message in a bottle

Four years ago I found this bottle on the beach at Hilton Head.

There was no message in it,

 but there were small shells growing on the outside

and the bottle cap made reference to a "Havanna Club."

I brought it home and showed it to the kids,

planning to write a  message and throw it back in the ocean.

That never happened.

Evidently, it got packed up when I moved and was forgotten.

Recently I came across the bottle again while unpacking a random box.

Perfect timing!

We sent it on its way yesterday evening with a message and a five-dollar bill.

I cleaned it up,

wrote the message,

we signed our names and headed out.

I put the shells that had attached themselves to the bottle on its first voyage

 inside along with the message and the money.

We also wanted to let whoever finds it know that Jesus loves them.

We first ate at Spnakys on the beach and then headed for the pier with our treasure.

We walked all the way to the end which was heavily populated with fishermen.

Harry was going to throw it over but chickened out.

The Lu said she would do it and then she backed out too.

It was left to me!

I raised my arm,

gave it my best toss,

and the bottle with the message was back in the ocean.

It headed north, to Hilton Head back where it came from.

I put my e-mail address on the note and asked whoever finds it to contact me.

The last we saw of it, it was floating and bobbing happily.

We laughed so hard.

The fishermen were surprised and a little scared

when the bottle hit the water and made a loud, crashing sound.

It was high tide but getting ready to turn.

I'm hoping it was carried out to the jet stream and will travel a long distance.

We'll see.

I'll let you know!