Starting Gate

I spotted the treasure hunters at Aquatic Park when I saw unicycle riders wobbling next to people with clipboards. I toddled over and asked if I was in the right place for a treasure hunt. Some nice people said that I was. I asked if anyone there knew Alexandra Dixon, and someone pointed out a lady about a yard away.

Alexandra

When I introduced myself to Alexandra, the first thing I noticed is that she had a very intense gaze. If she'd claimed that she could see through sheet rock, I might have believed it. I could certainly believe that she was good at treasure hunts.

Game Control

Game Control was Greg deBeer, David Alyea, and Elaine Bagley.

She hadn't told Game Control that we'd arrived, so I did. At this point, you might ask, "What's 'Game Control'?" Game Control was the people running The Game. They'd made up the puzzles, planted the clues, and would soon hover over a cell phone to listen for people in trouble, and would later judge which team had won. In this case, Game Control was Greg deBeer, David Alyea, and Elaine Bagley. They had run a few other games. Alexandra liked puzzles that they'd come up with in the past, finding them elegant.

Now they were keeping track of which teams had arrived. When I signed up, Elaine handed me a map, carefully calling it a "Standard Issue Map." It was a months-old tourist map of Fisherman's Wharf. They also gave me a sheet of paper and said that the starting challenge would be a paper airplane toss.

Aero Engr, Part I

One member of each team would stand at the top of the bleachers and toss a paper airplane. Teams would be judged on how many bleacher-rows their airplane flew. However, this being a warm day on San Francisco Bay, there was a gusty breeze coming in from the Golden Gate, which would tend to blow the airplanes backwards.

This was Alexandra's initial design. (reconstruction)

While we waited for Dwight to show up, Alexandra came up with our initial design.

The origami rock worked well on a windy day

Meanwhile, we observed another team tossing an origami rock, which had superior heft and minimum surface area. It was also an easy design to copy. "Nothing beats rock," I notied, and we made an origami rock.

I wondered what would happen if all of the teams tossed origami rocks. Would it boil down to an arm strength competition? My arms were not strong. I schemed and plotted.

Dwight

Alexandra spotted Dwight as he approached through the crowd. A wiry man with a wispy expression, he made his way around, presumably looking for Alexandra. I watched his eyes move, watched his gaze pass over Alexandra. He walked right past us. Was this the keen-eyed orienteer I'd read about in Alexandra's description? She'd written

At first, I did not think that this guy was so perceptive. I worried about Dwight. But I was wrong to worry--Dwight turned out to be plenty alert, and spotted things easily. I never had to worry about Dwight.

Thus was Team Fishstick Mess assembled. We were sometimes stumped but never stopped.

Aero Engr, Part II

This glider was a step in the wrong direction (reconstruction)

In a contest of rock-throwers, I thought I would be nothing special. I tried other designs, hoping to find something better than rock.

I tried a blunt glider with a lot of weight in the nose, but it was blown way off course.

This paper frisbee airplane was intriguing

I knew how to through a frisbee in the wind. Could I make a paper frisbee? I made a sort of turbine paper frisbee and gave it a toss. Its balance wasn't great, but it was pretty. It didn't go quite as far as the rock had. Could I create another frisbee with better balance, get it to fly further than a rock?

The starting time approached. Alexandra made a decision: don't use the frisbee. Go with the rock. I was raised as an engineer, and my over-engineering instinct was riled. How embarrassing to go with a simple rock! Surely I could figure out a way to get better balance on the frisbee, I could... I shook off my instincts. Alexandra was right. Later on, there would be time to tweak paper frisbees. For now, the rock was our best bet.

As I lined up with my rival throwers, there were few rocks in evidence. On my left was a strangely familiar man with a skinny dart. On my right, a man with a mitre glider. I shaped my rock, trying to disc-ify it somewhat. Maybe I could impart some spin, maybe get some frisbee control. Maybe it would bounce like a skipping stone. Maybe, maybe.

Never Underestimate the Power of the Rock

And then it was time for the toss, and the rock did pretty well. Ours was not the best "airplane", but it went further than most. Thus, Alexandra picked up our packet of starter clues earlier than most. Team Fishstick Mess was towards the front of the pack. Alexandra and Dwight and I sought out a bench and started to work.