With the prospect of another holiday weekend of bad dive conditions Merry and I headed to the southside of Palos Verdes yesterday in search of the blue water we had seen offshore last week. It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere. We settled for the Marineland platform and found five to eight feet of visibility. The tiny nudibranchs and California scorpionfish that once called the place home have moved on. I was only able to capture two decent photos.

We decided to stay close to home today and go nudi hunting on a rockpile in the Redondo Beach Artificial Reef. The surface looked like a bowl of lime Jello. We dropped in, expecting the green murk to follow us to the bottom where we would thumb the dive. At twenty-five feet we were greeted by a pleasant surprise. My lips and Merry's cheeks suddenly felt as if they were being stabbed by tiny needles. The water temperature dropped from 67F to 51F instantly. Once we made it to the reef the Arctic blast had brought in clear water and we had close to thirty feet of visibility. I can't remember the last time I saw more than fifteen feet.
The unexpected visibility made me wish I had set up the camera for wide angle, but I was able to focus on larger subjects from a couple feet away, even with a 60mm lens in a flat port.

After warming up a bit we headed for the crane off Haggerty's. There was a fishing boat on it so I decided to try the landing craft nearby. I hadn't dived there in several years. The last dive I made there involved towing Ross and Beth Overstreet in circles around the wreck, laughing at what a nothing little dive site it was.
I learned something about myself today. Now that I have a camera instead of a scooter I appreciate the small animals and plants much more. I enjoyed every minute on the landing craft today. It was larger than I remembered and was full of life. I hope to never again think of a reef covered in life as nothing to see.
The visibility was twenty-five feet, so we will make a return trip tomorrow, this time with a wide angle lens.

• Thank God Max Found Clear Water! Patrick 10:31:01 07/04/11 (0)