Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Sunday 24 December 2017

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 24 December 2017

Time

9:33am - 11:18am

Details

Steve Coutts joined us for the dive. Steve was on a rebreather and I had my 300 bar 12L plus a 5L pony. Ron and Mike were here, too. Mike wanted to take the short cut so he'd stay out of deco and Ron was going to stay with us as long as he could.

It was fairly calm so we were able to get in from the low platform. We grouped on the surface before descending. We swam at around 30° to the sand line and arrived near Lucy and Bob Rock. There was still a lot of kelp around making it a little difficult to see the navigation markers. Visibility was around 10 metres but it was a chilly 16°C. There was very little surge but some tidal current. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks with sponges. I spotted a male weedy seadragon with eggs under the overhang. He was so laden with eggs he was having trouble swimming. Nearby I spotted the male that had had an injured head. He no longer had eggs. A little farther along I spotted a female weedy seadragon.

We continued on to Southern Cross Rock. I spotted two pygmy pipehorses, a male and a female, and pointed them out to Steve. While Steve was photographing the pygmy pipehorses, Ron pointed out a black painted anglerfish on Southern Cross Rock. I then found 2 more pygmy pipehorses on the side of Southern Cross Rock. Ron left us at this point.

We continued on to Seadragon Alley where I found another male weedy seadragon with eggs. At the end of Seadragon Alley I found the pair of pygmy pipehorses on the rock with the sponges. I showed them to Steve before moving on to the red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish. The pipefish were no longer in the same alga but were still quite close. I also spotted the great seahorse on the next rock. When Steve caught up I pointed out the pipefish and the seahorse before moving on.

I swam on to the rock before Big Rock where the 4 pygmy pipehorses have been. I found the male, the female and one of the juveniles but I could not find the other one. Steve caught up to me and I pointed out the 3 pygmies to him before I moved on to Big Rock.

At Big Rock I found the two pygmy pipehorses on top of the rock and my red male pygmy and his partner low down on the rock. I waited for Steve to come so I could show him but he never came. I then went over to the white red-fingered anglerfish and also found the black painted anglerfish on the rock below Hand Rock. Steve still hadn't shown and so I continued on my way.

I swam along the top of the reef to New Basket Star Rock. I checked out the basket star before looking in the alga for the "new" pair of red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish. I was surprised to find one still there as the alga had been empty on Friday.

I continued on past Diversity Rock and started looking for the Nembrotha purpureolineata but ran into Roney, Dama, Daniela, Dom and Ves who were coming from The Steps. I swam on to Little Big Rock and found the salmon red-fingered angler, the orange painted angler and the pair of pygmy pipehorses. I took photographs of them all and was about to leave when Steve swam up. I pointed out the salmon red-fingered anglerfish and was going to show him the other goodies but he started photographing the anglerfish and I couldn't get his attention. I was running low and air and was cold so I moved on.

I swam up from Little Big Rock to the orange red-fingered angler before swimming on to the other pair of red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish at the sand line. From here I swam straight to the boulders, ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop as I was swimming to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop at Split Rock and then swam underwater to the exit. There was enough water over the shelf that I could swim straight in, kneel, take off my fins and use the next wave to stand up. Once I got up the rocks, Steve came in behind me and I helped him with his camera.

Buddy

Steve Coutts

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

104 minutes

Maximum depth

21.6 m

Average depth

14.8 m

Water temperature

15.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:00am

1.27m

Low

6:32am

0.65m

High

12:54pm

1.58m

Low

7:41pm

0.47m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D500

Lens

Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED

Housing

Ikelite 6812.5

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.