For years there was a pattern of rough seas and bad dive conditions during the weekend, only to improve when I went to work on Monday. This past weekend was no exception. We've had wind, phytoplankton and large swells for what seems like a month. The waves were close together and the water was still green this weekend so we stayed home. We snuck out this morning for two surprising dives at Halfway Reef.

Halfway Reef lies offshore from the point between Christmas Tree Cove and Honeymoon Cove in Palos Verdes. We've found some animals there that we had not encountered in the area before. Today Eagle Eye Merry found a tiny Abronica abronia tat was barely visible. I found one a year ago and until today I had only seen the one.

Visibility on the reef was a surprising eighteen feet, about ten feet better than we've been experiencing. We enjoyed it so much we stayed for a second dive.

Abronica abronia

After spending most of the first dive trying to get decent photos of that minuscule critter I explored the reef, photographing worms, nudibranchs, snails and other colorful creatures. There are so many photo ops at Halfway Reef that it would take dozens of dives to capture it all. I'm just thankful for one good day to get the photos I did.