Message in a bottle travels from Georgia to France in just over 2 years

April 6 (UPI) -- A Tennessee woman who launched a message in a bottle into the ocean during a trip to Georgia said she received word more than two years later that it had been found in France.

Victoria Kay of Knoxville said she and her boyfriend were visiting St. Simon's Island in January 2020 when she decided to put a watercolor painting into a bottle and launch it into the ocean with a message wishing the finder a "Happy New Year."

"I wrote a quick message on the back and I put Saran wrap over it and put mailing tape and then just tossed it out of the pier," Kay told WVLT-TV.

Kay included her email address in the note, and she received a message two years and two months later from a woman who found the bottle more than 4,000 miles away in Brittany, France.

"It's amazing how far the bottle has traveled," the finder, Martine Bosc, wrote in the email.

Kay said she and Bosc are hoping to meet in person sometime in the near future.

"It is just like a miracle, you know, and there's a lot of news that's really dark and I thought this is just so magical that, that actually the bottle was found," Kay said.