Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 16 October 2016

Time

8:02am - 9:36am

Details

We wanted to dive the wall and attempted to get in 50 metres down the shore but it was too rough in the little bay. Instead we go in at the usual entry point and surface swam down the shoreline as well as out into deeper water. When everyone was ready, we descended and swam at around 90° to the wall. We were right at the southeastern part of the wall. We dropped down the wall and turned towards The Steps. Visibility was 5 to 10 metres and the temperature was around 17°C.

We swam along the wall. I found one of the basket stars in the orange sponge at the base of the wall near the northwestern end. We continued on. I looked for the weedy seadragon I'd seen last week near where the bent stick pipefish had been but it must have moved on. I also had a good look for the velvetfish just before Southern Cross Rock but couldn't find it. I found a weedy seadragon just before Seadragon Alley, and two more in Seadragon Alley. The others got away from me as I was photographing this last weedy seadragon.

I continued on past Big Rock and on to Hand Rock. I found the male pygmy pipehorse but could not find the female. I swam up the reef to look for the Miamara magnifica nudibranchs John had seen yesterday. I stopped at High Pygmy Rock but couldn't see any pygmy pipehorses there. I swam along checking out the rocks but did not find the nudibranchs. I found the basket star at its new location and then swam on to Diversity Rock. I couldn't find anything interesting there, no pygmy pipehorses or weedy seadragons and still no sign of the seahorses.

I kept looking for the nudibranchs all the way to Di's Rock and then dropped down to the sand line to look for more weedy seadragons. I then made my way along the sand line before heading up to the boulders to start my safety stop which I finished at Split Rock. I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

John Farrant, Mandy Durand

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5-10 etres

Duration

94 minutes

Maximum depth

22.6 m

Average depth

15.8 m

Water temperature

16.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

2:44am

0.16m

High

8:58am

1.79m

Low

3:10pm

0.18m

High

9:20pm

1.74m