A Kerry sea angler who found a message in a bottle has reunited the childhood friends who wrote the note in the US 21 years ago.
Mr Michael Wall, who lives on Tralee Bay at Derrymore, is the Irish world record holder for catching a stingray after landing a 74 lb specimen on the shore at Fenit last year. But that achievement did not prepare him for the publicity over his discovery of a note in a barnacle-encrusted green bottle which he had passed over once while walking his dog.
"Coming back again, I picked it up. I saw a bit of white inside it and I thought it was a bit of paper," he said.
The message read: "Hi. This letter was thrown overboard from a Nantucket ferry going to Hyannis, Massachusetts, USA, at one o'clock on September 2, 1979.
"Could you please fill out the next sheet of paper and mail it to one of us? We will send you a note saying that we received your letter. If you do not send the note back, just put these papers back into the bottle and throw it into the ocean. Thank you."
After Mr Wall broke the bottle and retrieved the note, he sent a reply to the childhood homes of Amy Turano-Thurber and Valerie Wozniak, in Colchester, Connecticut, where their parents still live.
He became a celebrity when his story was picked up by US television and radio, the Boston Globe, Newsday magazine and international wire services.
Ms Amy Turano-Thurber, now aged 34 and working as a graphic designer, lives with her husband, Frederick, and their three-year-old son, Benjamin, in South Dartmouth, about a four-hour drive from her former friend.
"We are going to be meeting about a week and a half from now," she said.
She also hopes to travel to Derrymore when her son is a little older. In the meantime, she is sending Mr Wall some of the press clippings of the story.
She lost contact with Valerie Wozniak when they moved into different classes in high school. Ms Wozniak now works as a systems analyst in the Connecticut area.
"We had been friends throughout childhood. We had been friends for about seven or eight years before we went on this trip," Ms Turano-Thurber said.
She remembers that her father sealed the bottle with wax from a candle he had at the rented cottage on Nantucket. The bottle survived at sea from September 1979 to March2000.
One oceanographer's theory is that the bottle took a roundabout trip, travelling on currents to the Antarctic before arriving at Co Kerry.