A MESSAGE in a bottle thrown into the sea at Blue Anchor by two Watchet youngsters has finally arrived safely at the mouth of the River Avon near Portishead - 29 years later!

The epic 58-mile journey, at an average of two miles a year, started when Watchet resident Terry Bishop took his sons Christopher, then five, and Adam, two, for a walk on Blue Anchor beach.

“We had been talking about things found in bottles so I got them to write their names on a piece of paper, added our phone number, and put it in a small plastic Coca Cola bottle,” Terry said.

“We threw it into the sea, watched it bob out of sight and forgot all about it. Then about six weeks ago a man phoned to say that he had been walking with his two sons alongside the River Avon near Portishead on a day out from their home near Newport when they found the bottle lying in rocks alongside the path.

“It had been thrown into the sea by two young brothers and taken out by two other young brothers. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Andrew Phillips said he was walking with his sons William, 11, and nine-year-old Jack, near the motorway bridge at Portishead when Jack realised he had lost his gloves.

“We walked back the way we had come and were looking in cracks among the rocks when my son William said: ‘There’s a message in a bottle.’

“The boys were very excited. It was like something out of an adventure story. We opened it and there was a note written in felt-tip pen which was so smudged we couldn’t make it out.

”We took it home, dried it out and eventually worked out the phone number. It was about 20 years out of date, but by adding a modern code to the number I finally got through to someone who turned out to be the dad of the boys who had originally thrown the bottle into the sea.

“Later I spoke to Christopher and he was as amazed as we were. I sent him a copy of the note he had sent all those years ago. It’s a bit the worse for wear but that’s hardly surprising!”

Now Terry plans to take his grandchildren, Madeleine, six, and Noah, nearly four, to Blue Anchor beach in the footsteps of their parents 29 years ago. “Our plan is to throw another message in a bottle into the sea - and wait another 29 years to see if it happens again,” he said.