We watched the swell models all week in anticipation of fueling up the boat and diving the shipwrecks near Los Angeles Harbor. We left our slip nice and early, just in time to see that there were already wind waves building. We made it as far as Marineland before giving up.

I had my wide angle lens on the camera so I could try for some shots of the wrecks. Instead I carried the housing around during a short drop on the Marineland Platform. Visibility was less than three feet, probably less than two. Merry and I aborted the dive while Kevin Lee made the best of a bad situation. We joked that he would probably come back up and tell us about the previously undiscovered nudibranchs he found laying eggs.

We bounced our way back to Golf Ball Reef with hopes of better vis for my wide angle setup. We found six to eight feet vis instead. With the distortion of a large dome port I can get within a foot of a subject and it will appear to be several feet away. My photos make the visibility look a lot better than it was. At least it was warmer than last week. We had 50° on the bottom.

Photos at

• Yuck in the muck