Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Time

9:23am - 11:06am

Details

It was a beautiful morning for a dive and while there was a bit of swell it wasn't enough to prevent a safe exit at The Steps. I slid down the wall as there was too much water over the low platform. It was choppy on the surface but the visibility was still pretty good. I descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line arriving just to the south east of LucyBob Rock. Visibility here was over 10 metres, there was a gentle surge and the temperature was around 17°C. I turned left and headed towards The Steps.

I found the first weedy seadragon just before the start of Seadragon Alley but didn't find the second one well in near where "Mikhail" was last seen. I looked closely for the ornate ghostpipefish but couldn't find it. I found a third weedy seadragon just before the end of Seadragon Alley.

I swam past Big Rock and on to Hand Rock. I found the male pygmy pipehorse immediately but it took me a few minutes to find the female who was low down on the back of the rock. I continued along the sand line to Old Basket Star Rock. I started to cut up to the Miamara magnifica nudibranchs when group of divers swam up and positioned themselves right next the rock where the nudibranchs were. I had to wait for them to leave. I found one of the nudibranchs on the rock they'd been but couldn't see the other. I checked the surrounding rocks and found it on the rock to the left (while looking to the shore). I checked on the basket star before swimming back to the sand line.

I followed the sand line to Diversity Rock. I looked for pygmy pipehorses on Diversity Rock and surrounding rocks but found none. I started looking for the other ornate ghostpipefish and while looking under the rock just after Diversity Rock I spotted an odd looking fish. It was black with lighter patches and swam like a pineapplefish. I took some photos and looking at them after the dive I realised it was a juvenile roughy.

I continued along the sand line looking for the ornate ghostpipefish. I found another weedy seadragon near Little Big Rock. I followed the sand line to The Steps and then swam up to the boulders and did my safety stop at Split Rock. My exit at The Steps was easy thanks to the slight swell and high tide.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

103 minutes

Maximum depth

22.0 m

Average depth

14.7 m

Water temperature

17.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:05am

0.48m

High

10:31am

1.68m

Low

5:00pm

0.41m

High

11:00pm

1.35m