A few weeks ago, island guests from Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Ed and Tricia Ornes, along with their children and grandchildren, were exploring the rocky coast just east of Mimi Bay when Ed discerned an unbroken, stoppered bottle with what appeared to be a roll of paper inside. With much excitement, the family gathered to study this find and the wiser heads prevailed: they would wait until returning to their villa before opening the bottle.

The Grosse Margot crew with stoppered bottle

Another 30 feet and, amazingly, a second bottle, also sealed, was found and it too housed a roll of paper! “We were flabbergasted, and couldn’t wait to get home to see what was really inside the bottles.” So, home they went and gathered ‘round for the official opening.

Bottle One From a Turkish Traveler on a Cruise in the Mediterranean
The first bottle enclosed a form message from a “Club Mediterranean” cruise ship and was clearly part of a cruise ‘activity’ offered to onboard guests because the printed form suggested the bottle dropper include a dollar inside their message so a ‘finder’ could post a message back. The dollar was not in the bottle and the hand-written message so faint that the only words deciphered by Ed and his family were “Antalya, Turkey” – not much to go on!

Bottle Two With Love From the Straits of Gibraltar

The second bottle was, however, a real find. The message was clear, handwritten and as follows:

“Message In A Bottle. 19/09/07. Lat 31.29.9 N Lon 013 02.7 W. Sailing Vessel “La Grosse Margot, 10.5 meters. Italian flag and skipper, Brazilian crew. Course to Lanzar (Canaries) from Gibraltar. Message: A lot of love, health and luck. Peace!” Signed with three email addresses.

The family Ornes went straight to the computer and sent the following message along with photos of the two bottles and the unrolled, amazingly preserved message:

“To whom dropped the bottle…We found your bottle on February 20th, 2009 near a

The Ornes Family

bay called Mimi Bay on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. The location is at LAT 18 degree 13’ 43.94” N and LON 62 deg 59’08.07 W [Mr. Ornes used Google Earth to get the precise coordinates]….a lot of love, health and luck in return. I hope at least one of these email addresses is still good. Peace also! Tricia and Ed Ornes.”
Within minutes, Ed received a message from Fabrizio Ottoni Limena with carbon copies sent to the other two addresses found on the original message. His response:
“Dear Tricia and Ed, Great to receive this message! I can’t believe our bottle crossed the Atlantic! It took almost a year and a half to do it though….For now, as we wished before, a lot of love, health and luck. Best regards and Peace, Fabrizio.” He attached two photos: one of the message as written on a page from the vessel’s log book, the scissors resting beside as testament to the page cut from the log book and a photo of two of the three member crew holding the bottle before tossing it over the side!

As Ed pointed out in his response to Fabrizio and to The Anguillian, “I have no idea how long the bottle had been there. The coast there is very rugged and would have very little walking traffic. It is very rocky and it is surprising that the bottle did not break as the surf is very strong. Our family did learn that there is a definite current from East to West in this part of the world. He sent Fabrizio a family photo and a shot of a savage sea out at Mimi Bay.

It is noted that this was a week in which we had a substantial ‘ground sea’ and it is truly amazing that not just one, but two, glass bottles were resting peacefully waiting for someone to discover them. A truly memorable holiday for the Ornes in many respects and a tale which will be told many, many times as they recall the “day we found the messages in the bottles.” Should any of you decide to venture out to Mimi Bay to look for further messages, maybe you should take bags to collect the garbage however interesting it may be!

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