Cape Solander- The Leap

We arrived at Cape Solander to find the gates locked to the shore area. We called the Park Rangers who told us it was too wet so they were not allowing cars down the track. We walked down the road anyway to check out the site and the length of the walk. We saw 3 seals basking on top of the water about 5m away from the rocks. It was a little rough with waves sending spray 5M into the air and the cars being so far away we decided to head down to the Leap instead. Strangely enough it was about as calm as I have ever seen conditions at the Leap so the swell must have been hitting Cape Solander but not the Leap.

Here is Michael and Marek entering the water at the leap: Look how calm it is!
My buddy was Gavin and we decided to limit our dive to 50 minutes

We found quite a few Port Jackson Sharks (PJ's), Here is Gavin with one.

I am trying slideshows rather than individual photos. This pictures on this slideshow were all taken on the 2 dives today.




The water was great today. My dive computer registered 14 degrees on the first and 16 degrees on the second dive and I have to admit that I didn't notice the cold at all. My lavacore hood is doing a great job of keeping me warm. I think the greatest heat advantage comes from the hood preventing water trickling down my neck, with the water flow in my wetsuit minimized I am warm and toasty after a few minutes.

We found an assortment of usual and unusual creatures.
This is a sort of underwater tortoise I believe is called a Baylene ? Anyone know what it is?

A ball of catfish: What was quite funny is when the camera flashed the ball of heads, tails and side bodies turned into a mass of faces as all the catfish turned towards the camera as if to say "what was that?"

There are some beautiful fans and sponge gardens on this dive.

We found a cute pygmy cuttlefish and some very nice nudibrancs along the way.

I found a bottle with 1955 stamped on the bottom, it was probably thrown from a passing ship and has remained in good condition on the bottom for 55 years. I left it there as it is a little piece of history only for divers to admire.
A lot of PJ's and many starfish made this another great dive.

Note to self: hold my camera in front of me when going through swimthroughs. I kept getting stuck in a swimthrough that I should have been able to fit through and Gavin told me later that my camera was floating behind me and jamming between the rock and my tank - Ouch!

Dive profile: First dive 20M 52minutes: Second dive 15M 50 minutes:

There were only 6 divers out today! Where are you winter divers? It really isn't cold. I am DM at Oak Park on 14th August, that is my favourite dive site and there is so much to see and do.