Antarctic researchers send an SOS to the world: Who wrote this message in a bottle? An Antarctic research station is asking for help after finding a message in a bottle with an indecipherable email address. The researchers are part of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition based at the country's longest-running research station on Macquarie Island. Back in the summer, three staff were walking …
Vancouver-based tour operator Bestway Tours & Safaris has put together an expedition to visit Bouvet Island, departing from Ushuaia, Argentina, on Mar. 24, 2015 on board the M/V Ortelius, an ice-strengthened UL1 class expedition boat with 47 cabins accommodating up to 104 passengers
The expedition concludes on April 22, 2015 in Ascension Island.
so i would get in touch with Vancouver-based tour operator Bestway Tours & Safaris. as this trip was in the timeframe of the message in a bottle.
the person who sent in may be on the passenger manifest
https://www.canadiantraveller.net/New_Expedition_To_Bouvet_Island_Announced_For_2015
After some investigation I think I have identified the boat the mysterious judbas@?????.pl was on.
Specifically the Ortelius - which took a number of tourists on a month long trip around the area in March/April 2015
The Ortelius was located off-shore of Bouvet on April 6 and 7 of 2015 but was unable to land. My suspicion is one of the tourists set the bottle afloat at that time.
Here is a travel blog written by a Russian that details them being off-shore at Bouvet at that time: https://www.tema.ru/eng/travel/bouvet/
I emailed the blog's author to see if he can identify the mysterious judbas@..pl
OK - Quick update
[1]. I Still have not been able to contact the bottle tosser
[2]. Now have a name (Malgorzata ), a profession (Doctor) and a full email address
* Malgorzata is derived from the Greek word margarita (μαργαρίτα) meaning "pearl". It is equivalent to the English "Margaret"
[3]. A fellow passenger has emailed Malgorzata and some other passengers who were also on the trip to see if we can get in touch with her
[4]. I've shared this information (and the full email which I won't share here for privacy) with the Australian Antarctic Division so they can forward the details to Stella Thomas who works for them and was the person who found the bottle
So in summary the bottle was indeed dropped off the vessel M/V Ortelius whilst it was off-shore of Bouvet Island on (we assume) April 6 2015 by a Polish Doctor named Malgorzata who various individuals are endeavouring to contact to let her know that her bottle has been received.
Indeed. Make it all scientific-like, with circles and arrows explaining the currents involved in the bottle's journey ... it's for posterity, after all. Who among us hasn't put a note in a bottle and set it adrift? :-)
It occurs to me that sadly, in today's world, the greenaholics would probably insist that such flights of whimsy are littering, and bad for the environment. Bastards.
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While there certainly are hams who go to places about as hospitable as this, most go to more desirable real estate. For example, Midway (famous for the battle there in WW II) is now a wildlife sanctuary, but some hams went there a few years back. And there are other, more pleasant, pacific islands and such that hams sometimes go to. But I'd say you have to be really dedicated to want to go all that far just to get radio contacts.
All this makes what I do to work Field Day (when we take our radios and portable antennas out into a field somewhere and operate them off generators to test emergency communications capabilities) look pretty tame.
Quite a trip for the bottle:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Bouvet+Island/Macquarie+Island,+Australia/@-47.4528175,80.996622,3.05z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x463a3f223c0c2717:0xb76870f9f9dabceb!2m2!1d3.3464497!2d-54.4207915!1m5!1m1!1s0xa9091ebfbc0960c1:0x4926cd0684c37223!2m2!1d158.855615!2d-54.6208115!3e0
Also note: "Sorry, your search appears to be outside our current coverage area for driving. "
Please do not bother looking for us on Bouvet Island. First of all we don't exist and secondly, we like to live somewhere more comfortable.Why do you think the Bavarian Illuminati? Beer, wine and pork, that's why. And castles, we do like castle. All of which are in short supply there.
Plus Agent 45 has gone rogue and we're all working on that right now.
What a boring, humdrum message. If it was me, I would have put together something like this, intentionally blurring and blotting out the intervening words.
".....Must warn you.....found an alien spacecraft.....dug it out of the ice....not dead, but hiberna.....camp destroyed, so many killed.....got Jessie this morning...I am the last surviv....Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!!" Maybe I would cut myself and add a dramatic blood smear.
I'd love to see what the Aussies would make of that!!
A quick search shows that there are 1,085,533 .pl domains
https://domainlists.io/list-of-registered-pl-domains/
It is likely that the ????? part of the email ID judbas@?????.pl is one of those domains
Just send out 1,085,533 emails and see how many replies you get.
It is sort of a solution but not a very good one.
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