Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 5 November 2016

Time

12:33pm - 1:59pm

Details

For my second dive I did The Steps to The Monument and back. People that had dive The Leap after me said the tide changed early and the head current was quite strong. Another diver who'd gone from The Steps to The Monument earlier also complained about current and surge. It was going to be interesting.

I jumped in at The Steps, descended to the sand line and turned left towards The Monument. What struck me was how calm it was and how clear the water was: 15 to 20 metres. I swam along the sand line looking for ghostpipefishes and weedy seadragons. I didn't find any and was surprised how quickly I reached the wall at The Monument, missing Block Rock completely. The tide was going out and so I should have been swimming against current but there was none.

I swam back to Block Rock and looked for seahorses but found none. I then looked for the robust ghostpipefish I'd seen last time near Block Rock but couldn't find it. I continued on towards The Monument. I stopped at the wall and looked for seahorses. I didn't find any but there were a few reaper cuttlefish.

I swam to the end of the wall and along the reef to Split Rock. I went a little past Split Rock before turning and coming back a little shallower. I noticed a tiny orange smudge on a Capnella colony and when I looked at it through the camera I realised it was a tiny amphipod, Icilius sp. I also noticed some of the ladybug amphipods.

I continued along the upper part of the reef to the sponge gardens behind the wall and then swam over the wall and followed the sand line back to The Monument. On the way back I encountered n weedy seadragons and a robust ghostpipefish.

At The Steps I stopped at Split Rock for a quick safety stop and exited at The Steps. There was almost no current or surge for the whole dive.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-20 metres

Duration

86 minutes

Maximum depth

12.9 m

Average depth

11.2 m

Water temperature

16.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:23am

1.26m

Low

5:58am

0.62m

High

12:27pm

1.58m

Low

7:12pm

0.50m