Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 7 January 2018

Time

10:14am - 11:21am

Details

This was Sheree's first dive for nearly 12 months so we planned an easy dive at The Steps. With the water temperature being 20 to 22%deg;C over the last 2 days and the visibility being over 10 metres it promised to be a good dive.

We jumped it at The Steps and on the surface it felt a little cooler than it had been but as this was one of the hottest Sydney days on record it might just have been the difference in temperature. We descended to the sand line. As we descended it certainly felt a lot cooler. My dive watch was registering 18°C but it felt cooler than that. The visibility was still over 10 metres and there was very little swell. We turned right and headed towards Big Rock.

The incoming tidal current was quite strong so swimming was a little difficult. We followed the sand line along and I was looking for weedy seadragons. We got to the pair of red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish and I pointed them out to Sheree. She was surprised how big they were and said so underwater. By now my dive watch was registering 16°C.

We swam up from the sand line to the large orange red-fingered anglerfish in the green sponge above Little Big Rock. I pointed out the angler to Sheree. We then went down to the rocks where the orange painted anglerfish and salmon red-fingered anglerfish used to be. I found the female pygmy pipehorse and pointed it out to Sheree.

We swam up to the single red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish near New Basket Star Rock. We then swam past the basket star and on towards Big Rock.

Just before Big Rock I found the black painted angler on the rock below Hand Rock. We also found the white/pink red-fingered angler. At Big Rock I found the pair of pygmy pipehorses near the single sea tulip and pointed them out to Sheree.

We swam on to the high rock between Big Rock and the seahorse where the 4 pygmies have been. I only found two pygmy pipehorses, the juvenile and the dark red male.

We continued on against the current to the great seahorse. She was on her usual rock. We moved on a little to the now single red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish. It was not in its usual alga but had moved to a larger algae just below the rock with the great seahorse. We then went to the rock with the sponges but I could only find the male pygmy pipehorse. I looked for the female but couldn't see her. Being so cold made it difficult to concentrate. While were were there, Noel, Di and their friend who was diving in shorts and a tee shirt swam up. I showed Noel where the pipefish was and then we headed for The Steps.

We followed the sand line. Sheree kept getting ahead of me but as the visibility was so good I was still able to see her and I'd catch up to her each time she stopped. We stayed on the sand line almost all the way to the Steps before heading up to the boulders. We ended p swimming past Split Rock before I realised and we came back while doing our safety stops. After we finished our safety stops we swam underwater to the exit, standing up right at the exit. It was an easy exit.

Buddy

Sheree Rose

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

67 minutes

Maximum depth

16.7 m

Average depth

12.3 m

Water temperature

16.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:22am

1.41m

Low

7:09am

0.52m

High

1:23pm

1.69m

Low

8:04pm

0.35m