Milestones

This is something I have always wanted to do.  And on the ferry trip from the small island of Gozo back to Malta, I got my chance.  I wrote my name and email address on a piece of paper, along with instructions for the finder to email me the details of the discovery (date, time, place, etc.).  I put the message in a half-liter mineral water bottle and, thinking that it would be seen as just another piece of litter if found, I wrote the word "Message" in red ink so that it was visible through the clear plastic of the bottle.

Then, at a point about halfway between the two islands, from where (I hoped) the wind and current would take the bottle out to the open sea, I tossed the bottle off the aft quarterdeck.

As I pondered the possibilities of which distant land I might eventually receive an unexpected reply from my wayward message, I thought that I would probably just be fined for littering – having perhaps been secretly observed by some overzealous crewmember.  But fortunately, I escaped the long arm of justice and was left to consider the fate of my bottle.  In the end, I figured that this is probably where its journey would end...

...washed up on the shores of Gozo, from which we had just departed.