Message in bottle follows boy home

A message in a bottle dropped by a schoolboy in the middle of the Caribbean has turned up only 10 miles from his Kent home.

Alexi Hall, 13, and his family were taking part in a voyage to the Caribbean when he dropped the rum bottle containing the note written in English and French. Now, a year after returning home to Saltwood, near Folkestone, he has been told the bottle has been found on the beach at nearby Lydd.

Alexi, his brother Jamie, 16, and parents Jeff, 52, and Helen, 49, sailed to the West Indies two years ago on a yacht built by the family. When they got to Guadaloupe, the boys each dropped a bottle each into the sea. Today Alexi said: "It is so exciting to think my bottle has travelled 5,000 miles to wash up on a beach next door to me."

Unfortunately, he does not know who found it. His letter asked anyone finding it to contact his cousin living near Bath. The woman who picked it up did that but the cousin forgot to take her details. Now the family have put up notices on lamp posts in Lydd in a bid to trace her.