Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 21 November 2016

Time

11:21am - 12:45pm

Details

It was a hot day but I still donned the drysuit. We'd be swimming slowly and I knew I could get cold. We jumped in between the ramp and the pool and surface swam out to past the outboard motor. We descended - or at least I attempted to descend when I realised I had forgotten to wear my weight belt. When diving with a single tank in my drysuit I need an extra 7kg to compensate for the air in the drysuit, especially when my tank is nearly empty. It was too far to go back to get my weight belt so I dumped all the air in my drysuit - I had already dumped all the air from the BCD. With a bit of effort I made it to the bottom but I was going to have to carry some rocks.

We swam along in front of the boulders to the top of the ramp and then down the ramp. I wanted to get as deep as possible as soon as possible as I would be less buoyant. We went past Pygmy Rock and on to the orange sponge where I had seen the female Hippocampus kelloggi last week. She was not there. Kim had seen her on Saturday but not on Sunday. We swam around the area looking for her and I managed to find some loose rocks: I put some smaller ones in my pockets and pushed a larger one under my BCD strap. The latter promptly fell out. I eventually got it to stay.

We moved closer to the corner and Kim pointed out a Volva volva egg cowrie in a Carijoa colony. This cowrie has been around for a few weeks. We swam around the corner. I went to the orange sponge colony where I'd seen the male H. kelloggi last Monday but it was not there. I caught up with Kim who was looking where she had seen a male H. kelloggi but she also had no success. I was struggling again with my buoyancy because the rock had fallen out from under my BCD strap. While I was hunting for a new rock I spotted a large male pygmy pipehorse in a Carijoa colony. I showed Kim while I found another rock. With the rock I was able to stay down enough to take photos. We kept looking around the area for the seahorses but found none.

We headed back around the corner to the bottom of the slope and where the female seahorse had been. We expanded our search widely but found no seahorses. I was still struggling and made my way up the slope. At the top I realised Kim was no longer with me so I swam back down the slope and found her at the rock above Pygmy Rock photographing a male pygmy pipehorse. When she had finished I took some photos.

I caught up to Kim at the rocks with the pink sea tulips. I told her I was calling the dive. I was sick of struggling with my buoyancy. I swam to the top of the slope, ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop as I swam to the exit. It was quite difficult to stay at 5m but I somehow managed it. I exited between the slope and the pool and waited for Kim.

Buddy

Kim Dinh

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 8 metres

Duration

84 minutes

Maximum depth

14.8 m

Average depth

11.6 m

Water temperature

18.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

2:53am

1.29m

Low

8:30am

0.66m

High

2:47pm

1.55m

Low

9:39pm

0.45m