Greetings potential
skippers!!!
I am looking for someone to skipper my boat, the Geocache
for the upcoming America's Cup. It is about time that this trophy
was returned to the US, and what better place to find a skipper
than in Newport. After all, Newport is often referred to as the
"sailing capital of the world."
Before you begin, I thought you should know a little about the
history of the America's Cup. It began on August 22, 1851 when the
America competed in and won a race around the Isle of Wight,
off the coast of England. This was a huge upset as the American
sailors were thought to be quite inferior to the British
sailors.
After winning the cup, the trophy was named The America's Cup, in
honor of the ship who won it. It was donated to the New York Yacht
club in 1857 and was meant to be a challenge cup to promote
friendly competition between nations.
Races were held in the waters off the coast of New York from
1870-1920. At that time, it was determined that racing in those
waters too heavily favored the Americans because of their knowledge
of the intricacies of sailing there. So, in 1930, the races began
being held off the coast of Newport.
The races continued here in Newport until 1983 when the unthinkable
happened. The Australia II defeated the Liberty and
the American's 132 year long winning streak was over.
Interestingly, 1983 marked the first time the actual Cup, also
known as the Auld Mug, was ever in Newport. It had been kept in the
New York Yacht Club's trophy case back in New York up until that
time. In 1983, it was brought here to be handed over to the
Australians.
For many years, legend had it that if the America's Cup was ever
lost, the trophy would be replaced in the New York Yacht Club's
trophy case with the losing skipper's head. Thankfully for losing
skipper Dennis Conner, this was proven to be untrue!
Anyway, that's enough history for now. Your job, should you choose
to accept it, is to complete the journey set out here and to win
the cup (OK, it's just some trinkets from a cache that you'll win,
but it should be fun). Reading the first message will take you to
the location of the first keyword (this message is not encoded
using the Vigenere Cipher). At each of the first three stages, you
will find a keyword. This word will be needed to decode the next
message and find the next stage.
Each of the last 3 messages are encoded using the Vigenere Cipher.
You can read about this cipher and find an applet to decode
messages by visiting this page.
The final cache should be easy to find once you have decoded the
final message. The hint for the final is in that message. I will
post hints for the other stages (I don't think you will need them)
after the cache has been found.
There is a new, unactivated Travel Bug in the cache for an FTF
prize.
I hope you have fun completing this challenge and maybe learn a
little about Newport's place in the history of the America's
Cup.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
R. E. Dotter, Captain
|