When Aoife Byrne of Bray, Ireland, dropped her message in the water on July 17, 2019, she had no idea how far it would travel. Likewise, when Frank and Karen Bolger of Wildwood, New Jersey, were walking along a local beach they had no clue what they would find. But Frank found Aoife’s tiny bottle. Opening the bottle and unfolding the note, the contents were quite a surprise.
“Greetings from Ireland,” a note read. “I have thrown this bottle into the sea for someone to find another day. Maybe it’s traveled down to Africa or to Iceland! I won’t know if someone found this, but I hope it is found!”
Being curious, Frank spoke with The Wildwood Sun by the Sea Magazine about finding the note in the bottle. The magazine posted the story on social media. Word travels fast on the internet. It wasn’t long before Aoife’s dad caught a story on the news in Ireland talking about the message. Hailing his daughter, they watched in amazement as Aoife recognized her little bottle.
The news report included Frank’s email address, so Aoife dropped him a quick note. After verifying that she was the sender of the message, they arranged to meet online.
This story has brought smiles across continents. To think that a tiny, two-inch bottle with a cork stopper traveled so far is amazing. Aoife had no clue where her message was going to land. Frank and Karen had no clue what they would find that day. But the universe aligned to bring these two families together.
The message in a bottle traveled approximately 2,745 nautical miles to reach its destination. The entire transit took 1,500 days, which is roughly 4 years, 1 month, 1 week, and 2 days. That this meeting between two families took place after such a long transit is amazing and wonderful!
Watch the news story about this phenomenal event:
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.
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