A message in a bottle … and a journey round the world

I was 22 and on a family holiday in the Turks and Caicos Islands when it first happened. My dad and I had got a boat to an uninhabited island only for rain to start pelting down the moment we arrived. As we strode along the beach, I saw a glint of blue glass on the shoreline. I realised it was a wine bottle – and that there was something inside it.