Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 25 July 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 25 July 2015

Time

10:44am - 12:27pm

Details

The Leap was so good yesterday I went again today. Conditions looked even better at the entry point with the only waves coming from boats. I jumped in from the low shelf, descended and swam at around 60° reaching the amphitheatre in line with Pygmy Rock. Visibility was 10 to 15 metres again.

I searched Pygmy Rock for around 20 minutes but did not find any pygmies and so headed off. I spotted the male weedy seadragon with eggs just the other side of the flat top rock where it had been yesterday.

I continued on towards The Steps. I had another look for "Pierre", the male pot-bellied seahorse, on the flat rock he's been on but could not find him. I looked around some of the other sponge covered rocks but he wasn't visible there, either.

I swam on and just before Seadragon Alley I found the juvenile weedy seadragon that had been near "Pierre" a month ago. It was feeding on the sand.

I found 3 weedies in Seadragon Alley: The male that I saw yesterday, the juvenile I have seen a number of times and the female I saw yesterday.

I took the same path I'd taken yesterday, rising up from the sand line past Big Rock to the pygmy pipehorse. This time I found the rock and the pygmy straight away.

I swam past the deeper basket star and then tried to find the spot I'd seen "Rosie" yesterday. I was in the correct area but I just couldn't find the right rock. I looked and looked to no avail. I did see a new (new to me) weedy seadragon in the area.

After much looking I gave up and headed to the boulders for my safety stop. I exited a The Steps feeling a bit disappointed but vowed to do a second dive at The Steps to look for "Rosie".

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

102 minutes

Maximum depth

21.5 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

15.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

2:14am

1.28m

Low

8:30am

0.60m

High

3:10pm

1.46m

Low

9:38pm

0.73m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D300

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6812.3

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.