Message in a bottle finders speak to US sender

Ciaran and Rita were walking along Magheroarty beach when they came across the bottle

A US teenager, who threw a message in a bottle into the sea more than two years ago, has spoken to the Belfast couple who found it in Donegal.

Sasha Yonyak, then aged 11, tossed the bottle in the waters off Ocean City in Maryland in 2019.

Earlier this month, Rita Simmonds and her partner Ciaran Marron discovered it washed up on Magheroarty beach.

The message was wrapped in two one-dollar bills, containing details about Sasha.

For the first time, all three have spoken over the phone on BBC's Evening Extra programme.

Sasha, now 14, said he never imagined the message would make it 3,000 miles (4,830km) across the Atlantic.

"I thought it would just get caught in a big ship that clears trash or something", he said.

"It was really exciting and I was surprised it actually made it to shore and someone actually found it."

'Message of hope from Wayne'

Sasha came up with the idea when he found a message in a bottle whose senders requested the finder to "pass it on".

With the help of his friend and neighbour, Wayne, he wrote his own message containing details about his life, friends, hobbies and a contact number.

They then wrapped it in two one-dollar bills, put it in a bottle and cast it out to sea on Wayne's fishing boat.

The message was placed in front of the fire to dry it off

Ciaran and Rita said they found the bottle while walking along the beach, after noticing it among other items that had washed up.

"I could see it was steamed up and that there was something in the middle tied up in a bow," Ciaran told the programme.

"It was very obvious at that point that we had made an amazing discovery.

"We were so excited, there was 10 minutes of hysteria and then we thought, what are we going to do? This is a real message in a bottle."

The couple said they were worried about damaging the message as it was soaked, so they took it home to dry before reading it.

Sasha wrote about his hobbies and his friends

Following the discovery, Rita said they tried the number included in the message but it was disconnected, so they began a trawl of social media and contacting US media outlets.

They eventually found Sasha and his family on Facebook with the help of a reporter at the Ocean City newspaper, The Dispatch.

"We were determined we were going to find this family," Rita said.

"Within six or seven days we did and this is our first audio recording together and we're going to talk on video later."

Sasha's friend Wayne passed away last year and Rita said the discovery of the message was like a "wee message of hope from Wayne".

"Wayne put one dollar in and you put the other in," she said.

"It is almost like that bottle was tossed about the ocean for two years - like a message to you."

Sasha and his family are now hoping to make the journey to Belfast in the near future to meet Ciaran and Rita.

The couple said they would like to take the Yonyak family to Magheroarty beach.

"It would be fantastic to introduce Sasha to Ireland and show him the culture... it's the land of magic," Ciaran added.