Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 5/1/14

Dive Details

Location

Date

05 January, 2014

Time

9:50am - 10:56am

Details

Conditions didn't look as good today as they had the previous day. It was a bit choppier and the water did not look as clear. With the higher tide and rougher conditions, I couldn't jump in from the low platform and had to partially slide down the wall. Nevertheless, I managed to get in without too much trouble. Once my buddy joined me, we descended and headed toward the sand line. The visibility was not great and was only around 5 metres when we hit the sand line. It was also very cold.

We headed towards The Steps and on the way Sheree spotted a giant cuttlefish under the edge of a rock. We found "Rosie" and "Bob", pot-bellied seahorses, on their usual rock behind seahorse rock. There was still no sign of "Kel" so we now have to assume he's moved on. We looked around the other rocks for him and for "Lucy", the juvenile pot-bellied seahorse. We found "Lucy" on the low rock where we first saw "Rosie" over 12 months ago.

We pushed on and saw two different reaper cuttlefish on the way to the next rock with seahorse. On that rock we found "Southern Cross", "Pierre" and "Richie". There was also another reaper cuttlefish there. I suspect it might be a resident as I frequently see one on that rock near the seahorses.

Back on our way we saw a weedy seadragon amongst the kelp. When we got to the rock with "Dana", the red painted angler, we found it in exactly the same spot it had been the previous day, except it was facing in the opposite direction.

We continued on our way to The Steps and stopped at Big Rock to look for pygmy pipehorses. Unfortunately, we did not find any and later we heard from Di and Noel that they haven't seen them either so they may have moved on.

We next went looking for the Miamira magnifica nudibranch we'd found the previous day. We found the rock it was on without much trouble, but the nudibranch was not to be seen. Sheree then spotted it under some kelp at the base of the rock. This was good news that we could at least find its location on subsequent dives.

We then swam to the basket star which was partially open, probably trying to catch some of the particulate matter in the water that was affecting the visibility.

Finally, we went to the rock we'd previously seen "Big John", the orange form undescribed angler. It was no longer in the same location and after a swim around the rock and adjacent rocks we could not find it. It had not moved in over two weeks and then it was gone. Hopefully, we'll find it again on a dive in the future. We ascended to 5 metres and swam to the boulders to do our safety stop and exited at The Steps. The high tide made the exit very easy for me - which was a nice change.

Buddy

Sheree Papuni

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

3-5 metres

Duration

66 minutes

Maximum depth

21.4 m

Average depth

14.6 m

Water temperature

16.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:01pm

1.50m

Low

5:49am

0.36m

High

12:11pm

1.87m

Low

6:47pm

0.20m

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.