Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 8 March 2015

Time

9:57am - 10:58am

Details

It wasn't all that rough at The Leap but the waves were just washing over the entry platform. It looked fine and so we jumped in. The visibility was maybe 3 metres, perhaps a little more when we descended. We headed off at around 60° but the current and surge was weird and it took us more south east.

As the visibility was not good I checked on my buddy regularly as we swam to the sand line. As we approached what turned out to be the wall I noticed the visibility was about to get a lot worse so I turned around one more time to realise my buddy was no longer there. I swam back a bit to search for her but with the poor visibility she wouldn't have had to be far away to not be visible. I continued on and dropped over the wall - I then realised just how far we'd been knocked off course. On the wall and down to the bottom the visibility was only around 2 metres and it was very difficult to tell where I was.

I decided to swim to Pygmy Rock and wait for my buddy there, assuming she was behind me, or hope that she was already there if she'd got in front of me. After a long swim along the wall I eventually found my way to Pygmy Rock. I managed to find one pygmy pipehorse but with the surge and the poor visibility it was almost impossible to photograph.

I stayed at Pygmy Rock for over 10 minutes and then assumed my buddy was ahead of me. I continued on slowly towards Seahorse Rock. The visibility was still only 1-2 metres and I could only recognise the landmarks once I was on them. As I approached Seahorse Rock I was sure I could hear bubbles other than my own. I turned around and could just make out my buddy's torch. Reunited, we continued on and met Pete and Carly at the rock with "Rosie" and "Pierre". The visibility was so shocking here I couldn't get any decent photographs of either seahorse.

From here I followed my buddy closely only stopping to attempt to photograph two weedy seadragons, one just before Seadragon Alley where I had seen him on Friday and the previous Sunday, and the other in Seadragon Alley. This second one, I last saw on 28 February 2015.

We left Seadragon Alley before we got to the end and headed up into shallower water. As we were swimming along I heard a boat anchor being lowered. I turned to my buddy to see the anchor hit her on the legs. She was so lucky. She was OK but just a little shaken.

We continued on to the boulders and did a very long safety stop as we swam to the exit. My buddy pointed out two Moorish idols along the way. We got out at The Steps.

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

1-3 metres

Duration

60 minutes

Maximum depth

22.4 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

19.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:38am

0.45m

High

10:48am

1.58m

Low

4:58pm

0.42m

High

11:09pm

1.55m

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.

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.6 m.