Bottle, note make 20-year circuit to son of sender
By Associated Press
Published November 7, 2003
PORT CHARLOTTE - A message stuck in a bottle and tossed into waters off Bermuda 20 years ago is now in the hands of the writer's son, years after his father's death.
Dr. Brian Ardel of Port Charlotte and his wife, Lisa, were walking on Mayaguana, an island in the Bahamas, last month when they found James Striffler's note in a green bottle.
Ardel, who combs beaches on deserted islands as a hobby, has found other bottles holding messages, most of them unreadable. But on this one he could make out an address, a date of Sept. 8, 1983, and Striffler's name.
Ardel said it took him 10 minutes to find a James Striffler on the Internet. But the message writer had died 10 years ago. The day his son, of Sayville, N.Y., got Ardel's call, he had lit a candle for his father for All Souls Day.
Jim Striffler and his wife Maureen flew to Punta Gorda Saturday to accept the bottle and the message, which Lisa Ardel had framed.
It was like getting part of his father back, Striffler said.
He said his mother thinks his father tossed the bottle into the sea during a cruise.
Ardel thinks prevailing currents must have carried the bottle north from Bermuda, then east to float off the European and African coasts before winding up on Mayaguana, which is about 800 miles south of Bermuda.
