Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 21 May 2017

Time

11:37am - 1:17pm

Details

We wanted to check out the wall so I lent Roney a 15L tank with nitrox and I had my 300bar tank and pony. Steve joined us at the last minute and would have to leave us at some point.

I jumped in from the low platform and Roney and Steve from the ledge. We surface swam out and down the shore a bit before descending and heading at around 60°. We arrived on top of the wall. Visibility was between 5 and 10 metres, it was quite surgy and the temperature was around 19°C.

We swam along to wall towards The Steps. We were hoping to see the pair of robust ghostpipefish that I and others had seen recently but had disappeared.

We continued on to Ian's Pygmy Rock. I was hoping to find the little pygmy pipehorse I'd seen on Thursday but the surge made it difficult to stay still long enough to search.

We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the large flat sponge covered rocks. I spotted two weedy seadragons just before the first rock. They were a male and female to perhaps they are starting to pair up ready for the breeding season. On the other side of the rock I spotted a juvenile, a product of the previous breeding season, albeit near the end.

Just past Bent Stick Rock I saw the Caeratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch I'd seen on Thursday but I could not find the Nembrotha purpureolineata.

At Southern Cross Rock I saw the whitish male pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa. The surge made it difficult to photograph.

In Seadragon Alley I spotted two weedy seadragons and at the end of Seadragon Alley I found a robust ghostpipefish. Unfortunately, Steve had just left us when I found it and didn't get to see it.

We continued on and I spotted a pygmy pipehorse just past Big Rock. It was one I'd not seen before. On the flat rock just past Hand Rock I found the red male pygmy pipehorse but it was too surgy to find any others. We swam on to Miamira Rock and the basket star and then to Diversity Rock. The red male pygmy pipehorse was there.

We kept on. At Little Big Rock I found a pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa and then a little further on I found a weedy seadragon. We were both getting a little low on air so we headed to the boulders and started our safety stops, finishing them at Split Rock before exiting at The Steps. The swell made getting to the exit difficult as it kept dragging me back out but once I got to the rocks it was an easy exit.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues, Steve Walsh

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

21.1 m

Average depth

15.1 m

Water temperature

18.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

3:49am

1.56m

Low

10:22am

0.48m

High

4:44pm

1.53m

Low

10:43pm

0.66m