steps.

I did my safety stop on the boulders near the Plesiastrea colonies and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

21.9 m

Average depth

17.1 m

Water temperature

22.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:36am

1.65m

Low

8:21am

0.50m

High

2:19pm

1.27m

Low

8:03pm

0.65m

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.