This is for personal, noncommercial use only.
Today's Front Page
Gas Buddy
Northeaster delivers message in bottle 24 years later
Print this Article- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
A close-up of the message cast into the ocean during an Ocean City summer contest was discovered 24 years later after this month's coastal storm. A hotel in North Carolina discovered the message, written by summer visitor Heidi Kay Westler in 1985. Now officials are gearing up to give Heidi Mozzo, 30, her prize -- a box of saltwater taffy.
Photo by: DONALD B. KRAVITZ
OCEAN CITY — A message in a bottle cast into the Atlantic Ocean 24 years ago during a summer beach contest was discovered last week more than 200 miles away.
The Ocean City contest was conceived to reward the vacationer whose bottle traveled the farthest, city spokesman Mark Soifer said.
“I don’t even remember what the prize was,” said Soifer, who dreams up most of the island’s “wacky but never tacky” summer contests for children.
Workers at an oceanfront resort hotel in Duck, N.C., found the bottle while cleaning up after this month’s devastating northeaster. The note was safe inside a green, plastic two-liter soda bottle, said Beth Pennington, an administrative assistant at The Sanderling Resort & Spa.
The Nov. 11-13 northeaster — described as one of the worst storms ever to hit Cape May County — caused equal devastation in North Carolina, Pennington said.
“I’ve been here 20 years, and I’ve been through five hurricanes,” she said. “But as far as beach erosion and everything that washed up, this was the worst I’ve ever seen it.
“We had quite a bit of debris wash up. That was one of the items our maintenance worker found,” Pennington said. “The lid was on real tight but water was seeping in.”
The smudged message contained the name of Heidi Kay Werstler, of Trembler’s Trailer Park in Pennsylvania.
The bottle Heidi Kay tossed to the sea in 1985 must have been carried south on the ocean currents until it reached North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where it sank to the ocean bottom and remained for decades.
As soon as Pennington saw the message, she called Ocean City.
Back in 1985, people were humming Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to do with it?” Dramas such as “Out of Africa” and “The Color Purple” ruled the box office. A singer named Madonna introduced herself to America with the “Like a Virgin” tour.
The Kansas City Royals won the World Series, while the San Francisco 49ers were Super Bowl champions.
And in Ocean City, the city sponsored one of its many summer events designed to entertain visitors during their vacations.
“It seems to me they were using mason jars. Or maybe they used their own bottles. It’s been so long ago,” Soifer said. “We couldn’t do that kind of contest today — it’s not environmentally friendly.”
The city’s typewritten contest entry reads: “Thank you for finding me!!! I am from a ‘message in a bottle’ contest and I was launched Monday, July 1, 1985. If you found me before August 1, 1985, please contact the public relations office, Ocean City. … You will receive a free prize if I have traveled the fartherest!!”
The contest has long expired, but Ocean City still wants to track down Werstler to award her a prize for the longest distance traveled. Ocean City’s Public Relations Office can be reached at 609-525-9300.
As for the prize: Soifer said it is a box of — what else? — saltwater taffy.
Contact Michael Miller:
609-463-6712
Posted in CAPE MAY | TOP THREE on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:30 pm Updated: 5:52 am.
Most Read Stories of the Week
24,000 still without power in Cape May County; winter storm warning starts at 7 p.m.
24,000 still without power in Cape May County; winter storm warning starts at 7 p.m.
Atlantic City supervisor charged with selling drugs while working on city property
Woman charged with stealing from local mayor is same woman who sued him alleging sexual harassment
1 comment:
Click here to report a comment as abusive.