Message-in-a-Bottle - Launched / Found?

[tager]

I found a message in a bottle on the beach of Vashon Island, WA. I was amazed to read the senders address, LOS ANGELES!

Wow, I thought to myself, all the way through this big blue sea we are connected together!

Turns out he threw the message into the water on the same beach earlier that week, and happened to be visiting a family that lived three houses down.

[White Feather]

Heading out of Bonaire we dropped a message in 1989. Still haven't heard a thing.

Another was dropped at sea off the outerbanks about 100 miles offshore. Nothing heard from that one either. Must be a bad connection.

Found one near Calvert Cliffs on the Chesapeake about 1963 but didn't ever get an answer to the note I sent to the address. Have long since lost the address and name. Where was the internet when we needed it?

[Camd]

My brother dropped a wine bottle with a note promising gifts to the finder if he sent a picture of himself with the bottle and note. We were about 400 miles south of Hawaii en route to Tabuaeran Atoll aboard an NCL cruise ship when he tossed it. A couple of months after we got home he received an email from the Phillipines with a picture of a family holding the bottle and note on a beach. They wanted their gifts so he sent them t-shirts and hats.

[LakeSuperior]

We drop scotch bottles (empty if you were wondering) containing anonomyous notes having the current date and some helpful general advice for the lucky finder.

[White Feather]

I would rather you dropped $100 bills.

[Misiu]

I was reading this thread and it reminded me of my own experience with "Neptune's mail". The story was in 2000 in Latitude, local papers, number of sailing websites and at least one sailing magazine in Europe.

In June of 1996, three sailing vessels from Pittsburg California ventured on a cruise from the San Francisco Bay to Southern California’s Channel Islands. Niunia, a 30 foot Catalina, Korbut Rose, a 33 foot Hans Christian and Searcher, a 36 foot Catalina enjoyed a 3 week sail in the Pacific.

Prior to departure, I took advantage of my multi-cultural work environment at UCSF and drafted a message in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Hindu, Chinese, and Tagalog). The message described in each language the sailing vessels, location and time period, and requested anyone finding the bottle to return in the enclosed envelope a note describing the date and location of the bottle. Wine bottles then had to be “properly” emptied so that I could seal each of 26 bottles. They were weighted with sand so they would float about two-thirds under water, which allowed them to travel in the current rather than the wind. Each were sealed with corks, cotton, and finally with wax. Niunia and Korbut Rose deployed the bottles at various points between Anacapa and Catalina Islands.

The first bottle was found within about 10 days in Oceanside California. The second bottle was found within a month somewhere in Southern California while a Floridian was vacationing there (location unknown).

Then bottle silence for four years until March 2000.

On the small island of Chi-Chi-jima Japan, Mr. Sasamoto found the bottle “under the bank of the sea.” He sent the message to Osagarawa Junior High School with his child, Yuka, where the English teacher Kanji Suzuta was able to translate the message to the 59 students. Chi-Chi-jima is a small island in the Ogasawara islands (Bonin Islands) which are over 600 nautical miles south of Tokyo – a 25-hour trip by ship. The United States governed the island after World War Two. As a crow or seagull might fly, the bottle traveled over 5000 miles to the island. More realistically, the bottle most likely traveled on the California Current south to the Equatorial North Current, then north on the mighty Kuro Shio Current to Japan. On this course, the bottle would have traveled well over 6000 miles to the island.

The students of Osagarawa were very interested in English and posed for a group picture to send back with their message. In the interest of time, this message was send using modern communication modes! I corresponded with them for quite some time.

I was told by current experts that I was lucky to get some answers from only 26 bottles we dropped...
I contacted Proffessor Masaki Kawabe form Tokyo University who thought that superficial Ekman currents also played role in the last leg of bottle’s trip.
Others also dropped bottles (or other floaters) on West Coast and the response, (or floating) time from Japan was between 2 to 6.5 years. So based on the other data “my” bottle made an average time.

[Jon Sims]

We did the same with 10kg cheeses for export to Japan.. Got fired also.. jeezz..nobody appreciates a joke any more.

[NACRADUDE]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

OK - I will leave the environmental comments aside - LOL

Not a bottle story but my brother is a bit of (well a lot of) a goof. He worked in a factory boxing the board game trivial pursuit. It's a game with cards of trivia questions. There are also blank cards to make you own questions.

My brother in his boredom started writing notes on the blank cards - "Arbeit Macht Frei" and "Help I am being held prisoner in a Trivial Pursuit factory."

The bosses were not happy and so another high paying job went down the tubes...

Your brother and I would get along I would imagine.

[GordMay]

A message, written in German, was launched in 1886 to study currents and shipping routes, has been found near Perth, Australia.
➥ World's oldest known message in a bottle found near Perth, Australia - World - CBC News

[double u]

"Arbeit Macht Frei" - careful there...we're just having 80th "anniversary" here...

[leftbrainstuff]

Great story. It's amazing the document is still readable.

[mottseng]

Just came back from vacationing in the Azores. Rented a Bavaria 41 for a few days and sailed it from Ponta Delgada to Santa Maria. Dropped a message in a bottle half way between on April 22, 2018. Hope it turns up.

Great adventure and the boat rental company was first class.

[Hoosierdoc]

We were on vacation on st George island in FL several years ago. I brought down a chest from hobby lobby full of fake coins and jewels. I had printed off a google aerial view of the houses we were in and photoshopped it to look like an old pirate map with a big X and number of paces with little footprint icons. We stuck that in a bottle and half buried it in the sand by where our kids were playing.

Took them FOREVER to notice it but then finally found. We helped them decipher the map and they started digging with as much excitement as you can imagine. When they found the chest it got really fun. When they saw it was fake coins they started thinking “why would pirates have an aerial view of modern houses on their map?!”

Good times

I bought some fake gold bars on amazon before a fishing trip I had chartered. The plan was to spear fish a bit and I was gonna pull them out to pretend like I found gold on the wreck we dove.

Dang hurricane ruined the viz and never dove

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Hoosierdoc

We were on vacation on st George island in FL several years ago. I brought down a chest from hobby lobby full of fake coins and jewels. I had printed off a google aerial view of the houses we were in and photoshopped it to look like an old pirate map with a big X and number of paces with little footprint icons. We stuck that in a bottle and half buried it in the sand by where our kids were playing.

Took them FOREVER to notice it but then finally found. We helped them decipher the map and they started digging with as much excitement as you can imagine. When they found the chest it got really fun. When they saw it was fake coins they started thinking “why would pirates have an aerial view of modern houses on their map?!”

Good times

I bought some fake gold bars on amazon before a fishing trip I had chartered. The plan was to spear fish a bit and I was gonna pull them out to pretend like I found gold on the wreck we dove.

Dang hurricane ruined the viz and never dove

Good times indeed.
Made me smile.
Thanks

[GordMay]

17 years later, a message in a bottle brings Tenerife family to Newfoundland for Christmas
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...tmas-1.5407783

How a message in a bottle connected two families a world apart after tragedy
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...iggs-1.5397135