Dive Details

Location

Date

Thursday 19 January 2017

Time

12:20pm - 2:01pm

Details

It didn't look all that rough at The Steps or The Leap when I arrived and by the time we were ready it was not that rough other than a few big sets coming through every now and then. There was too much water over the low platform so we slid down the wall. Visibility on the surface looked ok. We descended and Mike was initially started swimming parallel to the shore but I got him to turn so we were heading at around 30°. Unfortunately, we arrived at the sand line close to Seahorse Rock so I didn't get to look for Ian's pygmy pipehorses. Visibility was only around 3 metres and the surge was quite strong. We headed towards The Steps.

Just before Southern Cross Rock I saw a weedy seadragon. Mike says there was a second there but I missed it. As I swam into Seadragon Alley I noticed a small golden weedfish bouncing around the kelp. I thought about photographing it but the surge was too strong and it was moving too fast. Midway through Seadragon Alley we saw a male weedy seadragon with eggs. I'll have to check my records but this may be his third brood of the season. At the end of Seadragon Alley I spotted another golden weedfish. This one was a little more conducive to photography but the surge and poor visibility meant I didn't get any good shots.

We swam on to Big Rock and I looked around for pygmy pipehorses. I found the two on the rock below Hand Rock. The surge made photography difficult. Mike went on ahead to Roney's pygmy pipehorses and I caught up to him. We could only find the male. Mike left me while I continued to look for the female.

I swam onto the basket star and looked around for the Miamira magnifica nudibranchs but found none. I headed to Diversity Rock before following the sand line to Little Big Rock. I cut in to look for the anglers that Mike had told me about. I searched for ages before finally finding one on the sand line side of one of the rocks. I had a quick look for the other one before heading to the boulders and starting my safety stop. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and then exited at The Steps. It was an easy exit.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

21.3 m

Average depth

13.8 m

Water temperature

18.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

2:17am

1.36m

Low

8:13am

0.69m

High

2:12pm

1.37m

Low

8:40pm

0.55m