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Message in a Bottle
Jettisoning bottle #3 in the middle of Hecate Strait. [35-70mm, unknown exposure, Kodak RG 100] During the winter of 1998, Amy was listening to a book on tape called Message in a Bottle. Somehow I got conned into listening to this story (which subsequently has become a Kevin Costner movie) because supposedly it was very “nautical”. While I wasn’t all that wild about the story, it did give me the idea to throw out messages in bottles throughout our trip. I thought it would be kind of cool to see if we ever heard back on them. During the trip, we jettisoned five “hermetically” sealed bottles from the deck of the Patience in the middle of the following Straits or Sounds:
  1. Straits of Georgia
  2. Queen Charlotte Strait
  3. Hecate Strait
  4. Queen Charlotte Sound
  5. Straits of Juan de Fuca
As of October 1999, I have only heard back on one bottle—bottle number 5. Bottle number 5 was found by some kids in Odlin Park in the San Juan Islands. The bottle travelled about 14 nautical miles from the spot we deployed it at. It looks like the bottle was “at sea” for about 3-4 days.
Our five other bottles remain unaccounted for. It’s hard to say whether they were lost at sea, still in transit or sitting on some lonely beach waiting to be found. Stay tuned to this web page to find out.



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Adventures in the Charlottes was written by Tim Whelan.
All pictures and text ©Tim Whelan 1998-1999.
For useage, please see my copyright notice.