Clemmie Stubbs has found a better way of writing letters than the Internet -- Sea-Mail! The 12-year-old penned a message in a bottle last September....and it washed up in the Bahamas last month.

The American tourist who found Clemmie's note said the letter was better than if it had been sent via e-mail.

And Clemmie has decided she doesn't need computers after receiving an invitation to stay in Vermont with the woman who found her message.

Clemmie, a student at Saltus Grammar School, thought it would be an adventure to write the note when she went out on a Boston Whaler with friends off Mangrove Bay in September.

She told The Royal Gazette : "We had all written these messages in bottles and we went out off Somerset Long Bay and tossed the bottles overboard.

"We threw them way out there in the hope they might get somewhere but of course we didn't really think anyone would see them -- but obviously they did.

Four months later I got a letter and a phone call from the people who found it. I was amazed. It was pretty exciting.

"This lady found it down in the Bahamas and now she's sent us all these brochures about the hotel she runs in Vermont!'' Clemmie said the Sea-Mail system had never worked for her before, with previous messages still not having washed up to any readers.

"I still can't remember what I wrote but I obviously put my telephone number on it,'' added Clemmie, from Point Shares, Pembroke. "A friend of mine found a message in a bottle when we went on holiday to Maine once. But maybe I will send some more now. It seems like a good way of communicating with people!'' Sent by sea-mail: Clemmie Stubbs shows off the response to her message in a bottle...all the way from the Bahamas.