Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 28 November 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 28 November 2015

Time

8:17am - 9:33am

Details

I decided that I would leave the car at The Steps and walk up to The Leap fully geared up. (I'm wary of leaving my gear unattended at The Leap since the incident of a few weeks ago). I didn't even bother to check the conditions at The Leap as I know it is always possible to get in and it is the exit at The Steps that is more important. It was quite calm at The Steps.

After walking up from The Steps and down to the entry point it was a bit rougher than I expected but certainly no problems for an entry.. The tide was quite high so I hardly even had to slip down the wall to get in. Visibility at the surface was less than 5 metres but I was hopeful it would improve once I got deeper. I descended and swam at 60° to the sand line. It got colder as I continued but the visibility didn't improve much. I arrived at the Amphitheatre where visibility was around 5 metres and the water just over 16°C.

I turned to the left and headed towards The Steps. Once again there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. I expected to find the large juvenile weedy seadragon (PT2015062401) in the gap between the rocks after Seahorse Rock but it was a little closer to Southern Cross Rock. I found another weedy (PT2013122201) just before Seadragon Alley. It was the female with the cut out of her first head appendage.

In Seadragon Alley I saw 4 weedies: a female (PT2015011102); two males, one with lost of eggs (PT2014051701) and one with no eggs (PT2014030803); and a large juvenile (PT2015051001).

After Seadragon Alley I found two more weedy seadragons close to Big Rock: the female with the deformed body (PT2014030901) and a male with lots of eggs (PT2014091301).

I headed up the reef after I'd gone past Big Rock to the two pygmy pipehorses. The male pipehorse (IL2015092701) was easy to find but I had to look more carefully to find the female (IL2015072601).

I swam back to the sand line and found another weedy seadragon (PT2013122201) just before the basket star. The basket star was partially open which is a sight to see. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any decent photographs.

I headed on to Diversity Rock and was thrilled to see three seahorses: "Rosie", "Noel" and "Daniel" together in the sea tulips and "Arnold" was on the rock right next to them. It appears "Daniel" has moved in and so I expect him to stay. I also found the white pygmy pipehorse (IL2015102401) in the Carijoa and the red-fingered angler on the rock to the left. I looked for the other seahorse, "Greg", but could not find him. I couldn't find any of the Miamira magnifica nudibranchs.

I headed on to look for "Di", the seahorse, and found two Nembrotha purpureolineata on the way. I was not able to find "Di" but did find two Hypselodoris bennetti nudibranchs mating on her rock.

I swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps. The tide was quite high and I was able to get all the way to the wall with my fins on.

I discovered after the dive that many of my photographs were ruined due to a smudge on the inside of the lens port.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

75 minutes

Maximum depth

22.0 m

Average depth

14.3 m

Water temperature

16.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:16am

0.39m

High

10:45am

1.91m

Low

5:25pm

0.22m

High

11:27pm

1.38m

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.