April 03, 2017
The internet has helped connect two people linked by a more outdated form of communication – a message sent in a bottle.
Three years ago, while vacationing with Carnival Cruise Line in the Caribbean, Philadelphia resident Ray Stratton scrawled a date-stamped note on a piece of paper, stuffed it in a sealed Gatorade bottle and dropped it off the side of the ship.
Over the weekend, the note found its way back to him, virtually, at least.
Stratton and Clint Buffington, from Utah, the man who got ahold of his letter – and then put in the effort to decipher its warped message and locate “Ray from Philly” – chatted face-to-face via Skype.
Buffington is a self-proclaimed message-in-a-bottle hunter who runs a blog by the same name.
With the help of his blog, social media and a spot on a 6ABC news segment, he was able to find Stratton, who claimed he is the person behind the message in a bottle.
