How far would you go to meet someone you've never met?
I'm Clint Buffington, and I search the world shores for messages and bottles,
stories that have traveled oceans and decades.
My search has sparked many revelations, reminding me that across vast distances,
the quest for human connection is timeless.
For the BBC World Service, this is returned to sender.
I found my first message in a bottle in 2007, so I've been doing this for almost 20 years now.
At this point, I've found around 140 of them.
This whole bottle thing feels kind of inevitable.
As a kid, our family adventures were never just for fun.
We were always searching.
We'd come home with rocks, crystals, mushrooms, even old tools.
On the beach, we'd compete to find the tiniest shark's tooth, proof of the sharpest eye.
So when my dad found a message in a bottle on a Caribbean trip, something clicked.
A year later, I found one too.
Bright blue glass, orange scroll, and two dollar bills inside.
At that moment, I knew if I could find one, I could find more.
Oh, I love this feeling.
I really, really do.
This is me on Cockleberry Key in 2023.