The finder of the message in a bottle on the Texas island plans to continue his journey across the ocean

Dr. Laurie Levermann Coker usually walks the shore of South Padre Island looking for shells and other gifts from the Gulf of Mexico. However, recently she found a new treasure: a message in a bottle.

Coker said she often walks along the beach with her two dogs, Ola — which means wave in Spanish — and Nalu — which means wave in Hawaiian. In December. 7, the airwaves delivered a message in a bottle that sent Coker on a journey of Internet investigation that continues today.

“I’ve never found one before, and I’ve been here for almost five and a half, six years. I’ve been walking up and down this beach, 2 miles a day and an hour or so, and I get a lot of stuff,” Coker told FOX Weather.

Inside the barnacle-covered Captain Morgan bottle was a short note on lined paper that read: “From Angela (23) and Emily (24) from Keewaydin Island. Sent 6/15/2024.”

The next not so precious moment was when the bottle was defeated in her kitchen as the drugs began to wear off.

“I let it sit on my counter and it was so funny because I was in my kitchen. I said, ‘What the hell is that smell?’ And it turned out that the drugs were dying. It really stinks,” Coker said.

Coker said he had never heard of Keewaydin Island, but soon learned it was a barrier island like South Padre. Keewaydin Island is a largely undeveloped island off Southwest Florida between Naples and Marco Island, accessible only by boat.

The glass bottle traveled about 1,000 miles in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas, reaching Coker’s Beach. However, it was a relatively short trip for a sea trip. The bottle could have just as quickly been picked up by the Gulf Stream and sent into the Atlantic Ocean.

After her Google search results, Coker took to social media to see if she could find Emily and Ashley with very little information to go on.

“On South Padre Island, there are several sites for tourists to come and ask questions or for locals to talk to each other and stuff. I posted it there, and then I thought, well, maybe Naples has the same thing, right? Coker said. “And so I found one, and I posted it on it, and, I got a few responses, and then one of my former students from the ’90s saw it, and she said, ‘I’ll put it up. TikTok.’

Nearly two weeks later, Coker still hasn’t been able to use the power of social media to track down the people who sent the bottle, but it hasn’t been delivered.

Coker will continue the bottle’s journey, but with a few changes, to hopefully hear back from its next recipient. She is adding her message in English and Spanish, along with her Instagram handle. Coker plans to take a boat and throw it back into the Bay. What happens next depends on the sea.

“We hope someone else finds it. And I mean, it could end up right on my beach, or it could end up like 6 miles from here down the beach. Or it could end up in North Padre,” she said. “I have no idea where it’s going to go.”