Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Friday 11 December 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 11 December 2015

Time

8:03am - 9:31am

Details

The tide was quite high when we got in and so there wasn't much of a leap. I slid down the wall and my fins were already in the water as I "fell" in. At the surface the visibility was only 3 to 5 metres. We descended and swam to the sand line at around 60° arriving in the middle of the amphitheatre. Visibility here was better, up to 10 metres but there was some particulate matter in the water. It was cold at just over 16°C.

We headed towards The Steps and hadn't got very far when we saw a large school of striped catfish. I swam into the school as I like to do. They initially separated but closed in around me.

We continued on. Just after Seahorse Rock I spotted the two large juvenile weedy seadragons (PT2015062401 and PT2015081601) that have been in that area for some time.

We swam through Seadragon Alley where we saw 5 weedy seadragons: 3 females (PT2013122201, PT2015011102 and PT2014030901); a male (PT2014030803) with a lot of eggs and a large juvenile (PT2015051001). The third female is the one with the deformed body.

We swam past Big Rock and headed up the reef to the pygmy pipehorses. I only found the female (IL2015072601). I could not see the male (IL2015092701) and the rock was covered with that horrible snot algae. Ken and Keith left me at this point. I swam back to the sand line and past the basket star. Shortly after the basket star I saw another male weedy seadragon (PT2015061401) with lost of eggs.

At Diversity Rock I found: "Noel" and "Daniel" on the pink sea tulips; the angler on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock, "Arnold" was hiding in the green sponges on the rock behind Diversity Rock; and the juvenile weedy seadragon near the big rock to the right of Diversity Rock. I was not able to find the white pygmy pipehorse (IL2015102401), nor "Rosie".

I swam on to "Di"'s rock where I found "Mikhail". I then swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Ken Rids, Keith

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

22.4 m

Average depth

14.3 m

Water temperature

16.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

2:26am

0.45m

High

8:58am

1.76m

Low

3:33pm

0.35m

High

9:25pm

1.36m

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.