New Jersey woman finds message in a bottle at La Jolla Cove

BY KAREN BILLING

Staff Writer

There are few things in life so happily rare as finding a message in a bottle. A couple visiting San Diego from New Jersey did just that on Monday afternoon at La Jolla Cove.

SusanJoy Grieco, visiting with her husband John, went for a swim in the Cove and was thrilled to discover a bottle that had been adrift at sea for over a year.

“Who knows what’s going to happen next,” SusanJoy said. “I’m going to be digging in the sand for buried treasure.”

The couple was staying in Carmel Valley as they attended a convention and were doing some snorkeling on a sunny day in La Jolla.

SusanJoy said she kept feeling pulled to the water that day. She had pulled off her snorkeling gear and was doing a relaxed freestyle when spotted the bottle bobbing in the water and couldn’t believe it.

“It was the coolest thing,” SusanJoy said. “I’ve always looked for things like that since I was a kid.”

She ran to shore to her husband, as another tourist couple from Illinois and other beach goers crowded around.

John wanted to smash it open to get to the note but SusanJoy thought it was too beautifully set up, with the tight wax seal and a colorful note inside.

Once they wrangled it open they found the note said “Ahoy!” and was from someone named Jacob M in Phoenix - he had set the bottle out to sea on Aug. 2, 2008.

The tiny note had been kept completely dry - illustrations of seahorses and fish on its borders.

Jacob included his e-mail address, she said, adding “We are absolutely going to e-mail him.”

As of Tuesday morning, hours before the Griecos were scheduled to fly back to New Jersey, he hadn’t yet emailed back but they hope to make contact and maybe make a new friend.

SusanJoy couldn’t help from giggling and smiling as she told the story. An inspirational speaker and writer, she said she would probably have fun telling the story for the rest of her life.