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Long Island Teen Receives Unexpected Response To Letter In A Bottle

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A message in a bottle that was sent adrift from Long Island got an unexpected response from an unexpected location.

Shelter Island teen Connor Corbett-Rice penned the letter in a bottle for a school project in 2011, CBS 2's Diane Macedo reported.

"I just wrote about some of the basic aspects of my life like who I lived with, what I did, what my interests were and I just wrote the letter, I just gave it to the teacher and he put it in the bottle that I gave him and he put it out in the ocean," Connor said.

At the time Connor didn't think there was much of a chance that the bottle would ever be seen again, but in February he got a big surprise.

"I learned that it got to the Bahamas at a place called Cave Cay," he said.

The bottle was found by sailor Andrew Gracie and his wife who sent an email to the teacher's email address which had been tucked inside.

"He pulled up the email on his smartboard in the his classroom and I saw them and there was the guy holding the bottle. You know I couldn't believe it, and Mr. Reardon is so thrilled about it because as I said he's been doing this project for over a dozen years and it's the first time he's had this kind of response," Connor's mother Michelle said.

The Gracies checked the tides and currents to offer their best guess on the bottle's path.

The bottle apparently traveled to Europe, near Africa, before heading to the Bahamas.

"I think the coolest aspect of this is that everything nowadays is so fast and so instant and it just shows that given some time you can really have something great come from something that takes longer than, you know the touch of a button," Connor said.

The Corbetts and the Gracies now resort to more modern forms of communication. They have exchanged numerous emails and may try to meet in person.

The farthest response previously received from the project came from nearby Block Island, according to the Corbetts.

Connor's younger brother Michael is due to participate in the project next year.

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