Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 7 March 2018

Time

9:51am - 11:10am

Details

My second dive with Martin and Sonja, this time at The Leap. The Steps were quite calm but it looked rough at The Leap. I hoped it wouldn't affect the visibility too much or scare Sonja or Martin. One thing with The Leap is that it can look very rough but as we're only getting in there it is not a problem at all.

I slid down the wall next to the low platform and then Sonja and Martin followed me. Sonja was a little nervous with the choppy water so I let her hold on to my arm. Once we were all in and ready we descended. The visibility was at least 5 metres at the start despite the choppy water. We swam at around 0° (north) towards the sand line. There was some surge but the current was not as strong as it was on Sunday. We arrived around Ian's Pygmy Rock. Visibility here was close to 10 metres and the water temperature was around 22°C. There was some surge and a small amount of current. There was a lot less kelp around than there has been recently. We turned left and headed for The Steps.

I swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks with sponges. I spotted a small giant cuttlefish on the sand between Seahorse Rock and the flat rocks. There was also a tiny reaper cuttlefish nearby. There was a lot less kelp here, too, although there was still a fair amount under the overhang and behind the second flat rock. There was another weedy seadragon amongst the kelp.

I swam on to Southern Cross Rock and found a small cryptic male pygmy pipehorse on the side of the rock. I looked for others but couldn't find them. The surge was quite strong and was kicking up quite a lot of sand. Martin and Sonja caught up and I pointed out the pygmy. I looked around the rest of Southern Cross Rock for anglerfish but found none.

Martin and Sonja had gone ahead and Sonja found a black painted anglerfish on the rock after Southern Cross Rock. It was very black and I suspect it was the one that used to be on Southern Cross Rock that went missing a few weeks ago.

We swam on towards Seadragon Alley and there was a weedy seadragon out on the sand. While Martin was photographing it I noticed another one near the rocks. I kept an eye out for "Nina" as we swam through Seadragon Alley.

We got to the end of Seadragon Alley I was looking at the rock with sponges when I noticed a small scorpionfish. I swam over to the red Stigmatopora pipefish and they were both in their usual alga. I pointed them out to Martin and Sonja. Martin noticed a numbray under the sand next to the pipefish. Just then a 4 other divers swam through so I got Martin away from the pipefish as I don't want to disclose their location to people I don't know/trust.

We swam up the reef and looked at the rocks with sponges and sea tulips on the way to Big Rock. We stopped at the rock where the large red male pygmy pipehorse used to be but I could not find him or the other pygmy pipehorses.

We got to Big Rock and I had a look for the Okenia mellita nudibranchs but couldn't find either of them. I must have just got lucky on Monday. I looked around for pygmy pipehorses and anglerfish but found none.

We swam past Slope Rock and on to Square Rock. I found both white male pygmy pipehorses but I could not see the female. As I was moving out of the way so Martin could take photographs I spotted a clown toby.

Sonja indicated to me that she'd just hit deco so we'd have to stay a bit shallower and ensure we had plenty of air for a deco stop.

I looked for the female White's seahorse with one eye but I couldn't find it and didn't want to stay too long as I knew Martin and Sonja were in deco. I spotted the Miamira magnifica nudibranch where I'd seen it on Monday.

We swam on to the basket star and then Martin and Sonja stayed at around 10 metres as we swam past Little Big Rock and on to the grey red-fingered anglerfish. We took some photographs of it and moved on. We saw Jamie Miller and a buddy on rebreathers but they weren't close enough to show them the anglerfish.

We headed for the boulders. We ascended to 5 metres and started our safety stops as we swam to Split Rock. We finished our safety stops at Split Rock where Sonja spotted an octopus just cruising over the rocks. After I finished my safety stop I checked with Martin and Sonja that they'd completed their deco stops and then we headed for the exit. I stayed under water right to the platform and got out and stood up. I managed to get one fin off before Sonja came up and so I helped her while I still had one of my fins on. I managed to get one of her fins off but couldn't unclip the other one. She managed to get up but hurt her leg in the process. I got my other fin off and quickly took my camera and fins up on the rocks and then came back to help. I then helped Martin out.

Buddy

Martin, Sonja

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

79 minutes

Maximum depth

21.0 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

22.4°C

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:54am

1.54m

Low

7:13am

0.54m

High

1:11pm

1.38m

Low

7:12pm

0.57m