Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 22 October 2017

Time

7:47am - 9:09am

Details

I had to work later today and so I only had time for a quick dive to keep my weekend run going. I would have loved to dive The Leap but needed to start work at 11am and the longer dive time and the walk back to The Leap would have added more time. I settled for The Steps.

Conditions were calm when I jumped in at The Steps. After surface swimming out I descended to the sand line. Visibility was around 10 metres with some particulate matter in the water. There wasn't much surge but the incoming tidal current was quite strong. Water temperature was around 17°C. I turned right and headed towards Big Rock.

I swam along the sand line against the incoming tide. It was tough going. I hadn't gone far when I came on a weedy seadragon. I think it was a male but it had no eggs.

I got to the pair of red widebody pipefish and they were both in their alga. It has only been the one time where I have come across them and they haven't been there.

I came across another weedy seadragon near Little Big Rock. I looked around the area of Little Big Rock for anglers but found none. I also looked on Little Big Rock for pygmy pipehorses but found none.

I swam on to Diversity Rock and looked for pygmy pipehorses there but was not able to find any.

I followed the sand line to Big Rock. On the way I spotted another weedy seadragon.

I stopped at the rock below Hand Rock and found the whiteish red-fingered angler, the black painted angler and the male pygmy pipehorse.

On Big Rock I found my male pygmy pipehorse with a nudibranch on his head. It looked quite strange. I also found his partner nearby. At the other end of Big Rock I found Roney's male pygmy but I could not find the partner.

I still had 100 bar of air and so decided to make a dash to the great seahorse. I stayed up the reef away from the sand line to try to avoid the current but it was very tough going. I arrived at the rock and found the seahorse on the far end on the green sponge where Dama had seen her last Sunday. I then checked out the pair of red widebody pipefish.

I had chewed up a fair amount of air swimming against the current so I moved up into shallower water while I swam back to The Steps. I stayed on top of the reef and checked out the sponge covered rocks for seahorses. I came back past New Basket Star Rock.

I stayed on that line all the way to Di's Rock where I looked for anglers before heading to the boulders. I hit 5 metres at around the first colonies of Plesiastrea and didn't have far to swim to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and swam to the exit. It was still quite calm at the exit.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

81 minutes

Maximum depth

16.5 m

Average depth

11.9 m

Water temperature

16.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:14am

0.44m

High

10:38am

1.67m

Low

5:01pm

0.40m

High

11:00pm

1.39m