OSLO, Norway — The story of the high-tech 30-feet long message-in-a-bottle, which uploaded pictures while crossing the Atlantic, has gained attention worldwide, but last Sunday the bottle lost its satellite connection. Now the bottle is in the proximity of the Caribbean islands and the company behind the project is asking people in the area to keep a look out for it.
The giant bottle was released to the ocean currents outside of Tenerife on March 15. Besides its own twitter account (@solosoftdrink) it comes with state-of-the-art tracking equipment allowing fans to follow its progress across a world map online, along with a 360 degree camera taking photos every eight hours. But after last week’s heavy sun storms, the satellite connection is down and the company is for the moment not able to get updates on the bottle’s whereabouts.
“We are asking for people in the area to keep a lookout and notify us with any information,” said Joakim Sande, CEO of Solo, the Norwegian soft drink that is behind the project.
“As soon as the bottle drifts ashore and the finder gives us a call, we will come right down and throw him or her a celebration party,” said Sande.
Safety precautions
All kinds of security measures have been taken to ensure that the bottle will not be of danger to others at sea. It has AIS, navigation lights and is built in radar reflecting material that cannot sink.
“We believe Solo is the best soda in the world, but unfortunately not enough people outside of Norway have had the chance to taste it yet. Deciding who should be the lucky ones to get a taste was too heartbreaking, that is why we decided to leave it to the ocean currents in the first place. With the satellite connection lost, it has become an even more authentic message-in-a-bottle and it will definitely be interesting to see where it comes ashore,” said Sande.
On Solo.no/en people can guess where the bottle ends up. The winner receives a bottle of Solo per nautical mile the bottle drifts, which at the moment of disappearance was a whopping 3,539 bottles.
Lost contact
If you have any relevant info about the bottle’s whereabouts please call +47 22069480 or notify Solo on their Facebook page.
“It has been one week since the last position relay. Now we hope to hear back from passing ships or someone spotting it from the air — or indeed if someone should find a big yellow bottle on their local beach,” said Sande.
The world’s largest message-in-a-bottle was launched five months ago and was consequently voted the world’s best PR-stunt by adsoftheworld.com in April. It was expected to cross the Atlantic in about 70 days, but has taken its time — more than 150 days so far.