25 Thursday Jun 2015
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Friendship, message in a bottle
Tags
beachcombing, Clint Buffington, desire, how to open a message in a bottle, identity, innovations management, Inspiration, message in a bottle, patentpool, respect
I have now been hunting messages in bottles for 8 years. That’s almost a third of my life. It’s no wonder this work has become such an important part of my identity.
07 Monday Jul 2014
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Friendship, message in a bottle, News, Science, Travel
Tags
algalita, algalita marine research foundation, beachcombers alert, captain charles moore, charles moore, Clint Buffington, curt ebbesmeyer, curtis ebbesmeyer, erin alberty, flotsametrics, Melissa Majchzak, message in a bottle, messages in bottles, plastic ocean, plastic pollution, salt lake tribune
The work I do with messages in bottles (MIBs) is often solitary work. Occasionally, the stars align and I have help with the work. This May, I had special visit from the Salt Lake Tribune who helped me track down the sender of a particularly elusive bottle. This one:
07 Tuesday Jan 2014
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Friendship, message in a bottle, Romance, Travel
Tags
adventure, Asheville, beachcombing, Clint Buffington, freeland, how to open a message in a bottle, maggie valley, message in a bottle, north carolina, The Nordic Empress, Tina Fey
After learning everything I learned in the last post, I knew I had to meet Phil in person. So, one day in August 2011, I loaded up the car and headed to Maggie Valley.
The night before I hit the road, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about everything I wanted to ask him and tell him, wondering whether we would really get along, and wondering–on the scale of crazy–just how crazy it was that I was about to walk into the home, the actual dwelling place, of a complete stranger… Is that, like, really really crazy? Or just a little crazy?
In any case, I went.
03 Tuesday Dec 2013
Tags
adventure, Asheville, beachcombing, business card in a bottle, Clint Buffington, Cocoa Beach, cypress gardens, Grenelefe, illustration, John E Freeland, Long Island, message in a bottle, message in a bottle hunter, ocean currents, Phil Freeland, romance, stick figure, travel, winter haven
No one answered my phone call. I was jittery before I tried the number—I always get a little shaky when I’m on the verge of finding a sender.
Maybe it’s the coffee. I am, admittedly, an addict.
18 Monday Nov 2013
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Friendship, message in a bottle, Travel
Tags
beachcombing, bottle, business card, Canada Dry, Clint Buffington, cypress gardens, John E Freeland, message in a bottle, old message in a bottle, winter haven
May 21st, 2011. The sun is blinding. Even the wind coming off the ocean is hot. My mom and I stand blinking in the sun beside a rusty green truck that looks dead parked by a small beach.
We have come here for beachcombing, so we wander down to the shore. After just a few minutes of walking, we decide to pack it up because there doesn’t seem to be much here other than trash and incredible heat. Mom heads straight back to the truck, and I say I’ll be there in a minute. We had planned to cover half the beach, but, being obsessed with covering every square inch of sand, I decide to walk the last 50-yard stretch we haven’t seen yet. Here’s what it would have looked like to watch us from above:
Mom and I take slightly different paths back to the truck, which happens to look like a race car in this bird’s eye rendering.
09 Friday Aug 2013
Posted in archives of the sea, Friendship, message in a bottle, Mystery Message, News
Tags
beachcombing, Clint Buffington, Hermosa Beach, Ines & Rudiger, Jens & Silke, Jirko, Message, message in a bottle, message in a bottle hunter, Stefanie Padilla, Stefanie Strobel
Yesterday a fellow beachcomber contacted me in her quest for the senders of a bottle filled with several messages. She found the bottle as it was floating to shore at Hermosa Beach in California–I mean, AS IT WAS FLOATING TO SHORE! How cool is that?!
