Dive Details

Location

Date

16 March, 2013

Time

8:42am - 9:48am

Details

Here was another example where the conditions at the dive site were a lot worse than what was suggested from the Bureau of Meteorology's forecast. There were meant to be light winds and a moderate swell but we found some large wave sets hitting the entry point. As we jump in from the ledge it wasn't necessarily unsafe for entry but the exit at The Steps would likely be difficult.

We entered off the ledge and swam out from the wall to meet up before descending. There was a lot of surge on the surface. We descended and headed to the sand line. Unfortunately, the surge persisted even to 22 metres at the sand line and the visibility was the worst I have seen at The Leap with a lot of sand being stirred up. This was unusual for The Leap because the depth using protects it from the surface swell.

We drifted with the surge and the incoming tide to Seahorse Rock. We looked for seahorses there but found none - although the conditions were not great for finding seahorses. I checked the large rock up from Seahorse Rock for the basket star and found it plus a reaper cuttlefish that had flattened itself on the rock trying to avoid the surge.

We headed to the rock with "Southern Cross" and her males and found her and "Richie" and they were hanging on very tightly against the surge. We didn't find "Kel".

We ascended slightly as we moved towards The Steps. We found a weedy seadragon, the first one that Alan had seen. We kept moving shallower as we got closer to The Steps.

John and I overshot The Steps and surface some 30 metres or so towards The Monument. Looking back at The Steps and the large waves that were rolling in we decided to keep going to The Monument for a safer exist. Alan and Sheree exited at The Steps and we hear it was a bit hairy. On the way to The Monument we found another weedy seadragon. The one was missing much of its tail.

We surfaced just before reaching the rock with "Lisa" and her males. There were also some large waves at the normal exit point so we went around the corner a bit where it was almost flat. The exit was easy.

Buddy

John Keogh

Seas

Rough

Visibility

3-5 metres

Duration

63 minutes

Maximum depth

21.9 m

Average depth

12.6 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.

Low

6:15am

0.48m

High

12:15pm

1.35m

Low

6:07pm

0.54m

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.

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 17.3 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 17.6 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis ("Richie"). 17.4 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis ("Southern Cross"). 17.3 m.
 

Nudibranch Chromodoris splendida. 11.7 m.
 

Red brick sea star, Pentagonaster duebeni. 10.3 m.
 

Sea star, Nectria. 10.2 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 11.9 m.