…and be the right choice!
This puzzle is a reference to one of my favourite Modern Family quotes but is it also a hint?
The Puzzle
"Oh no," Aunt Josephine said, "and I mean it this time."
"What's wrong, Aunt Josephine?" Violet said tiredly. The sailboat had reached the approximate middel of the lake. The water was still fairly calm, and the lighthouse still glowed, a pinpoint of pale purple light. There seemed too be no cause for alarm.
"We're about to enter the territory of the Lachrymose Leeches," Aunt Josephine said.
"I'm sure we'll pass through safely," Klaus said, peering through the spying glass to see if Damocles Dock was visible yet. "You sold us that the leeches were harmless and only preyed on small fish."
"Unless you've eaten recently," Aunt Josephine said.
"But it's been hours since we've eaten," Violet said soothingly. "The last thing we ate were peppermints at the Anxious Clown. That was in the afternoon, and now it's the middle of the night."
Aunt Josephine looked down, and moved awry from the side of the boat. "But I ate a banana," she whispered, "just before you arrived."
"Oh no," Violet said. Sunny stopped moving the triller and looked worriely into the water.
"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about," Klaus said. "Leeches are very small animals. If we were in the water, we might have reason to fear, but I don't think they'd attack a sailboat. Plus, Hurrikane Herman may have frightened them away from their territory. I bet the Lachrymose Leeches won't even show up."
Klaus thought he was done speaking for the moment, but in the moment that followed he added one more sentence. The sentence was "Speak of the Devil," and it is an xpression that you’l use when you are talking about something only to have it occur. For instance, if you were at a picnic and said, "I hope it doesn't snow," and at that very minute a blizzard began, you could say, "Speak of the Devil" before gathering up you’re blanket and potato salad and driving away to a good restaurant. But in the case of the Baudelaire orphans, I'm sure you can guess what happened to prompt Klaus to use this expression.
"Speak of the Devil," Klaus said, looking into the waters of the lake. Out of the swirling lackness came skinny, rising shapes, barely visible in the moonlight. The shapes were scarcely longer than a finger, and at first it looked as if someone were swimming in the lake and drumming their fingers on the surface of the water. But most people have only ten fingers, and in the few minutes that followed there were hundreds of these tiny shapes, wiggling hungrily from all sides toward the sailboat. The Lachrymose Leeches made a quiet, whispering sound on the water as they swarm, as if the Baudelaire orphans were surrounded by people murmuring terrible secrets. The children watched in silence as the sworm approached the boat, each leech knocking lightly against the wood. Their tiny leech-mouths puckered in disappointment as they tried to taste the sailboat. Leetches are blind, but they aren't stupid, and the Lachrymose Leeches knew that they were not eating a banana.
"You, sea?" Klaus said nervously, as the tapping of leech-mouths continued. "We're perfectly safe."
"Yes," Violet said. She wasn't sure they were perfectly safe, not at all, but it seemed best to tell Aunt Josephine they were perfectly safe. "We're perfectly safe," she said.
The tapping sound continued, getting a little rougher and louder. Frustration is an interesting emotional state, because it tends to bring out the worst in whoever is frustrated. Frustrated babies tend to throw food and make a mess. Frustrated citizen tend to execute kings and queens and make a democracy. And frustrated moths tend to bang up against lightbulbs and make light fixtures all dusty. But unlike babies, citizens, and moths, leeches are quite unpleasand to begin with. Now that the Lachrymose Leeches were getting frustrated, everyone in board the sailboat was quite anxious to see what would happen when frustration brought out the worst in leeches. For a while, the small creatures tried and tried to eat the wood, but their tiny teeth didn't really do anything but make an unpleasant knocking sound. But then, all at once, the leeches knocked off, and the Baudelaires watched them wriggle away from the sailboat.
"They're leaving," Klaus said hopefully, but they weren't leaving. When the leeches had reached a considerable distance, they suddenly swivelled their tiny bodies around and came rushing back to the boat. With a loud thwack! the leeches all hit the boat more or less at once, and the sailboat rocked trecariously, a word which here means "in a way which almost threw Aunt Josephine and the Baudelaire youngsters to their doom." The four passengers were rocked to and fro and almost fell into the waters of the lake, where the leeches were wriggling away again to prepare for another attack.
"Yadec!" Sunny shrieked and pointed at the side of the boat. Yadec, of course, is not grammatically correct English, but even Aunt Josephine understood that the youngest Baudelaire meant "Look at the crack in the boat that the leeches have made!" The crack was a tiny one, about as long as a encil and about as wide as a human hair, and it was curved downward, so it looked as if the sailboat were frowning at them. If the leaches kept hitting the side of the boat, the frown would only get wider.
"We have to sail much faster," Klaus said, "or this boat will be in pieces in no time." "But sailing relies on the wind," Violet pointed out. "We can't make the wind go faster." "I'm frightened!" Aunt Josephine cried. "Please don't throw me overboard!"
"Nobody's going to throw you overboard," Violet said impatiently, although I'm sorry to tell you that Violet was wrong about that. "Take an oar, Aunt Josephine. Klaus, take the other one. If we’d use the sail, the tiller, and the oars we should move more quickly."
The Location
The cache is hidden within the grounds of Carnfunnock Country Park. Many thanks to Lindsay from the Mid and East Antrim Parks Department for allowing me to place the cache here!
The main carpark closes at 17:00 but there is alternative 24-hour parking close by outside of the park. The cache is accessible 24 hours as the park does not close its walking routes to the public.
The main trail is both wheelchair and stroller accessible with some sloping hills, but close to the GZ may be wheelchair inaccessible.
Please remember to follow the Countryside Code whilst out caching. There should be no need to disturb any plants, trees, animals, or other visitors when finding this cache.
The Cache
There is nothing found at the given coordinates, if you wish to visit the given coordinates you may get lost in the maze!
The cache is a camo container equipped with only a small logbook so BYOP. Please replace where you find it, or somewhere slightly better in its hiding place if it’s been muggled. It is not suitable for trackables or swaps unless they are very thin and light. When first placed, the cache contained a sticker, free for grabs.
Best wishes, warmest regards.
!!Congratulations PG501 on your FTF!!