Dive at Shiprock, Port Hacking, NSW on 20 July 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

20 July 2014

Time

3:00pm - 4:02pm

Details

The seas around Sydney were very rough for the weekend and Shiprock was one of the few spots that could be dived. The wind was pretty strong across Port Hacking but the water still looked quite clear from the pool.

I got in at the pool and descended the wall. The visibility was around 5 metres or so but it was very cold, even in my dry suit. I followed the wall around, with one excursion onto the sand. Part of the way along the wall I saw a spotted grubfish dive at a hole and come back with a crustacean in its mouth. The head of the crustacean was in the grubfish's mouth but the tail looked very much like that of a mantis shrimp. That's a brave grubfish putting a mantis shrimp in its mouth.

I followed the wall to the shallows and turned and returned along the wall staying at 8-10 metres all the way back. I then potted around the top of the wall to the north of the entry/exit for a while. I exited at the pool.

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

5+ metres

Duration

61 minutes

Maximum depth

15.5 m

Average depth

9.2 m

Water temperature

13.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

2:30am

1.35m

Low

8:43am

0.52m

High

3:17pm

1.58m

Low

9:50pm

0.64m

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.