After six months of pain, surgery, healing and drying out, Kevin Lee returned to the aquatic world today. Fortunately he brought good conditions with him.

We took him to the reef off Resort Point where I pointed out the moray eel, yellow-faced garibaldi and east wall. After showing Kevin a tiny nudibranch I floated a few feet above him and looked for more. Suddenly a second eel stuck his head out of its den. This one is much larger than the one we've been visiting. In the past month I have doubled the number of moray eels I've seen around the peninsula from two to four.

Visibility was twenty feet or more, with 53° water. Our second dive was at nearby Merry's Reef, where the visibility increased dramatically despite the temperature rising ten degrees. I've never seen such an increase in less than two hours. Visibility was so nice that we could easily see the boat ladder from fifty feet below.

We had a harbor seal buzz us several times, but never when we had the cameras ready. Kevin followed a Torpedo ray over the sand. I'm sure he had a pretty good day for his long awaited return.

Sunflower star trying to steal a mackerel from a lobster trap

• great news Roger 21:09:40 10/13/13 (0)
• Welcome Back, Kevin! Patrick 10:04:20 10/13/13 (0)