People often ask me, “Do you ever get bored of what you do?” My answer is always a resounding no--because each trip is different. Maybe it’s different winds, maybe it’s different people, or maybe it’s just something that’s different entirely.

It has been a tradition of mine, whenever doing an offshore delivery, to throw a message in a bottle over the side at the halfway point of the trip. I have always done it as sort of a monotony breaker, with no real expectation to hear where they ended up, but it has become my tradition nonetheless. I know this tradition is carried out by many people who travel the open waters, as well.

Last week, in the middle of one of my trips, we found a message in a bottle floating out in the middle of the bay. Once we retrieved the bottle we opened it up and realized it was farewell letters to a local guy who died this spring. His name was Amon R. Vaughan. They were all farewell letters from the friends of this young man who had died in a car accident in March. We read a couple of the letters to the passengers and then we brought the bottle back to shore. The local newspaper picked up the story and last week his sister picked up the bottle and returned it to her Mom.

You never know when you do something how it’s going to affect somebody else. And you never know when you put a message in a bottle where it’s going to end up. That one floated around for close to 5 months. And brought a little peace to a mother who realized her son has not been forgotten.

Altogether a good day.