The letter, which 8-year-old Klara Andersson sent in April from Bjurö, near Skellefteå in far northern Sweden, was found by a Finnish couple just six weeks after the girl had tossed it into the sea.
When the reply arrived from the northern Finnish couple in mid-June, the 8-year-old couldn’t believe her luck.
“She was overjoyed when the letter arrived, she’d actually forgotten she’d even sent the first message,” said the girl’s father Isaac Andersson to The Local.
However, Andersson himself was initially skeptical about the letter:
“I thought it was chain mail,” he chuckled.
The letter, sent from Oulo, in western Finland, included a card featuring the popular Finnish cartoon character – Moomin – along with a small trinket.
Inside the card were pictures of the beach where the bottle was discovered and a picture of the bottle as well.
However, Klara’s father doesn’t credit blind luck with such a quick response time.
“Klara’s grandfather, who was an experienced sailor in the 60s and 70s, helped her to use candle grease to seal the bottle, ensuring no water would destroy the message inside,” he said.
“And together, they timed it perfectly so that the wind would blow to the south-east and the bottle would reach the nearest shores of Finland.”
Klara is yet to confirm if, and indeed how, she plans to reply to the Finnish letter.
The Local/og
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