Brittanie Penrose’s Message In A Bottle Travels From California To Guam


When Brittanie Penrose and her friend Aaron Lanari threw a message in a bottle off Oceanside Pier in California in 2010, they didn’t think they’d hear about it again.

However, the old wine bottle popped up last week on the shores of Guam, more than 6,000 miles away. Penrose forgot about the bottle, until she got the message saying it was discovered.

Penrose was recovering from brain cancer when she and Lanari wrote two notes and put them in an old wine bottle, notes the New York Daily News. At the time, they were 24 years old.

The bottle was found on Thursday on a beach in Ipan, Guam, by 14-year-old Javier Sanchez. The student was helping during the International Coastal Cleanup.

His teacher, Linda Tratreau, saw the bottle and took it back to George Washington High School, where the school held a ceremony to open the bottle and see what was inside.

Brittanie Penrose, who is from Salt Lake City, was visiting family in California when she decided to write the message in a bottle. She didn’t think much of it and expected the bottle to sink to the bottom of the ocean. She explained of the letter she wrote, “I just described me and what I’m doing, and at the time I was a phlebotomist and was fighting cancer.”

Penrose added that the bottle was Lanari’s idea. The Daily Mail notes that he took the bottle with him to a dinner he had with his friend, explaining, “I just thought it would be a really great date idea.” In his note, Lanari told the bottle’s finder “to reach out and grab out of life everything they have ever wanted.”

While much of Brittanie Penrose’s letter was unreadable because of the sun, it still contained information on how to find her on Facebook. The letter also included her email address.

While Penrose and Lanari were astounded to hear their message in a bottle was found in Guam, Tatreau explained that her classes often find messages in bottles along the country’s shores. She uses the cleanup to teach her students how ocean currents and tides work.

[Image via ShutterStock]

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