Message in a bottle

3 December 2020

How many of you have tossed a coin in a fountain and made a wish? Looked up at the night sky, seen a shooting star and made a wish? Perhaps you have put a message in a bottle, thrown it over a ship’s side, and thought” yeah nah, won’t see that again.

August 9^th, 2017, my 60th birthday. We are taking part in the Halifax, Nova Scotia to Le Havre tall ships race, Oosterschelde is somewhere off the Newfoundland coast. It is midday, and with Arian’s permission, I heave a bottle containing a message over the side. The message contained information about the race, our position, date, time, birthday, and my email address. And of course, ships name.

Fast forward to December 11th, 2017, back here in little old New Zealand it is 6 am Monday morning. Breakfast and then off to work. But there is time first to check emails

BELATED BEST BIRTHDAY WISHES
Shiver me timbers. The said bottle has arrived on Dugort beach on the island of Achill, west coast of Ireland.

Four months almost to the day to cross the Atlantic…. beat that. It was Sunday evening on Achill, and the bottle had come in on the afternoon tide.

Hopefully, COVID will be behind us in 2022 and I can combine a sailing trip on Oosterschelde and a trip to Ireland to uplift the bottle.