The Undiscovered Country

After we can select the starting point, Roger connects the dots for us. I have not been able to find the symbol that marks the starting island, the 'ankh with serifs' symbol. I have been through the unicode pages, I can't find anything - and I can't find anything at that spot either. There was a low wattage radio station very near there, but that only started in 2003. If anyone has any insight, please comment here.

The 'palm tree' island that is our destination - that we can find from the NOAA map - it's Bodkin island!

William Shakespeare, from Hamlet - way, way down in the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy - almost at the end, where Hamlet changes up and starts tormenting poor Ophelia. Showing that he is not just a noble, suffering soul, but also a rich, entitled, misogynistic jerk. Antiheroes are not so new, after all.

Bodkin island looks pretty substantial here, and you can make out one large tree. Notice how nice and big Roger's boat is - he couldn't afford that on a graduate student's stipend! Wonder if it was Roger's girl friend's boat? I used to watch my brother's crazy allure for women, how they would get snagged into his orbit. I would tell him, "can't you train it so that only rich women feel it?" Maybe Roger ...

When you click the word "bodkin" in the quote, you pass through to the last part of the treasure map:

That's pretty intriguing! A cubit is about 1/2 yard, and a fathom is six feet - it all sounds doable.

We'll pop the balloon, next time.