As Professor Lyle says, there is no barge. It is a figment of my imagination. This morning, I imagined myself shooting wide angle on the barge, especially after watching Walter Marti's video from Friday. Usually I get poor visibility when I use my wide angle lens, but today I had luck on my side.

The seas were rough as we pounded our way to an imaginary line west of Redondo Beach. After anchoring amid the short intervals of three footers and occasional larger sets, Merry informed me that she was going to sit this one out. I almost pulled anchor and returned to base, but thought I should at least check it out.

From thirty-two feet I could clearly make out individual pieces of gravel on the bottom fifty feet below. This might be good. I checked out some of the octopus nests but didn't have the correct lens for any close shots of the eggs. As I turned toward the barge I spotted a dozen Mola Molas being cleaned by Blacksmiths. I settled atop the barge and tried not to move for the next thirty minutes.

The visibility was as good as I've ever seen it there, at least forty feet, but there was still too much backscatter to get any decent shots from more than a few feet away. Every now and then a couple of the sunfish would come over to check me out. I hope I didn't blind them with the constant flashing of my strobes.

The swell models are calling for calmer seas tomorrow, so maybe I will have more luck. I imagine I will.

• Re: Diving the Imaginary Barge maggieD 12:40:57 09/03/12 (0)