Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 28 March 2015

Time

11:21am - 12:42pm

Details

It was slightly rougher at The Leap today but calm enough to dive safely. The occasional wave was washing over the platform so I slid down the rock. The visibility was a little down on Thursday but I could still see the bottom so it was at least 5 metres here.

I descended and swam to the sand line at around 60° and I ended up at the amphitheatre. I didn't go straight to pygmy rock this time but instead headed a bit south east to look for pygmies on some of the low rocks but I found none.

I swam to pygmy rock and spent 10 minutes or so looking for pygmies but could not find any. I then looked on a number of surrounding rocks. I must have lost my eye for finding pygmies as I could not see any at all. This was my 3rd dive in a row without finding any.

I continued on to Seahorse Rock checking the occasional rock for pygmies but still found none. "Rosie" and "Pierre" were on their rock.

I headed to Seadragon Alley where I saw 6 weedy seadragons, all I'd seen before, including the one with the wavy body. At the end of Seadragon Alley I headed up to the top of the reef and saw another weedy on the way.

I'd spent a lot of time looking for pygmies and was running low on air so I headed up to the boulders and swam along at 5 metres, doing my safety stop, along the way. I saw a moorish idol along the way. I reached the Plesiastrea colonies right on 5 minutes and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

80 minutes

Maximum depth

21.5 m

Average depth

16.9 m

Water temperature

21.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

3:38am

1.50m

Low

10:32am

0.60m

High

4:39pm

1.20m

Low

10:15pm

0.74m

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"). 19.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 19.5 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 17 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.7 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 15.9 m.