Sunday on a private boat out of MDR, LindaB in tow. Plan was to dive the Avalon. Huge patches of heavy red tide on the trip over. Fairly large swells and high surf pounding the north end of PV. The water looked pretty dark. We decided to motor around the corner and check Christmas Tree. The entire cove was full of foamy scum. We motored farther south to Hawthorne Reef. Water looked better. Swells were down, vis looked okay.

The top layer was the dirtiest. Mid layer the best, 20' vis or better. Bottom variable 10 - 20' vis. 54 degrees. There was a nudibranch population explosion. Especially the Hermissenda crassicornis’. They really thick and heavy. Lots of eggs around. I shot a quick video of the two Hermi’s ‘fighting’, they were rearing about like a couple of beach master elephant seals. We spotted eight different nudi’s. One being a new one for me. Linda spotted a cone shell dining on a Triopha catalinae. I had no idea the cones like to dine with clowns. Another great sight was the largest lingcod I’ve ever seen. He swam off before I could reconfigure my video to wideangle. Overall, it was a nice day to be on the water, with good company.