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Bottle with message tossed close to Falklands emerges five years later in New Zealand

Tuesday, October 10th 2017 - 06:25 UTC
Full article 36 comments

Tossed into the sea by a sailor on a yacht in the Atlantic ocean, a message in a bottle drifted across the seas for five years. Some 8000 kilometers later, it washed up on a Northland beach in New Zealand. A couple were walking along the waterfront near their home when the corked wine bottle caught their eye. Inside was a letter thrown into the sea near the Falkland Islands, penned on January 20, 2012.  Read full article

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  • Think

    TWIMC...

    “This message was dropped into the south Atlantic, 300 miles south west of the Falkland Islands” said the message...

    300 miles SOUTH WEST of the Falkland/Malvinas..........., huhhhh?

    That necessarily places our sweet bottle throwing Scottish sailinggrandpa within 30 miles off the southermost coast of Argentina...

    The important qoestion is...:
    Was it a Whisky bottle...?

    El Think...
    (Tossing this comment into the internet..., some 600 miles west-northwest of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands..., from his Xcover4... ;-)

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 01:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    Hmm you have a point. You'd think that would put him much nearer the Isla de los Estados than the Falklands.

    And isn't 600 miles WNW of the Falklands somewhere in Santa Cruz province, not Chubut?

    PS. “the corked wine bottle caught their eye.”

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 03:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Marti Llazo

    Message sent in 2012 and discovered in 2017.

    That's almost as fast as the Chilean postal system, which took a little over a year to send my package from Puerto Varas to Puerto Natales.
    ----

    News from the Argentine Foreign Ministry today reveals that it claims imprescriptible sovereignty rights over the bottle that once floated somewhere near Tierra del Fuego.

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr Demontree...

    You ask...:
    “Isn't 600 miles WNW of the Falklands somewhere in Santa Cruz province, not Chubut?”

    I say...:
    Nope..., Not if you measure from the western tip of Steeple Jason...

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 05:20 pm - Link - Report abuse -2
  • DemonTree

    Worse and worse, that puts you in Chile instead. You might have been better off just saying northwest. It's an interesting place to zoom the map in though, a lot of it is completely blank and the satellite view doesn't show much either. There's just nothing there.

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 07:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Just little me...

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 08:21 pm - Link - Report abuse -1
  • DemonTree

    And a lot of dust and rocks and scrubby plants. I can see why they called it conquest of the desert now. It's all in the rain shadow of the Andes?

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Correction...:
    It ain't WNW...
    It is NWbN...
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points_of_the_compass#/media/File%3ACompass_Card_B%2BW.svg

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 08:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Marti Llazo

    @DT: “There's just nothing there.”

    There is no there there.

    --------------

    Tinkle actually lives in Davis, California, and likes to pretend that he's been to Comodoro Rivadavia.

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 09:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    @Think
    Ah, that's much better. Squarely in Chubut province. :)

    I thought WNW couldn't be right, you were making me wonder if I had forgotten how directions work.

    If instead you take a NEbN from Stanley for a short trip of 7900 miles, you may end up in the vague vicinity of my house, and several million other people's too.

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 09:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Geeeeeee...

    Only 7,900 miles...

    Tell you what... Next time you are in Bournemouth..., toss a cider bottle with a message in the sea and Mercopress will surely write a nice story about a young Engrishlad tossing a bottle with a message close to the Falklands that will..., eventually..., emerge somewhere sometime...

    Oct 10th, 2017 - 11:00 pm - Link - Report abuse -2
  • Roger Lorton

    Really? A conversation about bottle ... tossers?

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 02:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Really? An article about bottle ... tossers!

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 07:43 am - Link - Report abuse -2
  • DemonTree

    Maybe I'll toss in a message saying I'm 300 miles SW of Los Angeles. That'll confuse the hell out of anyone who finds it. :)

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 08:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    300 miles SW of Los Angeles..., huhhhhhhh?

    That's close enough to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands to qualify for a half page MercoPress article about an unnaed young Engrishman sailing the North Pacific on a nameless yacht..., who putted a non disclosed message in a 2 liters polyethylene terephthalate Taurus Apple Cider bottle from ALDI and tossed it overboard..., on behalf of his many unnamed Mercopress co- posters...., to be finally found by an unnamed coupe on some unnamed shore...

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 10:34 am - Link - Report abuse -1
  • DemonTree

    Yeah, but since I'd be chucking it in the sea near Britain anyone who finds it will be wondering just how on earth it got from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean...

    And please, that crap is for teenagers. It would be in something like this:

    https://groceries.asda.com/product/bottled-cider/thatchers-gold-somerset-cider/910000066817

    or better this, but they don't sell it anywhere: :(

    www.thistlycrosscider.co.uk/all-products/traditionalciders/thistly-cross-6-9-whisky/

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 10:53 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Clyde15

    Who gives a toss ! It was chucked overboard somewhere in the S.Atlantic and turned up years later in N.Zealand.

    He should be fined for littering the ocean.

    I have never seen your two litre bottle of Cider for sale in Aldi. Do you shop there ?

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 11:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr.DemonTree...

    You say...:
    “Yeah, but since I'd be chucking it in the sea near Britain anyone who finds it will be wondering just how on earth it got from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean...”

    I say...:
    It is there where the jounalistic Investigative excellence of MercoPress will step in...
    They will explain about the California current.., the north Pacific Equatorial current..., the Pacific Equatorial countercurrent..., the south Pacific Equatorial current..., the Pacfic Gyre... the Antarctic circumpolar current.., the South Atlantic current..., the Benguela current..., the south Equatorial Atlantic current... and the Gulf Stream...

    The'll surely post some nice picture of some Kelpers quietly saluting that humble PET bottle on its journey through Malvinas waters...
    https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2013/03/12/22/pg-8-falklands-getty.jpg

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 11:32 am - Link - Report abuse -1
  • Malvinense 1833

    I would throw a bottle with a message for Lady Isolde, I have not seen her any more here.

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 12:20 pm - Link - Report abuse -1
  • Think

    Sr. Malvinense 1833
    If you do, please include my regards.
    Her feral touch is certainly missed...;-)

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 12:29 pm - Link - Report abuse -1
  • Malvinense 1833

    I will do so, Sr. Think. :-))))

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 12:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr. Clyde 15

    You say...:
    “I have never seen your two litre bottle of Cider for sale in Aldi.”

    I say...:
    Now you 'ave...:
    https://cdn.aldi-digital.co.uk/Taurus-Original-Cider.jpg?o=h14sDLM70pHAaWvp4o6Kv4qctZgj&V=miuo

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 12:57 pm - Link - Report abuse -1
  • DemonTree

    Ugh, it was bad enough seeing Think flirting with Isolde without Malvi joining in as well.

    On second thoughts, Britain has got to be one of the dullest places to throw a bottle in, since it would probably end up somewhere boringly close like Denmark.

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 01:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Clyde15

    Think

    Not in my local store. Must be an English thing.

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 03:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    “Made in Devon from premium fruit.”
    Sassenach alright...

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 03:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • The Voice

    Talking of tossers, see immediately above :-)

    Oct 11th, 2017 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Clyde15

    DT
    It seems that everything ends up in Norway.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2458951/Message-bottle-Coventry-20-years-ago-washed-Norway.html

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 09:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr. DemonTree...
    “Britain has got to be one of the dullest places to throw a bottle in, since it would probably end up somewhere boringly close like Denmark.”..., you say...

    Boring maybe..., but it holds the world record for the oldest bottle post..., I say...
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wQqiqwmhk_M/U70oFSuncTI/AAAAAAAAJZc/m-7-Lx4R_RQ/s1600/botella,+mensaje+y+sellos.jpg

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 10:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    @Clyde15
    It proves the current really does go that way from the Channel, anyway.

    @Think
    Where was that found? I don't know if Denmark itself is boring, but it's not the most exotic location imaginable.

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 02:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • The Voice

    5 second guide to Skandi politics - Norwegians and Danes like each other and both hate Swedes.

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 02:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    The only thing I've heard about the Scandi countries is that Norwegians go to Sweden for cheaper beer, the Swedes go to Denmark, and the Danes go to Germany. The price of alcohol is outrageous but it doesn't seem to stop them drinking. Must be the weather.

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 02:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr. DemonTree...

    Only partially true....

    Norwegians do..., in some extent..., go to Sweden for cheaper alcohol..., but Norwegian customs are relentless with their control...
    Read and cry...:
    https://www.vinmonopolet.no/vmpSite/Nettbutikk-kategorier/Øl/c/øl?sort=price-asc&q=%3Arelevance%3AmainCategory%3Aøl%3AvisibleInSearch%3Atrue&searchType=#

    EU rules of import for personal use have..., on the other hand..., forced Sweden and Denmark to lower their taxation on alcohol to such an extent that the cross border spiritus business is almost dead...

    Besides... if you Think that Scandinavians drink a lot..., you should visit Estland..., Letland..., Lithuania or the bear in the room... Mother Russia...

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 04:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    øl = ale? I suppose the unfavourable exchange rate makes it look worse than it is, but don't they sell multipacks?

    And I don't need to visit the Baltic countries to see it, because there are plenty of their citizens living right here in my town. There used to be a place down by the river where the immigrants from Eastern Europe would go and drink, but they fenced it off a couple of years ago.

    Sometimes I wonder of those countries have become depopulated; they only had a few million people in the first place.

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 06:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Mr. Demontree...

    What you see at Vinmonopolet.no is ALL you can get in Norway...
    You are a ciderman..., enjoy... ;-)
    https://www.vinmonopolet.no/vmpSite/Nettbutikk-kategorier/Sider/c/sider?sort=price-desc&q=%3Arelevance%3AmainCategory%3Asider%3AvisibleInSearch%3Atrue&show=Page&searchType=#

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 07:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DemonTree

    They do have some of the ones I drink, at eye watering prices. Luckily Norway is outside the EU, so you can get duty free on the way.

    (I suppose we will getting that in a lot more places soon.)

    It's strange they have an 'England' category and also a 'Storbritannia' category. I've seen plenty of places that think England and Britain are the same country, but this site seems to think they are two separate ones.

    Oct 12th, 2017 - 08:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Gevera

    England will return the Malvinas within 25 years.

    Oct 15th, 2017 - 03:46 am - Link - Report abuse -1

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