by Chris Malone
It’s an old holidaymaker’s tradition: to send a message in a bottle out to sea, in the hope that they will receive a response from the recipient in another country.
And this custom was one followed by Tracy Johnstone – who recently received a call from German man Thomas Fink after he found the bottle she threw out to sea at the beach in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire while on a caravanning holiday.
What is remarkable about the find is that Ms Johnston – now a mother of four – sent the message three decades ago when she was aged 15 in 1981.
Mr Fink, 58, discovered the bottle on a beach in Germany’s St Peter-Ording – 400 miles from where it was initially launched 30 years ago.
Cleethorpes has a number of caravan parks, including Haven’s Thorpe Park, which features a nine-hole golf course.
While it is unclear where the sender – now known as Tracy Pashby – stayed all those years ago, the tag with her name, address and the date the bottle was thrown into the water is still visible, despite its age and long journey.
“My brother and I were very fortunate as children, we went on caravanning holidays with our mum and dad which we loved,” she explained.
“My dad used to encourage us to throw messages in bottles into the sea saying that it could be discovered by pirates or be washed up on a treasure island”
Her brother once had a reply from Finland, but that came almost immediately in comparison to Tracy’s bottle.
