By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on November 3, 2020
The wind was howling out of the northeast with low clouds spitting rain that weekend in mid-September. There really wasnāt much chance of catching any fish, but that didnāt stop Dana Hedgepath, Tricia Bonday and Kelly Bergenstock from trying.
āWe have an all-girls fishing team called the Looney Tunas, and two of the girls I fish with all the time, Dana and Trish, were like, āhey, we’d love to catch puppy drum,āā Bergenstock recalls. The girls tried a couple of different locations, finally ending up in Nags Head with no luck.
Frustrated, Bergenstock decided to walk down the beach a little way and see if there was any hope for a better spot. Thatās when she found something unexpected.
āI see this bottle has washed up right next to my leg and I’m like, āOh my God. It’s a message in a bottle.ā I always wanted to find one of these,ā she says. The next move was taking the bottle back to the Looney Tunasā truck to get a better look.
āIt had a beautiful bead hanging off of it, and we could tell there’s a note in there. So I opened the top and it’s pretty deep. So I took my fishing pliers, and I dug down in there,ā Bergenstock explains.
There was more than just the note in the bottle. There were also ashes, and Bergenstock recalls thinking: āOh my gosh, we’ve totally violated somebody’s sacred burial.āā
In that bottle was a ābeautifulā letter from the woman who had place the letter, along with her husbandās remains, in the water off Cedar Island VA. The contents indicated that the husband, Scott Lovett McWhinney, had passed in 2018.
So the women did a little detective work and found McWhinneyās obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune as well as a GoFundMe page. There was contact information with Scottās brother-in-law and then they were able to reach out to his widow, Camille Halley.
āIt was very surprising,ā Halley said, remembering when she first heard Scottās bottle had been found when her brother-in-law let her know. With the information in hand, Halley contacted the Outer Banks women.
āFor him to wash up down there, with three crazy women on a beach in the middle of a northeaster ā that’s so classic Scott,ā Halley says. āLike, ādon’t write me off, I’m not done. I’m gonna get one last crazy ride with three crazy women on a beach, and then start my journey.āā
McWhinney would go sailing sometimes, and at the end of the journey he would throw a bottle into the sea. āHe always wanted somebody to find one of his bottles. So he got his wish the other way around,ā Halley observes.
Scott Lovett McWhinney grew up in northern Virginia and had multiple careers doing a number of things. But he and Halley fell in love with New Orleans and decided to move to the city in 2013.
āHe embraced the culture wholeheartedly. And not just the food and the music, but just the way they live every day as a celebration,ā she explains, adding that his personality seemed custom made for the New Orleans culture ā outgoing, friendly and always ready to celebrate something.
Scott was Bob Parsonsā best friend at Annandale High School in Fairfax County and remained his best friend through adventures that included three-and-a-half years in Germany and sailing up and down the East Coast.
When Parsons came back from Vietnam, Scott was there for his friend. āWe ended up sharing an apartment. We worked at the same job and it helped bring me back into the community after my service in Vietnam. It was really very important to me,ā he recalls.
Knowing him for a lifetime, Parsons saw the New Orleans culture as a great fit for his friend.
āHe landed in New Orleans not knowing anyone. But he made them friends fast, people walking by the house on the street, āHey whatās going on.ā He just embraced the culture down there,ā Parson says.
One of the more iconic elements of that culture is the funeral. There is the first line, the procession to the cemetery, with the dirge-like music, the wailing and crying.
āAnd when you leave the cemetery, you’re celebrating that person’s life,ā Halley explains. āItās a happy thing, and it’s called the second line. The band plays happy musicā¦wonderful, happy brass band music. Everybodyās waving their handkerchiefs in the air, and they’re dancing and celebrating the person’s life. Scott loved that part of the culture of New Orleans.ā
The bottle and the New Orleans beads are back in the ocean now, floating to some new destination. On the same day the Looney Tunas found the bottle, they returned it to its journey.
āWe drive up to Fish Heads [and] get out to the end of the pier andā¦it is cranking,ā Bergenstock says. āI said we have to say a prayer for this guy because we totally unearthed his burial. So all three of us we put our hands together over him and we were like, āWe don’t know if you’re a fisherman, but we wish you tight lines and happy sails.ā And we threw him back into the ocean.ā
PUBLIC NOTICE
ADVERTISEMENT FOR RE-BID: Barnhill Contracting Company will receive sealed proposals for the Kill Devil Hills ā EMS/Fire Facility (EMS-1) project on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 @ 2:00pm for the following packages:
BP 400 – Turnkey Masonry, BP 505 – Light Gauge Metal Trusses, BP 833 ā Overhead Doors, BP 925 ā Drywall/Framing, BP 2200 ā Plumbing, BP 2300 ā HVAC, BP 2600 ā Electrical
Scopes of work may be added and/or deleted at the discretion of the Construction Manager.
Bid Location and Time: Bid opening will be held in the Barnhill Contracting Rocky Mount Main Conference Room: 800 Tiffany Bvld, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Time is as follows: Wednesday, February 08, 2023 at 2:00pm.
Barnhill Contracting Company will receive, open, and read publicly all bids received in person in the training room and listed with the virtual viewing at the link to be posted on Barnhill’s Plan Room.
Bids will not be accepted from bidders that are not pre-qualified. No facsimile or email submissions are permitted. Sealed bids are to be hand delivered to the bid opening location noted above or mailed Sealed Bids can be delivered before 9:00am the day of the bid to the Barnhill Contracting Company Office at 800 Tiffany Blvd., Suite 200 Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Attention āClint Hardison.ā
Bid Documents can be viewed or downloaded through Barnhill’s online Building Division Plan Room (https://app.buildingconnected.com/public/54da832ce3edb5050017438b).
All Bidders are strongly encouraged to include opportunities for HUB participation wherever possible in their respective Bid submission.Ā HUB participation is a part of this contract and must comply with all requirements set forth in the Bid Documents.
The Construction Manager and Owner reserve the right to add pre-qualified bidders. The Construction Manager and Owner reserve the right to reject any and all bids. Should you require additional direction, please call Barnhill Contracting Company, (Clint Hardison – 252-802-0740).
Clint Hardison is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Dare County ā Kill Devil Hills EMS #01 / FS #14 – 2 PM Re-Bid Opening
Time: Feb 8, 2023 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Comments
Wombatnc
Great story Kip – we all needed that today!
Charles T Robinson
Marvelous story,,, Thanks for sharing
Sally Andrews Gudas
Such a sweet story, Kip!
Sally Andrews Gudas
Thanks so much for telling this amazing story so beautifully, as you always do.
Roadrunner
That’s Cool
Frank Zappa
Big deal. So a bottle was tossed in the ocean a couple hundred miles from here and it drifted here. So what. Sorry for the persons loss but not the proper place for a loved ones ashes in our opinion either. Sorry but there are more important things going on right now? Are you going to censor this too? We have a legitimate point OBV. Just saying…
Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice
Frank, I love people who, when you post a feature story or something a little different, start complaining that there are more important things going on. As if posting one of these stories on our website somehow really hinders us from performing our basic newsgathering duties.