Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 27 September 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 27 September 2014

Time

8:51am - 10:06am

Details

It was not safe to get in from the low platform because the waves were washing over it, mainly due to it only being around an hour before high tide. I slid down the wall and George and Paula jumped from the shelf. We descended and headed at 60° to the sand line arriving just to the north of the amphitheatre. The visibility there was at least 15 metres. I checked the sponge covered boulders for seahorses but found none.

We headed towards The Steps, George and Paula in front and me lagging behind. It wasn't long before George and Paula found a weedy seadragon. They took some photographs and moved on and then I took some and caught up to them.

I found "Rosie", the female pot-bellied seahorse, on her usual rock behind Seahorse Rock. I showed her to George and Paula. George and Paula continued on with me lagging behind. I caught up to them again at the next seahorses and pointed "Southern Cross" out to Paula. We had agreed before the dive that as I was diving with a 15L tank and nitrox, it was fine for them to move on without me. They left me at "Southern Cross" while I went searching for "Pierre". I found him less than 30 cm from "Southern Cross".

I continued on and came to the area where I frequently see weedy seadragons. I initially saw two together and as I was photographing them I realised there were actually four of them. They seemed to be swimming in pairs and perhaps they were preparing to mate. I had a quick look for the pineapplefish but could not find them. When I came back to the sand line I found another 3 weedy seadragons making 8 in total for the dive.

I followed the sand line all the way to the basket star and then cut up over the reef in a direct line to the boulders. I ascended to 5 metres and then swam along the boulders, past the Plesiastrea colonies to my usual safety stop location. After 5 minutes, I ascended and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

George and Paula Borovskis

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15+ metres

Duration

74 minutes

Maximum depth

21.9 m

Average depth

15.8 m

Water temperature

18.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

3:35am

0.37m

High

9:54am

1.61m

Low

4:11pm

0.39m

High

10:13pm

1.45m

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.