Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Sunday 26 October 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 26 October 2014

Time

8:41am - 9:58am

Details

The Leap was flat when I arrived with hardly any swell but as the Sun was still low in the sky it was not easy to tell how clear the water might be. The water was lapping over the low platform so I slid down the rock next to the platform. I swam on the surface 10-15 metres along the shore to the south east and descended. Visibility was between 5 and 10 metres. I swam to the wall at around 60°.

I descended the wall where the visibility was around 10 metres and headed north west along the wall. At the end of the wall I found the low rock where we had previously seen "Shirley", the juvenile pot-bellied seahorse, but she was not there. I checked the adjacent low rock and found her which was a relief.

I swam over to the pygmy pipehorse that Sheree had found on 5 November and it was still in the same spot. I then started closely looking at the surrounding rocks for seahorses and pygmy pipehorses. On one rock I started looking a bit more closely when I was very pleasantly surprised to find a pink pygmy pipehorse. I was so thrilled! This was the first pygmy pipehorse I had found completely on my own (not pointed out, relocating one that had been previously pointed out, or finding one in an area where I had told one had been seen). What was even more exciting was that it was pink. I had never seen a pink pygmy pipehorse before. I was excited for the rest of the dive.

I continued looking for pygmy pipehorses and seahorses on my way to Seahorse Rock but I was a little distracted by my excitement and I don't think I was looking all that closely. Once I got to Seahorse Rock I found "Rosie" on her usual rock. I moved on over the low sponge covered rocks until I reached the sponge covered rock where "Southern Cross" and "Pierre" hang out. It took me a few minutes to find both of them.

I swam on to Seadragon Alley and managed to find 3 weedy seadragons, including a male with eggs. It was about this time that a group of other divers swam past nearby. Their buoyancy was terrible and they were kicking up so much sand that I nearly lost the last weedy seadragon in the much. I stuck to the sand line and swam around them so I could have some clear water. At this point I was starting to run low on air and was very cold so when I reached Big Rock I swam over the top of it and along the top of the reef to the boulders. I ascended to 5 metres and did my safety stop while swimming over the boulders, reaching the Plesiastrea colonies as the 5 minutes ended. I swam up to the exit at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

76 minutes

Maximum depth

21.9 m

Average depth

17.0 m

Water temperature

16.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:03am

0.39m

High

10:29am

1.74m

Low

4:58pm

0.31m

High

10:58pm

1.40m

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.