A message in a bottle that travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) has received a response – three years after beginning its epic journey.
Sean Smith, who is now 16, had sent out the missive while on holiday in Rhode Island on Thanksgiving in 2018.
A note inside read: “It is Thanksgiving. I am 13 and visiting family in Rhode Island. I am from Vermont. If found email messageinabottle2018@gmail.com.”
Fast forward to 2021, and the message was discovered by Christian Santos, a 17-year-old in the Azores, a small Portuguese archipelago.
He explained that he regularly picks up trash floating in the water in an attempt to help the environment – and decided to follow the instructions within the Powerade bottle.
Christian’s email nearly fell on deaf ears because Sean had forgotten that he had sent out the bottle as a child, and couldn’t remember the password to the email account.
Thankfully, Sean realised that his bottle had been found after a Facebook post was made by Christian’s mother Molly.
The pair have now met on Zoom for the very first time, and plan to stay in contact.
“I think it’s cool that somebody similar in age found it so far away and we were actually able to get in touch,” Sean said.