Boy's delight as he gets reply from message in bottle that floated 4,000 miles away

A British boy threw a message in a bottle into the North Sea - and got a reply after it floated 4,200 miles to the Caribbean.

Harrison Mizen, eight, learned about the communication method at school and with the help of mum Laura, 38, put a message in an old glass rum bottle which "reminded him of pirates". The note said: "Hi, my name is Harrison I've got a little brother called max. We're from South Shields in England. I hope this reaches you and I hope you're having a good day" and enclosed his address.

The pair, along with brother Max, four, and dad Paul, 41, a heating engineer, tossed it into the sea off Sandhaven beach in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, on January 21. The schoolboy was astonished when a postcard from St. Lucia landed on the doormat on Tuesday, eight months later.

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Delighted Harrison took the card into school for show and tell this week. It has a picture of Gros Islet, on the northern tip of St. Lucia, with a postmark dated September 8.

The anonymous note said: "I found your note while I was fishing with my dad. The bottle got caught on some nets like the ones on the picture. We're having a good day thank you, hope you are too."

Laura, who is a civil servant, said: "Harrison is absolutely over the moon. It's lovely that they have taken the time to reply. I can't believe it got so far. I really didn't think anything would come of it, I thought the bottle would get caught up somewhere or smashed. Even when we threw it in it kept coming back - we had to do it so many times."

When Alaina Beresford chucked a message in a bottle into the sea aged just 12, she though little of it. But she was staggered this year - three decades on - to receive a postcard explaining her old message had been found. It washed up nearly 725 miles away on a beach in Norway and was eventually discovered this week by Pia Brodtmann, who was volunteering with a charity on the sand.

The 27-year-old woman replied, sending a postcard alongside a montage of fascinating photographs. These include pictures of the message in a bottle, the boat Pia is living on (called the Nemo), and the area she's working in.

Amazed to see her note had been discovered and was still legible, Alaina, 43, said: "When I went and checked my mail and thought 'what's this, a postcard?' - not something you see a lot - and when I turned it over it had my name on it.