Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 17 May 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

17 May 2014

Time

8:11am - 9:34am

Details

Once again Botany Bay and The Leap looked fantastic. The Sun was still low in the sky and there was a gentle north-easterly swell. All looked perfect for a great dive.

I jumped in off the low ledge and descended, swimming to the sand line at 60°. At the sand line the visibility was around 15 metres, although it looked a bit less as it was still quite dark. I headed towards The Steps and immediately started looking for "Alex", the painted angler. I managed to find all the previous rocks one which it had been sighted but could not find it.

At Seahorse Rock I checked all the surrounding rocks for "Bob", the pot-bellied seahorse, but did not see him. "Rosie" was on her usual rock, and back on top again. I then did a big sweep around the area looking for "Bob". I found "Lucy" on the low rock, pretty much where she had been last week. I swung right around to The Leap side of Seahorse Rock where I found "Alex". I was not able to find "Bob".

I continued on towards The Steps and found "Southern Cross" in her usual location and "Pierre" was close by. "Richie" was where he is normally found. There was also a eastern smooth boxfish on the rock.

On the next rock I found a large common Sydney octopus and a small reaper cuttlefish. A little further along I found a weedy seadragon and a large juvenile giant cuttlefish. I checked out the pineapplefish and found 4 there.

I swam to Sheree's pygmy pipehorses but it appears they have moved on. I checked out the basket star and then went to find the other pygmy pipehorses, finding both of them.

I swam back to the sand line and followed it all the way to The Steps. I over shot the Plesiastrea colonies on my safety stop but realised and swam back so I could exit at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

83 minutes

Maximum depth

21.3 m

Average depth

15.7 m

Water temperature

19.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

4:10am

0.29m

High

10:11am

1.46m

Low

3:49pm

0.48m

High

10:19pm

1.94m

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.