Ben GodarEven in an age where cell...
Ben Godar
Even in an age where cell phones and e-mail rule communication, a
Burbank man recently found people could still reach each other with
something as simple as a message in a bottle.
Ted Shachory was on a Caribbean cruise with his family in August
when he decided to put a note with his name and address into an empty
water bottle and toss it into the ocean. Earlier this month he
received a letter from a man in Portugal who found the bottle.
“I’d forgotten all about it, but I was really excited when I got
the letter,” Shachory said. “I never thought I’d hear back from
anybody.”
The letter came from Jose Machado, who said he found the bottle
while fishing on the south coast of Sao Jorge island, part of the
Azores Islands of Portugal. That was about 8,000 miles from where
Shachory threw the bottle into the ocean.
Machado asked Shachory to reply to the letter, which he said he
did last week. He hopes the two are able to develop a pen-pal type
relationship, and said the communication has already peaked his
interest in Portugal.
“Maybe we’ll plan our next vacation there,” he said. “I just feel
so glad this guy took the time out to write to us.”
Shachory’s wife, Naama, said it was remarkable not only because
the note was found, but that the person who found it was able to
communicate with them.
“I’m glad the person spoke a little English,” she said. “They
could have written back in Chinese and we wouldn’t have understood a
word of it.”