Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 1/4/14

Dive Details

Location

Date

01 April, 2014

Time

8:12am - 9:34am

Details

Botany Bay and The Leap looked absolutely fabulous on the morning of the dive. The sky was clear, the water was flat and it was going to be a great day - my birthday!

We jumped in at The Leap and slowly made our way to the sand line. The visibility was at least 15 metres and there was almost no surge. The tidal current was quite strong so as we turned towards The Steps we didn't need to do much swimming.

We found "Alex", the painted angler, on its usual rock. Its colour is slowly changing and the saddle is becoming more noticeable.

Sheree spotted a pair of reaper cuttlefish just before we got to Seahorse Rock. One was displaying.

We found "Bob" and "Rosie", the pot-bellied seahorses, on their usual rock behind Seahorse Rock. It looks like "Bob" is pregnant again. Further on, Sheree found "Lucy" amongst kelp on one of the two rocks where we usually see her. She is growing into a beautiful seahorse.

The pot-bellied seahorses, "Southern Cross", "Richie", and "Pierre", were on their usual rock. "Southern Cross" was not out in the open as she usually is. "Pierre" looks pregnant. Just beyond the seahorses, Sheree found a juvenile giant cuttlefish.

As we continued on our way towards The Steps we saw 4 or 5 weedy seadragons. It is good that they show up on almost every dive at The Leap or The Steps. We also saw a huge sea hare. We're not sure if it is the same one we saw 9 days earlier as it was in a different location but it was around the same size.

When we arrived at the basket star it was back up on its sponge on top of the rock. I'm not sure why it was below the rock a few days earlier.

The visibility had dropped significantly making it difficult to see each other unless we were close. I doubled back and went up the reef to the pygmy pipehorses. Both were in the same locations I had seen them on Sunday. One is very pregnant and looks like it is about to give birth at any moment. I still don't know if the other is a male of a female.

At this point I realised Sheree and I were separated. I waited for her at the pygmy pipehorses and when she didn't turn up, made my way to the exit hoping to find her. I found her at the safety stop which we completed together before surfacing a bit short of The Steps and then had to battle a surface current to the exit point. Despite the messy ending, it was a fantastic dive and a great way to celebrate my birthday.

Buddy

Sheree Papuni

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5-15 metres

Duration

82 minutes

Maximum depth

21.8 m

Average depth

14.9 m

Water temperature

19.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:15am

0.27m

High

10:23am

1.63m

Low

4:25pm

0.34m

High

10:41pm

1.80m

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.