Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 1/12/13

Dive Details

Location

Date

01 December, 2013

Time

3:23pm - 4:28pm

Details

This was Karolyn and Seb's first dive at The Leap and I wanted to show them our seahorses and they wanted to see the Miamira magnifica nudibranch and the Ceratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch we'd seen on Thursday. I was going to be hard pressed for this dive as I started the dive with only 195 bar.

We jumped in at The Leap and descended to the sand line. We made our way along the sand line to Seahorse Rock and on the rock behind Seahorse Rock found the seahorses "Kel", "Bob" and "Rosie". It was exactly a year since I first found "Rosie" and even though she moves around a bit and we sometimes can't find her, it is good that she's been around for 12 months. Hopefully, we'll keep seeing her.

A bit further on we found "Lucy", the juvenile pot-bellied seahorse. She was in the same sponge we'd seen her on Thursday. I had a quick look for the Ceratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch where I thought we'd seen it but was not able to locate it.

On the way to "Southern Cross", the seahorse, we saw a weedy seadragon. I found "Southern Cross" immediately as she was out in the open. This would have been a good opportunity to take some measurement photos but I didn't have the time because I started with 195 bar. I found "Richie" and "Pierre" eventually as they were both hiding.

We continued on towards The Steps. Thanks to Sheree's great directions from the last dive, I was easily able to find the rock with the tiny red angler, "Dana", and get some photographs.

On our way again, we passed the basket star and got to the area where the Miamira magnifica nudibranch normally is, but after much hunting we couldn't find it. Hopefully, it was just hiding and we'll see it again. Seb found a medium sized giant cuttlefish which was very playful. I ducked up to look for "Robin", the orange painted angler, but couldn't find it.

I dashed to where we've seen "Little Andrew", the orange painted angler, and "Big John", the orange form undescribed angler. "Little Andrew" had moved around the corner a bit and "Big John" was in a sponge nearby.

I was very low on air by this time and left Karolyn and Seb and started my safety stop as I was swimming towards the boulders. I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Karolyn & Sebastien Landat

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

65 minutes

Maximum depth

20.9 m

Average depth

14.0 m

Water temperature

19.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

12:57pm

0.37m

High

7:28am

1.74m

Low

1:59pm

0.33m

High

7:52pm

1.43m

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.