Finding a message in a bottle that washed up on a beach can be exciting, especially if it traveled several thousand miles.
That's how a Texas man felt Friday at Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston. James Howie Hill said he found a green bottle with a message inside that had been bobbing in the water for nearly seven months, the Houston Chronicle reported.
"I saw the bottle, and it looked like it had something in it," Hill told the newspaper. "After wiping the dried algae off, I saw the note and handwriting. We were all excited."
The note was dated Dec. 22, 2018, and was from George and June Smith of Nantucket, Massachusetts, Hill told the Chronicle. In their note, the couple said they were traveling to Martinique,
"We are off the coast of Martinique heading to Fort de France," the note read. "We left St. Martin last week. If you happen across this bottle, may you have good fortune and let us know."
Hill calculated the bottle traveled about 2,350 miles through the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico before landing on the beach at High Island, the Chronicle reported.
Hill sent the Smiths an email, and the couple responded Monday, the newspaper reported.
"They live on their 40-foot sailboat in the lower Caribbean from November to late May," Hill wrote on Facebook. "They couldn't believe it was found.
"In all their 30 years of sailing they have only thrown about 15 messages overboard. Before this two were found. One (was) off the coast of North Carolina and one (was) on Martha's Vineyard."
On Facebook, Hill posted photos the Smiths sent of the bottle overboard.
"How cool is this," Hill wrote.