Scituate man’s message in a bottle turns up 3,000 miles away in Ireland
The bottle was No. 79 of over 200 messages he’s thrown into the ocean from the Cape Cod shore.
Ken Baker, 47, has been throwing messages in bottles into the ocean for over three years.
On January 2, he received an email that one message had travelled farther than he ever expected.
The email was sent by Colm O’Grady, 46, of Cullenstown, Ireland, over 3,000 miles away from the Scituate Lighthouse where Baker casts off his messages.
Cullenstown strand, in Ireland, is where Baker’s message in a bottle washed ashore, more than 3,000 miles from Scituate harbor.
Baker said it all started in December 2012 when his wife purchased a case of San Pellegrino sparkling water. He was planning to recycle the glass bottles when he got an idea: throw a note in one of the bottles and see where it goes.
Since that day, he has thrown over 200 messages in bottles from the Scituate Lighthouse with his family.
Baker tosses his bottles off the end of the breakwater at the mouth of Scituate Harbor near the Lighthouse.
He said he has heard responses from 54 people in places like Canada, Long Island, Cape Cod, and now, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in Ireland.
O’Grady said that his son and nephew were beachcombing after Storm Frank hit Ireland’s coast when they found the bottle in the sand, a little worse for wear, but unbroken.
The message was dated back to July 25, 2014. The message included an email address so Baker and his family could “hear back from the bottles.’’
The message in bottle No. 79.
O’Grady wrote to Baker that he’s lived in the small seaside village off Ireland’s southeast coast his entire life and had never heard of anyone finding a message in a bottle.
“Nobody knows what lies ahead of us in life but it was very uplifting retrieving your bottle (pity it wasn’t full) after a very grim and stormy afternoon in county Wexford, Ireland,’’ O’Grady wrote to Baker in their intial email correspondence.
“I couldn’t believe one finally made it over there,’’ Baker told Boston.com. “For a year-and-a-half, that has been bopping around out there.’’
“When we read the letter, I emailed Ken back that we found the bottle, but didn’t know where Scituate was,’’ O’Grady told Boston.com. “I was on Google Maps to see where it was, and when we saw it was near Boston over 3,000 miles away, we couldn’t believe it.’’
Baker and O’Grady have continued to keep in touch over email and are learning they have a lot in common.
O’Grady said they are both almost the same age, have kids around the same age, and enjoy water sports like kayaking and fishing. The biggest coincidence for both men is that Baker’s wife’s surname is Grady.
The O’Grady family.
O’Grady said he plans to throw the same bottle Baker sent into the Atlantic with a new message from his own three children. He said if the message catches the current correctly, he expects the bottle could make its way to the shores of France.
Baker said that as long as the wind is blowing in the right direction and the tide is on its way out, he will continue to throw messages in bottles from the lighthouse.
“I like it because anyone can find a bottle,’’ Baker said. “It’s a cool cross-section of people from fishermen and lobstermen, to kindergarten teachers with their students, to doctors or kids on paddleboards. Anyone around the water could end up finding one, and it makes people’s day.’’
Baker added that he’s bought his new friend a Powerball ticket for Saturday’s drawing, an $800 million jackpot.
“I told him if he wins, he owes me a drink,’’ he said.
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