It was September 2012 when Brad Squires and Anita Moran decided to cap off their impromptu romantic picnic on Canada’s Bell Island by flinging a bottle containing a handwritten note about their day together into the sea.
The young couple were around one year into their relationship but were living apart at the time, making that date particularly special to them, Anita told The Washington Post. Brad was posted with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, while she was training to be a nurse in Newfoundland and Labrador, she explained.
The bottle with the note flung into the sea 13 years ago from Canada’s Bell Island.Credit: Maharees Heritage and Conservation / Facebook
“We had this bottle and it just seemed kind of old-timey and romantic, I guess,” Anita said. “We wrote a private note to us, not thinking that it would make it anywhere.”
Nearly 13 years later, Kate and Jon Gay, who were walking on a beach in Ireland, more than 3000 kilometres away on the other side of the Atlantic, came across the bottle with the note inside.
They were walking on the Maharees – a stretch of coastline in western Ireland – when they found the bottle last Monday, Kate Gay said in an email. She said they decided to save opening it for a meeting that evening with the Maharees Conservation Association and local artists for a project about resilience and climate adaptations for coastal communities.
“It seemed like a fun way to start the meeting,” she said, “and I wasn’t wrong! That bottle had survived so many storms that have caused damage, erosion and flooding in Maharees … yet it arrived on our beach that day, a little weathered but holding strong!”
‘The message in a bottle has gone from being a time capsule of a happy moment on Bell Island to a metaphor for resilience and the ripple effect of positive actions and connections.’
Martha Farrell, Maharees Conservation Association co-founder
Everyone was delighted, and intrigued by the note inside, which read: “Anita and Brad’s day trip to Bell Island. Today, we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other, at the edge of the island. If you find this please call us,” followed by a phone number.
While the phone number did not work, the group raised a toast of non-alcoholic mojitos to Anita and Brad, and wished them the best.
