TODAY'S THE DAY!

Imagine if you woke up every single day for 16 years and the first thing you said was, "Today's the day!" If you're living a normal life like most of us do and you're expecting good things to happen, would your life be better? You may be thinking, "That's ridiculous," but what if it really happened?

I read about the story of Mel Fisher years ago and just came across it again.  He was born in Indiana and served and survived the Normandy invasion and at age 31 he sold the chicken farm he owned. He was obsessed with shipwrecks and he became a pioneer in underwater exploration. He moved to Florida in the search of Spanish galleons that had sunk long ago off the Florida keys. (In 1622)

His main search began in 1969 for the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora, which sunk in a hurricane where 260 people died and a large treasure of gold, silver, and emeralds were lost.  During his 8,000 days and 16 years of searching he lost family members who drowned, he went bankrupt, people thought he was crazy and he mortgaged his house 13 times.

In 1973 he found three silver bars that were from the sunken boat.  In 1975 his son found five bronze cannons with the ship markings.  In 1975 his son, wife, and another diver drowned, but he still woke up every day saying, "Today's the day."  

It was ten years exactly to the day of the horrific drowning, July 20, 1985, another son came over the radio and said, "Put away the charts, we found the pile."  The treasure was worth $450 million, the largest underwater discovery in modern times.  After many years of legal cases he was was awarded the treasure. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West was opened to share the discovery with the world.

He died in 1988 at the age of 76.  His family continues to search for the remaining parts of the treasure, but Mel Fisher is celebrated for his optimism and determination through his museum.