Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 12 May 2017

Time

10:57am - 12:21pm

Details

For our second dive we did The Steps. The tide was going out but as the conditions had been so good this wouldn't be a problem.

We jumped in at The Steps, swam out and descended. Visibility was still around 10 metres, water temperature around 20°C and still quite a bit of surge. We turned right and headed towards The Leap.

We followed the sand line and Roney found a Nembrotha purpureolineata before we got to Little Big Rock. I searched Little Big Rock for pygmies but found none.

We continued and I looked on the rock before Diversity Rock for the pygmy I had been seeing but it seems to have moved on. At Diversity Rock I found the red male pygmy pipehorse that has moved in there.

We stayed in the reef as far as Miamira Rock and the basket star before heading back towards the sand line. We got as far as the flat rock to the northwest of Hand Rock and I found the red male pygmy pipehorse. I then found the small whitish female.

We turned and headed back along the sand line towards The Steps. I found a pygmy pipehorse on a rock on the sand line below Roney's Pygmy Rock. I showed Jeroen and went looking for more. I found a second one. As I was photographing it the other two left.

On my own, and with plenty of air I could come back more slowly. I found tiny juvenile pygmy pipehorse on the rock that used to have the red chimney sponge.

I swam on to Diversity Rock again to see the red male pygmy before heading towards the boulders. As I was swimming along the boulders doing my safety stop I spotted a Chaetodon flavirostris. I also wee the wobbegong swim by. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues, Jeroen van Meenen

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

84 minutes

Maximum depth

14.3 m

Average depth

11.8 m

Water temperature

19.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

3:15am

0.48m

High

9:12am

1.43m

Low

2:52pm

0.58m

High

9:21pm

1.77m