Couple finds decades-old message in washed-up bottle

KEY LARGO, Fla. - A couple in Key Largo, Florida were walking on the beach near their home when they discovered a message that traveled thousands of miles and many years to get to them.

Inside a bottle that washed ashore after Hurricane Irma, Ruth and Lee Huenninger discovered a message all the way from Scotland.

"We are learning all about pirates. We would like to see how far this message goes," the letter said.

The note was from Class 213 of Chapelpark School in Forfar, Angus, Scotland. It had traveled more than 4,000 miles.

So the Huenningers decided to write back.

"I thought, 'Let's see if this gets all the way back to Scotland I mean, I'd never heard of Forfar," Ruth said.

The Huenningers' letter let the students know where the bottle landed and it had one request: they wanted to know when the note was sent.

Their letter eventually found its way to Fiona Cargill, the teacher of that class.

"We just wanted to see how far it would go," she said.

At the time, her students were dressing up as pirates and wanted to know everything there was to know about the thieves of the sea.

"We decided that perhaps pirates would send messages in bottles," she said.

Turns out, the students' message was from decades ago.

"That bottle was set on its journey more than 30 years ago!" Fiona wrote to the Huenningers.

Nowadays, the school is no longer around. Cargill is retired. The students who were wearing the pirate gear are nearing 30. Even so, the lesson wasn't lost.

"It's just amazing how things happen and how it could get all the way over here from all the way over there," Ruth said.

The Florida couple is now on the lookout for other bottles.