In Reply to: Great end to a disappointing weekend posted by Max Bottomtime on March 04, 2012 at 17:32:06:

As we motored south along PV, we were surprised to receive a hail from Walter Marti on the Mary Q. Along with Peter Gallup and Linda Blanchard, he planned to dive Hawthorne Reef. Although the surface water there looked very, very good, Phil was on a mission to dive the Jenny Lynne wreck.

Walter, Linda, and Peter.

Surface was flat and divers were exiting Long Point at Marineland (look closely).

While Phil bounced the Jenny Lynne, two Mola molas hung around our stern.

Checking in later with the Mary Q crew, we learned of stellar vis and a robust mola mola cleaning station. (We can't wait to see the video and photos from their two dives.) On this news, we hustled to anchor west of their boat and find the molas.

Our dive started typically enough - 52 degrees, 30' vis.

And then the dive turned exciting! Just about 6 min from my NDL, I uncovered a new nudi for us, Conualevia alba. It was no more than ~5 mm, and there wasn't time to look for a larger one.

Ascending the anchor line, I was casually trying to photograph the occasional thimble-size jelly, when there they were! Two molas, one being cleaned and the other one waiting. I had about 2 seconds to change camera settings and strobes. If only I had opened the aperture one more stop!

One shot and they were off.

You can take Walter out of the water, but you can't take the camera out of his hands.