Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Wednesday 24 June 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 24 June 2015

Time

11:50am - 1:19pm

Details

The Leap looked great today with almost no swell. I was able to get in from the low platform. Ben jumped in from the top of the shelf. Visibility at the entry point was at least 5 metres.

We swam at around 60° towards the sand line and arrived at the amphitheatre in line with Pygmy Rock. Visibility here was at least 10 metres.

As I approached Pygmy Rock I spotted a pygmy pipehorse before I'd even started to look. I realised that this was not the same pygmy that I had seen previously so I started looking for the other one. I found it in around 5 minutes. I was pretty stoked to find 2 pygmies.

We left Pygmy Rock and headed towards The Steps. We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the low rock where "Pierre" has been and I spotted him even though he was hiding as usual.

Just past "Pierre", Ben spotted a juvenile weedy seadragon. This one was about the same size as the other two we have seen recently but was one I had not sen before.

Before we reached the rock where "Southern Cross" used to live a large ray swam past us on,y a few metres away. It didn't seem all that worried by us and may have come in to check us out.

In Seadragon Alley we saw 3 weedy seadragons. Two of them were swimming together and looked like a male and a female. The other was on its own. I have seen all three before. We also saw a smallish giant cuttlefish.

After Seadragon Alley we slowly moved up from the sand line through the kelp. I spotted another juvenile weedy seadragon. This was one I'd seen before.

As we swam along the reef a large giant cuttlefish swam past high off the sand. Ben tried to follow it but it just kept swimming.

We continued along the reef and then headed for the boulders to do our safety stop. We exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Ben Layman

Seas

Slight surge

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

21.7 m

Average depth

15.9 m

Water temperature

18.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

1:07am

1.47m

Low

7:49am

0.58m

High

2:14pm

1.37m

Low

8:04pm

0.81m

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.