As the sun began to rise over an azure-blue, perfectly flat ocean, participants and their friends began to gather for last Saturday’s Race to the Wreck competition to benefit the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association, an all-volunteer organization founded to promote water safety and raise funds to purchase vital lifesaving equipment.
Racers could opt for either a 1,000-yard ocean swim or 3-mile paddle from the beach in front of Waldo’s at the Driftwood Resort.
While not carrying as valuable a cargo as the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet, the old British steamship Breconshire did meet the same watery fate, sinking in 1894 after a losing encounter with our offshore reef.
Today, in addition to playing a role as a tourism focal point, she is valued by scuba enthusiasts as a favored dive spot.