Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 2 June 2018

Time

7:56am - 9:32am

Details

Yet another east coast low to start off June with big seas along the coast. The only places safe to dive are Shiprock and Clifton Gardens. Shiprock only has a small tidal window and could be crowded. Clifton Gardens can be dived any time so I arrived early to beat the crowds.

There was a bit of wind chop on the water and a small swell with a long period. The water looked clear so it was still good for a dive.

I got in at the beach and waded out to around 1.5 meters before descending. I then swam under the jetty and headed out to the end of the nets. The visibility was 3 to 5 metres but there was a lot of silt which was easily kicked up by the surge or by me. The water temperature was between 16 and 17°C and I was so glad I was in my drysuit. Swimming out was a little difficult because of the long period surge which felt like swimming into current.

I headed down the slope under the jetty. I pretty much went all the way to the bottom and then slowly made my way back up. Right near the bottom I spotted a pineapplefish under some debris. I had heard there was one around but I didn't realise it was under the jetty.

As I slowly moved up the slope I found a few White's seahorses, a few tiger pipefish and one girdled pipefish. Once I got near the top of the slope I headed west out over the sand.

I headed over the sand west pretty much to the line from the western end of the pool. I saw quite a few tiger pipefish and blennies in bottles. There were also many mourning cuttlefish.

I worked my way back to the jetty and was surprised there were no other divers there so I dived the jetty again, visiting the pineapplefish and more seahorses.

I did another pass across the sand to the west before swimming east again in front of the nets. I turned north at the corner and swam under the pier to the beach where I got out.

Seas

Slight chop

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

8.0 m

Average depth

5.3 m

Water temperature

16.0°C

Dive Profile from Garmin Descent Mk1

Tides at Sydney (Fort Dension) AEST

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

Low

4:48am

0.51m

High

10:46am

1.33m

Low

4:12pm

0.69m

High

10:43pm

1.72m