Under another beautiful sunset, we dropped “near” Secret Garden. The upper water column quickly turned dirty brown, thick with particulates. We were a bit north, so we moseyed south. The topography was deceiving tonight as there was lots of detritus instead of the normal sand, and when there was sand, the ripples were in odd directions. At the garden “entrance”, a very dead, and decomposing Cormorant was being consumed. We finally came upon the lovely Gorgonians, the Puffball Sponges, and all the juvie Rockfish darting about, and lots of little Octos out as well. The mixed current was annoying when trying to film. Heading up slope, we came across tons of Target Shrimp, all sorts of Crabs, some Poachers, and more Octos. A large Sea Lion thought it would be amusing to buzz me. We ended up a bit south of Crap Patch, in the mosh pit area of thick tiny Sanddollars, home to more Crabs, a few Plainfin Midshipman, and a really fun Globe Crab, sort of encrusted and sporting a strand of green vegetation as its chapeau.
In the shallows, a cool Fried Egg Jelly pulsed along. At 18’, the viz had left the ocean so I surfaced under a nice starry sky. Some surf was still present.
A great dive.

jackie