Port St. Lucie, FL: Apr 201 8

My arms feel like Jello, I’m covered in sand, and my possessed metal detector is going off just to mess with me. Metal detecting is hard work, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  We came to the Treasure Coast in Florida in search of riches, or maybe just one coin… really, anything. We worked hard, but in the end, muscles wore out and going back to the hotel and lying in bed sounded like heaven.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Treasure Coast, let me fill you in. In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships laden with booty collided with a massive hurricane and crashed near the Florida coast roughly between Melbourne and Port St. Lucie. The shores are littered with gold, silver and other historical items. Lots of treasure hunters have made lots of money here. They were more persistent and had better equipment than us, for sure.

Before trying our hand at treasure hunting, we got in the right frame of mind by visiting the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum in Sebastian. It wasn’t big in size, but magnificent in wonder and booty. There was a film about Mel’s life, outdated, but relevant and real treasures from the 1622 wreck of the Atocha. It was inspiring and got us wanting to head out ASAP.

Finding a location to start was easy by using the GPS coordinates of known wrecks. The beach we chose was barren except for an abandoned old boat and a wedding party taking photos. Florida law only allows us to search from grass to water line, and we quickly saw by the contour of the beach that the booty would be past the water line. But we tried anyway until a lightning storm made us turn in. Humbled by the difficulty of the hunt, we went home to regroup and plan our next search.

To book you trip to the Florida Treasure Coast, click here.