"Starting Positions" - August 20, 2021

[Annabelle]

Still on the boat. Can't see any path leading anywhere. Sigh. How many 5-letter words are there in English, anyway?

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Still with Isaac. Funny I see 0 answers not two!

Update: I am a complete moron. On shore. 100% click. Kept saying "something is special about..." and then obvious. But never have I ever seen so many rabbit holes.

[Prozach]

Shoved to shore.

[hcbirker]

Finally on shore! I would've kicked myself if I hadn't gotten it before deadline. Now I can finally look at MGWCC.

[KscX]

Ashore after a hint so 1/2 credit and won’t submit. But I still feel like those rabbit holes must be for SOMETHING! [but they aren’t … just put the puzzle away….]

[Guy]

Ashore!

[cheryl w]

Still stumped. Looks like my short streak will be broken.

[Bob cruise director]

Still on the boat. Can't see any path leading anywhere. Sigh. How many 5-letter words are there in English, anyway?

Annabelle - this won't help but according the scrabble dictionary there are 8,996 five letter English words. Odds are not in your favor - sorry.

[flamingbear]

I'm not 100% I'm on shore because of the difficulty rating, but I'm submitting an answer that seems reasonable.

[ReB]

Still on shore with little opportunity remaining to take another look.

[rosiegirl]

On shore, but can take absolutely no credit in getting myself there. Thanks to boharr for prodding me along until I found the answer. (the correct answer....I found a lot of answers!) For all of you who arrived at the answer on your own, you are truly exceptional in my book! Definitely not submitting even though I figure my chances at being picked would be better than most weeks since the puzzle was so difficult!

[Kristen123]

Would love a nudge…

[Jeremy Smith]

I hadn’t looked at this since Friday, but I’m finally onshore. I see two possible elegant answers but one, IMO, is more elegant than the other. Now if I could just get a toehold onto MGWCC!

[Hidden in 3D]

On shore! (Whether it's the right shore remains to be seen, but I've only found one answer and I'm goin' with it!)

My last post was on August 7 because I've been having way too much fun with our granddaughter! She loved the fairy garden I created before her arrival, especially the notes she received from the two fairies who live there. (She named them Glitter and Sparkle, BTW.) She also loved the beach at Hilton Head Island where we've vacationed for the last week, as you can see below. Now I have to design another fairy garden for her next visit. I've been told this one must have a beach theme with conch shells as fairy houses!

[KFB]

My starting position is thus far my ending position, although I'm technically going around in circles, with the circles turning into a vortex. Any nudges would be thankfully accepted before I'm too dizzy.
Thanks in advance...

[LadyBird]

I am onshore with a delicate, and beautiful, nudge. In my personal records I am counting this as a solve (with an asterisk!) since the nudge was tiny, but I won't be submitting. I'll have a Bloody Mary at this early hour.

The board is awfully quiet this weekend. Is it because all of the East coast Muggles are battening down the hatches (stay safe!) or is it because everyone is so lost in rabbit holes that they aren't coming up for air?

My ladybird

My observation is that the quietness is a result of the challenge is finding the first step. And there are a lot of rabbit holes that everyone is looking into.

On the birding front, I almost got impaled by a Northern Mockingbird yesterday while I was walking. A flash of white and grey about a foot from my head as one chased the other.

Northern Mockingbirds are not a frequent sighting around here, unfortunately--although I did see a few when we were at a wedding in St. Louis earlier this summer. You might need a bike helmet on your walks!

[mntlblok]

On shore! (Whether it's the right shore remains to be seen, but I've only found one answer and I'm goin' with it!)

My last post was on August 7 because I've been having way too much fun with our granddaughter! She loved the fairy garden I created before her arrival, especially the notes she received from the two fairies who live there. (She named them Glitter and Sparkle, BTW.) She also loved the beach at Hilton Head Island where we've vacationed for the last week, as you can see below. Now I have to design another fairy garden for her next visit. I've been told this one must have a beach theme with conch shells as fairy houses!

Elise HHI 8.20.21.JPG

Bet there's an interesting story behind that missing central. Certain that it's unrelated to poor grandparent baby-sittage.

[LadyBird]

On shore! (Whether it's the right shore remains to be seen, but I've only found one answer and I'm goin' with it!)

My last post was on August 7 because I've been having way too much fun with our granddaughter! She loved the fairy garden I created before her arrival, especially the notes she received from the two fairies who live there. (She named them Glitter and Sparkle, BTW.) She also loved the beach at Hilton Head Island where we've vacationed for the last week, as you can see below. Now I have to design another fairy garden for her next visit. I've been told this one must have a beach theme with conch shells as fairy houses!

Elise HHI 8.20.21.JPG

What a sweet beach pic with your granddaughter! Do you have a picture of your fairy garden as well? I've wondered about making one in my garden at home.

[clueless_solver]

At sea still, after two hours hacking away on Friday (with a group) and today (solo). I see SO many possibilities for things to explore, but each time I either can't come up with something involving 5, or it's so tenuous that it's silly. I have one thing that seems the most promising but can't figure out how step 1 would work, much less step 2! Lots of fruitless googling.

Side note, does anyone else have issues with getting stuck on double letters? I can only think of one or two puzzles where the mechanism ended up being double letters, but still I fixate on them every single time and think "AHA! This time, it must be that! This can't be a coincidence!" Alas, almost every time it is a coincidence. I feel like it's distracting me from the real mechanism ... or maybe not, I have no clue

[eagle1279]

I am stuck on the ship and, browsing the forum, it appears that I am in good company.