A swimmer visiting a beach in New South Wales, Australia, found a mussel-covered message in a bottle that turned out to have traveled more than 185 miles.

ADVERTISEMENT
Scott Gutterson said he was swimming at Murrays Beach in Jervis Bay on Sunday when he found the floating bottle covered in mussel shells.

The bottle contained a message from a Wamboin girl named Vicki, who wrote that the bottle had been thrown into the water by her father, who is in the Navy, off the coast of Newcastle, New South Wales, on Dec. 9, 2020.

"I am 10 years old and today's date is the 4/12/2020, the day before my dad's birthday and my birthday is the 30/9/2010," Vicki wrote.

Gutterson said he was able to use contact information from the note to talk with Vicki, now 12, and her father.

"He couldn't believe his ears when I said I had his daughter's letter in my hand and the location the bottle was found," Gutterson wrote on Facebook.

Gutterson said he made plans to return the bottle to the family in person over Easter.