Bobble in a Bottle!
Bobble in a Bottle!
After Kerry woman Rosemary Hill found a lobster pot ID tag on her local beach and found out that it had travelled 3000 miles from America over 20 years, we thought we'd attempt to do something similar...
In the vein of Message in a Bottle, we're putting Ray (in the guise of his bobble head) in a number of bottles and with the help from some families across Ireland we'll launch them into the sea/ocean.
We've picked 4 families to launch the bottles and they are:
• The Conroy Kelly Family on the East coast at Wicklow Head
• The Henderson Family on the North coast at Malin Head
• The Carty Family on the West coast at Cliftden
• The Harrington Family on the South coast at Galley Head
Conor from EZ Track has kindly put GPS trackers in all of the bottles so we can follow and track their progress out at sea. Rory from Jerpoint Glass in Kilkenny custom made amazing glass bottles for the project too.
Keep checking back for more info as the project advances!
Update: 7th March 2012
Bottle Ray is back on the grid and closing in on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales!
Paddy Harrington launched the Bottle on Monday 13th February off a beach near Galley Head in West Cork. It took off southwards and the last time the GPS reported its location was at 3pm on Valentine’s Day.
23 days and 256 kilometres later it’s now only 500 metres from Porthlysgi Bay, which is at the northern tip of St Bride’s Bay, which itself is just north of the Bristol Channel.
Looking at the aerial satellite view of the coastline it’s heading for...it’s not great news. It’s a rocky coastline that’s part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The likelihood that it will be smashed on the rocks is quite high...
Bottle Mairead
On Friday 3rd February, the Conroy Kellys – Gillian, Tommy, Megan and Ailbhe – launched Bottle Mairead off the coast of Wicklow Head.
It zig zagged between Greystones and Dun Laoghaire...inching slowly eastwards as it went until it finally beached itself at 5am on 21st February on a sandy beach at the town of Tywyn in Wales after travelling 155 miles (249 km). As the crow flies, it’s only 85 miles (136 km) from Wicklow Head to Tywyn. Despite Will being in touch with the Tourist Office there, they were unable to locate the bottle.
Bottle Will
Artist Jane Rose on the island of Colonsay in the Scottish Hebrides still has possession of Bottle Will. She found it on a beach there on the island’s south coast on 18th February. Will’s bottle was launched on the 3rd Feb by Marie Robb and the Hendersons and travelled 210 miles (338 km) before it made land.
Bottle Jenny
Bottle Jenny launched by the Olive Carty and family off the coast of Clifden. Went off-grid after 2 hours. Fate unknown. However, photographer John Barry took some great photos of the bottle before it was launched and they're brilliant to have...
Update: Monday 20th February 2012
Will's washed up!! At 12am on Friday night/Saturday morning, Conor from EZ Track got an alert from Bottle Will that it had washed ashore on the Island of Colonsay, just over 100km from where he was launched off Malin Head. The island is part of the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland and luckily the bottle washed straight onto a massive sandy beach. So the real Will got on the phone to the local post office and later that day a local artist Jane Rose and her son Edward tracked down the bottle to rescue it...she's an artist that creates work from beach litter!
Bottle Mairead has also made an interesting journey. It finally got out of it's zig-zag pattern and travelled south-eastwards across the St Georges Channel and into Cardigan Bay. It's now skimming the Welsh coast about 6km from shore and we'll be keeping a close eye on where it may land!
Update: Tuesday 14th February 2012
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Yesterday morning, Paddy Harrington made a 3rd attempt at launching Bottle Ray off the coast of Galley Head in West Cork. The first attempt on 3rd February, the wind was going in the wrong direction and the sea was too rough so they kept it indoors....the second time on Monday 6th February Paddy and Fachtna threw it overboard a few miles offshore, but after one day it washed up on shore at Long Strand and using the tracking map, they picked it up. So since yesterday morning Bottle Ray has finally taken off in the right direction – South. At one point it was travelling at 15 mph on the outgoing tide and Northerly winds. It’s currently about 10km south of Galley Head
Bottle Mairead had an interesting journey over the weekend. It’s still zig zagging up and down as it travels eastwards, but at one point on Saturday night it nearly hit the shipping lane out of Dun Laoghaire. Then it turned again and came back southwards parallel with Greystones and is about 25 km offshore.
Bottle Will has gone off-grid again so we’re waiting for a report from its location since last Thursday. We’ve been told it’s nothing to worry about! It last reported from 120 km north of Malin Head, heading towards the Sea of Hebrides and Scotland’s Barra Island.
I think at this stage we can safely say Bottle Jenny is no longer part of the project. It was launched by the Carty family off the coast of Clifden in Galway on 3rd February but we lost communication with it 2 hours later. It hasn’t come back on-grid since.
Update: Thursday 9th February 2012
The big story this morning is Bottle Will – it finally reported its position after going off-grid for a day and it’s now about 75 km west of the Island of Mull and just 20 odd kilometres off the west coast of Coll Island. That’s a journey of 284.39 kms since the bottle was launched by the Hendersons last Friday morning off Malin Head
Bottle Mairead is still caught up in the 20 kilometre stretch between Wicklow Head and Greystones. In the last 2 days she has zig zagged from east to west and is currently about 8 km off Wicklow Head. We’re going to send the images of her journey since Friday to the Marine Institute to see what the explanation is for her strange route!
Bottle ‘Ray’ is back on dry land since Tuesday afternoon – John and Paddy Harrington at Galley Head will be launching it again soon from a trawler and we’ll keep you updated on that as it happens.
Bottle Jenny....well...still AWOL off the coast of Clifden in Connemara!
Update: Wednesday 8th February 2012
It's been an eventful few days! Bottle 'Ray' washed ashore on Long Strand near Galley Head yesterday afernoon. Luckily, John Harrington was able to look at the tracker on the map and found it unharmed. He's going to hold on to it until he can send it on a trawler a good 20 to 30 miles offshore! Bottles 'Will' and 'Mairead' are still in and around the same position as yesterday (see maps below). Bottle 'Jenny' is still M.I.A.
Marie Robb and the Henderson family in Donegal have sent us their pics from the launch day last Friday. They really did brave some rough seas!
(Below -Emmet from the Irish Basking Shark Project)
Update: Tuesday 7th February 2012
Yesterday, Paddy Harrington and skipper Fachtna launched Bottle 'Ray' off the Cork coast near Galley Head. He instantly took off eastwards but looking at the map this morning, he travelled in a circle and is dangerously close to Galley Head itself...
Will is on a very insteresting route...we thought he might make land on the Isle of Islay, but he took of Northwest again and who know where he'll end up!
Mairead continues her zig-zagging eastwards across the Irish Sea (albeit very slowly)
Bottle 'Jenny' is still missing in action since Friday...
Update: Monday 6th February 2012
It's a case of 2 out of 3 ain't bad so far...
'Will' was launched off the north coast of Malin Head by the Hendersons at 11:25am on Friday. He instantly headed northwards at a speed of 2mph, reaching up to 5 mph at certain points over the weekend. As you can see from his route on the map below, he's closing in on the Scottish Hebrides, but there's no predicting where he'll end up!
Bottle 'Mairead' was launched by the Conroy Kellys at 10:50am on Friday morning. She headed South against the wind, but then did a U-Turn and headed North as far as Bray Head. She turned around again in a zig zag fashion over the weekend, slowly inching eastwards...
Bottle 'Jenny' was the first to be launched on Friday at 10:10am by the Cartys. She was in the water off the coast of Connemara, near Clifden and slowly began to move North Eastwards. Unfortunately we lost contact with the bottle at 11:55am on Friday morning. You can see her route up to that time on the map below. As you can see, there's nothing between her and the mainland. But check out the aerial photo and her last location - there's an outcrop of rocks directly in her path and we believe she may have met her fate there.
Bottle 'Ray' is now on the water. We spoke to Paddy Harrington on Friday when he made the executive decision to hold off on launching his bottle as the sea was too rough. The wind was also unfavourable as it would have sent the bottle straight back to shore. However, this morning at 11:20, he and Fachtna launched it into a Northerly wind that should see it travel southwards.
Here he is at the kitchen table having a cuppa with the Harringtons!
Here are some pics sent in by the Conroy Kellys at Wicklow Head on Friday!
Update: Friday 3rd February 2012
It's launch day! Our 4 families will be boarding their boats and heading out to sea to chat to Ray and launch the bottles this morning. We'll be posting their progress with map updates as the day progresses so keep coming back to check!
Bottle 'Jenny' off the coast of Clifden after launch at 10:15am
Mairead off the coast of Wicklow at 10:45am
Bottle 'Will' way off the coast of Malin Head in Donegal at 11:30am
Update: Tuesday 31st January 2012
The courier picked up the finished bottles from the Today FM building yesterday afternoon and this morning you can see they're already near their coastal destinations! We'll keep updating the map as they bottles move. The pink line tracks their route from Dublin. The launch date is this Friday 3rd February!
Custom Bottles ready to go in Jerpoint by Rory:
