Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 15 October 2017

Time

12:41pm - 2:34pm

Details

This was my third dive at The Leap in a row as it is such a great dive. I jumped in from the low platform and as it was only an hour after low tide, there was even a bit of a drop to the water from there. Roney and Dama jumped in with me but as they only had 12.2L tanks we would separate immediately.

I descended and headed to the sand line. Visibility was much the same as Friday but the water was a little warmer at around 18°C. The incoming tidal current was quite strong. At the sand line I turned left and headed for The Steps.

At Ian's Pygmy Rock I was not able to find the little pink female pygmy pipehorse after much searching. I couldn't find the male, either.

I followed the sand line past Seahorse Rock and came across the male weedy seadragon with the hole in its head at the start of the flat rocks. He is still going strong and the hole doesn't seem to be affecting him.

I continued past Bent Stick Rock and found another weedy seadragon on the sand after the rock below Bent Stick Rock. I found a third weedy before I got to Southern Cross Rock.

At Southern Cross Rock I found 2 pygmy pipehorses, a male and a female, together, almost immediately. After a bit of searching I found the other three, two females and a male.

I swam to Seadragon Alley and found the small weedy seadragon just before the start of Seadragon Alley. In the middle of Seadragon Alley I found a male weedy seadragon with eggs. At the end of Seadragon Alley I found the pair of pygmy pipehorses on the rock with the sponges (just before where the red widebody pipefish used to be).

After Seadragon Alley I found the pair of red widebody pipefish in their usual spot. I wished I'd checked the surrounding area because when Dama was ahead of me with Roney she found a great seahorse, Hippocampus kelloggi. Hopefully, it will still be around next time I can dive at The Leap.

I continued on to Big Rock. I found my pink male pygmy pipehorse and his pink partner. I swam to the other end of Big Rock and found Roney's male pygmy pipehorse and partner.

I went to the rock below Hand Rock and found the black painted angler. I also found the male pygmy pipehorse. I was not able to find the female. I searched Slope Rock for pygmies but found none.

I swam on to New Basket Star Rock and checked on the basket star before swimming on to Diversity Rock. I looked on Diversity Rock for pygmy pipehorse but found none.

I followed the sand line to Little Big Rock and had a quick look for pygmy pipehorses before photographing the orange red-fingered angler on the adjacent rock.

I continued along the sand line to the other pair of red widebody pipefish. I looked around the sand line nearby and found the male weedy seadragon with eggs.

I headed up to Di's Rock in the hope of finding the orange angler that Mike had seen on Friday. I searched all around the rock but couldn't find it.

I swam to the boulders and started my safety stop while swimming at 5 metres to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop and swam to the exit. The tide was quite low but the exit was still easy.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

113 minutes

Maximum depth

21.0 m

Average depth

14.4 m

Water temperature

17.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

5:49am

1.34m

Low

11:34am

0.56m

High

5:55pm

1.63m