After a much needed day of sleeping in yesterday we fully expected to stay dry this weekend. On Friday, the swell models called for five footers at the Redondo Beach buoy. It was as flat as it has been all year today.

Merry borrowed my macro port to try out Margaret Webb's 105mm lens. Our plan was to look for hatching octopus at the Redondo barge. Each of us had camera issues, so no pictures were taken during the first dive. It didn't matter. We couldn't find a single nest anywhere. Kevin Lee and I swam over to Phil's Reef, where there were not only no nests, but the wolf eel and metridiums were gone as well.

We swam back to the barge, where I spotted two Mola Molas being cleaned. I watched them for a couple of minutes before ascending. Back on the boat, we resolved our camera issues and headed south in search of cleaner water.

Despite Merry's deep hatred for diving the Avalon wreck, we decided to give it a look. Conditions here were as good as I've seen in a long time. Green water, twelve to eighteen feet visibility with some sand particles suspended in the water. It took a lot of effort, but I actually got a few decent shots.