The Flag is Planted -- The countdown is on to Swim to the Wreck
- Vero Minute
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
Every Flag Day, a flag goes up on the shipwreck 150 yards off Sexton Plaza.
Every Fourth of July, nearly 1,000 people swim out to meet it.
Yesterday, the flag went up, meaning the countdown has begun.
The SS Breconshire has been resting on our reef since 1894. She's just 150 yards from shore, so close enough to swim, yet far enough to feel like an adventure. On the Fourth, before the heat sets in and the fireworks begin, Vero Beach takes to the water together.
Swimmers, snorkelers, kayakers, paddleboarders, spectators, families, first-timers, and old-timers, all making the quarter-mile push out to the wreck for a champagne toast beneath the flag.
The flag flies in honor of Mike Blatus, a passionate local conservationist who devoted his life to protecting the very reefs you'll swim over on your way out. This year, as every year, Keith Hennessey leads the charge alongside Rob Prosser, Andy Boozer, Craig Haight, Bill Estes, and Boban Abbott, the crew that makes sure the flag is always flying when Fourth of July arrives.
To the uninitiated, it looks like an aquatic fire drill. To those who treasure this town, it would be sacrilege to kick off the Fourth any other way.
July 4th.
8 a.m. Sexton Plaza.
Bring a paddleboard if you can...someone needs to carry the champagne.
Check out our story on last year's swim here.
