Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 31 October 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 31 October 2015

Time

9:25am - 10:55am

Details

The water surface was very choppy due to the winds but I was confident that under the water conditions would be good. I slid down the rock next to the low platform and swam out from the rocks. I descended and headed to the sand line at around 60°. I arrived near Pygmy Rock. Visibility was around 15 metres and the current from the incoming tide was very strong. It was also very cold, 16°C and I was glad I was in the dry suit. I had a quick look at Pygmy Rock for pygmies but the current made it difficult.

I started towards The Steps riding the current. I hardly had to swim at all. When I got to Seahorse Rock I looked under the ledge for the snake eel I'd seen a couple of weeks ago but was not able to see it at all.

Between Seahorse Rock and Southern Cross Rock I came across a large juvenile weedy seadragon (PT2015062401) which I'd seen in the area before. Just after Southern Cross Rock I found a male weedy (PT2015103101) who I hadn't seen before. He had the remnants of eggs.

In Seadragon Alley I found another 4 weedy seadragons: One large juvenile at the start (PT2015091101) and another at the end (PT2015051001); a female (PT2013122201) and a male (PT2014030803) with a lot of eggs.

Past Seadragon Alley I found another weedy (PT2014012602) and then two more near Big Rock: my favourite female (PT2014030901) with the deformed body and a male (PT2014123002) with eggs.

After Big Rock I swam up from the sand line to check out the pygmy pipehorses. I had no trouble finding the location today as I wasn't hypothermic. I found the female (IL2015072601) immediately and then the male (IL2015092701). The surge here was quite strong which made photography a little difficult.

I swam back to the sand line, past the basket star and on to Diversity Rock. The two pygmies (IL2015091201 and IL2015102401) were in the Carijoa colonies. The angler, "Kim", was on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock and "Arnold" on the rock behind. It took me a little while to find "Rosie" as she was down low near the sand between a couple of rocks. While I was taking photographs of her I felt something hard hit my leg. I turned around to see a turtle. I must have disturbed it.

After taking more photographs I headed off to "Di" and saw the turtle again. It had only moved a few metres and gone back to sleep.

I found "Di" on her rock but was still not able to find "Joseph". I swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps. Due to the high tide I was able to swim straight in and stand on the rocks. I was stuck there, however, waiting for a lull in the waves so I could remove my fins.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

90 minutes

Maximum depth

22.0 m

Average depth

14.3 m

Water temperature

16.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides

Low

5:30am

0.42m

High

11:55am

1.82m

Low

6:36pm

0.28m

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.