Last week, I went on a very short, but very productive expedition to my home waters off of Palm Beach County, Florida. Much of it was a “return to dive” exercise. Part of the reason for my absence off this website was that I was convalescing from fairly intensive surgery (that caused two major complications that caused me to miss an expedition and training in Bonaire, and another expedition to the cenotes of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula).
Another thing I was looking to achieve was Dive 200 (which happened on April 10th, 2022 – with many thanks to Pura Vida Divers and dive guide Paul Pertillo)!
Another thing was that I wanted to do a survey of the reefs I grew up on, and see what their health was in this time of South Florida’s overdevelopment and climate change. I was heartened to see that at least on these days the reefs seemed healthy, but with major caveats (loss of hard coral in almost 100%, and invasive algae seems to be a significant problem, as does the the reduced presence of mesopredators like large jacks, grouper, and permit). 
I’ll be talking about that later this week, but in the meantime, check out Part I of my dive at Bath and Tennis Reef, just offshore from the Bath and Tennis Club, one of Old Guard clubs on the island of Palm Beach (which caters to the Carter [but not Babs] Pewterschmidt, Newport Beach-types when they flee the winter of the Northeast).
But unlike some of Palm Beach’s exclusive clubs, the ocean doesn’t discriminate! So click on the YouTube link above and join me on part I of the Bath and Tennis Reef drift dive from April 16th, 2022!