Bermuda boy finds message in a bottle that traveled 1,000 miles

March 12 (UPI) -- A 12-year-old Bermuda boy participating in a beach cleanup project found a message in a bottle that traveled more than 1,000 miles in just four years.

Joseph Vallis, who was participating in a Bailey's Bay beach cleanup project Saturday with his Warwick Academy class, discovered the bottle among the piles of trash in the sand and brought it to his father, Boyd Vallis, who helped remove the cork.

"It was cool. We were just picking up trash and it was there. It was a green bottle. There was a big plastic bag inside that was rolled up," the boy told the Royal Gazette.

Boyd Vallis said in a Facebook post that they used a black light to help decipher the writing on the note inside the bottle.

The message explained the bottle had been dropped from a French sailing yacht in April 2014. The father and son said the Atlantic Ocean coordinates on the note are more than 1,000 miles from the beach where the bottle was found.

The authors of the note included an email address for the finders to get in touch.

Joseph Vallis said he and his father sent an email, "but they haven't responded yet. We sent it to them last night."