It was a Mola-Marti day.

[Merry]

As we motored south along PV, we were surprised to receive a hail from Walter Marti on the Mary Q. Along with Peter Gallup and Linda Blanchard, he planned to dive Hawthorne Reef. Although the surface water there looked very, very good, Phil was on a mission to dive the Jenny Lynne wreck.
Walter, Linda, and Peter.



Surface was flat and divers were exiting Long Point at Marineland (look closely).






While Phil bounced the Jenny Lynne, two Mola molas hung around our stern.






Checking in later with the Mary Q crew, we learned of stellar vis and a robust mola mola cleaning station. (We can't wait to see the video and photos from their two dives.) On this news, we hustled to anchor west of their boat and find the molas.
Our dive started typically enough - 52 degrees, 30' vis.












And then the dive turned exciting! Just about 6 min from my NDL, I uncovered a new nudi for us, Conualevia alba. It was no more than ~5 mm, and there wasn't time to look for a larger one.



Ascending the anchor line, I was casually trying to photograph the occasional thimble-size jelly, when there they were! Two molas, one being cleaned and the other one waiting. I had about 2 seconds to change camera settings and strobes. If only I had opened the aperture one more stop!


One shot and they were off.



You can take Walter out of the water, but you can't take the camera out of his hands.

 

[bperc]

Great report. Thank you

 

[FrankPro1]

Gorgeous Shawl and Cowrie. Really like the 2nd Mola as well. Congrats on the new nudi find! How many are u up to now?

 

[TSandM]

Oh, congratulations on the new nudi! That would definitely turn a dive exciting for me. As would seeing mola molas, being cleaned or not.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Congrats on the new nudi find! How many are u up to now?

 

[blue steal]

Fantastic shots, thanks for posting.
I believe the divers exiting at Long point were the group called NBTT.
They did a 2-tank dive there Sunday morning.
We saw you guys, Rev AL, Chris, Holly, and myself as we started at Ted's pinancle and exited at the cove.
It was a good day to dive.

 

[drbill]

Wow... your Molas were actually alive (unlike the several I've been encountering lately). I've filmed them being cleaned by halfmoon which was pretty interesting. On my dive two days ago I relocated the dying one I had filmed on Sunday. It wad finished the job of expiring and was being eaten by Kellet whelks and an octopus sitting atop it and penetrating the body theough the eye socket and gill opening with its tentacles.