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

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Cadence

I think you totally missed Mark's point?

That may very well be true. It’s not uncommon for me fail to see the point of some contributions.
What essential point did I miss, this time?

Being taken with Mark’s story, I wanted to know a little more about how & where our lonely sailor was serving, and thought others might also be curious.

[Cadence]

Gord May,

I saw it more like a Romeo and Juliet saga, than what ship it came from?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Gord May,
I saw it more like a Romeo and Juliet saga, than what ship it came from?

It's (I’m) worse than we thought!
Not only did I miss Mark's point (whatever that was), but your interpretation of Shakespear's work eludes me as well.
I can be incredibly dense, sometimes. Thanks for enlightening me.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by GordMay

It's (I’m) worse than we thought!
Not only did I miss Mark's point (whatever that was), but your interpretation of Shakespear's work eludes me as well.
I can be incredibly dense, sometimes. Thanks for enlightening me.

Maybe the ref. to Shakespear was a little drastic. Since no one died. Just an impossible love.

Cheers

[bluwaterdreamin]

Tried it twice. Once off miami...no reply and another time in the sian kaan in Qroo...no reply.
On a side note, I was walking on Johnny's Cay off of San Andres, SA and found an old wine bottle and brought it back to the picnic table where my friend and I were sitting.
A few minutes later we were joined by two columbian brothers who had been drinking straight Johnny walker black right out of the bottle for most of the afternoon.
One of them, either out of curiosity or mistake, picked up the wine bottle and took a long pull.
It had seawater, sand, and who knows what else in it.
My friend started sniggering and I could not believe what I had just seen.
A few minutes later, the wine lover stands up on the picnic table and does a swan dive right on top of my friend who had his back turned.
My friend came up in a fighting stance and I looked around for whatever weapon I could find.
The wine lover then says with the most lurid grin "? Es beautiful, no?"
Everyone laughed and the brothers began wrestling in the sand and throwing it down each others throat.
Just another day in San Andres.
This was in the Spring of 1983 before the Sandanista revolution hit the US papers so we were very nervous the whole week.
Fortunately, the bottle incident turned out to be the least of our worries.

[Stillraining]

Well at least Now we all know where the Pacific garbage patch is comming from.............









Just Kidding......carry on

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Well at least Now we all know where the Pacific garbage patch is comming from.............









Just Kidding......carry on

Thanks for the wry humor.

[svbellastar]

I never thought it would happen to me but I found a message in a bottle last summer up in the San Juans.
s/v Bella Star: How to write a message in a bottle
It was dated 2002, but the email address provided is no longer valid. Argh!

[Geminidawn]

Anyone ever seen the movie or read the book by Nicholas Sparks "Message in a Bottle"? It's one of those rare occasions where the movie is actually better than the book. Some great sailing cinematography in it too and a fantastic performance by Paul Newman. It's one of the few movies I watch time and time again and never tire of.

Regards to real life, as kids we used to run down to the point and throw bottle after bottle in to the churning sea. My mother used to supply us with all the materials in an effort to get us out from under here feet for a few hours, never got a reply, it was only later I found I was standing at the wrong end of the North Atlantic Drift so my messages would of circled back and smashed on the rocks of the next windward shore.

30 years later and it has not stopped me from trying but from now I'll drop them while cruising in a current with a fair idea as to where they might end up, I may ge a reply yet!

[justinplish]

I toss out a message in a bottle at least 1 out of 3 times I sail in the Gulf of Mexico... Yet to get a reply

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Geminidawn

Anyone ever seen the movie or read the book by Nicholas Sparks "Message in a Bottle"? It's one of those rare occasions where the movie is actually better than the book. Some great sailing cinematography in it too and a fantastic performance by Paul Newman. It's one of the few movies I watch time and time again and never tire of.

I have both read the book and seen the film, but I can't say I concur with your opinion, Geminidawn. I thought the book was OK (Nights in Rodanthe was better, IMO), and the film was marginal, but then I can't think of too many films that were better than the one I was "watching" in my mind while reading the book. I've, admittedly, never been a big Kevin Costner fan - I find him too obviously 'acting' in everything he does - but agree that Paul Newman seldom did anything on film that wasn't completely authentic, and Robin Wright Penn is a very reliable performer, often even compelling.

[Abaco]

When I was a teenager, growing up in Louisiana, I found a message in a bottle that had floated down the Ouachita River from Arkansas. I traded letters with the sender who was also a teenager. No romance, no long term friendship, no book deal, no screen play, no after-school special, just a nice memory...

[justlearnin]

Originally Posted by bstreep

We have thrown over around 40 or 50 bottles over the years. Only 1 was ever returned - and it was one of the first we ever threw overboard - from St. Lucia, it was picked up in Ft. Lauderdale, by a lady vacationing from Arizona.

Thats quite a trip how long did it take ?

[ZAR]

Hi,

Love this story so much I had to register

About 10 years ago, I sailed from New Jersey to Cape Town on a fast container carrier, sole guest of the liner. That itself was unreal. At the equator I had the Master give a toot of the horn and I released two bottles, one hard plastic water, the other glass vodka over the side. 3 years later I received a package in the mail from Recife, Brazil, newspaper clippings, long letter, photos and some post cards. A young school teacher and her friend were walking along the beach one day and she noticed something bobbing in a kelp bed several feet out. She told her friend she felt she had to go and see what it was, her friend told her not to (and this was a surprise to me, "for fear of the sea gods") , she did go in and retrieve it and lo and be hold it was my bottle and my message. It was written up in the local paper and she sent my pictures of herself, postcards of the town and a long letter in Portuguese

Very touching.

I originally planned on just the glass bottle but it occurred to me it might break up at some point thus decided on plastic as well. I didn't have the heart to ask her which bottle it was she found for obvious reasons.

The concern about sea gods was quite interesting to me, she was a "proper" school teacher, and Recife is not exactly the backwoods of the Amazon.

While deligheted by the whole thing I was somewhat disappointed at the distance traveled as mapped out by direct sailing USA-ZAR crossing the equator only to end up at Recife. Not exactly what I had in mind (was more thinking of Japan or some where many miles away). However the time aspect I thought made up for that, which today still has me thinking about it swirling around for 3 years in the ocean currents or bobbing around in shore to eventually wind up in a retrievable spot and to have someone see it and be inclined to retrieve it..

So yes indeed, the concept of a message in a bottle does work. But does seem quite rare as even today there are not too many stories cataloged out there.

Cheers.

[barnakiel]

I found one when I was a kid.

Then we had a cool pen-pall-ship for years! Now I am in a marina in Spain and I saw a boat from her port (a little place in Denmark) - so I walked up and asked. And imagine what - they know the sender !!!

Un-believable!
b.