Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 10 December 2017

Time

11:03am - 12:43pm

Details

The Steps were so good yesterday we decided to do The Leap. There was a fairly large group and as Tony had never seen the wall, Mandy, Brett, Tony, and I went sperately from the others to do the wall.

I was quite calm and Mandy, Tony and I got in from the low platform. Once in the water we down the shore line and out to get closer to the wall. Mandy and I got tired of swimming on the surface so we descended and swam at around 60° to the wall. When we reached the wall we turned right and headed along the wall for some way. Visibility was at least 10 metres and the current wasn't very strong. The water temperature was around 18°C.

We turned around and started heading towards The Steps. We hadn't gone far when I spotted a Ceratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch. Mandy then called me back as she'd spotted a large dark red male pygmy pipehorse. She then found an umbrella snail. This is only the 3rd or 4th I have seen before.

We continued on towards The Steps past Pygmy Rock where I stopped for a quick look for pygmies but didn't really give it long enough. Near Lucy and Bob Rock I found the sea fan on which the anemones had been on 29 November. They were gone but there was obvious damage to the axes. I forgot to take a photo.

We swam on past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks with sponges. There was a male weedy seadragon on the sand outside the overhang. He didn't have any eggs. I then found the male with the damaged head right under the overhang. He had a couple of eggs and what looked like anemones on the underside of his tail. There was a third male with the remnants of eggs between the two flat rocks. There was a female weedy seadragon behind Bent Stick Rock.

We headed to Southern Cross Rock where I stopped to look for pygmies. The others went ahead of me here. I found two pygmies on Southern Cross Rock only.

I was running out of no deco time so I ascended a bit and swam over the top of Seadragon Alley and didn't see a single seadragon.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I dropped back down to the sand line to check the rock with sponges. I found the female pygmy pipehorse but couldn't find the male.

I swam on to the pair of red Stigs in their usual alga. I also found the great seahorse hiding at the base of the green hand sponge.

I ascended a small amount to avoid going into deco and swam on the rock with the pygmies. I found the red male, a juvenile and eventually the female.

I swam on to Big Rock and found the male pygmy pipehorse and his partner near the top of Big Rock. I looked for my red male on the front of Big Rock but couldn't find him or his partner.

Just past Big Rock I found the white red-fingered angler on the same rock as yesterday although it was facing the other way. The black painted angler was in a purple sponge below the rock it had been on yesterday.

I went shallower again and swam to New Basket Star Rock and checked on the basket star. Above but just after Diversity Rock I came on a male weedy seadragon with new eggs. It was one of the two I'd seen in the same spot yesterday. So the female must have transferred the eggs between when I saw them yesterday and now.

Behind Little Big Rock I found the salmon red-fingered angler and the orange painted angler.

Farther along I spotted the Nembrotha sp. nudibranch. I then swam on to the other red Stigs but they were not in their usual alga. I looked around but couldn't see them.

From here I looked again for the grey red-fingered angler that Ron had shown me but I wasn't sure I was checking the correct rock. I then swam to the boulders, ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop while swimming to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and then swam to the exit. The others were waiting on the rocks to do a second dive.

Buddy

Mandy Durand

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10+ metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

21.7 m

Average depth

15.1 m

Water temperature

18.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

2:54am

1.35m

Low

8:35am

0.63m

High

2:50pm

1.59m

Low

9:37pm

0.40m