As we speak, the world's largest message-in-a-bottle is being towed 200 nautical miles off the coast of Tenerife where it will be released to the ocean currents tonight. The bottle which is registered as a boat, was constructed by the owner of Koeningsegg, baptized by world known explorer Jarle Andhøy - and Miss Tenerife - and will be tweeting photos live via satellite.
- Pirates have communicated through messages in bottles for centuries and the time has come to turn back time and let nature decide where this project will end up. My hope is that a tanker will not sink the bottle, or that global warming will lead it off its course and take it north to the polar regions, says explorer Jarle Andhøy who personally believes the 26 feet and 2.5 ton bright yellow wonder might follow the path of Thor Heyerdahl's RA-expedition and end up in the Caribbean.
On Solo.no people from all over the world can follow the high-tech phenomena's crossing of the Atlantic live and guess exactly where the bottle will end up. The winner will receive one bottle of Solo per nautical mile the bottle has drifted, which could amount to 3-4,000 bottles if Andhøy’s guess comes through.
Miss in action
- In our 79 year history this is the most spectacular project we have done, and that is why we have taken all kinds of safety measures. Apart from obvious things like towing it 200 nautical miles off the coast before letting it go, we have made sure it has the required navigation lights for a drifting object in international waters, not to mention the Automatic Identification System, radar reflector and state-of-the-art tracking technology. It will be monitored continuously and if needs be, we will use a tugboat to get it safely ashore wherever it ends up, says Joakim Sande, CEO of Solo.
But no safety feature could help Miss Tenerife, Sady Chavez Diaz (21), as she slipped and fell off the bottle and into the cold ocean during a photo shoot just after the baptizing on Thursday.
- That wasn't my idea. It was a good thing that the lifeguard was there, because I was told she couldn't swim, adds Sande.
Head turner of the year
Inside the giant bottle is lots of Solo and a fitting 12 square meter personal letter to the finder.
- We believe Solo is the best soda in the world, but unfortunately not enough people outside of Norway have had the chance to experience it yet. Deciding who should be the lucky ones to get a taste was too heartbreaking, so we decided to leave it to the ocean currents. Wherever the bottle ends up, we will fly in with more Solo - and throw a party!, says Sande who had flown to Tenerife to follow the tow out.
Columbus set out from the Canaries to discover America in 1492, and the island of Tenerife was where Norwegian icon Thor Heyerdahl spent his last years, making it the perfect location for the ambitious project.
High-tech bottle
Bård Eker, the co-owner of such speed-related companies as Hydrolift, Koenigsegg and Eker Design Group, has been in charge of creating a giant bottle which is self sustained through solar panels, has a live satellite-connection and the latest GPS-technology. A 140-liter fresh water tank with remote controlled nozzles will clear the lenses of the custom made camera. The camera has already started uploading pictures, something which it will continue doing three times a day for the duration of the trip. The photos will be released real-time on the world's largest message-in-a-bottle's personal twitter account @solosoftdrink under the slogan "Soon To Be World Famous". Let's be frank – it’s the greatest bottle ever made.
Foto & Text: image.net