Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 16 September 2016

Time

3:12pm - 4:48pm

Details

There was almost no swell when we jumped in from the low platform which meant with the lowness of the tide at the time it was still quite a drop to the water. The surface water looked clear and was at least 5 metres visibility. We descended and headed at around 60° towards the sand line. The going was tough due the very strong tidal current. We arrived at the amphitheatre. Visibility was 10 metres or so but there was a lot of particulate matter in the water, probably kicked up by the strong current. We headed towards The Steps.

It was quite easy going with the current but stopping was difficult and swimming back nearly impossible. We saw two weedy seadragons in Seadragon Alley, both a little way in from the sand line. The current made photographing them a bit difficult.

We continued on past Big Rock and on to Hand Rock. I found both pygmy pipehorses on Hand Rock but again the really strong current made photography awkward. What was interesting was the current didn't let up so there was no surge as such and yet the pygmy pipehorses still swayed as if there was surge.

We swam on a little further to "Lee", the tiny yellow painted angler that Roger found. We continued on to Diversity Rock where the male weedy seadragon with eggs was still hanging. It looks like some of his eggs have hatched already. I looked on Diversity Rock for the pygmy pipehorses but was only able to find the male. I looked for some time for the female which was hard with the current. Mike needed to ascend so he left me while I did a sweep of the area looking for seahorses but I found none.

I swam along the sand line past Little Big Rock and then up the reef to Di's Rock. I keep hoping one or more seahorses will appear there. I swam towards the exit close to the sand line checking out all the rocks along the way and then ascended directly to Split Rock for my safety stop. After my safety stop I exited at The Steps which was easy due to the lack of swell.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

21.0 m

Average depth

13.0 m

Water temperature

15.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides

Low

1:36am

0.21m

High

7:39am

1.56m

Low

1:33pm

0.30m

High

7:53pm

1.84m