Peter Halmos slowly maneuvers his 28-foot Carolina skiff along a 15-foot-wide bleached white sand scar flanked by a seagrass meadow off Calda Channel, forcing several large leopard rays to dart in and out of his wake. The scar stretches for hundreds of yards and, for him, marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another.

Four years ago, he was "Peter Halmos, Wall Street mogul," making millions from a credit card insurance company and other real estate and business ventures -- a cutthroat world of litigation he'd just as soon forget.

But living on a floating village of houseboats he created off Key West, he is eccentric millionaire "Uncle Peter," who spends his days feeding his pet barracuda, collecting shells and cruising Key West Harbor and environs on a quest for "Halmosia," a secret spot he believes is loaded with Spanish treasures -- the reason he came to Key West in the first place.

Key West has lured many to make the transformation from mainland to island living, but Halmos came into it more forcefully than others.

That scar in the Calda Channel was made by the Legacy, his $16 million custom Italian sailing yacht that Hurricane Wilma pushed for more than a mile before coming to rest on the edge of Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge. The 158-foot-long luxury yacht was locked to the seafloor in several feet of sandy muck for 2 1/2 years before Halmos managed to tow it to Man of War Harbor off Fleming Key.

The monumental effort to remove the yacht and his continuing struggle to repair her are what's kept him here. And there's nowhere he'd rather be, despite recently buying a house in Key West.

In Calda Channel, when he reaches the spot where the Legacy was grounded, Halmos stops for a moment to reflect, then retreats back down the sandy scar and toward the small sand flat he calls "the swimming hole."

The 65-year-old hits the water with the excitement of a 10-year-old boy as he searches for any small treasures buried in the sand. He comes back with a handful of shells and a lobster fin, which he proudly shows off to a group of friends. They are not the lost treasures of Halmosia, but the shells are enough to make an hour's snorkel worthwhile.

The entire area has become his backyard and he is familiar with every flat, trench and small wreck.

"I have always been a water person. It's like I am back in high school," Halmos said. "It's a lot more fun than battling with a bunch of sleazy, sweaty attorneys. It's really been fun. It has been hell on the financial stuff, but how can you not look around and say, 'Man, I'm lucky.'"