"Water, Water, Every Where" by benchen71

[ReB]

Across the moat with ease once I arrived at the castle. Nice start to the new year even if the party was over.

[benchen71]

We have some more solvers:

SJMcK
imontoo
Jaclyn
Darrell
ajk
Johnny Luau
Katiedid
emmie
ReB

We're up to 46 now. Nudges will be along Friday morning Australia time.

[Qmark]

Moat crossed...thanks Ben!

[benchen71]

Two more solvers, bringing us to 48:

Qmark
ChrisCross

Let's see if some nudges help!

[benchen71]

Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:

1. The main clue is the puzzle title, but there is an additional hint in the clue for 72 across: knowledge of chemical formulae will definitely help with solving the meta.

2. The chemical formula for water is H20 (where the 2 should be subscript).

3. You could parse that formula differently: H to O.

4. Did you notice that Hs and Os only appear in 8 across entries in this grid, and never together?

[SewYoung]

Crossed the moat quickly after finally finding time to look at the puzzle. I see that there are nudges, but have not looked at them, yet.

[ky-mike]

Needed the nudges. Moat crossed.

[MikeyG]

Off the couch to start the New Year! Thanks for the puzzle, Ben.

Edited to add: Whoops, wrong phrase. Should read "Across the moat to start the New Year". Too many metas to keep track of, I guess.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course!

And this MOAT is crossed! Thanks for the great puzzle, and here's to a meta-tastic '23!

[edestlin]

Crossed the MOAT. Fun one! Nice work, Ben!

[benchen71]

Solver update before the answer reveal...

Tyrpmom
SeamusOL
shalmanezer
kymike
DIS
Matt A
Larry Edelstein
GR
Mikey G
Sharkicicles
Julia
edestlin

That's an even 60! Well done, everyone!!

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "Water, Water, Every Where":

The meta mechanism might seem familiar to some of you. Indeed, @whimsy had a MEOW with essentially the same title and mechanism here. But this isn't a case of plagiarism! I had already constructed my own version well before whimsy... and released it in April of 2022 as part of the 1st Pre-release MOAT Pack. (And in case you have a suspicious mind, I can inform you that whimsy did not purchase that pack.) It's simply a case of "multiple discovery" in which scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors. Or, as they say, great minds think alike!