I started writing this article shortly after the cleanup. However an ectic month of March with traveling to the other side of the world, house hunting, massive paperworking, contractor consulting, radio-active fallout surviving and still no diving created a slight delay in its publication. Oh well. It's not like I'm being paid for it anyway.

The weather forecast was awful. It was supposed to be the coldest and rainiest day of the century or something. That's a shame because the Avalon Underwater Cleanup only occurs once a year and in a location with 350 days of sunshine per year that's a pity to pick a rainy day. Nothing however could stop an army of underwater trash collectors and we took it upon ourselves to leave for Catalina Friday night after work and spend the week end on the island for the event.

We were right. The weather guys as usual got it dramatically wrong and the sun was shinning high and bright when we woke up on Saturday for the event. Us and around 400 divers from all over the place showed up to clean up the beautiful harbor.

After an expedited registration process we were briefed by no other than the Avalon mayor himself who reminded us of the usual safety related stuff. We were diving the Green Pier and had to be on the lookout for boats and not go on right side of the pier. Other than that, feel free to roam around in search of a piece of trash whose uniqueness can land you a prize...

The mayor also happens to be the owner of Scuba'Luv, one of the island dive operations which came out pretty handy when my buddy detected a "major" leak in her regulator. After a couple of trips to the dive shop where we finally found out that her computer hose needed to be replaced, she was reassured that she could still dive without fixing anything.

The intent of the whole event is twofold: we raise money for the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber (after a little tour in Cozumel's I kind of find it reassuring to have one close by) and we clean up the harbor from the trash that piles up there. It's also a great opportunity to meet with fellow divers from all around the state and sometimes farther. The event is held yearly and you can find info on their website. It's great fun and there are some really cool raffle prizes including buddy beaters and monkeys!

Off we went.

The sun was shinning but it was still cold (but probably not the coldest day on record) and the water was no better. Mostly in the low 50's. After almost a (terrible) year of drysuit diving I think I need to invest in proper undergarments that would keep me warm in our freezing waters. It appears my REO jogpants and multiple layer of polartech materials somehow don't really do the job that well.

Diving the green pier is kind of a unique experience in itself. A little like Dean's Blue Hole but colder and with actually more life to see. I was surprised by the amount of slugs, halibuts and other bottom dwellers we saw. I had taken my camera and my trash bag and found out pretty quick that a third hand would have come very... handy. At one point I spoted a big piece of trash just to realize that I had dropped my trashbag when I last took a picture. Hopefully I take a picture every 15 seconds so it wasn't that hard to get it back!

I found plenty of stuff including weird egg casings that I mistakenly took for discarded pieces of rubber. Apparently Dr Bill our favorite resident marine biologist had briefed the organization team about that but the info didn't flow to the divers as it appeared I was not the only one to make that mistake! No real harm done though, but still a good thing to know for next year. My most interesting finding was an unopened bottle of Bud Light. I entered it in the contest but it was not enough to land me a prize. Competing against Justin Bieber's hairbrush, a 20 year old bottle of chocapic drinked by its founder in public and a used body bag, I didn't stand a chance. Maybe I should have claimed that bottle once belonged to Marilyn Monroe or something. I've heard she lived on the island in the 40's.

We did only one dive this day. The water was far too cold for more! In the evening we ended up with the South Orange County Dive Club foodies who had rented houses there in Avalon and had organized a house hoping foodfest. One house for appetizers, one house for the main course and one house for deserts. Awesome.

The next day we walked off the calories around Avalon, had lunch at Mi Casita and left on one of the early CatExpress to Long Beach. We had to be back for a special Oscar Night Party at a Britt's house who was delighted that The King's Speech got so many awards! Too bad I had to leave for China the next day, I  wouldn't have mind a few weeks rest after all this!

If you've missed the event, you still have a chance to support the hyperbaric chamber. Sign up for Chamber Day or Chamber Eve. If you can't make it to Long Beach, you can still support us by "diving" the Flying Dutchman. Make sure you understand what you're signing up for before registering for the Dutchman, this is kind of a unique experience of hyper-dry advanced diving!

Registration tables	The beach is filling up...
The mayor gives his briefing	Spanish shawl
Weird white jelly like thing	Sea hare
Slug close up	Acrobat spanish shawl
Lots of trash	More trash
The Roddenberry heir (you know, Star Trek)	Chamber day is coming! Don't miss it!

The green pier, now clean!

Diver invasion

Even more divers!

Raffle time! Time to win a buddy beater!

Colors of the evening. No storm coming...

Sunday hike in the hills around the harbor

The Queen Mary & the Splendor in Long Beach on the way back